I’m in that video you took forge197, at the start I’m standing at the top of the other trail waiting for the others to go down.

Saw you lot eating cake, didn’t see any of you on the trail though!!

Cold wasn’t it?

Big thank you to CG for getting this off the ground! I had a great time and thanks to all the locals that guided and swept. The good news is my toes have thawed out…..

Cheers CG for organising it, was a good ride. Definitely impressed by the trails at Swinley and the friendliness of all I met.

Oh, my apologies to anyone I rode with that had to put up with the banshee wail of my brakes. Honestly, I don’t know what happened! I cleaned the bike thoroughly last night, wiped the discs clean, lightly rubbed down the pads etc. Anyway, I’m sorry, it won’t happen again!

Oh, and to all those I met, but didn’t catch your names, sorry! I was on the silver steel hardtail with Maverick forks and white grips/saddle/pedals. See you again soon!

Another vote of thanks to CG for setting up the ride, it was a good turnout and hopefully we managed to hook together some good trails for you all to enjoy. The trails were great for us again today, its still riding better than it does in the summer, my fingers certainly noticed the cold though!

Ian

Yep, great ride today – thanks to Forge197 for leading us out today, and thanks to CG for organising it all. Shame my frame gave out eh?! Worst thing is, I missed the cake! Be good to get out with you all again on another ride soon.

Cheers
Nick

Yep, great day out, thanks to CG for organising, and also thanks to Forge197 and Atlaz for guiding our group. It was my first time at Swinley, some great trails, but I think I’ll need guiding at least one more time before I can find my way around!

Cheers, Neville (on the white Pace RC405).

PS – Auric Goldfinger, hope you get the broken frame sorted.

Well … what can I say? Thank you all for coming to Swinley and making it such a great day. Apparently there was 45 of us braving the sub-zero temperatures accompanied by some little sleet flurries.

A special thank you to Ian, the two Paul’s, Max, Rich and Kate for helping out with guiding and sweeping – the day just could not have happened without you.

Apologies for losing part of my group 😳 Can’t believe that so many sick, lazy, lame and Marin riders wanted to ride with me 😉

Bad luck to the guy who had a Ti frame snap out on the trails. Do hope it gets sorted out.

Don’t think we hacked off any other riders – there wasn’t many folk out there, funny that. Nothing wrong with big groups on a day like today!

nickc – you couldn’t have seen me as I wasn’t eating cake! You should have come and said hello, stepping over the tramp obviously!

Hope everyone has now warmed up and look forward to seeing you all again!

My 70 odd photos are uploaded and a-ready for viewing.
The riding pics mostly feature the smallish group I was in but I took a few shots of folk and their bikes around the cafe.
Haven’t sussed out how to get a faster shutter speed quite yet! Can’t be arsed to lug around an SLR though.
ENJOY

Great ride 2day, WELL DONE Elaine!!!Hagh Haaaaaaaaaaagggggghhhhhhhhhh! Great to meet new like minded people and not forgetting Paul who led our Intermediate group, Thanks, I look for ward to the Mulebar Stop photos and others.

Also the details of todays Swinley Ride

The Mule bar stop pics are there.
You are actually “pants” that “Pants Down” is named after??

“I was on the silver steel hardtail with Maverick forks “

Oh, what, that bike that cost you about £15 brand new? We’re not talking to you… git. 👿

Didn’t Aleigh give you a lift home? And you’re still alive????!! Still in shock? Need therapy? Poor lad…

(Reminder to self: Never get into a situation where you are miles from anywhere, and dependent on Aleigh to give you a lift…)

Blimey, Fu Manchu is a bit quick. Me and Ollie were knackered! Me batteries just ran out, about half an hour from the end. Worth it, though.

‘gis 10p for a cuppa, Guv’

LOL!

Nasty…

Yepp thats me, I stacked it well on wet and slippy day LoL

I think I was writing a post as they got published, some great shot there, well done.

So have you ridden pants down! LoL

Pants is a legend! Was good to see you again Cap’n! Nice text I got from your fellow Pirate enjoying a pint and a log fire 😉

After having ridden to Swinley, ridden around it and ridden back, you both thoroughly deserved it… hagh haaaaaaggggghhhhhh 8)

Dez – good pics and thanks for listening, the back of my head is OK to be photographed but my mid-life crisis bike rather enjoys the paparazzi … but you ignored her 😥

But that tramp – you do get ’em in Bracknell 😉

Another thanks to CG for organising the ride and richtea for leading my group (for a while anyway).

