Croft Woods Trail, Swindon

tomstickland

This is a trail that's being built by volunteers in a wood on the Southern edge of Swindon.

Most of the existing route has been built by a chap called Steve and his wife. Phil and myself got involved a few months ago and are trying to finish it off and then improve the quality of the features. There are some fun wooden board walks, berms and jumps at the moment, but mainly concentrated near the start.

We have a lot of plans for the trail, but it's early days yet. Surfacing the existing route is the current priority. Once that's done we can improve the bits we're not happy with and get on with the interesting features.

We've been to all the major routes over the last 5-10 years: Cwm Carn, Afan, Brechfa, Nant Aryian, Clichmachx, Coedybrenin, Penmachno, Llandegla, Dalbeatie, Mabie, Kirrougtree, Ae, Innerleither, Glentress, plus Morzine etc.

We have realistic expectations - ideally it'll end up as a decent loop of around 6km length, surfaced so it's not a bog, and with enough features (planks, ramps, rocks, jumps etc) to keep the entertainment levels up.

If you were to ride it today then it'd take a certain amount of imagination to appreciate what it could be rather than what it is now.

The building aspect is a lot of fun. We're planning on going down most weekends between now and Christmas and will always appreciate help. It's quite free and easy - we bounce ideas around and pretty much build what we like. Within reason - the council inspect the results, but we can have rollable jumps etc.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=41279586404













http://www.flickr.com/photos/92961862@N ... 966352432/

There is a google map but it seems totally unreliable.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0& ... e2eb50d6b9

Anonymous

Hi Tom,

Looks good. We ran a story when we heard about this first here, but it's good to see pics on how it's developing too.

I might pop over some time for a ride. This looks a bit scary though :shock: :

forgotrafe

This trail has great potential but I know they are desperately short of help. I managed to get down there for a few hours last weekend (am actually in the second photo, but well hidden) and realised that one more person really can make a difference.

If you can spare time then I urge you get in touch with PhillM or Tomstrickland as they're doing a fantastic job and I think we'll end up with a great little trail on our doorstep. There's a bit of lottery funding for materials and Swindon council have "donated" the land but everything else is up to volunteers.

M.Cole - That's what I thought, but you only hit your head once, then you remember its there

WillonaYeti

Tom, great news that you are planning on extending the trail, it was starting to take shape nicely although last time we went down there it was pitch black night riding on narrow trails which we hadn't ridden before, there were a few close shaves!

One thing to point out, for any dirt jumpers and trick riders, there's a jump park at the bottom of the downhill section, nearest to the motorway.

Right, keep up the good work that Steve and Julie started and I might see you down there.

PhillM

WillonaYeti wrote:

Right, keep up the good work that Steve and Julie started and I might see you down there.

Riding or building? As Tom said, any offers of help are very much appreciated, no matter how little time you can donate.

Steve and Julie are still very much involved I shoud add. At the moment they are working hard on the yellow section at the south east of the map, and also on the signage. As things stand, we should still be on for opening the final section back to the carpark by the end of the month. I think we'll next be down there building on the 29th and 30th, if anyone can make it?

PhillM

The final 250m section from the south west corner of the sports field back to the carpark/trailhead is open as of this evening. Do please bear in mind that the whole section has been surfaced within the last month, so it may take a while for it to bed in fully. The berms (all 14 of them!) in particular may remain loose on the surface, so please try to avoid skidding! Any feedback that you may have after riding this section is more than welcome.

tomstickland

We've been working on the route most weekends recently.

Before surfacing:


In progress:


Another patented mini-berm:

PhillM

Most of the winding singletrack on the South side of the sports field has now been fully surfaced, with just the switchback on the South-Eastern corner remaining. This may take a while to settle in, as the ground (and most of the gravel!) was frozen on Sunday! Theres nothing like freezing cold weather to motive you into some hard work...

PhillM

Just to let you know, myself and Tom will be down there again this coming Sunday from 9AM onwards. If any one fancies popping down to lend a hand send me a PM.

Cheers

PhillM

We'll be down there again this coming Sunday too...

PhillM

Stodgy climb number one fixed:

tomstickland

More photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/92961862@N ... 32/?page=2

Test ride:




24th Dec:
Phil and myself did a test ride this afternoon.
We've identified a whole load of things that don't make sense on the route, but on the plus side there's several things that we're very happy with. We'd say "the route has potential" but needs more work to make it worth a visit.

For example:
-steeper berms near the start work, as does the sleeper bridge
-some pointless berms near the woodwork
-extra features needed on the two straights near the woodwork
-slippery woodwork needs a straight approach
-corners that need smoothing out, plus some extra bench cutting on the parts near the motorway
-muddy mess at several points, it all needs surfacing
-few areas where the route is going to be changed so that it makes more sense when riding
-first new rock garden is a bit too difficult at the start, but then is spot on
-second rock garden is difficult to get started on, but then is a decent skill test, few mods needed, though it's not even finished anyway
-roller coaster (North of pitch) we like
-section to East of pitch is going to have some corners simplified
-bermed bit approaching last section is good
-finished section (West of pitch) is pretty much right, one berm to be smoothed, few corners need to be wider, but good fun to ride, timed it at 1min 25s

sreem

The work you have done looks great.

