Off road rides, Colchester area

Trips, adventures, bikes, equipment, etc.
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iainb
Posts: 397
Joined: 16 May 2008, 9:56am

Off road rides, Colchester area

Post by iainb »

Hi folks

My son is getting keen on off road cycling, I do all my riding on the road so does anyone know of any rides (not too rough!) suitable for a novice in the Colchester area.

Thanks and regards

Iain
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NUKe
Posts: 4161
Joined: 23 Apr 2007, 11:07pm
Location: Suffolk

Re: Off road rides, Colchester area

Post by NUKe »

You don't say how old your son is but A circuit of Alton Water just north of manningtree, was one of the first off road rides I did with my kids a 7 mile mix of rough tracks and mainly offroad tarmac.

Another alternative is to buy an OS map and go ride your local Bridle ways.
NUKe
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Tesseractorion
Posts: 2
Joined: 7 Jul 2013, 3:27am

Re: Off road rides, Colchester area

Post by Tesseractorion »

iainb wrote:Hi folks

My son is getting keen on off road cycling, I do all my riding on the road so does anyone know of any rides (not too rough!) suitable for a novice in the Colchester area.



I imagine your son has grown up a bit by now (2 year old thread lol) :D

He's probably already discovered the Wivenhoe Trail and various bridlepaths up towards Alresford, Dedham, Mistley, Manningtree etc.

Pity there's no bridge over the Arlesford...er, ford (as there used to be when the train track was there) as a straight ride thru to Brightlingsea would then be possible.
scoot
Posts: 165
Joined: 6 Oct 2014, 9:07pm
Location: Near Colchester

Re: Off road rides, Colchester area

Post by scoot »

Hi,

Friday Woods is OK and can be challenging in the wet - I've done this quite a lot over the years with my now grown up sons. They did the Boxing day bikes vs runners at the start of the year.

Alton Water as previously stated also OK

Wivenhoe trail is flat but at least off road.

Rendlesham Forest also has some good trails but not that brilliant. Usual forestry commission stuff.

Tunstall Forsest much better much info out there about them. Not tried this but told it has a wild jump zone

Thetford is possible best and has some reasonable red routes - Pretty soft compared to Wales, Scotland etc

Danbury is small but I'm told OK - tried it once, broke bike and did a fair deal of walking - Jump area plus cross country

Epping Forest is also said to be OK but not many waymarked routes - not tried this one.

Hope that helps,

Paul
Two wheels good, 4 wheels bad
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