My other two bit of advice, which may be less useful if you are riding as a family, are:

(a) Find some like minded people to ride with. Mountain biking is a very sociable sport, so it is easy to fall in with ‘the right crowd’ who will help you learn and help you tackle things you did not think you could manage.

(b) Get some decent lights and try night riding… it’s great fun; it expands your options for riding in winter; and for the kids (OK, for everyone) it’s an adventure. If you go for ‘18650’ torches rather than purpose MTB lights then all you need one £5 charger, a then a couple torches with mounts and cells for each one of you… and a 501b XM-L2 torch is under £10 these days.

Also local to Swinley and got back into biking 2.5 years ago

Joined Berks on Bikes – a great MTB club who have lots of different rides for all abilities throughout the week, meeting in Crowthorne

I’ve learnt a huge amount very quickly from other riders who had recently got into biking, covering the kit you need, the cheapest place to get it, advice on bikes and lots of encouragement to improve fitness and technique

http://www.bobmtb.com/

Theres also a huge Swinley based facebook community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/SwinleyforestMTB/

Having done a bit of reading and searching round I think we will mainly be doing trail riding (although not too big a climbs for some time). We are going to be looking round a large Halfords and Evans Cycles store tomorrow. Is there anything in particular worth looking out for? Otherwise we are largely going to be see what sort of sizes appear to give good fits.

Again I would have a chat with the chaps at mountain Trax in barkham they will give you excellent advice and demo bikes as well. I would also say give Bird cycle works a go. Hard tails designed well for trail riding and great value for money. The chaps running the company are so helpful and demo bikes available. Join swinley forest bikers on Facebook and join a few rides we are a nice bunch 🙂

If you are at all unsure about which wheel size to buy whatever you do don’t ask the question on here it’s like opening pandoras box and finding a can of worms inside.

skills

@ halfords

just have fun.

1) This is a great forum for info and advice but
2) DON’T TURN INTO US!

I saw someone tell you to use SPD’s – I wouldn’t at first. Get some decent flat pedals and grippy trainers. I’ve found the Wellgo flats to be pretty good and reasonably priced in the past

Buy the same make and similar models of bikes , that way all the parts should
be interchangeable , if someone packs in cycling you have plenty of spares !