Reviews for Thetford Forest Mountain Bike Trails

Summary:
Good two hour blast to clear the cobwebs away.

Review:
A mate and I go riding here once or twice a month, as we both live in and around Peterborough (in the VERY flat fens) its a nice change to have to pedal up a slope. Lol
The black run has several bombholes on it, a small history lesson here, they really are bombholes.

During WW2 the whole east anglian region was home to many bomber squadrons, if one of the planes had to abort a mission and come back to base it had to drop its bombs before landing. If it had only just taken off it couldn't do it over the sea, so poor old Thetford woods took the hit.

But, it does create a great place to 'play' on the way round. The best of them is to the right of the trail just before the 'Beast' its bleedin huge and has 6 or 7 run-ins to it, but only one real way out.
Others have mentioned the 'Beast' this is towards the end of the black run, but a huge amount of fun. Another reviewer has mentioned about hitting the same tree. If its the one I think (top of a small left hand drop in/out with the tree on the righthand side) then I've had some close encounters with it too, including bouncing off the bloody thing and ending up lying upside down still with my bike between my legs in a fit of giggles, much to the amusment of my riding buddy. Lol
Over all, great single track. Yes, there are some boring bits but, you can't have everything in life can you? I mean where would you put it?.

Summary:
great short ride with some skilled areas'

Review:
This is a great track easy when its dry however when wet it get a little muddy and slippy. Needs some more signage cos whenyour thrashing by on the MTB you can go passed a turn point. The beast is good however needs some more skills areas' to test the rider. Parking well park at Brandon park as its free.

Summary:
Fun to be had for all ages!

Review:
New red routes worth a go as its purely XC and longer than the black route.

Thetford's quite local to me so I find myslef going there at least once a month. The black route's a good XC ride with plenty of single track and some nice little berms and bomb holes to keep you amused. Also the trails nice and short so you can easily do 2 laps within 2 hours.

The Beast near the end of the black route is as near to extreme as you'll get but it is super flowy technical single track that always catches you out in the tight twists and turns. As flat as East-Anglia is, this is as near to downhill as you get! There's also a few little jumps if you head off from the Beast.

I often park at the fire road just to the bottom of the Beast, just outside Brandon as this means you don't have to pay the large entry fee to the forest.

Only two problems with Thetford, most of the trails pass through poor draining soil that gets very sticky in the winter/ rainier months; and although the rules are clearly signposted throughout the black route you still need to be very aware of families bumbling along the route ahead of you with small kids in tow, even on the Beast!

Summary:
Varied trail a nice ride.

Review:
I was in that part of the country for a large family event. As I was not likely to return to norfork for a while I did the trail twice as well as the red trail. I found it a mix of some fast singletrack and exciting tree dodging. Unfortunately some of the trail seemed to have just been put there to increase the overall distance. It weaved through immature woods and was relentlessly in the amount of small hollows you have to ride through. At times it felt like a boring rollercoaster.
Fortunatly the majority of the trail was very enjoyable. I spent a considerable amount of time messing about in the bombholes. For me the best part of the trail was the "Beast", a fast track through mature woods with steep drops and surprise twists and turn. I hit the same tree twice on this section, I only wish it was longer. Under wheel the surface varied from sandy patchs that caused a few fishtails to harder surface scattered with chunks of flint with some sharpe edges. I thought the trail was very well done and was pleasently surprised how good it was considering the landscape is fairly flat. The red trail was similar and I recommed doing both but beware of low branchs I managed to crack my helmet in one of the tree dodging sections.

Summary:
Sweeping singletrack combined with technical sections - top ride

Review:
The Black run is a few bits of the best single track in the forest connected together to make the trail. There are a few bits of fire road to join them up, but this gives a break from the twisting sections through closely packed trees. The Beast section (around 5miles into the trail) is not for the faint hearted and can easily fool an experienced rider.
One advantage of the forest is you can just follow the fire roads if you get knackered too quickly.
I also recommend the ew Red route which has been added this summer and needs bedding in in places. Similar to the black run, but without the bomb holes to play in.