Tunstall Forest, Suffolk

That was a pleasent surprise, after an hour of wandering we kinda found our feet and it was a cracking place. Chris seems to have been taking tips from Neil, i'm knackerd. To be fair the one fella we meet from TROG was a nice bloke, just the rest where riding the WS3 track, myself and Chris just couldn't be arsed to go all out i think. But it lead to some loverly singletrack and i can't fault the work they are putting in, even if they are "cliquey"

After I'd stopped laughing at the irony of folk from a forum called retro bike calling us cliquey, I felt I had to respond to what can only be called disinformation.

I'm guessing you would be the guys who tagged onto the back of the WS3 pre ride that I was running this morning. Who despite the fact that we were actually going at close to walking pace during the first lap were unable to keep up and whom we escorted, and waited for right up to the point where the people who had pre-booked their pre-race ride, started the second lap which was announced at the time as being at race pace.

Presumably you would also be the same people who didn't show up to meet Plork from the brightideas forum, who was waiting for you at the allotted time and place as agreed.

Now guys, its not for me to be critical, but frankly if you behave like rude people, you must eventually expect the people who are being effected by your rude and boorish behaviour to respond.

Thats what I'm doing now! This morning, however, you were actually treated with the utmost respect and friendliness, despite the fact that you gate crashed a pre-arranged race event uninvited.

If you want to write a fuller and more comprehensive critique of the Tunstall and Rendlesham Off-Road Group please feel free to check out our forum and show up at any of our rides. Better still do it as a secret shopper and get a true feel for what we are about when we don't know you for the whining ingrates that you have portrayed yourselves as above.

I absolutely guarantee that you or any of your forum colleagues who bother to show up at the agreed time and place will get a somewhat truer and fairer picture than that which you have painted above.

G

Chairman of T.R.O.G. and the leader of the group that you delayed substantially, but which waited uncomplaining and treated you with respect and friendship nonethless, this very morning.

Firstly let me apologise for the way you were treated today over at Tunstall, on behalf of TROG we are sorry.
Today’s ride was different to our normal jolly Sunday ride.
Today we had the racing guy’s over to our patch for a ride of the Winter Series 3 course.
Our normal Sunday ride (and the first lap today, Sunday 4th was) is always done at the slowest riders pace.
I remember you guy’s turning up and we had just offered the 25 other riders present a chance to ride the course at race pace, one of our guy’s did stay back for a while to make sure you were ok. The other TROG gang had to make sure the other 25 rides did not get lost.
We are normally a fun group to be out with. When you guy’s are this way again please contact me and I will be more than happy to show you the delights of Tunstall.

Pah!

Always trying to be reasonable eh Steve?

Presumably you weren't aware of the plork end of that story when you posted then?

G

erm i think youv'e mistaken us for someone else, we didn't meet you for the first ride at all. As for Plork? no idea, i did arrange to meet someone there but unfortunatly due to confussion over the car parks that was a no goer. I'm sure that normally the Sunday morning rides are fantastic fun, and even pointed out in my post that i reckoned it was just due to the race thing gong on. Anyone is sure to make up their own minds over the place, i had a blast. Nice advertisment for an open and friendly group by the way :shock:

Nope pretty sure I haven't, the photos kind of give it away.

One ride only, but two laps, one slow, one at race pace.

Plork is the person from the bright ideas forum you were supposed to be meeting.

Nice advertisment for an open and friendly group by the way

Click to expand...

The welcome is much warmer when it is not proceeded by unreasonable and misleading posts on well supported and respected internet forum.

Our remit is to work with the Forestry Commission to develop trails and MTB in the Sandlings forests. A large and important part of that is that we spend a considerable amount of time and effort on breaking down barriers and facilitating access for nervous newbies into the sport.

For that reason we will act rapidly to rectify any actual "cliqueyness, or offhand or rude behaviour toward visitors, or as in this case to refute unfounded allegations.

Sorry if you don't like it, but then we feel the same way about your original posts.

You are welcome to come and ride anytime, and we will make you very welcome, but in the circumstances on Sunday, when folk are standing around waiting for you in car parks, followed by other folk welcoming you to join their ride, and in fact putting themselves out to accomodate you, it still seems to me unfortunate that you should choose to describe those behaviours in the way that you have above. Frankly, the opposite seems to be true to me.

As the saying goes you can please some of the people some of the time...right?

Nuff said, so get your butt back over, lets start again, and we'll show you all that the forest has to offer, including the highly rated Sudbourne Jump site and more trails than you can shake a stick at.

G

It's a deal, will go for the slower first ride this time though

we missed the jump site but after we got behind on the lap we ended up just kinda going our own way and i must say, there's a hell of alot of single track in that space.

Good luck with the WS3 race and no doubt you'll be seeing things alot busier there soon.

Great, glad thats sorted.

Contact me via our forum, and I guarantee you'll come back with a different perspective.

G

Ok, I'm not going to speculate on interforum relations, but do want to say that the area looks superb. Looking at the photos I think REKI sums it up prefectly by saying it is like Thetford before being ruined

We are going to try very hard not to let Tunstall go down the Thetford lack of investment and ruin route. Ultimately, its conundrum because the forest is an asset of the Forestry Commission, and they need to earn a revenue from it. Leisure is becoming more important and growing trees less so, so to some extent they have a vested interest in lots of people coming there, but at the moment there is no vehicle for them to earn from it, and while thats lasts we have some time to lay in store for the future.

Hopefully we can all learn from previous mistakes made and avoid the trail devastation that has happened at THetford....... and going back on topic, thats why we have reacted quite quickly to the comments about cliquey. Its very important that we maintain good relations and respect from fellow cyclists at this time, so that we can persuade people to help us to keep the trail stock in good nick by rotating trails, resting over used ones and ploughing effort into eroded areas.

Very glad we seem to have got round to that situation with the guys above, and we genuinely are looking forward to improving their perception.

G