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Hi everyone, I'm a newbie on here hailing from the Norfolk coast. Every fortnight or so I can grab brief opportunities to ride further afield to vary my usual diet of xc slogs on the dunes, jumps at mousehold in Norwich and xc rides at thetford. I've been to chick sands a couple of times and loved it but my problem is that after getting somewhere that could easily be a three hour drive from the Great Yarmouth area I need to maximise the riding opportunities once I'm there.

So chicksands is great in that I've got a lot packed into one area, easy to find and park. What I don't want is to arrive at somewhere that I might have seen mentioned on a 2014 post on moredirt and find it's been bulldozed and there's a couple of gently rolling dog walkers tracks and some unrideable jumps. Not too hard and not too easy or a range of lines would be great as I don't have more than a couple of hours at a time to really session a trail if you see what I mean, no steep learning curves really!

So far I'm planning on visiting Danbury common, tunstall forest, hadleigh maybe. I'm more Essex /Cambs/Herts than places like chicksands as getting that far can literally be an entire day of my weekend just to get there and back and like many people I have other commitments.

Any ideas about where will give me the best bang per buck? In terms of ability I can do the lime burner trail at thetford and all its features quite comfortably. But I really want more downhill action and jumps as that's what I can't get enough of where I live. Why don't I just stick to chicksands in case you're wondering? Well last time there I cased a downhill landing leading to a hard faceplant- rest of me was protected apart from face and I ended up in a&e with my lower eyelid torn away and a retinal bleed. Needless to say, the full face and goggles id ordered the previous week turned up the next day at work... but I'm avoiding chicksands until I get my confidence back elsewhere.

Out of what you mention Tunstall is a nice ride, but may not be exactly what your looking for. Hadleigh is worth a visit, you'll know if you like it or not after one loop. Out of those Danbury would be my recommendation as most of the runs are all in one area and you can spend a fair while happily session'ing them. There are also a few other trails further to the North to find if you end up getting bored, but do require a mile or so of road riding to get to.

May also be worth googling Woburn Sands, Surrey Hills and even Cannock Chase to see how much driving is needed to get to them as you'll enjoy yourself there too. Closer to home Bacton and Weybourne may be worth a try too.

I often spend a bit of time up Great Yarmouth way and I like to use a mix of Strava segment explorer and the Trailforks map so see what's out there. It may be worth having a looking yourself.

Hope that helps!

Evening, your best bets are thorndon, Danbury, Epping and hadleigh. Hadleigh is all sign posted so easy enough to ride on your own, a single lap is 2.5m in length, lots of short steep climbs and decents, the technical features difficult to do making it a great place for learning new skills. Danbury and thorndon both have loads of really good trail riding to be had if you can find it, it's all a mix of single track and off piste, as well as some jumping fun ( I know both these areas really well but tend to ride them mid week and further afield at the weekends. Let me know a weekend and I will see if I'm about). Epping is good fun but is not that hilly (though not flat either), again it's a complete maze of single track so very hard where to tell you to head

Great thanks for the ideas. So basically I should edit out Epping and runs tall and focus on Danbury, Thorndon and hadleigh. I guess I'll only know by trying them out! I do ride Bacton woods near me which is great but can get really wet and virtually unrideable over the winter. I'm not sure how much of a scene there is there - it's pretty untamed.

Baction isn't too bad, I found a few jumps hidden away near a side of the forest and "best bit" is quite fun with a few drop downs and a decent sized jump to flat at the bottom. Not been there in the winter though. Danbury does hold up pretty well in that regard.

Yes the downhill stretch at bacton could be brilliant but needs a lot of digging. Maybe I'll get the shovel out in the spring? And the jumps on the north western edge of the woods are great - if you can get a good line in to keep your speed up. This time of year it's so muddy you can't keep it rolling...

Visited Danbury this morning in the freezing fog and what a brilliant place it was. The main line was just great, loads of nicely paced tabletops to clear and less of the 'commit or die' style gap jumps I usually have to try and progress on. Will definitely go again.