Filled in the survey then went and did a loop at swinley; Bank holiday Sunday and the car park was Rammed.
There were a few more riders on the trails, but TBH it wasn’t totally stuffed with bikes.
The one thing I did note, was the lad in trackies with a drawstring bag, not exactly breaking a sweat, on a (rented?) E-bike.
That questionnaire did include mention of E-bikes and rental kit, so clearly they’re expecting to attract a broader bunch than just the current trail centre sorts…
So I would expect to see more “e-bikers” with the FC looking to coax more cash from some new punters… It’s not just going to be new cafés and nicer toilets..
Swinley is not FC but Crown Estates… though it might be a valid indicator… and I don’t think they hire ebikes at Swinley anyway and the Bike Hub is a private business anyway…
I’d also probably welcome more ebikes (and especially hire)… as it would make it far more accessible to lots more people who could then start to get fit enough.
I did see a family at Swinley where the son and mother were so obese I shuddered and although my initial thoughts were “get a real bike” .. after a bit of thought I realised that they were so obese they wouldn’t make it round the family green unassisted…. at least this way they could do more and longer and might one day ride unassisted?