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Very quick one - what's the main waymarked trail at bedgebury like? Suitable for someone comfortable on FC blues and some easier red?
Cheers
Never been, but hopefully pretty damned good for a daily parking fee of £12...
You should be fine. The trail grading at Bedgebury is red but it would be on the lower scale of red at most trail centers. Unless you take the short black everything is rollerable but obviously the quicker you go the harder the trails become. The trails there are better ridden at a fast pace if you can as they become more engaging.
Yes - Bedgebury 'red' is actually more like a blue - similar to QECP blue for instance - there's some man-made rock features and some tiny drops but it's 95% smooth with berms, rideable by pretty much anyone. There's one shortish, sharp climb which some might struggle with.
The optional 'black' section has 2 or 3 1-2ft drops and a 5ft rock roll entrance that you have to ride up to get onto it.
It's pretty good for beginners, and those with more skill can try and hit everything at full speed.
There are discounts in place if you use the carpark early and get out of there by 11am i think. Also there are options to park for free if you know where. I use park lane which is Cranbrook side of the woods.
A21 layby 😉
Unfortnately, with Bedgebury being a 'pinetum' the car park fees mostly go towards that. It just so happens there's MTB trails there too.
Only thing to watch for is when they've done some work on new berms, they tend to use the loosest gravel know to man, so you'll be riding at a decent speed, hitting berms with loads of grip then suddenly one berm will appear with zero grip = front end wash out.
You'll be fine. It was specifically built to be a bridge between blue and red as there was no money to build a blue. Build costs are horrific at bedgebury as the geology is clay and everything just sinks into the mud unless you put in a deep sub-base and lots of drainage. When I was involved with the club before moving to Scotland, just a flat piece of trail with no features cost around £30/m To build a basic 10km blue route with a few features, ground survey, flora and fauna survey, and route clearance was coming in at nearly half a million quid. The red was then modified over time to be an easy red with some optional harder features.
Unfortnately, with Bedgebury being a ‘pinetum’ the car park fees mostly go towards that. It just so happens there’s MTB trails there too.
When I was there this wasn't the case. All the money raised on site went to FC England. Bedgebury wrote a budget for the year covering maintenance and development of the bike trails, the pinetum, education, forest rides (fire roads), play areas etc and were allocated a budget accordingly. In addition the money raised by the bike club by selling the annual car parking passes was held by the club and ring fenced for trail development on top of the FC budget. The money raised by the Friends of Bedgebury by selling car park passes was allocated by their committee. It tended to go primarily to the pinetum but did go to the play areas as well as the bike trails. Any money you feed into the parking machine just goes to FC England.
Parking at the moment is
£3 if you leave before 11am
£10 all day during the week
£13 all day at weekends (and I would imagine bank holidays)
Bedgebury used to be horrendous during winter or after heavy rain, but the BOARS (the off road club) have played a large part in redesigning and resurfacing the trails so that they are now useable all year round.
The red, as mentioned above, isn’t particularly taxing but is fun if taken at full speed. It’s extremely busy there at the moment though and some care is needed as there are riders of all ages (anyone over 5 I would say) on the trails at the moment , so just be aware round blind bends.
One more thing, some of the sections are closed at the moment, so on a nine mile loop, there is probably 1/1/2 miles of fire road instead of Singletrack, to do.
What is open at the moment is flowing well, as the trails do benefit from a bit of moisture, to make them less sketchy.
My friend managed to get round all the trails (including the black, but avoiding the rockclimb at the start) on a fully rigid last week and he's a very cautious rider. I would definitely say the trails are more blue than red, but as above, much fun to be had hitting them as fast as you can.
The worst of the steep climbs (cardiac) is currently closed.
My friend managed to get round all the trails (including the black, but avoiding the rockclimb at the start) on a fully rigid last week and he’s a very cautious rider. I would definitely say the trails are more blue than red, but as above, much fun to be had hitting them as fast as you can.
The worst of the steep climbs (cardiac) is currently closed.
I want to do it on my gravel bike at some point. Maybe not the black section, but everything else is fine.
Super easy, I always notice people on gravel bikes making everyone else look silly on their DS sleds. Great for cardio, nothing that is not rollable or with a clear chicken run. My understanding is that the red grading is based on length of trail rather than complexity or danger. The hardtail Whytes they rent are pretty perfect for the conditions.
From my last ride the only real danger I noticed were toffy looking dads letting their young kids play on the top of jumps just after blind corners.
Nice facility, happy to pay towards upkeep and work on cardio. Best comparison is a slightly easier Swinley with much nice cafe / facilities / parking in return for your parking fee.
Cheers for the feedback folks, sounds like a safe bet with my better half in that case and no objections to paying for the parking, as a facility its only there because it brings in money.
If Cardiac is closed, is there a clear diversion? Might go in a week or two for a few laps.
Yep, there are signposts up for a detour.
Not sure its worth more than a 20/30 minutes drive to get to and definitely park somewhere else and ride in. Beautiful forest to look at on the way round though.