My wife’s doing a half marathon there on Saturday. I thought I’d take a bike along and have a ride round for 2 hours whilst she’s pounding the fire roads.

This is the route for the half marathon;

Map of the singletrack (pdf, sorry) is here;

https://www.bedgeburypinetum.org.uk/assets/PDFs/Bedgebury-Trails-080212-opt.pdf

I’ve got three questions;

1) Will the runners make doing, say, the red trail impossible.

2) are the trails reasonably well signposted or is it more a question of riding around trying to find interesting bits?

3) I assume it’s all doable on a rigid singlespeed as the weather for the rest of the week doesn’t look great and it’s the only bike I’ve got with mud tyres?

cheers

[edit] I think the dotted blue line on the race route may be the red cycle trail? looks like I’ll be mostly ok if it is then?

Its well signposted – you won’t get lost…I think?? IIRC a single speed will be fine – its a little like Swinley in that there are no real climbs to speak of.

As for the run, I’ve no idea, Check out the local mtb group BOARS for more info?

The red is a one way signposted affair, with starts and ends linking up very conveniently, great fun for a few laps.

A bit too far in 2 hours but Friston Forest is well worth a visit too, i’ve got lovely loop I do from Eastbourne > Jevington > Friston Forest > Lullington Heath > Litlington and back, lots of steep flinty climbs and stunning views.

I doubt the race will take in any of the Red Route. Its far more likely to be on the fire roads/walking paths/blue cycle trail, as they are wider.

I wasn’t sure if the red route used the same fire roads the runners will be on to link singletrack sections up – I’ll give it a go. Maybe having an old bloke wheezing along beside them on a SS will cheer the runners up.

I’ll need to stay ‘on site’ rewski, just in case, but I’ve run/walked round bits of Bedgebury a few times so would be good to ride it at least once.

I’ll try and download a gps track from Strava or somewhere at least I’ll get some beeping if I go wrong.

Been there a few times – to my knowledge there isn’ much (if any) off piste stuff but the red route is definitely worth a couple of laps. Route is well signposted and there has been a lot of work done to the trails this winter. The new final run is ace.

Decent coffee shop but be prepared to dig deep for parking. Its about nine quid per car!

I had difficulty following the route in one place but this was a few years ago and they were doing some clear up work or something, the rest was easy to follow

The running route won’t clash with the red route – I would have had notification from the FC if it did. There is a load of off piste stuff there but it can be quite hard to find and if it’s been raining a lot of it is pretty un-rideable.

You won’t need mud tyres, it might be puddley, but the red route is all surfaced apart from a few of the more remote fire roads but they are straight so mud tyres are pretty irrelevant.

We do a club ride on Saturday morning if you want some company. It’s a mix of fast boys who sprint sections then stop and chat, and those are are happy at a slower pace. It’s all very friendly and sociable and you are very welcome to join us. Just be at the bike wash by Quench cycles for 10am and look for the people in the green club jerseys. If the weather is nice we’ll show you some of the off piste stuff as well.

Cheers

Boris
Bedgebury Forest Cycle Club

Cheers Boris – not sure what time she starts running but if it fits in with your ride I’ll join you 🙂