Really enjoyed it and nice to put a few names to faces

I forgot who was asking about my wheels (on the mojo) but they are Roval Traversee wheels, 1596g a pair and come with 20mm, 25mm and QR adapters and have fairly wide, tubeless compatible rims. Brake rotors were from fizz bikes (in France) and the 180mm weighs 116g and the 160mm weighs 93g.

smurf (on the mojo)

thanks CG for a great day out, really enjoyed it. In hindsight, it wasn’t such a great idea to wear shorts, I couldn’t warm up when I stopped!

looks like a good day out .

Great ride even though we lost the leader! I wussed out at lunch before my lungs came out of my chest. Enjoyed seeing the faces that go with the names and some new to me trails. Pics will be uploaded as and when I wake up. 🙂

auricgoldfinger – I decided not to upload the bit where you were colourful about the frame, hope you get that sorted on Monday.

DezB great set of pic’s.

Can I just say a big thank you to Cinnamon Girl for organising todays Swinley Forest STW “massiiiiive” ride out.

It certainly lived up to the event it was billed as.

Can I also thank Ian ( think he posts as fu_manchu) the ride leader of our much depleated “Fast boys” group. He was a top rider and a top guide and showed us some of Swinley’s finest pieces of single track.

It was great to meet lots of you and put a name to a face at last. Some of you arn’t as bad as you are made out to be? Rudeboy for instance. In my book he is a legend. He is just a bit missunderstood thats all!
CG you are a real sweetie (I notice that you and me are in a photo together standing out side the cafe).

It did exactly what it said on the tin: Great trails, great riders and it gave the chance for Marin riders to intergrate with the rest of the mountain biking community!!!

Roll on the next one I say?

Matt

CG ,I had a great morning riding in your group, toes now fully defrosted,just got to wait for the creaking to stop in my lungs.
It was nice to meet up with so many STW people. WCA, my compliments on your sloe gin,it was most excellent. Will there be more samples @ the BBB ?
The only trail name I picked up on the way round was the Labyrinth (maybe cos I ended up with the guys who missed the turning at some point and did it twice!) Could you name some of the others we did ?

Looking forward to doing it again sometime.
Thank you

M

PS Pleased to see the young lad made a good recover from his fall and kept on riding,well done fella.

Yep – I recall there were one of two expletives in there! I’m sure things will get sorted with it.

Nick

cheers bikey, mind you next time I wouldn’t mind it if you actually looked like you were having to work 😉

Did you manage to get a spoke sorted for your wheel?

Unless I missed them!! I do believe it would have been great for a SINGLETRACK REP to have been there 2day, for the report and an article in the next issue, which is what it deserves, just to show the following and support they get, ie, how many people today?, 50 riders at least, great stuff. Never seen so many posts on 1 Thread!! must be a record.

once again Well done CG, Hagh Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhh!

Lets hope there is a photo of the day in an issue soon !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

in fact I think the word “f***” featured a fair bit. Sorry about that…

Rudeboy, sorry, but I got lucky with a couple of bargains! That said, bikes yours for a tidy profit! 😉

Regarding Aleigh, I thank her very much for the lift. I was going to totally take the piss etc. as you wanted Rudeboy, but seeing as the girl isn’t here to defend herself for a week (off on her holidays tonight), I don’t think it’s all that fair. That said, you can tell the class of a girl when she’s impressed by me telling her my record journey time from Tewkesbury to Heathrow Terminal 4. I’ve been passenger in a car with slower drivers shall we say! Haha. All good though, we got back safely (and quickly) in one piece.

Besides mate, there was a backup plan, I’ve got an ex GF in Guildford that I’d have called in to the rescue if everything fell through or she tried something funny! 😆

I am gutted I missed out.
I set off nice and early in the freezing fog and was driving along marveling at how pretty the trees were covered in frost when my car overheated!
I think something somewhere had frozen and the water wasnt getting round the system properly.
After waiting for things to cool down a bit and checking all the pipes and joins for signs of leakage everything was ok but I would have been too late.
I will try and make the next one because it looks like you all had a good time

Thanks for organising it all Cinnamon Girl! and thanks also to Forge197, great to be taken round such good trails!

