Drove down from Milton Keynes yesterday to give Swinley a dabble after hearing the reviews and I have to concur – its very good, especially considering the area that the trail builders have had to work from. Even the people were nice – from racing whippets to first timers (squealing with delight on the final section of blue) all of which allowed faster riders through and said hi/thanks if they were allowed through.

Good job people!

Agreed, it’s great isn’t it?
I actually prefer the blue over the red, seems to link up better.

The blue flows more I think, but the red has more standout moments. For me anyway.

Yeah, know what you mean – there good bits on the red are really good, but there seemed to be some dull connecting sections.
Need to keep it in perspective though – they’ve done a great job and for only 2 quid it’s an absolute bargain!

£2 is definitely a bargain. With the play ground out front it means I can bring the wife and little one to Swinely and have a nice day out 🙂

Blue is great, red feels unfinished.

been to swinley before but not since they have these fixed routes. so is it best to do blue first then link to red or what?

been to swinley before but not since they have these fixed routes. so is it best to do blue first then link to red or what?

You can do half the blue then the red then the second half of the blue. Thats what we did

hmm thanks scottfitz, is there a map? in fact i might as well do each lap on its own first time and then if i have time energy do one of the laps again.

Swinley map

I used this.

thanks for the map, now makes more sense doing blue red blue, but will probably just give it a shot the way its intended

Dont think you really need a map, but its good to have that one printed out. Just head out on the blue and when you hit the fire road where the blue goes left and down hill, turn right and hit the first bit of red. Once you’ve done the red you come back to the same bit of fireroad and carry on down the hill to the next bit of blue.

i’m off there friday morning for the first time in a year, want to get there realy early… anyone know what time the car park opens?

No map needed, but if you’re not on an obvious bermy bikey section, keep your eyes peeled left and right for trail markers taking you off into the woods again. There are one or two you could miss, especially if you’ve taken the opportunity to bunch up and chat to your mates.

fire road where the blue goes left and down hill, turn right and hit the first bit of red.

Other way round, reds straight ahead/left, blue is right.

It’s pretty compact so you can’t get properly lost, but there are quite a few places where the trails cross on fire roads so don’t blindly follow other riders you see, they might be several sections ahead.

i’m off there friday morning for the first time in a year, want to get there realy early… anyone know what time the car park opens?

Sign says 7am at this time of year.

This afternoon i did full blue, half blue, full red and half blue. Not been on the mtb much recently so was really enjoyable. Wasnt expecting so many berms and swoopy downhill bits and the odd double so was fun.

I managed to take a couple of wrong turns at 17 red i think and somewhere else.

My chain keeper is rubbish as it got battered and eventually loosened off and then the chain kept hoping off, really annoying, need to sort this somehow.

Not the same as good old times where you could go anywhere with some nice loamy trails but was very dry if not a bit harsh on the back with the hardtail but a good workout.