thetford forest trails?

dinger

evening folks i was just wondering if anybody has been to or knows anything about the trails in thetford forest as i am giong down there over easter. i beleive there is a red and black route. i live in south west scotland and ride most weekends at glentress innerliethen and ae forest.so im wondering if will it be a bit of an over kill to take my patriot down there as i cant imagine it being that downhilly?

samblake1234

Hi

it will be far to much for thetford you need the most "cross coutry" based bike you have.


sam

dinger

nice 1 sam. the hard tail it is.

nonnac85

http://www.forestry.gov.uk//website/rec ... enDocument

http://www.timbermtb.org/

have more info

dav1

hardtail is best. The red and black routes are quite good fun. There is also a lot more off the waymarked routes out there that can be good to rode if you know where to look.

Marjory Stewart BAxtor

if you can't be arsed to lug your bike down there the bike place there `bikeart` rent some decent konas for about a tenna i think

milkywhite

There's only a few fast sections, and they're all too short. There's a few jumps been unofficially built around the section called "Beast" towards the end of the black route, plus a couple of alternative singletrack routes down that particular area. The proper start of "Beast" is marked by a sign. If you take a right just before that sign there's one of the alternative descents (I say descents very tentatively) which is fun and quite fast, but not exactly mind blowing. There's also a few bombholes which break up the ride and are fun to have a play in.

To find the jumps (a few single kickers and one small tabletop type jump that can all be ridden in succession) look to your left as you approach the end of Beast and you should spot them.

There's a new section of singletrack on the red route with a few man made obstacles and berms that's quite fun, but shouldn't get your pulse racing with fear too much if you're used to riding in Scotland. The red route can be ridden as a long or short loop. At the fork you go straight on for the short loop and left for the long loop. There's a video of the opening of the new section on youtube http://youtube.com/watch?v=bGMvPK_w9AQ

Apparently if you can be bothered to explore, there's a lot of nice singletrack across the road in Brandon country park.

The black and Red (long loop) are both about 11 miles.

carbonfiend

I race and ride pretty regular round thetford, its pure XC/single track, the black route is your best choice as if you never rode round there. its incredibly dry as well and is renouned for draining any wet weather very quickly. I love it round there.

dav1

milkywhite wrote:

Apparently if you can be bothered to explore, there's a lot of nice singletrack across the road in Brandon country park.

go to www.thetfordmtbracing.com and look at the winter series 4 race map, thatused some of the brandon country park stuff.

Chaka Ping

If you're used to riding Scottish trail centres, you'll probably at manage at least one circuit of the whole red route and two circuits of the black at Thetford in one day.

IIRC, the long red route took me just over an hour and the black about 45mins.

I presume you're not going all that way just to ride at Thetford, but making it part of a holiday?

dinger

cheers for the replys guys and great info milky i will have to keep my eyes open for those jumps.im down for 4 days over easter at the girl friends but am usually down once a month to see her she lives in halesworth so its not to far to get there. i usually bring the hard tail down and tag along when shes out on the horse.but its as slow as a week in the jail so it will give me and excuse to get some worth while riding in.


nearly dearly

mark (dinger) bell

milkywhite

No problem. I'm gonna be at High Lodge about 10.30 Friday morning if you can get out then I'll be happy to give you the tour for the day

dinger

soz mate i wont be down untill late saturday to try and miss the traffic on friday.but some other time no worrys.

Marjory Stewart BAxtor

out of interest - where do you guys come from to get to thetford??

milkywhite

Norwich

Dan67

I come from stowmarket which is mid suffolk

milkywhite

Well this is what you missed out on today boys. Mud, mud and more mud.

endurojcb

Nice! That black mud absolutely stinks! It just sits there stagnant and festering until you ride through it and get splattered in the face with it! Avoid it at all costs. lol

There's one real boggy section with moguls and all that black mud on the red route just before the split to the long loop that timber are meant to be redirecting the trail round. Not sure how far they've got with it as I haven't been over there this year yet. Will be off there soon though.

Dan67

we are still redeveloping the decent before the section you are talking about. The plan is to reroute that section after have finished the downhill. this should be about april-may time that the new bit should be done.

Anonymous

i come from near saffron walden which is near cambridge. will be going tomorrow actually.

milkywhite

sheepsteeth wrote:

i come from near saffron walden which is near cambridge. will be going tomorrow actually.

Did you go yesterday? The weather was stinking where I work, and at home in Norwich, so I can't imagine it was too nice.

NeVeTaS

milkywhite wrote:

Well this is what you missed out on today boys. Mud, mud and more mud.

Quality

I'm there often, see you on the trials