sherwood pines...any good?????

tomxc

is sherwood pines any good i'm planning on going but not sure...wat do u guys think?

stevieboy

If you like tight twisty singletrack with undulation rather than killer drops and climbs it's spot on. But don't expect wales-esque descents.

Best bet is to get up there on a sunday morning when the locals are around to show you around

If you want to have a proper look round let me know, I live up there

tomxc

hehe. cheers mate...i went this saturday and some locals showed us around the single track was amazing really good stuff...

stevieboy

Cool

With the pine's not being waymarked yet (and with most of the decent stuff not for public eyes!) it's always hard to say where to go. But at least you've had a tour anyway.

Who showed you round by the way? Just wondering if they are locals or people that virtually live up there - there's a difference

tomxc

they said they lived about half an hour away...but they come down every saturday and sunday and spend the morning riding...the guys name was jed and he had a sheep dog...thats all i can renenber about them...the guy had a really nice yeti.

ashleymp777

Thats good to hear - there's a race there this weekend which I'm off to, sounds like my kind of terrain! This time I shouldnt be last!

stevieboy

Look out for us in our sherwood pines tops then cuz there's an army of us entering!

ashleymp777

Well Steve, if you see me give me a shout and visa versa!

stevieboy

Yeah sure, i'll be on the look out.

ashleymp777

I rode like an absolute donkey yesterday! Fell off countless times, could get into a rythm and basical wasted my time :-( I might as well have put stabalizers on :-(

King Jareth

I rode yesterday as well (okay but it was a 'spur of the moment' thing so the nearest thing I had to any preparation was...putting the number on me bike).

Does anyone have a GPS log of the route? Always good to get a map as I have the memory of a fish.

stevieboy

ashleymp777 wrote:

I rode like an absolute donkey yesterday! Fell off countless times, could get into a rythm and basical wasted my time :-( I might as well have put stabalizers on :-(

To be fair though some of the sections they used yesterday we're testing, even us locals were being silly!

The problem with some parts of the pines is that the new trails are too new and most definately not smooth atall - my back is killing me today :x

JayKingFunk

Me and a mate went out round the pines about 3 weeks last friday!

Had a brilliant day, one of the local riders showed us the 'black routes', absolute joy to ride even if its a ball ache walking back up with your bike! Highly recommend it if you haven't been, lots of good places to explore too!!

tomxc

did sherwood again this thursday and it had been rainnin...it was all sloppy dead hard work but so much fun...if you havent been wehn its wet you should its amazing.lol

willy b

I ride there about 2 to 3 times a week, as i only live 10 miles away:) So i guess i take it for granted. Is a brilliant fun place to ride. I think i like it the most because the trails aren't marked. There is no set route, and every time i go i find a new route.

Big group of us head over ever Tuesday night, which always reaps good times! I wasn't aware of a black route lol, certainly not one you have to walk back up!

Thing i find is that there is such a different of trails there, much good fun. Even if the mud and the trenches are legendary when wet!!

Think once all the work is done, and the forestrycommission stop cutting down trees and covering the tracks it will be even better!

I bet not many people venture onto the "other side" of the wood

tomxc

the other side :shock: lol... some of us arent luky enough to live ten miles away...it takes us hour and a half to get there and we never really stay longer than 4 or 5 hours (i ride with my dad n he gets tired quickly ) so we jus go on the non way marked single track sort of stuff. thats fun enough though.
p.s is the other side of the woods beyond the train tracks sort of area???

willy b

tomxc wrote:

the other side :shock: lol... some of us arent luky enough to live ten miles away...it takes us hour and a half to get there and we never really stay longer than 4 or 5 hours (i ride with my dad n he gets tired quickly ) so we jus go on the non way marked single track sort of stuff. thats fun enough though.
p.s is the other side of the woods beyond the train tracks sort of area???

The waymarked (ish) trails are cool, but the best are ones you have to look for, i'm sure Stevieboy can agree that!

The other side of the wood is over the sandy road at the bottom of the hill (near the jumps) But if you go over there you really have to hunt for the tracks.

All good fun!

You should try some of the other woods around there, just as much fun, with no people in.

tomxc

thats what i was planning on doing the next time, link up lots of woods around there by bridleways etc.

willy b

tomxc wrote:

thats what i was planning on doing the next time, link up lots of woods around there by bridleways etc.

Good choice...hope you like sand btw

MoonCircuit

I went on Sunday looking for the new jumps and spent 3 hours (1 in a thunderstorm) riding around lost and went home without finding them. I'm still cleaning the grit out of my bike. Had a great day though. I will post some pictures I took when I develop the film. The signposting is atrocious and it all looks the same it's like a hall of mirrors, get a leaflet/map from the bike shop before you set off on the trails. There is a good curving hill down to a crossroads jump that I had a couple of goes on.

willy b

There currently in the process of waymarking trails and sign posts to the jumps. I agree if you don't know what your looking for then your going to struggle.

