Trail conditions - detail

[Moe]

It has to be said that in a huge contrast to Saturday, todays conditions are dire. I went out with the idea of riding for an hour, calling round to Bike Art to pick up my respoked wheel and heading straight home with it. Within 15 min I was making a beeline to HL! Even a lot of the fire tracks are horrible, a mix of icey sludge, snow and mud, the used single track is a ice line mostly .......... but, some of the unused off piste is brilliant, if I'd had more time I'd have headed out to SD ........... which is now tomorrows plan!

[Moe]

As hoped, Santon Downham trails are in excellent condition, in fact there is little moisture on the surface other than the newer trails that were still fairly loose at new year are bedding in very nicely!

St Helens side is best but the unaffected (by ops) trails on FR24 / Weeting side are also good.

[clemo]

Stop rubbin' it in - I have to work during the week...

[gnarlyrider]

There was a real taste of Spring this afternoon at BCP - sun was warm and can't believe the difference to last weekend.

[Sy Hollinshead]

The red run was quite sticky again today, espcially the bits in the forest. Was a lovely day though....

[tomh]

A bit muddy out there today, so much fun though

[Plugger]

Nice legs Tom

[Moe]

I can confirm that it has rained aallllllllll night so I'm guessing the trails (especially Black) will have quite a lot of standing water. Our rebuilt sections of red could've done with it last week but better late than never!

[Sy Hollinshead]

Lots of rain over the last couple of days. Did the Red yesterday and it was pretty wet....!!! The newly opened sections of the red are really soft and are getting churned up very quickly.

[rshall]

Avoided the Red, so can't comment on that, Black suprisingly good given the amout of water around, so long as you go through the puddles, one or two are quite deep so take care!!!.

The bombholes have lots of exposed stones and rills have formed, making them rather entertaining and picking lines a bit of a lottery. Off-piste stuff by FR7 & 8 OK in places but others very muddy.

Brandon side good, with only a few wet spots.

Would highly recommend waterproof shorts and mud tyres!

[littlered]

Did the short Red and Black this afternoon.

The Red is really good, a few puddles but nothing to get the washing machine worried. Long Red is shut off at the M25 intersection so not sure what the rest is like.

The Black...now that's another story. No large puddles, just a lot of small lakes. I swear I saw a hippo running clear of one at one point ... could have been a muntjac I guess

[Moe]

I think we should be thankful, I went for a ride around the countryside North of Ipswich today and what trails I found were sticky to the point where my seatstays, chainstays and even chainring was clearing the mud build up on the tyres! When I decided to head for higher ground, the bridleways & byways were heavily rutted and not dissimilar to the Black! That said it was enjoyable and the countryside and 'chocolate box' villages were beautiful

[jt]

I know the feeling Moe, this was taken last weekend when I decided to avoid Thetford due to all the rain



And we didn't fair much better the week before on the Icknield Way



We decided to ride around those after seeing a Land Rover nearly disappear in them

[Holyzeus]

Tried to tweet via Timber but think i mucked it up . Re-did the orange barrier at the diversion on the Red and approx 5miles into the Black looks like someone has tried to upend the large sign at the junction of the fireroad

[gnarlyrider]

Did a sort of pick and mix route this morning - the rollercoaster / dbl shocker and the rusty bucket / home run were riding hard and fast ( dust makes the brakes squel a bit though ).

Got the old hardrock well and truly airborne a few times without really trying.

The heat and the smell of the pines was intoxicating - move that trail condition needle round to excellent.