Surrey hills ride, best day?

If you can head out towards ashdown foreset it's generally a lot quieter out there. As mentioned, anything after 10am o na weekend anywhere near box hill/leith hill and it's silly busy. 

Whitedown lane is a hidden gem of a climb up to Ranmore common. The ridge road along Ranmore is also silly busy at weekends. 

Dorking CC member here, so it's home turf.  If you're heading up Box Hill after 10 at the weekend it will be busy, but just as many cars as bikes.  Most of the bikes tend to be at the cafe anyway.     If you restrict yourself to doing loops in the immediate environs of Leith Hill and Ranmore then you will see more bikes.  As soon as you head south towards Sussex you will see very few cars or bikes.  Head East along the North Downs ridge and you will see few bikes, and the same if you head West.  Heading north and you're off towards London and there's more of everything.  If you think that you must go to Leieth Hill and Box Hill, well don't be surprised if you find others with the same Idea. 

If you do the Olympic circuit midweek, you'll probably see a couple of others at the most. 

Our road club in Thames Ditton does the surrey hills most sunday morning - between 9 and 12 it's ok, getting busier after that on the way back, but that's really just some of the larger roads, backroads are fairly quiet anyway - and avoiding box hill, the occasional charity/sportive ride tends to swell the numbers.  Weekdays are even quieter outside commute times.

The cafe at Newlands Corner is a good alternative to Box Hill and with a nice view south - I don't particularly like the climb up to it but that's more to do with having faster traffic at my back/cursing me - particularly from the south side.

Hi Kev, the parking in Peaslake does overflow but (whisper it quietly) the two car parks on Radnor road/Holmbury hill never fill up. If you really want to ride Pitch hill, ride down Barry Knows Best into Peaslake and you're sorted.

Tanhurst Lane, check. Know I've passed by that way before, so annoying I might have missed it. Will name-check you and road.cc if it makes the top 10...

I have plenty of routes, most of them quiet, and I'm happy to lead rides out there on weekdays. But I don't generally post routes or recommendations on open forums any more as my favourite climb started suffering from SCS - Selfish Cyclist Syndrome.

Tanhurst lane, also rightly known as Surrey's dirtiest road with the amount of wet sludge on it

What about Tanhurst, Leith's evil bastard cousin?

Thanks Duncann for that! If anyone's got any good recommendations or tips for the list, feel free to let us know at facebook.com/broleur or on Twitter @broleurcc

A little off-topic but you might be interested in this:

www.broleur.com/top-10-toughest-climbs-in-the-surrey-pyrenees

I live in the South Downs too (up from Shoreham) and was up in the Surrrey Hills this weekend, didn't find it too bad but I left at 6 am.  Am happy to share routes etc with you if you want to get in touch?  It is busier around Dorking but there are options to get you pretty close in less well-trafficked roads.

I had a great ride out west the other week to Butser Hill, following the small lanes that lie around the north edge of the Downs, very very quiet.  

You can also head east and find plenty of quiet country lanes.

I used to live in Farnham, so did a reasonable amount of cycling around the western end of the Surrey hills, and it was never especially busy, so maybe it's a bit quieter when you get further out of London. Plenty of cars overtaking a bit too enthusiastically on the main routes, but once you got onto the lanes it was generally pretty quiet.

Interested to know where you found to be busy on the mtb (I am guessing Leith hill) as I ride Holmbury and Pitch hill most weekends and have yet to come across a day that I would call busy ?
In terms of times, when I am riding road, sunrise is your friend as before 10am there is very little traffic. That said, there are some roads I actively avoid, notably the A25 (and Newlands corner as a result) as it is too busy and traffic can be fast. There's a far more pleasant substitute in the shape of Staple/Combe lane. There are lots of quiet hills in the former of Barhatch, Hound house road, Lawbrook lane, Whitedown, Radnor road, Leith hill road, Chapel lane, High barn road, Critten Lane, Crocknorth, Green Dene etc.....
I could go on but there's plenty to choose from there. The only other suggestion I would make is for strobing lights as many of these lanes are canopy covered and it helps others see you earlier, useful if descending at speed.

I'm out arond there pretty much every weekend - it's never that busy IMO.  I'll generally do 60-70 miles in and around box/ranmore/leith hill.  Box Hill is normally on my way home back into London so it's often 11am or so by the time I get there - even then it's only really busy up by the cafe at the top - I'll overtake maybe 10-15 people on the way up.

You are never going to fly down it that fast anyway - the speed bumps + sharp hairpins and cars will put paid to that idea.

If you like nice fast descents I'd say Newlands Corner and Ranmore (main road not common) are some of the better ones around there.

Sundays are ok if you go really early (top of Box Hill by 8am etc).

I live a couple of miles from Box Hill - so I know how busy the Surrey Hills can get at the weekend! If you can avoid weekends you will do a lot better. There are quitter hills out here if you are adventurous.

I would suggest you dont go there if you're preparing to go down hills at quick speeds, you never know what is round the next blind bend.  Its the South of England near London, is there a quiet day?  I have never experienced one whilst visiting that part of the world, thousands of vehicles everywhere.

 That is why I live further North in the countryside

You can find quieter roads any day, there are plenty of different routes with hardly any traffic. However, if a trip to the Surrey Hills for you has to include going up Box and down Headley, you're going to be more restricted in your choices.