I just wanted to check is the trail actually open / rideable currently? Im just trying to decide whether to make the trip to check it out.

tomstickland

It's all there.
However, I wouldn't advise travelling a long way at the moment, unless you just want to see what is there. Too much of it is a mud pit.

We hope that in the next few months we can get a lot more of it surfaced and sort out more details.



Our Facebook group is the first point of call for updates:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic ... 1279586404

PhillM

Trail building weekend organised for this coming weekend (31st/1st). Any help is very welcome, and many hands make light work afterall!

More details on our Facebook group...

tomstickland

We've finally finished one of the rock gardens.


There's still a lot of surfacing to do, we're really keen to get a big work party out in Feb/March. Check the facebook group for more info.

PhillM

Hi all

Trail building day planned for the weekend of 28th Feb/1st March. More details on our facebook page, or contact either myself ot tomstickland on here. All help is very much appreciated.

PhillM

We have another trail building weekend planned for the 28th and 29th of March. If anyone is interested in popping along and lending a hand then feel free to get in contact with me, or see our facebook group for more details.

We are making great progress with with surfacing, so hopefully things wont be as muddy this time next year!

PhillM

Work on the trail continues, with more surfaced trail and features appearing all the time. If you've not yet ridden the trail this year then it could be well worth a visit. You'll find a lot has changed since last year. We'll next be working on the trail on the 18th and 19th of April, so if you've got any spare time and want to get involed, pop down and find us. We'll be around on the trail somewhere. As ever, more info and photos are on our Facebook group - Croft MTB Trail

PhillM

Work is still continuing, with more trail and features planned for the park.

avijmc

hi, the trail looks great, good to see people making the most of generally flat england.
got a questions, but its not really relevant to this thread, thought you might be able to help tho
going on a family holiday to a place near stroud over the summer and wondered if you knew of anywhere in the area to ride, i know swindons quite a way, but its the closest thing ive found. any help would be great

forgotrafe

I'm sure there's lots of riding near Stroud, but it is hilly over there! Lots of people say some good riding near Birdlip, but not done it myself.

As for the Croft trail, you could combine it with a trip to the excellent STEAM museum and factory outlet centre.

HTH

tomstickland

There's loads of riding near Stroud. Look up Standish woods, Cranham, Painswick beacon, Cleeve Hill (Cheltenham). Loads of woods on the Cotswold scarp.

Meanwhile, back at the trail things are moving forwards. We've sorted more of the trail, having just about finished a major improvement to a section that is actually on a small hill.
There is still one major area that we want to completely redesign (too many sharp corners) plus another hill section that we can improve considerably.

We have build days at least once a month.

We've got a night ride tomorrow (Thursday 17th Sept) if anyone wants to come along.

joec1

Hi, I live locally. (Corsham) and am realtively new to MTBing.

have a few mates who i usually go with to Afan or over to the Fodca trail.

Would be interested in helping. do you go out much? are we able ot ride the route? or is it no riding until its finished?

forgotrafe

@Joec1 - the trail is available for riding now, the improvements get worked in around what's already there. And volunteers are always welcome, theres about 1 build day a month at least. If you join the facebook group you'll get notifications of build days. Or drop me or Tom a PM on here with an email address and we'll make sure you get to know!

joec1

PM On Way

joec1

Im sure Phil and his team wont mind me mentioning there is a night ride this friday (23rd) on the croft....

gonna be my first time around... let alone around in the dark lol..

forgotrafe

@joec1 no we won't mind. Should really do it ourselves! Thanks.

joec1

@forgotrafe

are you attending? i still havent met up with any of the others yet (have retruned posts a few times but thats it lol..)

and am just onto SPD's lol... so still pretty slow and unsteady... but fancy giving it a go... any tips?

forgotrafe

If you're only just onto SPDs, I'd flick back to flats if its your first time on the trail. But that's just my personal opinion. I've got both and can't decide which I like best!

Oddly, I've not ridden it many times because I'm always there in the Land Rover moving gravel but it's a fun trail made more interesting a night. The original layout was quite twisty but Phil & Tom have improved things enormously.

Not sure if I'm going to be able to make it or not.

tomstickland

We've got another night ride planned for Fri 23rd Oct 2009.
See you in the cark park for 7:30ish pm.

Also a trail building day on Sun 25th.

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=snowd ... 1279586404
for details.

The trail is starting to take shape now. We've been working hard on getting rid of the crap bits and getting it to flow and hold the interest.