[Closed] swinley forest

The blue trail is now open and is worth a ride. The new red trails aren't open but lots of the older, lesser known trails haven't been closed off yet and are drying enough to be rideable.

The crowthorne woods side is all open too

Ah ok, they are keeping labyrinth/baby maker as it was then? How about the jump gulley, is that still usable, and how's the blue? Is it very tame?
Thanks

The blue is not tame. Many berms and small tables which will require some practice.

The jump gully is a bit of a mess after winter

Babymaker/labrinth is largely untouched

Chris - yes to those questions!

Literally just got back from a quick loop - the blue is very good, you can take it as easy or as fast as you like - BUT some degree of skill and fitness is needed. If its your first run round just take it easy and enjoy - second time hammer it 🙂 great for me from my front door, lap of the blue and home 6.5 miles 35 mins.

You could split off the blue and hit tank traps which is part of red but open. Please don't ride the closed trails ! They need finishing and drying out.

Blue is great for a couple of laps! Hit it before it gets too busy and you'll be laughing.

Blue run great- went today, big berms, fast and fun. .

I went to Swinley today for the 1st time since September and and rode the new Blue Trail. It wasn't that busy and I liked the Blue. The only bits that are recognisable were the Whole Nine Yards and Stickler. Overall I was fairly pleased. It's not a sterile as I thought it would be.

The only worrying thing is that the sign at the start, mentions the Blue is suitable for beginners. I would say that you need to be a confident and competent rider to tackle the Blue.

I disagree . If you mince round the blue you could do it slowly without using the berms and you would be fine. Try riding it scary fast and it becomes alot harder , with kissing trees a real danger .

Frm the few YT clips it looks like there are quite a few jumps around and two blokes really flying them. How big are they? Will they catch you out first time round?

Not if you don't ride flat out the first time round.

GB

I rode there last weekend and really enjoyed it.
It's a bit confusing in places due to new one way trails and not all being open.
Had a great ride though, it's well worth the visit.

The new blue trail seems pretty spot on for a blue trail. I rode a lap of it yesterday with my 7 year old son and he managed to ride all of it ( ups and downs) and really enjoyed the trail. He has previous ridden the new W9Y and Stickler, so had an idea what to expect. I went back later in the day and a did couple of fast loops and it has it's a few more challenges when taken at speed. The bermed corners are great.

The only worrying thing is that the sign at the start, mentions the Blue is suitable for [b]beginners.[/b] I would say that you need to be a confident and competent rider to tackle the Blue.

[b]Correction update:[/b] Having looked at a photo I took at the start, it states that the trail is "Intermediate" and not "Beginner", as I previously stated.

[img] [/img]

so does anyone have an idea how long till the red will be open and how long it will be (as in distance)

Look at the photo kimbers. Bottom right corner - red trail 13km 8 miles...

Depends on the weather but they're saying another couple of weeks at least

I am fairly new to mountainbikes and fast approaching middle age.
I wanted to try swinley and would be happy doing so at my own pace.

But I am worried I may be a nuisance to other riders who wish to go around as quick as they can,
Or even getting clattered from behind.

Is there plenty of room to pass or be passed in my case and clear unobstructed views all the way around or are there any parts I need to watch as I really don't want to get in anyone's way.

Don't worry about it, it's the overtaking riders job to keep clear. Just enjoy yourself and remember the trails are for everyone.

Chip - honestly mate don't worry about it. I had that kind of thinking for years which was holding me back. Ride at your own pace, enjoy it - there will be people faster and slower than you. Swinley blue is split into 17/18 ish sections - you can always ride a section and just wait at the end and let people pass. Usually there are lots of other people waiting too so you can have a good chat.

The great thing is that with these natural resting points - people chat! People say hello and swinley is friendlier than I ever remember having ridden it for 10 10 years plus.

There will be strava elite warriors looking for fast times but its up to them to pass safely and plenty of opportunity for doing so.

Grab your bike and get down there chip!

Chip, go and enjoy at your own pace. If you need to stop for a bit, clear the trail, other than that, you've as much right to go and enjoy yourself on those trails as anyone else.

But I am worried I may be a nuisance to other riders who wish to go around as quick as they can

you can also get there early on a weekend and there won't be so many riders around.

Thank you to everyone who has replied.
You have really helped and i will definitely be going soon.

Good stuff Chip 🙂 i am sure others will too but I am happy to do a casual loop and show you round anytime!

where does the new blue trail actually start?

Bottom end of the lookout carpark ....through the green gate and you will see the benches and some sinage. There is a sign as you walk past the lookout indicating mountain bike area.

