Off-Road Riding Practise- Salisbury Plains etc

[fergusbrady]

Hi all,

Off to Morocco this summer and having never really done any proper off-road riding before, I'm looking at going up to Salisbury Plains in April/May to generally piss about and see how much goes wrong! Probably camp a few nights too.

Can anyone suggest any decent routes/campsites to definitely go on? If anyone knows of some better places to go then I'm open to the idea!

Open invite if anyone wants to tag along

[Stewie]

We quite often stay at http://www.threemagpies.co.uk/home near Devizes, north of the Planes, but great pub and very bike friendly, on the 'generally piss about and see how much goes wrong' point, I would suggest that you get some basic tuition of off road ridding, as what happens is you can develope bad habits that will become a hindrance as you get more experience, I'm sure there will be a few that will tag along and give you some pointers ( if you want them that is )

[zimtim]

have a look here first for any range activity
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... newsletter

get the OS Landranger map (184 I think) lots of the byways are marked on that, have a hunt through this forum as there are plenty of threads with .gpx routes that you can download.

I would advise against camping/wild camping on the plain it is after all a military zone.

Have fun and if all fails then post up what weekend you want to ride some people would be more thaan happy to lead you and others out
(thumbs) (thumbs)

[Scott_rider]

Watch out for the chalk, if it's cold weather (which it could be in April) the chalk can get as slippery as ice.

Don't be tempted to head off piste, if you do it's a bit of a clench bottom moment when you see used shells and bullets (or are they 'used' :unsure: )

Take a map. Ok, it's not the Sahara or outer Mongolia and you're probably only ever 5 miles away from civilisation but it's surprising how easy it is to get diorientated the first time you go there.

[Speedfour4]

Hi fergusbrady I'm happy to show you around the plain if you would like?
James

[halfpint]

you may do better going where there is some sand !

[Wonkyconk]

you may do better going where there is some sand !

I've heard the dunes in Salisbury are quite similar?