On visiting Glentress I thought the skills area they have there is exactly what Swinley needs. Same with a couple other places with good skills areas. It needs to be available to all to encourage beginners to use it (who might not be able to afford or want to pay for a course).
But understandable the liability concerns from CE. Doesn’t seem to be a problem for the FC though (and Scottish equivalent).
The problem is, the elevation in the skills area alone is probably akin to the entire red & blue loop of Swinley. It's as flat as a pancake.
Not even sure I can be bothered to go back & defend my Swinduro crown 😆
But understandable the liability concerns from CE. Doesn’t seem to be a problem for the FC though (and Scottish equivalent).
Bedgebury is FC and the freeride and skills area appears to have been closed a few years ago. Not sure of the reasons but a good proportion of the traffic at these places is families on the bikes they take out the garage a few times a year.
I don't go to swinley anymore. Recently in just used to go for the babymaker ( and the jump gulley when it was there )downhill trail which i love. The rest of the riding is fair but it's not really my kind of riding. I much prefer the old swinley. If there was a freeride area open to all i'd probably go again.
there will be a new feeride area off the red (where it shouldve been built), so everyone wins
Like the jump gulley 😀 ? Coming full circle..
Are we talking the glentress freeride area or the glentress skills loop?
I think the Llandegla one is probably the best I've ridden, it's big enough to be fun sessioning it, and progressive enough to actually feel like Green/Blue/Red/Black options. The GT one felt like the whole thing was <Blue, the biggest drop is about a foot and rollable. Whereas the actual trails at GT were quite rough/fast/jumpy for their grades.
It's also in a good place, being right by the car park it gives anyone new the chance to see what's likely to be ahead on the trails.
Swinley could benefit if they widened Blue 1 and linked it to the green so everyone starts on the same loop. Then have a skills area either in what used to be blue 2 or in the new second section to weed out the families etc, then signpost proper green route options on the fire roads (with 5, 10, 20 mile options) so those families have a viable choice between 20miles of Blue/Red and a similar length of Green. I'm sure that would resolve a lot of the conflict as I suspect a lot arises from people coming to ride a "cycling trail" and finding the green is only a few hundred meters long, then need something to ocupy the rest of the day.
98th for the full loop, looking at a few of the times some are either world champions or on Ebikes lol. But that’s a decent effort out of 1500 riders.
Luke Peyton falls more into the World Champs category I would say.... ok not quite world champ but 6 wins in 2019 racing Xc is not bad 😉
Luke Peyton falls more into the World Champs category I would say…. ok not quite world champ but 6 wins in 2019 racing Xc is not bad
I don't mind being behind him too much then 😉
Magnetodog on here impressed me with his times !
Are we talking the glentress freeride area or the glentress skills loop?
Both really. I considered them to be progression starting with the skills loop and onto the freeride which was more of a progressive skills thing to me anyway.
Though that was couple years back and I understood it was getting ripped down and replaced or relocated.
The basic skills loop definitely at Swinley as a starter and should be open to all to encourage practice before hitting the trails. Okay there's only one tiny drop (on Seagull) on the official route (two if you count the "rock garden" on Stickler 😄). Maybe it would allow for more though, except for the issue of no materials from outside the forest, though there are a few other rocks just sitting around unused.
They'd be just as well building a couple of tabletop jumps with a big litter bin right next to them near the car park. Would solve 90% of the rubbish problems in the forest.
Swinley could benefit if they widened Blue 1 and linked it to the green so everyone starts on the same loop
This would ruin the Green for younger children who can currently use it to build up their confidence. Adult riders would also get frustrated at being stuck behind young children.
then signpost proper green route options on the fire roads (with 5, 10, 20 mile options)
This is a good idea and I've never understood why there aren't signposted routes on the fire roads for family recreational riders.
to weed out the families etc
What is so wrong with letting families ride the blue? My son could ride the red when he was still 8, the trails weren't built just for the riding gods............
My 10 year old would beat half of this forum up the blue climbs 😉
Luke isn't that good ..its the bike and he wanted to get his KOM back. Good news is he has gone to America for 3 months riding so now is your chance once the much awaited fixing of holes takes place you should all be able to crack the 55min barrier.
