Good evening all

I'd appreciate some of the STW massif advice or a steer toward some useful websites. Work has sent me down to Swindon for a wee bit (yes, I too am wondering what went wrong!). I have the car so can drive to a start point/trail head but will probably only have a few hours to spare.

What route options are local to Swindon? (maps/locations start points etc)
Do any groups meet local (a la TBC Pentlands Rides)
I've ridden most of the Welsh trail centres and was wondering whether they are do-able timewise from Swindon?

Many Thanks

Richie

As a Welshman living in Swindon I feel your pain 🙂

Check out the infamous woods behind nationwide for starters, it's not Afan but it's a great trail making the most of what they have there.

The ridgeway is alright too and cwm carn is only about an hour and a bit away.

MBSwindon have regualar rides (Fridays I think?) and RedPlanet cycles also do rides from the shop.

West Woods near Marlborough is sposed to be good if you're after something a bit more "gnarl". Heading down there on Saturday with MrNutt, you're welcome to come along.

krag has it pretty much sorted really.
"woods behind nationwide" – croft woods, definitely have a few laps of this loop, v short but v sweet.
cwmcarn again is nice n close although there is the bridge cost to remember.

One he hasn't mentioned which i feel could be worth it – up north there's a fair few on here who ride cranham/birdlip. 45 min drive up the dual carriageway and worth it I reckon. see if someone can guide you. When are you thinking of riding and I might be able to help.

Hi Richie,
I'm from mbswindon.
We have rides at the Croft Trail every Friday evening starting at 7:30pm, then we go to the pub.
Red Planet have a ride every Tuesday starting at their shop.

Our events are listed at: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/events/
If you want more riding it's worth asking on our facebook group or forum. People often have extra rides.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41279586404

Many Thanks

I'll check out the woods and will probably tag along on the Red Planet Ride and also check out MB Swindon

Cheers

Richie

krag (or any others down this way for that matter :-))

Based down near Marlborough now and keen to find out some new trails – been exploring but its mainly been on bridleways (which there is plenty of scope for exploring on, so it has kept me very happy :-)) Been through West Woods a couple of times, and can see then signs of trails but haven’t been able to pick up any of them proper – any pointers as to which bit of the forest to hit?

osk

Paging MrNutt, he’s your man for west woods.

OldSchoolKona – pop in to see Shaun in Bertie Maffoons, Marlborough – he’ll sort you out for West Woods. Collingbourne Woods aren’t a million miles away and IMHO better than West Woods – less steep drop off stuff built by kids with no fear, more flowing singletrack where I can keep my wheels firmly on the ground.

Cheers guys

Did Collingbourne as part of the Test Valley Hot Tour with Mrs OSK and loved the flowing singletrack through it (I know its nothing overly technical, but its one of those places where you just flow with the bike… anyway I digress 🙂

I’ve been into Bertie Maffoons and asked about trails and the guy there was pretty vague which sort of put me off going back (not cos they were a bad shop, but just because they didn’t seem that into mtbing). I guess I might have just got the “Saturday weekend job guy” and got the wrong impression. I’ll give them another go

When u wanna go, I’d say they will be pretty unridable at the moment as neither drain well, there’s a few tabletops n berms in aldbourne that could be ok though if you fancy that?

MrNutt – about this Sunday?

Probably, what u thinkin?

I’m thinking collingbourne woods, u up for it, some cracking flowing singletrack that shouldnt be too muddy?

If you’re up for it Collingborne would be good.let me know time and place and I’ll pop over – missus is away so free all day so let me know what suits

I’ll be over that way from about 11 onwards, drop me a mail and I’ll give you my mobile, pop over when your free 🙂