I’ve got to drop my wife off at Heathrow early Friday morning and was thinking of popping to Swinley afterwards, I should be there before 5am so wanted to check if I can get into the carpark or where else I should park.

On a related question I don’t suppose if anyone knows if there are any height barriers at Heathrow T5 drop off?

7am is the main Lookout car park opening – probably easiest to park at the Muzzy’s Kebab car park and ride from there, should be quiet at that time.

You have to ride a few minutes to join in the Red route part way round – it’s pretty easy though and there’s the option to find some of the Crowthorne Woods trails too.

I’ve never been to Swinley before, where is this kebab car park. Cheers

Pretty sure there is a large supermarket under half a mile away. Check a map!

Edit, it’s a Sainsburys, there’s also an out of town shopping estate thing. You can just ride out the back over the big road to the lookout. The trails start to the right, behind the main building.

I’ve never been to Swinley before, where is this kebab car park. Cheers

Google Muzzys kebab.

https://goo.gl/maps/8XJK22jtJ4H2

Head west from the lookout on the main road, at the first roundabout (just before the golden retriever pub) turn left/south onto foresters way and the first roundabout has a small FC car park on the left just into the woods.

From there just ride straight up the fireroad until it crosses the trail.

ta

EDIT – beaten to it!
Ah yeah, it’s on Google (local landmark!)

Roundabout junction of Bracknell Road and Foresters Way. It’s the next roundabout south on Foresters Way from the Golden Retriever pub, RG40 3DR. Car park is on the east side junction of the roundabout.

Ride up the obvious fire road and keep going straight-ish east over one fire road crossroads until you descend slightly and face a steep uphill bit of track at a fire road crossroads. Turn right and follow this fire road until it starts to descend and you see a steel bench on the right as you come into a clearing. On the left is a rooty track entrance between two large trees – looks like something you would want to ride!

Through there and follow the trail around a gentle right curve onto a small fire road. That’s part of the red trail about 20% along from its start – just follow the markers until you see blue markers, then follow them back to the lookout and trail start / finish.

You join the Red at the corner closest to “Wickham Bushes” on the linked (slightly out of date!) trail map…swinley trails

All sounds a bit vague I know – I’d recommend a quick scan of Google maps, trailforks or Strava first to check it out for a first time.

easier still, I always park outside bracknell hockey club, opposite birch hill play area, off ringmead. RG12 7AQ. there is a track just over the grass that takes you right to the trail head.

Wherever you park, swing by the Swinley car park and buy a ticket as these pay for the maintenance of the trails 🙂 it’s only £2 so easy to carry

I’d recommend a quick scan of Google maps, trailforks or Strava first to check it out for a first time.

I’d more than recommend…
If you can download a gps and carry it with you (if you look at the GPS you’ll then understand why)

They made great use of space… this involves a lot of turning about … so as a first time visitor I’d recommend just following a route
or you can spend a long time easily getting lost

http://swinleyriders.co.uk/routes/viewtrack/80-swinley-red-trail-april-2013

buy a ticket as these pay for the maintenance of the trails

IIRC, Crown Estate pay for trail maintenance, car parking fees go to Bracknell Forest Council, not sure there is a direct connection.

Happy to be proved wrong. (I’m local ish and park and pay every now and then)

I read it on one of the Swinley pages, might have been the crown estate one. I’ll see if I can find it

Looks like it was on swinleyriders I read it. The old mtb permits were replaced with parking charges. I read that as parking pays towards trails as the old permit did. I’m not sure I’m right now you’ve questioned it, but it appears they swapped one for the other.

BFC do make a contribution, but its not the ticket price.

My first visit to Swinley today and much fun. Very fast and flowy in places. No sub 1hr though! 1:25hr and on a rigid drop bar Singular Swift….think I might take some suspension next time as my backside and forearms are bloody sore!

If you did 1:25 on your first go you’re doing quite well. I find Swinley less technical but more fun than other centres (admittedly a local). Kind of like a campsite compared to wild camping – less real but more sleep. Swinley gives the swoopy, fun, fast, “I’m amazing”, “look at that air” type feeling you want from a MTB ride 🙂
Unless it’s Saturday and full of noobs. Then it’s like the most pointless MTB video you can imagine as you follow people at 2mph watching their rusty bike rattle over the bumps 😯 (I’m kidding, naturally I run them off the trail and plough on…)

lustyd – Member 
Looks like it was on swinleyriders I read it. The old mtb permits were replaced with parking charges. I read that as parking pays towards trails as the old permit did. I’m not sure I’m right now you’ve questioned it, but it appears they swapped one for the other.

Permits were scrapped because the parking charges on top made it unfair, and I believe there were issues with the liability cover given a lot didn’t have a permit.

However the Lookout area is leased by the council and is independent from the rest of the estate and trails.

To quote BFC:

“Why has the council introduced car park charges at The Look Out and Coral Reef?
Some difficult decisions have been made because of the need to close a £6 million funding gap in the council’s 2012/13 budget. Proposals to charge for car parking at The Look Out (and by necessity Coral Reef) were made to help make the savings.”

“Where will the money go?
The council will use the income it receives to maintain all the services that are available at The Look Out and The Crown Estate will continue to invest in the maintenance of the Windsor Estate. The income will support a lower council tax than otherwise would have been possible.”