Thread highjack, there at the end of the month as staying nearby and have a day or so to kill. Hiring a bike, having some coaching in the morning (need to lose some bad jumping habits) and then planning a couple of hours of potting around. Is there enough there to keep me amused for 2-3 hours, Im used to 25-45km rides on Hong Kongs fairly rocky steep trails plus the odd Chiang Mai/Rotorua trip every year or would I be better to head off to the Surrey downs straight after the coaching?
My 10 year old would beat half of this forum up the blue climbs 😉
Obviously, he's probably a third of the weight! 😛
Is there enough there to keep me amused for 2-3 hours,
You can do a blue/red and spend some time repeating the jump lines at clubhouse if you've got that sort of time to kill.
You won't find anything rocky and steep...
As above that time allows a lap of the blue/red (which is very much XC focused) and some play time on the clubhouse hill trails (there's 5 off the hill open at the moment, plus the ones near Camel Trail, however if you're looking for fireroad climb then descend you're better off over in the Surrey Hills, or head down to Rogate which is a similar distance drive to Peaslake to practice your jumping.
would I be better to head off to the Surrey downs straight after the coaching?
Yes, in sort - if you want to ride stuff remotely technical and challenging, Swinley is not the place to do it.
There are a handful of runs which are ~20 seconds around the water tower which are fun for 5 minutes, but pop over to Peaslake & ride some stuff with actual elevation & requires more than a CX bike. 🙂
there's a decently large tabletop on the babymaker trail dh run for jump and bermed cornering skills testing. Everyone sessions it too.
There are a handful of runs which are ~20 seconds around the water tower
Water tower? There's no water tower at Swinley.
Realistically even for heros most of the DH runs are 40 - 60 seconds long to the bottom (off clubhouse hill) Babymaker, Deerstalker, Old Deerstalker, Babystalker, Bikini Carwash, most are flowy singletrack, some have some tech, but there are no really big features unless you can launch the Wilkins leap.
What is so wrong with letting families ride the blue? My son could ride the red when he was still 8, the trails weren’t built just for the riding gods…………
I'm referring to the actually can barely ride a bike families who see it advertised as the only cycling trail in the forrest. Obviously I'm not referring to families who want to go mountain biking.
I witnessed a kid in tears there a couple of weeks ago because mum and (mostly) dad had decided to teach her to ride on the blue. She couldn't ride in the car park let alone on a trail and would probably have struggled on the green. I got back from a loop and they were up at the top end of the overflow car park by the green, where she rode into the wardens pickup!
Everyone starts somewhere, but £5 says that experience ruins cycling for her for life and in ~9 years time she'll get a Fiat 500 and never ride a bike again.
I used to be faster than Luke (about 15 years ago when he was barely out of nappies)
Go me!
gah, got to the end of this thread and despite all the encouragement no one posted their videos, I wanted to see what fast looked like. I really like Swinley btw
Jon thats just how you remember it... wait till he gets back after 3 months of altitude training in the states. He is riding 50-80 miles a day mostly above 4,000m I reckon he could take 5 mins off that time 🙂
I can't show you fast but I can show you cool.
[img] 
[/img]
[url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/47951388762/ ]2019-05-28_03-23-21[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/152318156@N08/ ]Steve Weeks[/url] - [url= https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dariogf.flickr2BBcode ]Flickr2BBcode[/url]
H8216, undefined@4.4 mm, f2.0, 1/200s, ISO40
10 years old and jumps better than me
Yeah swinley is ace for kids, two ten year olds and a five year old had great fun at the weekend.
tom84 - gah, got to the end of this thread and despite all the encouragement no one posted their videos, I wanted to see what fast looked like.
XC rapid or steezy (ahem) rapid? Will Greenfield has plenty of the latter..
I went for a quick blast last night - first time since before lockdown. Annoyed at myself for leaving it so long but had a great ride and thankfully haven't lost any of my, not impressive, pace (1hr 43 mins for the blue and red). Arrived at 5 and finished in the dusk, only saw 3 other riders on the trails and still managed to get out the car park despite the new signage saying CP shuts at 18.00.
Brilliant start to the w/e - STW school night ride anyone?
Sounds ace. Count me in.
I'm off there in 5min. My lad I'd doing Summit and I'm doing fire roads due to scaphoid.
I'll need another 3-4 weeks myself before being unleashed on trails proper.
