Am feeling the need for a day off tomorrow.
Is Bedgebury worth a visit, as a location closer to home than my usual trip to Chicksands when I have a day off and feel the need to chill?
I believe the higher timber work has gone, is whats left pony?
hardtail or full suss? (is it rooty?) Are there reasonable jumps there?
Is the black route best, any local knowledge welcomed.

I enjoy it on a cross bike, but it’s not what you would call difficult, using a mountain bike might be over egging it a bit 🙂
There is only a ‘red’ route with a very short ‘black’ diversion.

Good forum name!
Appreciate your thoughts.
Normally I ride the Surrey Hills, techy singletrack my preference.
Is it family orientated tame stuff, or still worth a trip?

Brake bumps everywhere atm which does ruin it a bit…

I always enjoy it when I go there. It’s a good XC loop with some fun semi technical root sections thrown in. I’ve heard from a friend who lives very close to there that they have recently refurbished some of the berms on a portion of the track that has been closed for a while. There are a couple of sections which are worthy of doing a few times over in my opinion, though I can’t remember their names.

The freeride area there provides a nice area for some play, nothing too big, just good honest fun.

The cafe serves up good tea and cake for your post ride too.

There will of course be others that say that its not worth bothering with, and having not been to Chicksands myself, I can not compare the two.

Just seen your post suggesting you normally ride the Surrey Hills, Bedgebury isn’t in that league if you’re comparing it to the likes of Yoghurt Pots, Barry Knows Best etc.

A hardtail is more than sufficient for a visit to Bedgebury.

Cheers druff, appreciate your thoughts. I am tempted to give it a go.

I’ve always found Bedgebury water logged. Where is home? Friston Forest isn’t far, just along the SDW from Eastbourne, has some nice XC singletrack, some bombholes and a small downhill section. I’d also recommend Swinley Forest, some really good techy flowy ST, the Labyrinth is ace. Be prepared to just go and get lost for 3-4 hours though.

No worries. I always tend to think that you’ve got to go and give somewhere a go for yourself anyway, and besides; you’ll be out on your bike, in the fresh air and not doing the day job. Most of the time, that would be enough to put a smile on my face – in fact, I’m envious of you!

You can do a loop pretty quickly anyway, if you don’t end up thinking much of it, you could then go and spend the rest of the day somewhere else.

Enjoy

It’s £8.50 for the carpark. Unless you’re on the doorstep, I wouldn’t go back.

What about Rogate DH’s if you’re Southish??

If you’re in range of Chicksands how about giving Woburn a go? In fact you could do both easily enough with a whole day. You’ve got the choice of freeridey stuff or lovely XC at Woburn (though for the XC you’d really need to ask for some local knowledge if you don’t know it).

They charge £8.50 now!!!!

Unless they’ve built some hills I’m never going back there again. Thanks for the warning!

Car park sucks!! would advise getting there early too.

Its a good crack for a few hours – very pedally without much decent elevation. BUT there is some good singletrack.
Me and my brother were there are the weekend on probably overkill bikes (Trek Fuel EX8 and Enduro SL). BUT still had a good laugh you can really hammer the trail as long as people dont get in the way.

Hardly any northshore to speak of, the small freeride area with some good berms and jumps is worth sessioning.
Black run aint really worth talking about, just a very small berm into a few foot drop (hence what makes it black).

Most of the trails are linked by fire road, so you can rerun what you like. It is a little rutted in places but then thats what full suss is for!..

You can (I think) park on the entrance road to Bedgebury in one of the small layby’s if you can find them. avoiding £8.50!

My local area and I am one of the people who helps build new bits.

The car parking is extortionate. But if you go there regularly joining our club gets you cheap annual parking and the dosh goes to trail-building. And please come and join us – google Bedgebury Boars.

Basically we lack the hills Surrey Hills has. I ride on a SS 50% of the time there with no problems. Some of the best bits are not on the marked trails. Yep the black just has a few jumps with no chicken line but obligatory air means “black” to the FC…. The first 2/3 of the red run is pretty good, esp if you know the alternatives… The berms and jumps in “gloomy wood” (named just before the FC removed all the trees…) have just been reopened after being redesigned with input from us. and we have another 1km we hope to open soon.

Wet? Yes… But the Brechfa black was worse on Saturday and Friston really gets very damp.

It’s what we have and we are trying to get the FC to see our views. More people turning upto trail builds would help…. 😉

Pretty much what Stoatsbrother said. The car park is not cheap, but if you email me I may be able to help with that (taps nose knowingly). This time of year if it’s been dry for a day it’ll be dry with maybe the occasional puddle.

We know the black bit is short and not desperately challenging but it was all planned and built by volunteers and 4 years ago the FC wouldn’t even allow berms as “they are too intimidating”. So bear with us – we are making it better slowly!

Braking bumps are being sorted very slowly. It doesn’t help when we have a trail build and only 5 people turn up to it, and the FC have no money for repairs – the car parking goes to FC centrally. We do have a volunteer day next Wednesday though so a small section will be closed but some bad brake bumps will be removed.

All in I like it. It’s very different from most trail centres, just go with the thought that there is only 100m elevation change so don’t expect epic descents or climbs!

Oh and a HT is fine. I’ve ridden it on a CX and it’s pretty harsh on the wrists!

Boris

For free parking use Park Lane, on the Cranbrook side of the forest. Park near the top of the slope down into the forest and ride into the forest on the main surfaced track and you will see the entrance to the xc loop on your right, (soon after you hit the unsurfaced bit of the main track). You join the xc circuit about half way round.