Looks like I’m heading to Crawley for an extended period. I’ll be free at random times of day and night, mid week and weekend and I’d be grateful if anybody in the know could advise if the riding is better for any of the above bikes? I’ll not have a car so I’ll be riding from (probably) the Ibis or Premier Inn near to Evans Warehouse.
Any easy to follow routes? I don’t have a GPS.
Thanks in advance.

Without a car, I’d say you’re pretty much looking at road rides ( the forest is messy at this time of year, anyway ).
From the ibis, you can fairly quickly be off to the north west of town and onto the relatively quiet country lanes. Box hill is a little over 10 miles away. Leith hill, etc is a few miles further.
There are lots of other permutations to be had, if you’re willing to do a bit of planning with a map.

tilgate park and cross the motorway at the bridge, explore there, via parish lane

Crosser on the NCN21; north to Greenwich, south to Paris or NCN20 to Brighton & SDW

Ello mate come see me @ the evans showroom on a Monday night ,I only work 4-8 pm on Mondays ,ask for tony

Cross bike prob be best cause tilgate single track is tame and then you could do few road rides too

Thank you for the pointers so far. I’ll be sure to call in if I’m free on Monday evening Tony. Any other options or routes I can trace on a map. Road, cross or mountain bike?

The worth way is sign posted disused railway track turned into gravel path which is pretty pan flat ,it’s about 15 min ride from gat wick ,should be able to find that on Google / map

With a map you could get up onto north downs and head to Reigate direction then loop back on the road

Pick up couple os maps and go for a little adventure

Mountain biking, you have the whole of Surrey Hills nearby and tonnes of singletrack, bridleways, trails of all sorts. Peaslake end covering Pitch, Winterfold and Holmbury hills is the Mecca of SH MTB. Then there’s Leith, Box Hill, Ranmore, and basically all along the North Downs Way. A little south and there’s the South Downs Way.

But riding from Crawley, I wouldn’t know the route, and it’s a bit of a trek. Depends how much distance you’re into.

You do however have Tilgate forest bang next to Crawley. Sadly the bike park that was there has been closed down by the FC, but I hear there are still trails about. I’ve never actually looked around there. Must do sometime.

Tilgate forrest is good for an hour or so blast, particularly if you don’t mind repeating a couple of loops/sections. It has a couple of steepish drop in sections and some reasonably nice single track if you dig deep enough. You can head back into crawley via the M23 footbridges, and the golf course – or south to parish lane and then back up through crawley.

I’m told there’s also reasonable trails to be had nearer Haywards Heath but I never ventured that far in my time. It would be quicker to get there than to Box Hill/Surrey Hills I should imagine though. Particularly on MtB

Thank you. I’ll have a look at the map, have an explore round the local forest, call in on Tony at Evans and take the cross bike and ride over to Surrey Hills.

Hi monksie, I ride both mtb and road and live just down the road in Crawley Down, I work shifts so often do my rides mid-week so if you want to drop me a line then my e mail is in my profile, I’d be happy to show you round Tilgate (probably not at the moment as it’ll be way to muddy to be enjoyable) or some of the back road routes up to Boxhill etc.

Thank you Bazz. When I know the dates I’m down there. I’ll drop you a line if that’s OK? Thank you again.