Hi,
Hoping to take a couple of friends riding in Wokingham this weekend, and have decided against Swinley as I wanted an easier, more exploratory ride. Was thinking of heading up to the Coombes in Barkham, but would welcome any other suggestions.
Thanks.

Surely swinley is about as easy as it can get and still be called MTBing ?

I mean you dont have to take them on any of the "harder" trails just add in more fire road if needed.

If you dont want to take them MTBing then your asking in the wrong forum really.

Good point. Maybe i'm being overly cautious.

I took all my mates(25-32 male) round follow the dog (cannock chase) on my stag do was fine. I think there was about 10 of us and plenty of them had never cycled before.

Unless there extremely cautious or somewhat older should be fine.

Also I think new riders like to see that other people riding as it makes them think its a more normal thing to do, and it makes them feel safer.

Plus swinley has a cafe which is always good.

My friends are the same age, so think i'm decided on Swinley. Thanks!

ditto, either that or for real towpath riding go to caverham and ride allong the bridlepaths to mapleduram, pangbourne, etc then (if theyr fit but inexperienced) do a loop on the bridleways through the chilterns.

I wouldn't worry, much as lots of people think they'r rad-core-tothemax-dudes, in reality even my mum can ride follow the dog at cannock in under an hour.

The freshers rides at uni often involved poeple coming out for the first time on supermarket specials, we usualy went through ecalshall, up potters clough, over redmires, down the packhorse/plantation run off stanage then back up and over to do blaca moor and ride back into the town center.

Are you intending to turn them into MBR readers who'll ride 6" bikes arround the home counties?

*no such thing in the South east.

:-p

Ha ha. The goal is turn two more friends into casual bike geeks, so hopefully Swinley will provide enough of a hook. Thanks for the chilterns shout too – definitely one to do in the future.

SFB's got the right idea about newbie rides – It's not the terrain you need to worry about, it's the pace and the fun factor. Be prepared to walk, go nice and slow, have a laff, look at the view, eat cake, that sort of thing.

try http://www.tunnelhilltrolls.co.uk too. A Farnborough based group, we do have a fair few slow rides going off ('Super' rides – Super Tuesday/Saturday usually) not far away from you….