The whole route is signposted by waypoints with arrows so you just follow them! There are two breaks of the trail into fire road - again just follow arrows!

Edit : if you know where the overflow carpark is - just head to the bottom of that! Really cannot miss it 🙂

Hi doncorleoni.
Thanks for the kind offer mate,
I may yet take you up on that.

ATB

Just to let you know the redtrail opens this saturday. Check out

for more info on the new DH and freeride areas as they get built.

Can you post for those of us who avoid face****ter please 🙂

Just out of interest, I understand they ask you not to ride other single track there now, how big is the exclusion? One thing I used to love about swinley is the ability to ride for several hours getting nicely lost and not riding the same trails. Looks like it is now limited to a 2 hour full tilt blast now 🙁

The exclusion is total within Swinley Forest, there is to be no riding apart from on the dedicated and signposted trails.

Crowthorne Woods however, (owned by FC) is still unrestricted.

The exclusion is total within Swinley Forest, there is to be no riding apart from on the dedicated and signposted trails.

The fire roads are still also available.

Good point! Although it should probably be noted that in a lot of places these are in a very bad state at the moment.

is there an online map of the blue/red - i would quite like to compare to the old trails map, save me driving 30mins to make up my mind..

There is a trail map on Swinley Trailbuilders Facebook page.

What do you need to know. Have ridden the. Blue, and scouted around the Red, without actually riding it before it opens (which is tomorrow)...

I am a MTB god,
I did two laps of the blue run today and only came off three times.
And narrowly avoided crashing a further two times one of which I would have died.

Seriously I really enjoyed today, I threw caution to the wind and went with reckless instead and found myself several times going a lot faster downhill than my limited skill could cope with.
I was also surprised by how well I bounced for a man of my age and corresponding spread.
And by how well my brake levers worked as mini ploughs.

Also by how family friendly the place was, it was really good to see lots of parents going around with kids knee high to a cigarette paper on their equally tiny bikes.

Really enjoyed it and once I reactivate my self preservation brain cell and can manage to hang on I may try the red trail.

Well done. Some of those downhill sections on the blue run are very deceptive at speed. You can already see some of the scars on the trail.

rode today, lots of fun- a few boggy bits and yes deceptively fast in places on the blue

a feature in mbuk and I could see it being very very popular this summer, its ideal for all the time pressed londoners to get a blast round some decent trails

rode out from Woking over the swinley yesterday - seems like the doom and gloom about the changes was not really valid, the bits of the blue and red i did were good and lots of existing runs used

couple of things, the built bits (that armoured orange aggregate surface) blue could do with more passing places/splits and also though it is not rough seems to have a weird bump profile, was the feature of the older existing armoured trails there... odd not rough or bumping.. but sort a lump - sure it is not noticable on a full sus..

reckon with the blue being accessble from the lookout it could get busy! On sunday there were lots inc a family with a couple of tots on balance bike in the first section.

Alo noticed quite a number of car sparked near the start to the blue out on the main road and a traffic warden ticketing..

So now they're charging for parking at the lookout, what times does it {the carpark} open? (I take it gates are locked after hours)

And is it just pay and display?

Not sure what time it opens but Carpark is open till 8.30 pm in the summer months.
Pay and display £2 for 2 hours £4 all day.
Well worth it.

Sorry to hijack. Is it worth a trip here on the weekend or does it get too busy?

Thinking of heading down tomorrow afternoon for a couple of laps of the blue.

Sorry I can not help I have only been on Mondays, although it was quite busy during the school holidays it was still fine. People give you a few minutes head start at the start and then if they catch you I let them go by.

I only got held up a couple of times by families with very small children. But I was not bothered,i just hung back and as soon as they found a safe place to pull over they did. All very friendly.

Sorry to hijack. Is it worth a trip here on the weekend or does it get too busy?
Thinking of heading down tomorrow afternoon for a couple of laps of the blue.

Personally I'd try and avoid it on weekends. Ages mates of mine were there last weekend and it was packed, no parking spaces and a constant stream of riders on the trails.
It probably doesn't help that there's groups of 15-20 heading out together which kinda slows things down for everyone!

If you can get there through the week it seems much better. Midweek this week the trails were almost deserted.

Yeah best avoided at the weekend... Head to Tunnel/Frith etc instead and ride Swinley during the week - although this week it was even really busy 4-6pm ish. I'm used to having the place to myself at this time!

