Swinley

miss notax

Hello

I am riding at Swinley this weekend for the first time ever - what are the conditions like at the moment? Basically I have a Trailraker mud tyre fitted to the front (from a race last weekend) and i'm trying to work out whether I can be bothered to change it, or actually whether I might be better off leaving it on!

Cheers!

gregwari

Not been for a fortnight but it tends to hold up well on the man-made trails (which is a lot of the new trails), off piste is (or was) boggy so a mud tyre up front would be advisable. I run panaracer cinders front and back at this time of the year (conti mountain kings in drier weather), they're spot on for most of the trails in Swinley in the wet.
We're meeting at 8.30am on Saturday (2 of us), if you want to tag along or just want a pointer on where to start etc, just shout.

Cheers

EDIT - ..... and to answer your question (sorry!) - most of the new trails are compacted sandstone but they drain fairly well, the soil around the DH area / labyrinth is sandy and that also tends to drain well. Some of the singletrack off-piste / through the tree's can get boggy as there's no specific surface or stone put down.

miss notax

Perfect - I have a Cinder on the back actually so i'll leave it exactly as it is then!

Thanks for the offer of a pointer - I'm actually biking on Saturday with some ladies from my local MTB club (meeting at 10am ) and I think one of them knows the area well so fingers crossed we are sorted. Quite looking forward to it, it's going to be a chilly one I think :shock:

gregwari

Freezing by the sounds of it, but the cafe sells coffee and hot chocolate - have a good ride!

miss notax

gregwari wrote:

but the cafe sells coffee and hot chocolate

Thank god for that!!! Have a good one 8)

Thewaylander

Ladies? as in plural? ooo lol shame im in Afan haha

cooldad

I was going on Sunday but might have to do a bit of Gazlar type stalking on Saturday instead.

Unfortunately quite a few trails taped off while the place gets rebuilt - so behave yourselves and stay off them.

viewtopic.php?f=20007&t=12890859

SBI (Swinley bog index) was about 8 last weekend, but if it stays dry could be down to 5 or 6, which is as good as you can expect in winter. Most of the stuff is fine with pretty much any tyre, and the wet bits are mainly puddles - some quite big ones, rather than miles of swamp.

gregwari

cooldad wrote:

Unfortunately quite a few trails taped off while the place gets rebuilt - so behave yourselves and stay off them.

Thanks mate, out of interest which bits are taped off? Our normal route is out through the play area to the top of the main fire road, through twisty tree's, onto new england switchbacks (??) and out by the concrete ring above the jump gully. We normally mess about on the hill opposite before making our way over to the downhill area (usually do a couple of trails through the tree's on the left before we get there), and do the downhill runs and Labyrinth. From there, we pick up singletrack and make our way to the bottom of the hill by the reservoir, follow the fireroad to tank traps and head over to stickler. Once we've done that, we pick up Seagull and then corkscrew before making our way back to the carpark.
Is there much disruption on these trails?? I'm guessing the answers yes....

PS - invites open to anyone who fancies joining us on Saturday at 8:30

benpinnick

Stickler and some of Watsons wander are closed right now for sure, not sure if anything else is. I think you'll be ok with the route you normally do.

ThePriory1978

Most other Radar forum-ites are riding Sunday but i'm being unsociable and riding with others on Sat morn at 9:30am so will probably see you around. Remember to bring change, they now charge you to park at the Lookout incase you were unaware.

gregwari

ThePriory1978 wrote:

Most other Radar forum-ites are riding Sunday but i'm being unsociable and riding with others on Sat morn at 9:30am so will probably see you around. Remember to bring change, they now charge you to park at the Lookout incase you were unaware.

Thanks, maybe see you about.... I'm the guy riding a black meta 55 who looks like he's recently fallen into a puddle

miss notax

Actually, this has reminded me... Don't you need some kind of permit thing to ride at Swinley? I assume that I can pay for this when I get there tomorrow?

benpinnick

Yes you can, and I think it comes refunded against parking too.

miss notax

Really good ride - first time at Swinley and would definitely go back. Ended up buying a permit and a car park ticket by accident - doh!

benpinnick

That's good. And you're helping keep my council tax down with the double purchase too.