Usually if you ask people you see riding they'll be able to tell you :roll:

lachojski

i have been there the last 2sundays with a couple of mates and its awsome fun,we had a right laugh.where are the best routes.all we keep doing is going down one yellow track see a route off it and go down that and just keep finding new ones.where are the wooden drop offs and obsticles?
cheers

tomxc

well... there arent that many there is one drop thats about 18 inches, thats before the jumps,
if you come off hte yellow route it is on the right, you go up a hill down a hill and up a hill, there is tree's making a canopy above you and the track to it is on the left...its quite hard to explain, but if you venture around the areas before the jumps then am pretty sure you'll find it, (sorry about the long windedness, lol)

lachojski

we went down the downhill section near the jumps crossed the path right at the end and found the other downhill bit with the drop offs.part from that not found much else.lol.

cycleNoodle

Its just thetford but with a few more hills, nice for a family day out.

abductee

Head northwest out of the car park and follow this route. It isn't finished so you might have to miss out the end after you clear the fallen tree.

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Sherwood-Pines

There is a big sign at the start now and small wooden posts all the way round but the posts don't have arrows yet.

I enjoyed it a lot in some places but it isn't very technical and the humps are placed where you won't be travelling fast enough to get air. Also it would be nice if a few more corners were bermed. The corners are generally flat or off camber with a small ditch at the side.

lovewales

abductee wrote:

Head northwest out of the car park and follow this route. It isn't finished so you might have to miss out the end after you clear the fallen tree.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.mason17/1222546263-12509-195.188.152.12.html

There is a big sign at the start now and small wooden posts all the way round but the posts don't have arrows yet.

I enjoyed it a lot in some places but it isn't very technical and the humps are placed where you won't be travelling fast enough to get air. Also it would be nice if a few more corners were bermed. The corners are generally flat or off camber with a small ditch at the side.

Been regularly riding at the Pines for 3 years but usually do the routes in the same area each time - stuck in a bit of a rut . I decided to try this one today and all of us including the kids thouroughly enjoyed it, Cheers for posting the route we are no longer stuck in the rut

abductee

There's also a map of the older routes here if you have time to explore
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=2&i=3679557&t=3679557

I think part of the reason why the new "Kitchener" trail has been constructed is to protect these archaeological sites from damage.
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/87491
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/87490
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/87488

I think soldiers were trained here in WW1 prior to being sent into battle
http://www.clipstonevillage.co.uk/zenphoto/index.php?album=Clipstone+Camp

Sorry if I'm going a bit off topic but the photos above seem to be in the most popular cycling area. I'm not too clear where the new route goes through this stretch because there are so many tracks now the dual descender has gone.

MoonCircuit

Here's some pics:

abductee

Sorry to hear you didn't find the good bits straight away MoonCircuit.

I went round the new trail again today here's some photos. You would think people at the visitor centre would encourage use of the new route. We met some horse riders who were mashing up the new trail and were oblivious to the fact that it is a cycle trail because no cyclists are using it. We politely pointed out that £300K was being spent to construct it and that it was for bikes. But with no signposts or bikes you have to forgive them and walkers for not knowing.

Stand in the middle of the car park facing the visitor centre. Now turn around and head 100 metres away from the visitor centre you will find the start


If you follow this trail about halfway round at WP0077 after 4.5 miles you will find the dirt jump.http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Sherwood-Pines

You can see one of the marker posts on the right hand side of this photo. They are square posts about a metre high with a roof shaped top and a groove cut out of the front. The round one on the left with the blue ring is a walking route


If you ride more than 100 metres up a fire road then you have gone wrong because it is 99% single track.

This is what the new trail looks like but there are sections of natural trail as well.


The other trail markers to look for are the yellow dots on the trees.

There doesn't appear to have been any more construction since I went 2 weeks ago and the last quarter of the route is muddy so best to cut it short and take the fire road back to the visitor centre.

big_tex_uk

I rode the new Kitchener trail today (or at least the bits i could follow). It is a great improvement on the past trails with some really good flowy sections that even include North Shore style obstacles like ladder drops.

Drainage seems good even at this early stage although some of the more natural sections were quite boggy.

The trail is not properly marked at the moment but i followed yellow marks on trees when i was unsure and the obvious paths. I also found myself on some red marked routes which were very good. Hopefully they have put a couple of routes in.

The route is pretty much all singletrack and much better than Thetford in my opinion.

Cant wait for them to finish the Skills/Shore section now and they desperately need to put in a 4x course to make this a leading venue again.

The dirt jump area has had some work done and looked tidy for once.....

Well done Pines!