The Look Out covers the base facilities and parking. Windsor Estate is the rest of the estate including the trails.

And the latter point indicates your parking fees are paying for lower council tax for Bracknell residents. Which is great if you’re not a resident 😉

Trail Team Swinley have since said there is a surplus from parking fines and the council have stated they might give some of that back to CE. Whether they ever have done and whether CE actually would pass that on to trail building is another matter.

Thanks all. I’ll be there about 5.30am if anyone wants to join me 😉

@deadkenny thanks for this. I never pass on my ticket because I thought it was paying for the fun bits. If it’s council money I’ll start offering to people as I leave.
Anyone know a way to actually contribute to the trails? I feel like I use them a lot so not paying is weird for such a good facility.

@cheers_drive if I’m up I’ll see you there… 😉

I enjoyed that. I set off from the kebab carpark at 6am just as the sun was coming up, it was a lovely dawn. Did most of the blue and 2 and a bit times round the red. Plus some off piste stuff that was near where I parked.
The blue seemed like a lot of effort for not much fun – blues are often fun when ridden fast but many sections didn’t have much flow. Really like the red, especially the unsurfaced bits (I suspect that in the wet I may change my mind).

I never pass on my ticket because I thought it was paying for the fun bits.

I could park free easily but I’m happy paying my £4….. and it’s not bad value really.

I usually buy a whole day because it’s an expensive puncture etc. if you don’t so it gives peace of mind I won’t get a ticket.

Given I’ve paid for all day though I’ll pass the ticket on if someone looks like they can use it.

It’s just as fun in the wet aside from Red 2 which turns into an ankle deep bog. The drainage is excellent and once you realise you can trust the trail builder not to kill you, you’ll realise just how crazy you can get while still being safe. There’s very little at Swinley that will catch you out so you can really let go and only worry about the trees 🙂
You’re right though, the blue is a slog but that in itself is rewarding and you can get some serious air on the drainage humps when up to speed!

It’s not what it used to be in the wet back in the SBI days 😉 . The cobbles keep it dry and the off piste isn’t ridden so much to create such a bog. That said, fresh ginge gets sloppy in wet.

The “natural” (or non-cobble) bits on the official trails do tend to get a lot of braking bumps and very rutted after wet weather. Whole lot I find is harsh going on a hard tail compared to what it used to be like.

The parking, yeah it’s not that bad a price (not like Bedgebury’s outrageous prices!). It’s just the principle. If it didn’t go to BFC I wouldn’t mind. It stung more as a regular, though I rarely go these days. Even then for a regular, BFC offer a season ticket for a whopping £100! (£60 for Bracknell residents but that itself I think is not right. Locals should be encouraged to ride or use public transport, not drive!).

I think the parking fees are a bargain, just curious how we now contribute to the trail maintenance to make it sustainable. I’m not even sure who funds the trails if I’m honest, but if it’s council money or Euro match funding (like Wales parks) then we’re in for hard times ahead!

The carpark could do with being 3 times as big. My usual trail centre at Cannock there is bags of parking, I’m not used to having to drive round n round looking for a spot at a trail centre, espicially as they have so much room. Granted the less trees they have to cut down to make way for parking the better but the carpark really could do with being bigger at swinley, it’s ridiculously tiny.

the carpark really could do with being bigger at swinley, it’s ridiculously tiny.

Or, based on yesterday’s visit, people could park more considerately and not leave half a cars width between them and the next car!

Would help if they painted actual spaces so people didn’t take the piss.

And, the second half of blue (after the red) is much more fun than the first bit. If I just had 100% more skill and bravery there’s loads of stuff to double etc.

Or, based on yesterday’s visit, people could park more considerately and not leave half a cars width between them and the next car!

How would I get the bikes out of the back seat?

The carpark could do with being 3 times as big.

Really, probably not…. when the car park is full the trails also tend to be pretty crowded …. I’ve been in a position occasionally of spending ages looking or parking elsewhere but 3x the size and you’d hardly be able to move if the parking was 70% single-trackers

Problem with Swinley is it’s too close to London and the vast population of the South East and on becoming a trail centre it suddenly became a magnet for everyone with a bike.

It’s also why the freeride area stays shut. TTS and the ranger have admitted the scale and diversity of visitors means what they originally were trying to build was not in keeping with the audience. That and I suspect CE lawyers have expressed concern 😉 . Long term they still want to sort it out but would be something more inclusive for all, not just the elite who could cope with the mahoosive gap jumps and drops without the inevitable ambulance trip to Frimley.

As for, who pays for it? Funding comes via the Crown Estate who are funded by the Treasury. Ultimately our taxes pay for it, though CE self funds I believe as various parts of CE properties make money that goes back to the Treasury.

CE then will pay out for general forest maintenance, the ranger etc, and may fund projects, e.g. when they paid for Rowan Sorrell’s team to build the new trails (http://singletrackworld.com/2012/11/the-crown-estate-say-get-on-ones-bike-at-swinley/).

Trail Team Swinley’s efforts are largely voluntary though. The freeride stuff for example was a lot of volunteer effort (who probably feel rightly annoyed at the current situation).