Anyone else there on a 29er?? I didn’t spot any. Might have to get some bouncy forks for mine soon… my hands hurt too much now!

Mike

C_G, thanks for a wonderful day. It was my maiden ride there but I shall be back for more.
Wearing shorts was rather an interesting experience, bit cold standing, fine riding. It wasn’t till I got off the train that I realised it was stupidly chilly.
I must also add WCA should be in Top Gear, I really love a Merc coupe as a bike carrier. And your gin was really good too. Would you post your recepie please? You’d be fabulous alongside May 🙂
Overall, it was fantastic, well worth the effort and I want more. Swinley pt. 2, when?

Hi auntie C_G, thanks for organising a great day out. What a great turnout.

Big thanks also to Forge for guiding and Atlaz for sweeping.

Looking forward to my next Swinley trip already. 😀

mboy; Aleigh is lovely. A good friend, as are several of the Soft Southern Shandy Drinkers crew. She knows I love her really!

I can honestly say, I can’t remember ever going on a colder ride before. It seldom gets that cold down South, and if it does, I don’t tend to venture out too far!

Got nice and warm once moving, though, especially with Fu Manchu leading in the afternoon!

Once again to those who wimped out, or made excuses about not wanting to ride in a big group blah blah;

It’s all about the fun, happy aspect of mountain biking. CG never advertised it as anything else. It wasn’t a ‘fast XC ride’, or a ‘gnarly + rad (Dude) session’, or anything ‘hardcore’. It was just meant to be fun.

And it was a roaring success. Just look at the responses of people on here, who actually went. EVERYONE had a great time, even the bloke who sadly broke his bike.

See? See what you missed out on? Fair enough, if you had a fast ride planned on your own, or your regular crowd, or whatever. But to those who doubted, well, you couldn’t be proven more wrong, I’m glad to say. And if you can’t see the appeal of just getting out on your bike, to ride some great trails, with great company, in a totally chilled out and relaxed atmosphere, then you are missing out in life!

Until the next one!

(Raises glass can to Cinnamon girl…)

‘ere don’t forget the Cotswold Massiv! Three of us there today.

Costswold Massive?

Splitters!

PLease, please, don’t let that be nasty pron…

(Crosses fingers, legs, arms, toes, everything…)

I didn’t made it but I had a proper excuse. Got suck 11 hours in a 106 trying to void my driving licence trough France, by the look of it I may even have succeded.

Blimey. You alright, Juan? P1ss poor excuse, mind..

RudeBoy, it’s alright, I was taking the piss, I got to hear all about you and (some of?) your misdemeanours on the way home 😉

My sentiments entirely as you say about the ride. Good fun had by all I think, nothing taken too seriously, and some very nice trails ridden! Was glad when you fast boys buggered off though, as was said to me when you lot disappeared, “it’s alright, you can slow down now, you manly pride is preserved”. Haha, think the lady that said it (Kate?) knows me only too well!

Bloody singlespeeder, put some gears on your bike you cheapskate!

Heh! Living in London is so bloody expensive, I can’t afford gears… 😥

I didn’t expect the Cotswold Massive…

NOBODY EXPECTS THE COTSWOLD MASSIVE!

Our chief weapon is surprise…surprise and fear…fear and surprise…. Our two weapons are fear and surprise…and ruthless efficiency…. Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency…and an almost fanatical devotion to the Cotswolds…. Our *four*…no… *Amongst* our weapons…. Amongst our weaponry…are such elements as fear, surprise…. I’ll come in again.

The dreaded Cotswold Massive attempt to kidnap the lovely Cinnamon Girl, but their evil plans are scuppered, when Nettles develops another hernia…

Pete – who were the others in the Cotswold Massiv then? I’ve given up asking IHateNettles to come on rides – I don’t think he likes me! Is it cos I talk too much?

Strangelove – what bad luck. I’m sure there will be another one.

Megatron – did you not see the legendary WCA on a 29er?, no 69er? no 79er? Full suss. WCA – what was it called?

Hairychested – it’s colder in the countryside!!

pants – I may well have a word with my mate Chipps!