friston forest
mountain bike trails
The rear entrance to Cuckmere Bike Barn takes you directly into Friston Forest, offering many miles of traffic free bike trails. There are 2 waymarked trails, graded Blue and Red.
The Blue route is an easy, family friendly trail 4 miles or 6.5km in length. The terrain is relatively smooth, on wide gravel tracks, and is mostly flat with just one small hill. To complete the route without stopping normally takes around 30mins, though with young family members it could be a little longer! This trail can be ridden on most bikes (other than road bikes with slick tyres), and is suitable for gravel bikes, hybrids, kids bikes as well as mountain bikes.
The Red route, also known as the Jeremy Cole trail, is a more challenging option of 6 miles / 10km. The trail is undulating and features a combination of easy doubletrack, narrow singletrack, and has a couple of steep sections where caution should be taken. This trail is relatively easy compared to other red grade trails around the country, and does not have any man made features like jumps or berms, but is a good cross country route for exploring the forest. In winter parts of the route can be extremely muddy.
Both trails are accessed from the Seven Sisters car park adjacent to our shop. The trails start on the wide track leading out of the car park, on the left just after the entrance from the road.
The singletrack
In addition to the waymarked trails, there is approximately 30km of ‘unofficial’ single track, created by local MTB riders over the last 30 years. These trails are very popular with local riders, and offer what is probably the best variety of woodland singletrack in South East England. The trails are not waymarked or officially graded, but feature a wide variety of difficulty – from steep ‘black grade’ downhill trails, to flowing ‘blue’ singletrack.
These trails are not professionally made or officially maintained, so caution should be taken to get used to any features that could be around the next corner. In places there are small jumps, drop offs, bermed corners, gaps, off camber tree roots and in winter, plenty of mud.
A notable feature of the forest are the 7 or so ‘bombholes’ dotted around the woods. These deep craters were probably created by quarrying activity many years ago, some might be actual bomb holes from WW2. Many have been built into features along the trails, with optional jumps on the entrance and exit.
Navigating your way around the trails is not particularly easy without a local guide. The facebook group ‘Friston MTB’ hosts a friendly community of local riders that will often be willing to show any new riders the best spots. We also offer ‘shop rides’ from time to time, normally for a couple of hours on a weekday evening. They’re free to join and give you the opportunity to sample the trails without fear of getting lost! See our social media for details.
If you want to find your own way around, we will do our best to help – visit our shop for advice on the best trails, it varies depending on your skill level, fitness, and of course the weather. See below section for more information.
Navigation
As the trails are unofficial, they are not marked on the ground and can be difficult to find. It’s also not easy to make the trails into a loop, as many start and finish from the same areas. However – we have spent many years working out the best routes and have mapped most of the singletrack into one continuous route as shown. Click here, or the map, to view in more detail.
Please note that this complete route is extremely challenging, even for experienced MTB riders. It contains some very steep sections, up and down, some parts may be overgrown or extremely muddy depending on the seasons and weather. For an experienced rider in good conditions it offers an unexpected challenge though, and there are plenty of options to bail out and return home if it is too much for you!
PLEASE NOTE! Walkers and horse riders have as much right to use the trails (even in the wrong direction) as cyclists, so you must take care to watch out for other users and treat anyone you meet with respect.
DISCLAIMER! Cuckmere Cycle Company is a private entity and despite our proximity to the trails we have no authority over what goes on in Friston Forest. This web page was created to provide information to fellow cyclists wishing to explore our local area. If you choose to ride in Friston, you do so at your own risk and we are not responsible for any injuries, damages or conflicts. Please ride within your limits, inspect the trails first, look out for other users and be nice.