Re:
It's been far too long, 6 years in fact, since I last biked around Bedgebury forest. So much has changed since autumn 2011 personally and in biking; all for the better I might add.
It's the closest trail centre to me but still takes close to 2 hours via public transport and my legs. That's the disadvantage of living in the greater London suburbs and a being mountain biker. That said, it's an easy journey. In this case, a little warm up on my local trails to Orpington station, about an hour direct to Etchingham then a 6 mile road ride including a very nice hill out of the station, onto the A21 and to the centre.
If you've not been, it's a well equipped location. You can hire bikes, it has a good bike shop, bike wash and most importantly, a very good cafe with excellent sandwiches, hot food and oodles of cake. It's all set-up for biking, but also walking and running.
The trails are split into 2; blue and red. Blue is a very basic loop, wide and open. Perfect for families and kids. Red is singletrack all the way. There are 2 black elements: bomb-hole / jump parks. I stuck to red.
The flip-side of being well catered is that it's popular and with that, the trails have to be durable. It means at least half, if not more, of the red loop is hard-core paved. I kept saying to myself (and out loud), not enough dirt. Of course it means you can ride it in all seasons and never have any issues.
It's also very easy. It's not technical at all. Sure there are some twisty, narrow sections. There are some good berms and a few short rooty sections but if you're looking to test yourself and really get the adrenaline going then this isn't for you. In addition, I didn't use the granny ring all day. There are 4 or 5 short steep sections but nothing to worry about although there were a few fleeting Voeckler moments
That all said, the result is that you can really give it some beans. You can practice your skills: in this case I improved my jumping, standing / balancing on the rock garden area and lean-in positioning around corners. You can get into the flow of the place and really immerse yourself with the forest.
I ended up doing 3 laps and l thoroughly enjoyed myself. Once again, me and the bike clicked. We were eating up each section and I didn't have any issues keeping up with and passing many people. I only had one dicey moment, on the last cake run (the very last section) when I over-cooked a corner and whacked a tree with my hip. It was pretty cool to have a few folks comment about the bike
I'm always on the hunt for decent trail centres in the south-east of the UK so if you know of any please let me know! Swinley and Bedgebury are the only 2 I've done.
