I am off to test ride a few bird aeris’s soon an that means riding Swinley!

It will be a saturday morning and I reckon I will have about 2 hours (1 hour each on a small and medium). What can I realistically ride in that time? I have never been to Swinley before so sticking to the waymarked trails would probably be best.

Ideally I would like a range up, down across and a few technical bits to get a good idea of the bikes. I realise that that may not exist in Swinley but as close to that as possible will be good enough!

Any suggestions?

Just do the blue trail? It’s got wiggly bits and jumpy bits and uppy bits.

Edit: Here’s the map
http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/media/289819/mountain-biking-routes-in-swinley-forest.pdf

If I was in your position, I’d ride the blue…probably looking at 2 laps in an hour so I’d do 1 lap to get used to the bike and how it handles and then look at doing a pretty full on lap…

Do this for both bikes and I’d say you’d have a pretty good comparison

^^ this

Thanks for that. Is the Red an add on to the Blue or a separate trail that starts somewhere different?

Gazhurst – that is a good sensible idea!

The Blue is the first part of the Bed if that makes sense…you have to ride the Blue to get to the start of the Red but in all honesty, I can’t think of anything in the Red that would make the bike feel any different than the Blue

Including faff time at the start/end the blue is probably an hour. If you’re super fir the strava record for blue-red-blue is about an hour, realistically more like 1h20, and you’d have to be fit to do more than one of those laps as it’s pretty full-on in that you’re either pedaling up hill or sprinting down, there’s little or no coasting.

For the sake of variety you could do blue-red-blue on the one you think you’ll prefer, then just do the blue on the other to get a feel of it.

As above really. I would do the blue on both and, allowing for change over time and taking the occasional wrong turn (which is inevitable with the waymarking & diversions) would be fairly surprised if you managed more than one lap in an hour.

Last time I rode there the blue was all very well groomed trail centre. I’d have thought to test the Aeris properly the real focus should be on the rougher downhill trails which are (from memory) red 15 and red 20. If it was me I’d find these trails on Strava and ride straight there on the fire roads (or park in Bagshot). These can both be looped quite easily.

I would stick to the blue and get a feel for the bikes.
People constantly berate Swinley for lack of hills etc but it’s a proper workout because it’s constant up and down/ pedally. If I were just testing bikes the blue will give you everything you need.

Last time I rode there the blue was all very well groomed trail centre. I’d have thought to test the Aeris properly the real focus should be on the rougher downhill trails which are (from memory) red 15 and red 20.

Neither is exactly rough though, 15 has the blown out bit after the table top and the roots, 20 has a few braking bumps. 25 is the jumpiest section.

None of it is ever going to test the limits of most bikes though, I’ve not ridden any of it with suspension in 3 years, and as someone pointed out on another thread all the top riders on individual segments (let alone laps) are on weight weenie XC bikes. It’s more than enough to have some fun and get a feel for the bikes, but I’d not worry about searching out specific trails, it’s a 20min ride on the fire road to R15 from the lookout anyway, so just doing 15-20-25 is going to take an hour even if you don’t get lost.

You may already know this, but I didn’t until I got there…..

Bird HQ is about a 20 min drive from the trails detailed on the map above. I had a tight schedule for the day so it eat into my riding time and you need to factor in lots of time to chat to Ben about specs (well you don’t have to but I’d recommend it as he’s a super knowledgable top guy). I had a great time and was convinced after one lap of the blue.

None of it is ever going to test the limits of most bikes though, I’ve not ridden any of it with suspension in 3 years, and as someone pointed out on another thread all the top riders on individual segments (let alone laps) are on weight weenie XC bikes. It’s more than enough to have some fun and get a feel for the bikes

Fair enough. I was simply pointing out that the blue is pretty straightforward but there are parts of the red which ride like more natural trails.

it’s a 20min ride on the fire road to R15 from the lookout anyway, so just doing 15-20-25 is going to take an hour even if you don’t get lost.

Don’t know the forest that well but surprised to hear it’s that long considering how quick a lap of the blue is.

take your current bike and do a lap of the blue.
then do a lap on both sizes.

is the only difference going to be the size, or are you trying different specs

Swinely?

Why not pig out and go the whole hog. OK, so there are rasher decisions you could make, but the trails are crackling at this time of year.

Swinely?

Why not pig out and go the whole hog. OK, so there are rasher decisions you could make, but the trails are crackling at this time of year.

Put an apple in it.

Don’t know the forest that well but surprised to hear it’s that long considering how quick a lap of the blue is.

R15/20/25 are about the furthest point. And the blue is a fairly direct. Maybe 20min is pessimistic, but I’d still think it’s a longer loop than the blue, you’d be going some to do it in an hour (including navigation). If you wanted to get to R15 a more interesting way, ride the blue to stickler, then turn left instead of right, it’s a shorter trail and comes out at the manhole near jump gully, up the hill to the resevoir and you’re there.

If you want a modicum of natural, find the new england switchbacks on Strava (starts in the same place as whole 9 yards), then at the bottom of the hill go straight across, the trails fairly obvious, turn right at the end onto the muddy singletrack, then spits you back out at the bottom of the hill, turn right and it’s a short climb back upto the whole 9 yards.

Forgotten what section this is called..
Personally the best part of the blue for me…
[video]https://youtu.be/RqWzm-EM1so[/video]
Just ride it 20 times..
Some of the blue heading back to the lookout i find boring..but that’s just me

That’s not one section, 0-2:00 is the whole 9 yards, the next bit is I think called rollercoaster, the bit after that is I think the next section which I’m not sure of it’s name. You can cut the blue short after the whole 9 yards, and turn right which brings you to the flat section before rollercoaster, cutting out stickler and the fireroad after it. But by then you really are looking at <20min laps.

Yeah sorry meant to say from 2:00 in that video..
Blue 14
1:30 part up to the fireroad
[video]https://youtu.be/bNbDDT8bBcc[/video]

I have only been to Swinley once…to test ride a Bird Zero 🙂

I say keep it simple and do the blue on each bike (including your own). That should be fine to get a feel for the bike, you don’t have to be setting records to work out what you like. If you can find more time add the red because it is fun. Despite all I’ve read maligning Swinley I thought it was great for a mornings test riding.

Note

Bird HQ is about a 20 min drive from the trails

is true if you think you will be going back and forth.

Yup those jumps rock, I actually really like the sections before and after that one too. If you get the preceding one right you can get over the fire road without pedaling (but 9/10 there’s someone coasting it so you can’t).

Yeah I need to get down there and have a bash at them again… All this rain has put me off recently..

You can shorten the blue by doing a right at the cross roads after blur 2 (as 3 and 4 are shut) whizz down the dire Road to blue 14 then head back, or after blue 9 do a right down the soggy fire road and do the 2nd (or is it 3rd) right back onto the blue. Both of those miss the stickler which is 7 or 8 minutes of flat pedally berm practice,i actually enjoy it but it’s got nothing that you don’t get elsewhere on either of those loops.

@Goldigger – that first video gives me motion sickness! 😯 😛

So OP how did the test ride go ?

It’s not done yet. 20th February. Can’t wait. I’m pretty much sold on the aeris just need to try different sizes!

Hey rhid
It’s possible that i might have a small frame in blue to sell in the next few weeks. Thinking of swapping it for a xs frame.
Let me know if you’re interested and i can give you more details.

The pilot,

I have emailed you.

ta

Rhid
YGM x3. ‘Internet glitch’ to blame!