London Calling

cooldad

Ride at Minley next Wednesday. Can't be bothered to type so

viewtopic.php?f=20007&t=12886276

cooldad

cooldad wrote:

Ride at Minley next Wednesday. Can't be bothered to type so

viewtopic.php?f=20007&t=12886276

Fleet Pond, 1.30 Wednesday

LarJones

Hi all,

I've not posted on here for a (long) while, but was thinking of heading to Surrey hills on Saturday if anyone fancies it?

Cheers,
Lawrence

ThePriory1978

Swinley Forest access. Whats the postcode, parking etiquette and cycling directions when parking up Bagshot side of Swinley for access directly to Clubhouse?
For cheaky avoidance of parking fees and to be as far away from Crowthorne side boggy-ness as possible.
Many thanks yo.

cooldad

College Ride in Bagshot - you can just park at the top of the road and ride straight in (next to the back entrance of Pennyhill Hotel), or just before that on the left is the tennis club - normally parking there but I suppose they'll get pissed off if it's suddenly full of scummy MTBikers.
From the top head straight in directly opposite the hotel gate, keep right along the fence to the bottom, follow the trail until it hits the fireroad (like a T junction) turn left and you'll get to the big stony slope that leads up to Clubhouse. More or less. I can ride it but not sure I'm explaining it well - thel33ter would be more use.

benpinnick

Wednesday Minley ride, 1:30 in the Fleet pond car park. Access the car park here: http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=48 ... &A=Y&Z=115

ThePriory1978

cooldad wrote:

College Ride in Bagshot - you can just park at the top of the road and ride straight in (next to the back entrance of Pennyhill Hotel), or just before that on the left is the tennis club - normally parking there but I suppose they'll get pissed off if it's suddenly full of scummy MTBikers.
From the top head straight in directly opposite the hotel gate, keep right along the fence to the bottom, follow the trail until it hits the fireroad (like a T junction) turn left and you'll get to the big stony slope that leads up to Clubhouse. More or less. I can ride it but not sure I'm explaining it well - thel33ter would be more use.

That'll do nicely. Thanks for the info.

arigold

Anyone riding this weekend?

cooldad

Might try and get out for a few hours tomorrow, late morning. But from the Bagshot end - have to drop thel33ter off at work at 11 I think.

benpinnick

Anyone else around Swinley this avo? Not sure when Ill get out. CD - drpo me a text when you hit the forest.

Anonymous

Apathetic lazy day and never got out. Shocked at a missed opportunity. Ah well. Tomorrow then. Just a slight weather issue. Looking like the rain may clear by lunchtime.

Curious Yellow

Anyone fancy a cheeky ride on Monday afternoon? I have a half day at work and would like to get some riding in. Maybe a bit touch and go though and will have to be around Swinley.

I know a little loop if you're a first timer.

cooldad

Back at work on Monday, unfortunately.

Anonymous

For those who haven't seen it -

http://thecrownestate.co.uk/news-media/ ... or-estate/

In short, Swinley becomes a trail centre with three trails, green, blue and red, making 24km of trail. All trails start from the Lookout.

From those in the know, apparently there will also be a freeride area (around the Gulley) and DH (clubhouse). Of the trails, the green is a family trail near the Lookout. Blue and red link together with the red being an extension of the blue. All single direction and signposted.

Existing trails that are not part of the new stuff... they will be removed once the new stuff is complete, apparently.

What existing trails will be reused, I don't know.

Chunkers1980

DK - glad you just stay in here now. Cos that's actually very interesting. Can't wait to give them a go in March.

andymc06

Very interesting. If use of the forest is restricted to the new routes only, I hope they are worth it! I look forward to trying them out.

Curious Yellow

Anyone about this afternoon?

cooldad

I've got a bug but Tim was looking to get out today or tomorrow - have a look in the Facebook thread.

Anonymous

Might pop over Surrey Hills after lunch. Suspect there's Remembrance Sunday stuff going on in Peaslake in the morning.

Or if there's anything interesting going on Swinley, Tunnel Hill, Caesars etc. Tempted by a trundle round one of them anyway.

cooldad

I'm still feeling sh1t so just cheered myself up with large pile of bacon, eggs and pancakes. Also have three bike GP's recorded/ing so will be happily miserable at home.

