There is an Act of Parliament from 1974ish governing the Forest.
I did read the wretched thing some years back and I think it is Section 2 that deals with bikes, but I remember it being a bit open and could refer to prams and didn’t prevent you walking it across the forest, although I am told the wardens go apeshit if you walk a bike onto their car parks.
One arsehole whose dog went for me when I was riding there, had the cheek to then have a go at me for cycling over the forest when I shouldn’t, when in reality I was on one of the legal bridleways at the time (Crow and Gate to Kings Standing Clump!!! I think). Another arsehole dog walker challenged me when I was illegal and I said “Wow”.
The truth is that both of those Ws were dog walkers and given that the forest is a sanctuary for ground nesting birds such as the Nightjar, dogs are way more likely to do lasting damage than I ever will.
On their signs they tell you bikes are banned because they cause erosion. Horses are allowed and they rip the ground up more than we ever will AND every track on the forest will show tyre tracks from “them” driving their bloody four wheel drives across it to fulfil their official capacities, such as looking after the sheep grazing it, or cropping back trees…why do you need a four wheel drive near you to do either?
In honour of our comrade’s dastardly deed I really must get myself back there and put some tyre tracks in their mud just to let them know they are not winning.
In fact I’d love to see a mass bike trespass there.
Bastards……bollocks to them