Is the Red an 8 mile extension to the Blue? Or is it 8 miles total including?

Can’t work it out from the leaflet, it looks like 14 miles total to me. Will have 3 Minions with me so think 14 might be a bit much for the most minor one.

Ta.

8 miles extra. It’s kind of like a number 8, you can do the whole blue loop or half the blue, then do the full red loop back to the same point (give or take a couple of hundred yards due to trail diversions), and then the second part of the blue. Aka Blue-red-blue or Purple.

How old is miniminion?

With the diversions in place last week, it was a 10.4 loop, and I’m pretty sure we did all the available blue and red. I don’t know the area well enough to comment on what we may have missed unfortunately.

5 but on 20″ wheels + gears now. He’s done 10 miles or so in the past off road, and Moors Valley ‘blue’ which is 4 ish on 16″ SS so I think blue will be enough, maybe a green warm up first.

Mainly worried about losing the eldest, in theory he can follow the signs and has done at other trail centres, shooting off by himself. but he makes me look gifted in the common sense department.

Diversions are mostly open again, depending on Minion ability you could cut out the first half of the red and just do the 2nd half which is the more fun.

At the start of the red, turn left at the star post rather than right and head straight for jump gulley/red-15.

…maybe a green warm up first.

The green at Swinley is VERY easy. A lap of the car park is probably longer & more technical. Seriously.

just do the 2nd half which is the more fun.

Good tip, thanks – that could well be a goer. Pass on the green an dhave an extra ice cream then 🙂

Green is so short it’s worth doing with little ones anyway as it hardly impacts on what else you can and can’t do, and they’ll probably like it.

8 miles extra. It’s kind of like a number 8, you can do the whole blue loop or half the blue, then do the full red loop back to the same point (give or take a couple of hundred yards due to trail diversions), and then the second part of the blue. Aka Blue-red-blue or Purple.

Or you could ride a very flat and easy couple of miles (or so) to the start of the red on fire-road, if desired. Tbh first half of blue is a bit annoying in places.

Red might be a bit stiff for a kid though – it’s got some rough bits which could cause trouble esp on small wheels, and the labyrinth is a fairly strenuous root-fest. It can be eliminated though easily like any of it.

Mainly worried about losing the eldest, in theory he can follow the signs and has done at other trail centres, shooting off by himself. but he makes me look gifted in the common sense department.

Some of the diversion signs are a bit hidden.. also one of the signs at the lower star post is usually obscured by some bit of gear belonging to the water workers.

My lad of a similar age loves the blue, he isn’t ready for the red. Dont discount the blue, it is bloody good fun, even as an adult.

Diversions are not reopen. All around Star Point is still closed, where the red and blue join, well they were on Sunday. Surface is like riding on polished marbles. 10 mile loop is the full red and blue now and has been for a long while.

Why not go and look for the off piste Gorrick stuff to the west of Caesar’s Camp? No law against it.

mark88 – Member

With the diversions in place last week, it was a 10.4 loop, and I’m pretty sure we did all the available blue and red. I don’t know the area well enough to comment on what we may have missed unfortunately.

Just checked my Strava, my last Purple circuit at Swinley was around 12.7 miles which included the diversions for the infamous groundnesting birds inc tanktraps and the pipe laying. Suspect you missed a bit somewhere which is easy enough to do with all the diversions if you’ve not ridden there.

As mentioned above I think Labyrinth is the hardest bit for young uns as has got quite rooty of late, which combined with the tight up and down nature of the section can be challenging for the inexperienced.

Why not go and look for the off piste Gorrick stuff to the west of Caesar’s Camp? No law against it.

Mainly because I don’t know the area at all, and searching out something fun on an INSET day.. well, I’m taking the easy option. If they enjoy it we’ll be back and look a bit further afield.
Will try and sneak the red in after work some time and see how tough it is – I think only the eldest would manage the red at Haldon for example.
I usually enjoy blues more than reds anyway – a bit less ‘rocks for the sake of it’ more swoopyness.

I usually enjoy blues more than reds anyway – a bit less ‘rocks for the sake of it’ more swoopyness.