Curious Yellow

Race on today so couldn't do the usual loop. Pootled around and did Stickler a few times. Almost forgotten how good it feels to be on the mountain bike after over 6 weeks of solely road riding.

Seems to get dark around 4.30pm though. Roll on 21st December please!

milko9000

Saturday plans anyone? I'm overdue a ride out in these parts. If anyone (Tim :-)) has a C456 they can bring along and swap with me for a couple of sections that would be even better as I'm looking to test!

Anonymous

Yeah I could bring it out. I might have to clean it first, or at least oil it. Covered in mud and I think the chain has rusted

No dropper post and the forks aren't maybe the best to demo it but they do me for now. Keep thinking of upgrading them.

Also if Clay is about he might have his, though he keeps trying to destroy it.

milko9000

Clay's not about on Saturday sadly, have already asked. Apparently he's put a couple more (smaller) cracks in his since the bigger one. On One not giving him any love on that at all, which is another slight worry I suppose.

benpinnick

In the words of Professor Hubert Farnsworth: "Good news, everyone!". John from Crown Estate (who own Swinley) called me earlier and asked if I would mind tacking some extra time onto the front of a bike maintenance session I'd been planning on Farkbook to discuss the upcoming developments at Swinley. Of course, being the accommodating type I am I agreed, and so we've set the date.

In case you weren't aware, they are about to start (as in Monday) the whole redevelopment of Swinley into a 'proper' trail center, although sadly, they aren't going to import any actual mountains (http://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/news-me ... or-estate/). This as you can imagine is controversial, so I've co-ordinated with the Crown estate to attach a session on the plans to the maintenance session. What maintenance session I hear you say? A free one I am running to teach the basics and not so basics of mtb maintenance. It will cover most things, but its split into 2 halves (on different nights), session 1, which is what were talking about here is for bike general set up, drivetrain and brakes. Session 2 will cover steering, suspension and other smaller topics.

I had planned a small fee to cover the cost of hall hire for the sessions, but crown estate have kindly offered to foot the bill. This means you can find out both what the trail plans for swinley are and what the hell is a b-tension adjustment screw and why you might possibly care in 1 free evening session (cups of tea may be extra). If you want to do the second session at a later date, there will be a small charge I am afraid, but only a few quid I hope.

The most popular date so far for the maintenance session 1 has been the 3rd of December, which is also conveniently the earliest practical date to arrange the Crown estate part too, so you wont have to wait to long to find out what the plans are, and have your chance to pose your questions. In order to accomodate this additional prologue to my planned evening, I am going to shorten the first maintenance session to 2 > 2 1/2 hours. John was very polite and only asked for 10 minutes, but I figure its an hour session really, even if its only to discuss views between those there.

The meeting will be therefore at 7pm - 8pm on the 3rd of Dec (Monday). Ive not had a chance to select a venue yet, but it will definitely be crowthorne or bracknell (i.e. Swinley) area, and I will endeavour to keep it practically close to a train station for access. After that concludes, we'll crack on with the 1st maintenance session, which you're welcome to also join. Please register your interest in one or both sessions here: http://doodle.com/7kib8kmwurytp9md. As mentioned earlier, CE have been kind enough to offer to pay for the room we hire, so that will cut the cost of the maintenance course in half, making day 1 entirely free. Like I said earlier... Good news everyone!

For those who have heard about this through crackbook or just word of mouth, and signed up to the maintenance session on another date, I'll see if theres enough interest for another session 1 ahead of session 2.

Thanks for reading, dont forget to register your interest on doodle - its important I get rough numbers so that I don't book a hall for 20 when 100 want to come (or the opposite so we all look like losers :roll: )

pe60t0

Anyone want to do some Saturday riding ? @milko9000 are you still up for it ?

milko9000

Yeah - think there's at least some of us going to be up Peaslake way in Walking Bottom car park. No time yet mentioned but I was thinking a relatively early 1030 start at least since it goes dark so early at the moment.

cooldad

Thel33ter is working so I am playing taxi. He's on Saturday afternoon and Sunday day, so with it getting dark early, I might try for Swinley on Sunday from about 10. But will be from the Bagshot side.

benpinnick

Im in Swinley from nine on Sunday with some people from SAG... Drop me a text to let me know when you get there and well meet up.

cooldad

Will do.