I’ve lived in Colchester for a year now and I’ve discovered lots of lovely tracks and can link them up nicely. Problem is that I’m now very bored. I’ve done Friday woods, highwoods, the trails to Brightlingsea and a few others.

So, what’s local? I’m happy to take the train or ride. I’ve heard about a forest North of Ipswich that sounds promising but not much else. I’ve not found an MTB group to join here. An LBS runs a Wednesday night ride but I can rarely do Wednesdays.

Not to bothered on riding type- technical/Single track/DH/Jumps/Park. I’d just like to explore really.

Tunstall Forest is reasonably close, as is Rendlesham. Get one of the TROG boys to show you round (www.trogmtb.com).

Thank Schmiken.
Looks like a huge area! Will check it out on the weekend.

Google for the Tunstall trog Viking trail. Nice track 10mile loop perfect for going fast on the HT. The tracks fairly well signed so once you’ve found the carpark it’s not.too bad.(thetford is a waste of money compared to Tunstall) (it’s around 45mins from Colchester)

Next youve got Danbury fun play spot jumps drops and some short DH runs. That’s 40min from Colchester.

Then you’ve got Aston hill which is an all day trip but worth it. Nice DH runs but only venture if it’s dry.

There’s Halstead Woods along Halstead Road for dirt-jumpy type stuff. You can tie it into a reasonable loop, taking in Grimes Dyke all the way towards Birch. There’s some twisty stuff near the Zoo too.

Waves at ska-49 iam in colchester too we pop over to Tunstall every so often it’s good for a couple of laps your welcome to tag along next time we go if you want (thinking of going this coming Sunday)email in profile let me know

Google for the Tunstall trog Viking trail. (thetford is a waste of money compared to Tunstall)

It costs £10 to park at Thetford for the day……………….The same as a whole years membership for TROG. Although the riding is free and open to anyone at Tunstall, the trails still need maintaining by the volunteers, who get no funding from the Forestry Commission, as happens at many other trails in the country. Please support us if you are a regular rider in the forest.

If you are coming by train, the nearest stations are Wickham Market (Actually at Campsea Ash) or Woodbridge. You can ride from Woodbridge to Tunstall forest off-road through the golf course and Rendlesham forest. The trail is running fast and dry at the moment, and there’s loads of off-piste singletrack to explore as well…………..you should enjoy yourself, given the limited terrain available in East Anglia.

We had someone come up from Holland on Sea this Sunday who’s keen, you might be able to cadge a lift some time.

Hang on…nobody’s come along to claim its impossible to get a decent ride in Essex yet – what’s going on?

Anyway, I’ve been riding in Colchester for 9 years. Got a nice 25-30 mile loop strung together through Hilly fields, along the dyke, out over gosbecks, Olivers lane towards the zoo taking in bridelways from the skirting Birch and over to Layer DLHay then to Friday woods and out to Donnyland woods, past the Whalebone and do a loop out at Fingeringhoe (cake available at the nature reserve) then back to Row hedge and take the now resurfaced path next to the river to the Hyth, cross the river and take the path to Wivenhoe, keep going till Alesford Ford, left up the road then left again on the byway then footpath down to the back of the wivenhoe sailing club, through wivenhoe then under the railway line, play in the woods and head up to the uni, then back in to town.

I’m based in Manningtree, north of you. We met a while ago actually, I bought some 29er forks from you. There isn’t a huge amount if good riding locally, as I’m sure you’ve discovered, but if you’re prepared to link together the good bits with less inspiring stuff you can get a decent enough ride in.

There is a group of us who ride Wednesday nights from Alton Water near Tattingstone, usually starting a 7pm and usually with a varying route of about 20 miles – always ending with a beer if course! You can find details on the trog forum link posted above. If Wednesdays aren’t good I often do evening rides around Manningtree – would be pretty easy to get the train up and ride straight from the station if you fancy it.

And you should definitely give Tunstall a go. Some really lovely riding up there. The way marked stuff is great (thanks in no small part to Switchback, the gent who has posted above me!), but the forest isn’t so massive that you’ll ge hopelessly lost if you go off piste. Best way to find the good stuff is to join a trog ride on a Sunday morning – very welcoming bunch.

Amazing! Thanks everyone.
Once overtime stops at work I’ll have to take you up on your offers.
If anyone has any of these routes on Strava, etc., could I please have a link?

Some .gpx files or strava links would be great – i’m out Clacton way so would like to find some more trails, i’ve had to resort to road riding for the last year or so

Plenty of good stuff in Danbury to keep you occupied for a couple of hours (albeit some of it on the cheeky side).

Woods all pretty much neighbour each other so easy to thread a ride together.

Lingwood Common, Scrubbs Wood, Heather Hills, Thrift Wood, Pheasanthouse Wood all have nice sections of flowy singletrack. You can finish with a few of the DH runs on Danbury Common too. Well worth shooting down the A12 for.

Have a look for me on Strava (Jono Stevens) – I normally cover most of the trails, or drop me an email [stevensjono at hotmail dot com] and I’ll send you some pointers.

Check out Essex and Herts MTB too. They often arrange group rides.

The bottom section of this route will get you to Tunstall from Woodbridge station……
Woodbridge to Lowestoft Off-Road

Some off-piste……only a small section of what’s available.
Tunstall off-piste

Viking Trail
Tunstall Viking Trail

I’ve a couple of checky loops that are a bit of a combination of Chromed Oranges route. Bit rust on the route but…

Mersea Island loop.
Castle park – along river footpth – Wivenhoe trail – stick by the river to Alesford – bit road to Mersea then round the edge of the island and back.

Colchester Cicular
Hilly fields – Lexden Springs – bit road on Stanway – foot path behind Thomas’s Cycle’s – Couple of ways to then make you way to Kings ford Grove / Mill Grove then on to Friday wood and back via river foot path castle park.

Lexden Spring and Hilly fields are great if you want to do hill reps. Several places there. Make sure you do the natural jump at Lexden springs just to the right of the big oak tree. Or the dip straight down. Not done the later for a while though.

(You could get a road bike for training as there quite a lot of nice quiet routes you can but together. Don’t tell people I’ve been enjoying my road riding)

Further out options are Trogs and Timber (Thetford) riders as mentioned. D2d tomorrow 🙂

..never found it since but there was a bit of woods jumps site just north of Stanway and A12.

Used to be a jump site at bottom of hilly fields by the institute but that was flattened a long time ago.

Yes I’m not much of a jumper.

There is a chap called Mark Colchester Bike Park on Facebook, who has just start turning Chitts Hill/Iron Latch Woods/Halstead Woods (all the same place) into a mini bike park. There has been drops, jumps and Singletrack there for a while, but they have already started adding to it. I was there last Wedneaday and they have added a very jumpy track finishing with several berms, plus there is are a couple of singletrack options running through the woods. It’s not big, but can be linked up with trails in Hill House Woods in West Bergholt, Lexden Gathering Nature Reserve and up to the Hilly Fields, with minimal road riding. I managed 22 miles the other day linking all of those together.
Don’t both with High Woods its really dull and full of loads of dog walkers.