TBH most of the red at Swinley is yellow brick road like the blue. Its just a bit longer. Instead of doing the whole of Labyrinth you could just run Deerstalker (the fun downhill bit that runs into Labyrinth) to the clearing at the bottom, then exit left out of the clearing and turn left onto the fireroad and rejoin the red.

The red grading is basically down to the length and effort required with a couple of short sharp climb bits rather than technical nature. Both are similar, maybe with some more natural rooty bits on the red in parts, and there are no real rocks except the couple of them on Stickler that makes the famous Swinley rock garden 😀

The surface is quite hard pack with stones though and rough going in places.

I think only the eldest would manage the red at Haldon for example.

Swinley red is easier than Haldon red technically, though more pedalling involved. If the energy isn’t there they’ll suffer, particularly if combining blue & red. Generally you combine them as the red loops off from the middle of the blue and the two make a figure 8.

Suspect you missed a bit somewhere which is easy enough to do with all the diversions if you’ve not ridden there

Yes – if you start at the start and follow the diversion signs you come across a big diversion sign that sends you left and you pick up the red at I think 11. That’s a different diversion though, you can pick up the red immediately at the star post by going right and finding signpost 4 – this is the one that’s often hidden behind a load of stuff – it’s just inside the workers’ fence. If you take a right at the star post and ride alongside the workers’ fence for about 100 yards ish there’s another diversion sign that takes you through their stuff and onto trail.

Re rocks – none, but there are one or two nasty hard edged potholes that could give you a pinch puncture on a hardtail, they are on the downside of tabletops too so you don’t see ’em.

molgrips – Member

Re rocks – none, but there are one or two nasty hard edged potholes that could give you a pinch puncture on a hardtail, they are on the downside of tabletops too so you don’t see ’em.

Hey Molgrips, I’ve not ridden Swinley since our last email exchange as used the light evenings to ride with a group in Surrey Hills wjich has made a nice change. Has the surface broken up a bit with the summer use? Also did you find Babystalker and if so how is it holding up?

Midweek rides are going to be out for me most of August due to hols but a Swinley run is likely soon.

Has the surface broken up a bit with the summer use?

Before my Trans Cambria ride I was going through three times a week and it was getting noticeably worse *by the day*. I was a little worried about it for everyone’s sake tbh.

Can’t remember which one is babystalker! I seem to remember finding the one you suggested but I forget what it was like.. they are all so samey!

At 5 years old I would say just the Blue would be fine, plenty of fun stuff on there. Just watch their speed on the first descent as I have seen a few novices go straight over the berm! My daughter is 6 and she hasn’t ridden much of the Blue I tend to cherry pick bits for her to ride – although she is soon to go onto a 24″ bike so I guess distance will increase. The Blue loop is pretty easy to follow, it is just the Red that is currently tricky due to the diversions.

The surface was getting broken up in places, but the trail pixies appear to have been hard at work over the past few weeks as lots of holes have been filled in.

y daughter is 6 and she hasn’t ridden much of the Blue I tend to cherry pick bits for her to ride – although she is soon to go onto a 24″ bike

She must be a blimmin giant, my 9 year old has only just graduated to one! Or he’s a midget (more likely as the 7 year old can ride it comfortably).

Post ride debrief – many thanks for the input, we did the blue and that was plenty for the youngest – wasn’t the distance or difficulty of the downhills (though I suspect a few adults would think twice about some of it) but the short sharp steep ups that did for him – had to push 3 or 4 because he ran out of momentum. All the downhills were dispatched with much cackling, and one occasion that I thought I’d have to explain to his mother, no hands and no feet on pedals. Luckily he caught it before the berm. The steadier climbs also weren’t a problem with a ready supply of Haribo and distraction.

The 9 year old dispatched it at speed, pausing only to comment it was ‘awesome’, the 7 year old also on a 20″ as that’s all he has also had no problem with any of it. We’ll be back one evening to do the red extension.

The red is rougher, not always in a technical way, just in a more eroded, energy sapping kind of way (a bit like stickler).