Gentle ambles in the New Forest

[hamster]

As one poster mentioned the bike shops such as Woods Cyclery in Lyndhurst, Cafe Velo in Ringwood and another in Brockenhurst I have found to be knowledgeable and helpful.

Despite riding a gravel bike I have found the tracks to be a bit of a puncture fest and prefer the small roads, choosing to cross the main routes.

I'm local.

Sadly Cafe Velo has shut, a new owner decided to turn it into a wine bar which promptly failed. However there are plenty of other good cafes - I recommend especially BH24.

Yes, the forest tracks and roads are problematic for punctures. The local geology is flint and if there's one with your name in it...from a tiny shark tooth 3mm across which embeds and disappears to a big one which will put a 30mm cut right through your tyre.
Leave the light racing rubber at home. A Conti GP5000 typically lasts only 1000 miles for me before a terminal cut.

[TrevA]

We were down there last year in our Campervan, but were based near Brockenhurst. There an old railway path just south of Brock, that heads west towards Burley. We found a nice cafe in the centre of Burley - the Shappen Cafe. Bikes can be left in the garden area.

The next day we did a mainly on-road ride (on B roads and minor roads, nothing busy) to Bucklers Hard via Hatchets Pond. Bucklers Hard is on the Beaulieu River and was where they used to build wooden ships, some of which fought in the Battle of Trafalgar. There’s a great museum on site and a cafe, and we went for a short boat ride along the river too.

Both rides were around 25 miles.

There are a couple of nice cafes and a bike shop in Brockenhurst itself, and the Ornamental Drive is just north of Brockenhurst and heads towards Lyndhurst avoiding the main road.