{"id":636,"date":"2017-06-26T22:25:38","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T21:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/?p=636"},"modified":"2022-06-01T17:54:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-01T16:54:21","slug":"quick-guide-riding-south-downs-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/knowledge\/quick-guide-riding-south-downs-way\/","title":{"rendered":"The quick guide to riding the South Downs Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SGgnNLPqb1c?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ride West to East. You&#8217;ll have the wind behind you and you&#8217;ll be excited when you see the sea. Also, Eastbourne is the perfect destination to dream about when you&#8217;re grinding up the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re fit aim to do the ride in two days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re unfit do it in three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Do more miles in the first day than the second (or third). The regular approach is 60\/40 to stay at Truleigh Hill YHA or 65\/35 to stay at Patcham Place YHA which is closer to pubs and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re short on time and want to enjoy the original South Downs Way experience you can just do the 80 mile route from Buriton (nearest mainline station is Petersfield)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a rule of thumb, you&#8217;ll be riding at half the speed you do on the road. If you normally ride at 18mph on a long road ride, estimate your SDW day&nbsp;to be closer to 9mph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take as little kit as you can. I&#8217;ve done it with just a toothbrush and some sandwiches before<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Work out where the garages are en-route. Pyecombe services have a great Marks &amp; Spencers food section. There&#8217;s also a small garage when you cross the A27 near Lewes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first 20 miles from Winchester can feel&nbsp;bitty. After that you really feel like you are motoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There&#8217;s water taps en-route in surprising places. Check the SDW website for their locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your arse will get sore, there&#8217;s not really much you can do about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop at the pub at Alfriston!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The food portions at Truleigh Hill Youth Hostel are too small for all day riders, get a cab into Brighton or Shoreham for the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out what sort of lock you need for the overnight or whether you can take your bike into the room. if you&#8217;re riding solo you&#8217;ll want some sort of lock for while you are in pubs, garages, toilets etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;ll miss the right hand turn off after Ditching Beacon and end up half way down an amazing descent to Lewes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;re doing it in three days Lewes is a great place to stop over. Just ride along the cycle path alongside the A27 for a couple of miles and you&#8217;re there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Find out if you can wash your bike on the first night (important if you&#8217;re want&nbsp;to take it into your room during a rainy spell)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take ear plugs if you&#8217;re sleeping in a youth hostel dorm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t put any luggage on the bike, keep it all in a small back pack. You need to let the bike float over the stones on the descents or you&#8217;ll take some big hits and get impact punctures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can do this ride on a <a href=\"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/tag\/cyclocross+%26+gravel+bikes\/\">Gravel bike,<\/a> just put the fattest tyres possible on to avoid impact punctures. You&#8217;ll be walking a lot of the climbs though. A<a href=\"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/tag\/mountain+bikes\/\"> mountain bike<\/a> is easier, the suspension on the downhills will leave your arms feeling a lot fresher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The climbs go on for ever. Even on a mtb it feels like you&#8217;ve just got to go into bottom gear and grind it out for 15 minutes or so for each one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If riding them feels too hard, just get off and push. You really don&#8217;t want to put&nbsp;yourself into the red when you&#8217;ve got such a long way to ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The descents alone will tire you out. They&#8217;re fast, flowing and rough. You&#8217;ll be standing up a lot to bounce over the flints and small rocks. When you get lazy and sit at high speed is when you&#8217;ll get an impact puncture or get thrown off&nbsp;in a tractor rut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If it&#8217;s been raining the chalk descents will be treacherous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you make it to Eastbourne, don&#8217;t rush straight to the station, take an hour or so and enjoy an ice cream at Fusciardis or a meal on Terminus Road down near the front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ride West to East. You&#8217;ll have the wind behind you and you&#8217;ll be excited when you see the sea. Also, Eastbourne is the perfect destination to dream about when you&#8217;re grinding up the hills. If you&#8217;re fit aim to do the ride in two days. If you&#8217;re unfit do it in three. Do more miles&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Devils_Dyke.jpg?fit=1152%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p74t96-ag","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bikesy.co.uk\/features\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}