Hi all, I will be going to Swinley for the first time this week, travelling via train, and had a couple of questions. Sorry if this has been done before…

1. What is the best/safest route to cycle from the station? Is the B3430 OK?

2. I will be heading to the 'expert MTB area' first and then exploring. I have a map with some trail names on it (e.g. 'Tank Traps' and 'The Whole Nine Yards'). If anyone has any recommendations of which trails or areas are particularly good fun I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks very much in advance!

From Martin's Heron, you can ride off road through the woods. The B3430 is fine though if you don't want to.

Roughly like this link below (I just bunged that down on the web, I think I have where the gate into the woods is correct, and the tracks are quite big). Be careful crossing the A322.

http://www.bikehike.co.uk/mapview.php?id=29626

Joe

Brilliant! That's a great help. The less road I ride the better…

You should be able to cover the most of it in a day, but if the Babymaker and the Labyrinth are on there they are worth a ride in that direction.

You might want to head to the jump gully and see if anyone is there to ask for onsite directions. It is a natural meet/stop/jump/watch area with some fun mini DH tracks behind it on the slope.

Have fun!

Try to get there early, while it's still frozen. It was a blast between 8.30 and 11.00 this morning, but looked like it would be a very different story if it was melted!

Hmmm. I was going to go this Thursday, but looks like it could get snowed off. Maybe next Thursday…

Swinley is one of those places that its easy for newcomers to be disappointed in as its a bit of a warren and quite easy to ride past lots of stuff without actually finding it. Try to take the full nine yards to the jump gully and try and get pointed toward the labyrinth, there are lots of decent trails in that area. Personally I really like the area between the Lower Star Post, Crowthorne Woods and Caesars Camp, lots of nice flowy trails that are very quiet.

If you cant go with somebody who knows their way round just head down any likely looking gaps in the bushes, youll usually find something worth riding, Swinley is great once you get to you know your way round. Good Luck.

poppa – if you don't mind being shown round by a very slow local, I may be able to help out. Let me know what day next week you will go, email in profile.

There's probably someone from the forums in Swinley at weekends too if CG can't show you around and you need guiding. Once you've done a couple of visits, you'll learn where to go and can then explore as you want.