Swinley Forest Novice

Chris`I

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of heading to Swinley Forest this weekend (weather permitting) with the missus. I'm a pretty seasoned rider, but just back on the bike after about 5yrs away. Shes relatively new to MTB and we've been doing the local loop in the woods around us a bit as an intro to XC riding, nothing major but its getting her used to MTB, theres a few hills and one root strewn downhill section, again nothing big or technical.

Where do you guys think the best places to go in the forrest are for XC? I have head that there are loads of trails and dont want to set down one to meet soemthing the "Baby maker" or I'll think I'm on my old jump bike, clear them and knacker my Rockhopper (the rims arent as bulletproof as my old D521s :oops: ) . More importantly the missus needs a nice intro too offroad so was wondering where the nice reasonably paced, fairly untechnical trails lived?

Any directions welcome, especially google maps or memory map traces. I have a Garmin 205 so can transfer them onto that to make sure we're not riding around aimlessly on the hunt for some good trails. I tried doing a search but didnt turn much up.



TIA
Chris

cjw

Send me your email by PM and I'll send you a few of the Gorrick race tracks I've downloaded both as .crs files and .gpx for memory map.

deadpool2e

cjw wrote:

Send me your email by PM and I'll send you a few of the Gorrick race tracks I've downloaded both as .crs files and .gpx for memory map.

Hi,

Was wondering it you wouldnt mind sending me those files as well, and if you have any saved way points for swinley as well. If you can please send to ..

(PMed you my e-mail)Many Thanks

Mark

eddie_in_da_air

Chris`I wrote:

Hey guys,

I'm thinking of heading to Swinley Forest this weekend (weather permitting) with the missus. I'm a pretty seasoned rider, but just back on the bike after about 5yrs away. Shes relatively new to MTB and we've been doing the local loop in the woods around us a bit as an intro to XC riding, nothing major but its getting her used to MTB, theres a few hills and one root strewn downhill section, again nothing big or technical.

Where do you guys think the best places to go in the forrest are for XC? I have head that there are loads of trails and dont want to set down one to meet soemthing the "Baby maker" or I'll think I'm on my old jump bike, clear them and knacker my Rockhopper (the rims arent as bulletproof as my old D521s :oops: ) . More importantly the missus needs a nice intro too offroad so was wondering where the nice reasonably paced, fairly untechnical trails lived?

Any directions welcome, especially google maps or memory map traces. I have a Garmin 205 so can transfer them onto that to make sure we're not riding around aimlessly on the hunt for some good trails. I tried doing a search but didnt turn much up.



TIA
Chris

swinley is fat, park up in he lookout car park, oposite the coral reef pool, it cost about £2 to get in, but do get a map. loads of fire roads, single track, downhill, drops, dirt jumps... all really well looked after and ever being developed. it's really cool up there, even then the rain is banging it down

Edd

Chris`I

Definately be giving it a look. Was at Longleat Centre Parcs a few weeks back and did their "MTB Trek" which to be fair was a good intro into proper riding for the missus. Wasnt anything technical, but got her off road and used to having to go up hills and a bit of faster downhill (unlike the very flat Basingstoke!). She enjoyed it a lot, now looking to get up to Swinley one weekend and then onto a few trail centres I hope, Afan being the easiest for us to get to for a weekend away.

eddie_in_da_air

Chris`I wrote:

Definately be giving it a look. Was at Longleat Centre Parcs a few weeks back and did their "MTB Trek" which to be fair was a good intro into proper riding for the missus. Wasnt anything technical, but got her off road and used to having to go up hills and a bit of faster downhill (unlike the very flat Basingstoke!). She enjoyed it a lot, now looking to get up to Swinley one weekend and then onto a few trail centres I hope, Afan being the easiest for us to get to for a weekend away.

if you want you coud tag along with us one weekend, during the summer... i know swinley "fairly" well now, certainly can show you a range of easy through to really tracky rides, from single track to table tops on mad DH runs

Chris`I

eddie_in_da_air wrote:

Chris`I wrote:

Definately be giving it a look. Was at Longleat Centre Parcs a few weeks back and did their "MTB Trek" which to be fair was a good intro into proper riding for the missus. Wasnt anything technical, but got her off road and used to having to go up hills and a bit of faster downhill (unlike the very flat Basingstoke!). She enjoyed it a lot, now looking to get up to Swinley one weekend and then onto a few trail centres I hope, Afan being the easiest for us to get to for a weekend away.

if you want you coud tag along with us one weekend, during the summer... i know swinley "fairly" well now, certainly can show you a range of easy through to really tracky rides, from single track to table tops on mad DH runs

Thanks for the offer Edd, I'll give you a shout when I'm thinking of heading down! Busy the next few weekends with a stag do and wedding (not mine) but in about 3 weeks I'll finally have some spare time

eddie_in_da_air

yeah no worries, I'm servicing and rebuilding my trail bike at the moment anyway, putting some new comps on it and stuff

Edd