Thetford Forest Mountain Biking

I’ve just got back from Thetford Forest where I checked out the Red and Black mountain bike trails. Doing both, my computer had clocked 22 miles.

This was my first time round Thetford & the weather was good. I’ve heard that this trail centre suffers in the rain, after a couple of hot days I was hoping it had dried out. Whilst the Red trail only had a few muddy patches the Black was rather boggy.

This part of world is very flat so dont expect any fast downhills and the flatness didn’t help the flow of the track. I found it hard to pick up and maintain any speed over the very rutted terrain. Having to dodge boggy sections didn’t help either.  There was however some great singletrack with plenty of berms and twisty sections.

The Black Trail

This was the first black trail I’ve attempted. I wouldn’t class myself as the best mountain biker in the world so normally I wouldn’t attempt black runs. I found the red trail to be pretty tame and much easier than other red graded trails I’ve done so I figured the black would be an easy black despite the warning signs. I wasn’t wrong, there wasn’t anything on this trail that was overly technical or posed any problems. There are a few optional bomb holes that would require some skill but due to the large muddy patches at the bottom of these I decide to skip them.

This trail was way muddier than the red, I certainly don’t mind getting muddy when I’m on my bike but this wasn’t the fun sort of mud, it was sticky slow you down best avoided stuff. As with the red this was a mixture of twisty singletrack, a few nice bermed sections and allot of bumpy mud filled ruts.

The Beast

Just as I’m beginning to get bored of all the bumping about avoiding muddy holes I reach a black sign reading “The Beast”. This was definitely the best section. The whole trail seemed to change, much more technical, and at last some slight downhill. Now I really needed to check my skills and keep focused. Lots of roots, holes, kinda steep but short up/down bits.

Despite this section being pretty technical it had a good flow and I came away wanting to go back and do it again. Anyone know if it’s easy to get back to the start of this bit?

Conclusion

Thetford forests biggest problem is the lack of hills. The only downhill free wheeling you can do is on the dipped sections which are a steep down followed by a steep up to kill any speed you’ve picked up. These are fun but few and far between. It’s a very bumpy trail and it would seem to hold the rain/mud I’m sure if where lucky enough to ride it when it’s dry it would flow better. I would say the grading is off, the red is too easy and the black could be a red.

If you’re in the area and fancy some singletrack then you should check it out, but if the weathers bad or it’s been raining within the past few days it could get really muddy. I would expect it to be a nightmare in the wet.

Links

• The Black Trail
• The Red Trail
• The Beast on youtube (not mine)

Tags: mtb, Thetford Forest, Trail Centre