London to Surrey Hills Bikepacking Route
Last summer I set the goal of riding every off-road route in the Surrey Hills, the wooded area just south-west of London. I linked my favourite bits into a single adventure, London Escape to Surrey Hills now published on Bikepacking.com:
Rationale
The route is designed to be the most varied escapist weekend you can ride straight out of the capital. I evaluated off-road rights of way for the following criteria:
- Minimal road riding
- Avoid overgrown / rough / excessively muddy trails
- Enjoyable but non-technical descents
- Avoid gates and other forced stops
- Go past points of interest where possible
- Break new ground (avoid King Alfred’s Way, Box Hill, Stane Street, Downs Link)
Sometimes it was really hard to make a choice between alternative routes, and sometimes the rules had to be broken. For example, Prince’s Coverts is a gorgeous gravel cut-through early in the route, which has annoying kissing gates either end, but it’s worth it. The final descent down to the River Wey Navigation is on-road despite alternatives, because the last chapter of the route is intended to feel like the fast track home.
The rights of way network in Surrey is awesome and offers so many options. My cyclability project showed that Mole Valley has the highest ratio of off-road cycling trails to roads of anywhere in England, with Waverley and Guildford districts not far behind. Anyone who has only ridden a road bike through is missing out on a labyrinth of beautiful trails.
XC vs Gravel
I ride an XC mountain bike but am aware that most bikepackers ride a gravel bike. The top question on any bikepacking.com route seems to be “is my gravel bike with XXmm tires suitable?” For that reason I avoided technical parts where possible, but there’s some rockier and rooty parts that were impossible to miss out without compromising the route. Wider-tired gravel bikes (at least 45mm with low pressure) will do fine in dry conditions and underbikers should have a fun time.
Overall though, I’d say the Surrey Hills are classic XC bike territory. If you’re on a mountain bike, you likely want to ride the Barry Knows Best and Secret Santa MTB trails instead of the marked route.
Starting in inner London
The journey starts at Esher station, just outside London but still part of the metropolitan area, where you can get off-road quickly. That keeps it in line with other Bikepacking.com routes, which tend to avoid urban riding.
The original version actually started further in, at Putney station near the edge of zone 2 inner London. Putney high street is notorious for traffic and is claimed to be the most congested and polluted road in Europe, so I liked the contrast of starting there.
If you’d still like to begin (and end) at Putney Station and roll out through the beautiful parks of SW London, here’s a suggested connecting route:
A South-east epic
The route can be combined with parts of the Downs Link, the South Downs Way and the King Alfred’s Way in reverse to form a true Southern epic. At 165 miles this is 85% off-road, which is pretty hard to beat! This includes the best section of the South Downs Way too in my opinion, with fast-flowing gravel tracks and fewer gates.