Tilgate forest Crawley - Here's our story?

shaunlfc1
shaunlfc1 Posts: 132
edited April 2012 in Routes
Apologies if this is been covered.

I would like to go to tilgate this coming Sunday for the first time with my small group of friends. We love riding singletrack (xc) do we need to buy a day pass for these trails? It says on this website just for bike park and downhill, but cross country trails are free.

http://www.ctc.org.uk/desktopdefaultmtb.aspx?tabid=5428

Does this mean just fireroad family routes? Or all singletrack not including out and out DH?

Are the good singletrack routes waymarked, or is it like stanmer, friston, whiteways, swinley and Surrey hills where majority of the good stuff is just there and its upto you to find it?

Lastly what is the parking like, where is the best place to start exploring the xc singletrack?

Cheers,

Shaun

Comments

  • benpinnick
    benpinnick Posts: 4,148
    I say boycott Tilgate. Its a p*** take how much money they want for riding on our own land - it seems to me to be ploy to get people to join the CTC. Im surprised the FC let this happen. Rant over.
    A Flock of Birds
    + some other bikes.
  • shaunlfc1
    shaunlfc1 Posts: 132
    I do agree with you on most of that. But I wanna still ride here as its relatively local to me and for £4 each if its not worth it I won't be back, especially if that's only for dh and bike park which we won't use?
    also found some info about st.leonards forest looks good!
    Anyone have any answers to my original post?

    Cheers
  • shaunlfc1
    shaunlfc1 Posts: 132
    Well just a little follow up in case anyone's interested regarding Tilgate.

    We went there on Sunday full of enthusiasm about riding somewhere new and was quite disappointed really. Armed with GPS and a lot of web research we were confident of a good day of new singletrack etc.....

    Regarding the £4 day membership, I facebooked the person/team/club (rideTilgate) supposedly at the center of running the trails but had no reply so we decided against paying the fee and I must say I am glad we didnt.

    Ok the DH tracks look great, we did sample a couple of them on XC bikes and although it was wet and very slippery its obvious these would be great fun for down hillers and riders like us in the dry. But the xc singletrack was boring lacked flow, and its only quality really was that it was long but far too many ruts apparently form its Moto-x days.

    If you are based in the South and ride Stanmer, Surrey Hills, Whiteways, Bedgebury and Friston by all means try Tilgate for yourself but personally its not worth it and those other locations mentioned are far more superior and a lot more fun. Perhaps I' am being harsh but is my personal opinion of how Sunday went.

    The place is a huge network of fireroads and bridleways and a local would be able to show you no doubt a great xc loop with a bit of singletrack and or DH. But not a place to have lots of singletrack smiles like you would get from Stanmer or Surrey Hills for example.

    Anyway rant over.

    Shaun

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