I'm not familiar with Swinley Forest, but it's going to rain Sat & Sunday.
Gorrick's race kicks off at 08:30 Sunday so after a while it's going to witness many hundred pairs of wheels and tyres.

Can you tell me what the ground is likely to be like?
Change out the RRalfs back to winter tyres?
Bring my canoe or not to be at all concerned as it's very well drained?

Thanks

wet and muddy if Feb's STW ride there was anything to go by, ask cinnamon girl about the monsoon ride there last year though

depends how much it rains, but it's so dry there currently unless it monsoons, I suspect it will just damp the dust down and actually improve parts of it.

Really Ti29er. 🙄 All you need is to pack some MTFU in your race pack 😉

Seriously, it needs a wee bit of rain.

The Monsoon Ride – yes, it was wet, very wet in fact. But it didn't stop 40 STW'ers turning up for a great day of riding. HTH.

Is this a cunning 'what tyres for….' thread?

Actually I was moaning about it today – I'm tempted to go back to mud tyres as well.

You don't need full-on mud tyres for Swinley. It's pretty rooty in places right now.

Rooty?
Is that Double talk to disguise what really goes on in Swinley 💡 on one of your Singles Only STW ride?

Darn you C.G. you never said.
And there was li'lle o'le me thinking it was a bike ride.

Dear me, I'm getting misunderstood!

So far there has only been the one "Singletons Social Networking Ride" but I am prepared to organise another. Any interest from people – my e-mail is in profile.

All sorts of activities go on at Swinley, so many uses for singletrack it would appear, in various guises/permutations. 😯

You'll be safe at the Enduro though Ti29er, it will just be a tad dull compared to normal proceedings 😉

depends how much it rains, but it's so dry there currently unless it monsoons, I suspect it will just damp the dust down and actually improve parts of it.

For once, no.

Mud X's would have been handy today, along with brakes that didn't lurch their pads in half a lap.

Yeah today was crazy. Conditions went from rideable to laughable to OMFG..Still a good laugh – I wonder how many people are stuck trying to get out on that track? Reminded me of Eastnor in parts!

The MG's got mud in places I didn't believe mud could get to!

Its currently sat in the garage with the battery disconnected and the heating on.

What is this singletons social networking ride you speak of? I'm intrigued.

I stayed at home because it looked like rain & I am soluble.

How was the racing?

I was planning a ride over Swinley tomorrow morning, but by the sound of things I think I'll give it a miss.

I had a look on the Gorrick site and the Enduro course looked interesting, how was it?

Apparently the top 3 guys in the 7 lap race pulled out after lap 2.

I joined them (about an hour later)

The usual "elite XC racer coming through call" was replaced by "I've got no f*****g brakes, get out the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"

I think a lot of folk binned it – I did after lap 2 shortly after failing to make the last corner & nearly wiping out the old girl that was stood there!

Ti29er – that is an EXCELLENT excuse 🙂

The course itself was good, shame the weather screwed it.

In my defence, I did say 'unless it monsoons'.

Which it did from late last night off and on all day.

I rode bits of Swinley and Tunnel Hill yesterday and it was brilliant.

In 11 years of racing that's the wettest race I've ever done and the worst I've seen Swinley, to be avoided until we've had some more dry weather!

I've ridden in wetter conditions, it was the combination of 300 riders and 2 motorbikes (which seemed to do most of the damage) that destroyed the place.

That last corner was fun, first lap I had a 2 wheel drift going on, followed by power sliding through the timing chicane before chucking the bike down and walking back to the car for some thicker chain lube.

Just check out the results on http://www.timelaps.co.uk – only 3 riders made 6 laps out of 7 – nobody made 7 laps. Great course but not too fab in the weather – a great effort from Gorrick again though!

I've just been looking at the results, then came here to look at the wash-up / write up.
Those results – hilarious as a stand alone pdf!
The number of people doing quick laps, doing maybe 2 or 3 laps then …. nothing.

Sounds like I was a wise old owl after all! 😉

Wow!
Rob Lee, Ian Leith, Steve Webb, Gerald Tudor, Matthew Melville & Anthony White & Ian Longville; they + others all pulled out at the end of their 2nd of 7 scheduled laps.

Can anyone explain please?

Can anyone explain please?

no body had any brakes left including me and my mate who went through a whole pad and was braking on a XX piston ! ouch !

Was it just brakes?
I carry many spare brake pads in my car's ride box, surely the professionals do too.
There must be more to it than that?
Was it a dangerous ride?
Some of these professional guys are next up at the UK 24hr Solo Championships, so assume that's in their sights, plus other summer events that their sponsors need them to be winning.

+1 for nicks. I was parked next to Anthony White and he had no pads left at the end of lap 2 and he was on xx as well. I think they'd just assumed it would be more of the same for the remaining laps. Nice. The course wasn't dangerous – bit gloopy in places and a couple of muddy spots but nothing like SITS or Mayhem in the rain.

My rear pads were gone in one lap, front held on till part way through the second. Managed to mince round 3rd lap with god awful chainsuck until it finally got jammed and took me 40 odd minutes to fix…

Wasn't dangerous just very hard on kit. At that rate I would have got through 3-4 pairs of brake pads and my entire drivetrain.

If I had a second bike waiting I might have carried on!

My wallet thanks me once again for giving MustBeAfork my ride! 😉

It wasn't just the brakes – it was the cold. The 7 lap race actually started in quite comfortable conditions and lap 1 was enjoyable if a bit muddy. But not long after starting lap 2 the temperature dropped dramatically and the wind and rain got up, and nearly everyone suddenly found themselves hopelessly underdressed.

By the time people got back round to the pits again, many had passed the point of no return as far as staying even vaguely warm was concerned. In that respect, the later races probably fared somewhat better as it was already horribly cold when they started, so they may have wrapped up more warmly.

Respect to anyone who completed half distance, I bailed after 3.

And then driving home in an open top BL parts-bin sourced MG! (never knowing what's going to pack up next)
That won't rev beyond 2500.

Who says Sotherners are soft!