Am I capable of riding with the group?

Fitness

If you can ride up Reigate Hill from bottom (///agenda.closed.causes) to Inglis Memorial on Colley Hill (///reduce.forces.edgy) in one go and still want to ride for another 20miles then you’re capable.

Alternately try any of the hills around North Downs (of a similar type) from bottom to top.  And if you can get all the way up and still want to ride for 20 miles then that is a good benchmark – for example Juniper Hill climb, Box Hill climb, Ranmore (Dearly Beloved bridleway), Leith Hill (Wolverns lane to Tower), Peaslake from Walking Bottom to top Pitch Hill.

We’d recommend that you already ride regularly for more than 10 miles to have a minimum fitness level before joining a ride.  If you are worried about fitness come on a beginner ride and talk to the ride leader.  However we never leave anyone behind.

Technical capability

Part of the satisfaction of Mountain Biking is the technicality of trails and your skill progression on technical features (jumps, steps etc).  There are two rides with different fitness and technical levels.

No one is forced to attempt any feature that they are not comfortable with.  Ride leaders will let the group know what is coming up (if you are unfamiliar with the trail)  All features can be bypassed by riding a shortcut or walking.  Bypassing a feature is nothing to worry about or be embarrassed about, very few will attempt 100% of features and no one will call you out.

No one is forced to ride any trail or technical feature and the choice to do so is totally up to yourself with no pressure from any other rider.

We naturally filter into a group position within the riding group depending on fitness and technical capability, particularly on fast sections or downhill.  We recommend hanging back on the first few rides with the club so you can gauge your particular level against others.  This means you have the best time riding without worrying if you are fast enough (it’s not a race anyway) or holding people up (we all have different technical levels).

Remember E-MTBs are fast up hill, but the differences are negligible downhill so do watch both the ups and downs.

Gear

All riders must ride with a cycling helmet.

Recommended is gloves and a drink.  However the rest of a MTB riders gear is personal preference with no dictats.

Generally a small group will be self sufficient in terms of basic trail repairs like pump, punchture repair/CO2, spare tubes, chain links and mini tools, but if you are concerned then do pack those too.

Bike

Is my bike capable of riding with the group?

We ride mountain bikes, while some routes may work for hybrids or gravel bikes, we’d only suggest those for experienced off roaders due to the challenges they would experience on a Redhill MTB ride.  Note there is a specific Redhill gravel group if that is more your thing.

A well maintained mid range mountain bike (either hard tail or full sus) should be capable on majority of our rides.  While a definitive spec is not possible, a decent mid range hardtail mountain bike costing £600 upwards, we’d recommend as the minimum level.

For that price you will usually get a bike fitted with recognised industry wide entry level mountain bike components known for their off road capability.  This should include decent knobbly/wide tyres (Surrey gets muddy in Winter) and decent disk brakes and a dropper post (for more stability on trails and down hills).

However there is no snobbery in the groups and bike handling skills are general of more importance than the latest trick hardware.  Your bike may be more than a few years old – that’s ok too.  If it could ride the trails in 2015, it’ll do OK in 2025.

However if you are concerned feel free to ask a ride leader and other riders on a beginners ride.   There is plenty of what works best component knowledge in the groups (in fact get ready to bike talk).

To progress your capabilities off road, we recommend taking a course or two with one of the many MTB training organisations in and around Surrey.  Redhill MTBers themselves all usually take part in once a year training to keep skills up to date, sometimes as a fun group activity.

E-MTBs?

Yes.  We welcome all mountain bikers and E-MTBs are becomming more and more popular with newer riders.

As the industry is moving to selling more E-MTBs it’s inevitable that more people will discover mountain bilking only via E-MTBs.  For many this represents a short cut into mountain biking.  Our Saturday rides are for all to get out on the trails and enjoy being out there whatever your particular flavour of power.

However please remember while this provides a short cut to fitness, it does not magically empower you with technical skills (see Technical Capability).  Try to keep to the group average speed and try not to rush or push past slow riders up hill (wait for a clear signal to move ahead).

On all rides there will be analogue bikes (non E-MTB bikes) as we do not currently have dedicated E-MTB rides. 

Please stay with the group and don’t ride off in front of the ride leader, it’s considered bad practice.  Also analogue riders may need longer to get up big hills and more recovery time.  The group will gather at appropriate points (usually trail heads, major junctions, top of big hills), wait for the slowest analogue rider to recover before moving off when all are ready.