I took my 29er SS out (other bikes will be fine) 😉 and did a couple of laps of the Blue on Thursday and was quite surprised by how many people were out riding although they were spread out so it wasn't busy.On the trail I found few holes forming in places that I wouldn't of expected and a couple of lines didn't quite seem right to me or others going by the tyre tracks,loved the big berms but a shame to see trailside litter starting to appear, maybe bins at the end of sections would help but some people just don't give a toss about there surroundings.
A word of warning as CG had reported a while ago when it first opened watch out for people walking up the trails, I came across a group of 5 and although they stepped to the side as I came around the corner they seemed oblivious to the fact that it was a cycle trail so despite the fact that it is clearly built for bike use maybe more signs reinforcing that fact would be good.
I liked the way the trail is split into numbered sections giving natural stopping / chat / faff breaks if required but a couple of marker posts on the longer joining up sections of fireroad would be useful as I was just starting to think I must of missed the next section of trail but carried on following tyre tracks till I got to it.
I did have a quick look at the Green trail and its perfect for the family with young kids and balance bikes etc but can see how the tameness of the first bit of Blue section draws them in (you are not committed to the whole trail from the start, you can get out at lots of points)
All in all it's not as bad as some had predicted, I just need to get back to check out the rest of it now.

Car park is £2 for 4 hours.

only ridden during the week so far , been twice ,but even then 1 big group on the blue made it hard to get past

but ive encountered a family with dogs and a couple of runners on the trails so far, a few polite reminders its a biking trail! I worry that it wont be long before theres an accident
also accessing the blue via the red route means beginners and us pros 😉 may be a squeeze

and the litter there already makes me sad

i think that we are used to trail centres in the middle of nowhere with the majority of visitors being bikers
but swinley is so close to major urban areas, including london that the new trails will attract too many riders and walkers ?

also theres a section of black on the map has that been built yet?

The black is what used to be Satan's Grotto I think, not sure what they're doing with it as it was never that technical in terms of gradient/features, it as a couple of muddy and rooty climbs/drops, can't see how that will translate to a manufactured trail.

Has the Red Trail opened/been finished yet or is that still work in progress?

Still to make the effort to get to swinley since the changes going to take a day of mid week to try it myself,

re walkers on the trails sadly its going to happen, both moores valley and QE have dedicated trails, every time I have ridden them I have come across people walking on the trails, usually with dogs and small children scattered about. Considering they have the rest of the forest to wander round I can't understand why they walk on a track for bikers which is potentially dangerous....

re walkers on the trails sadly its going to happen

especially as the signage is woefully inadequate. Pointed out loads of times on the facebook page before the trails were open.

The stupid thing is that the trails were supposedly put in to stop the pathetic law suits that people we taking out after falling off in the forest, even though any sensible person would not think the CE had any liability.

But now they have built trails that are pretty much designed to encourage speed, and then fail to put any decent signage up saying that the trails are bike only, or that they are one way.

That feels like the sort of incompetence where any future law suits will be a lot more justified.

Found it...

Car park opening times*

1 April - 30 September = 7am - 8.30pm
1 October - 31 March = 7am - 6pm

(I take it gates are locked after hours)

There are pop-up barriers which stop people getting in but will let you out...

So if you got in before 8.30 and stayed later would they be fine with that or would you get back to find a parking fine on your windscreen.

Not sure, I guess you'd need to read the exact wording on the parking signs.. but I think you'd be unlucky to get a ticket that late.. anyhow, we were there until almost 10pm one evening this week and nothing untoward happened.

Blacks now open, nothing to write home about, they've just made satans grotto a bit more wiggly and a bit more open, and armored the bottom of the dips where it was boggy.

Been twice now, very chuffed with it. I know its nothing ground breaking but living 15 mins away its nice to have something so close.
First time I went with my 10 yr old son, he had a great time rolling the blue run, I went today on my own and really enjoyed it.

Got there about 9am, whilst it was busy I had a clear run pretty much all the way.

As long as you've paid for enough time then no ticket if you stay "after hours" as far as I'm aware.

Did see a couple of cars ticketed today in the layby on main road adjacent to the overflow carpark. If it was me I'd be contesting tbh! It is double yellows but they weren't blocking the gate, off the road by at least 2 car widths - seemed a bit harsh!

Went over today and had little spin round the blue, really good and managed to get a few mprovements on y strata ties :-). Couldn't work out where the red started though?

Red splits off the blue at the end of stickler. Red through tank traps, blue returns to carpark...

Been today, it was busy, but not too bad. Slower riders very kindly pulled off the path without being asked to, thanks 🙂 Only negative was a few grannies walking up the blue route, stopped and told them they were on a bike only route, they said "yes, I believe we are" and carried on anyway. Ho hum.

The car park was rammed by lunchtime though so I reckon you need to be there by 09:30 to stand a good chance of finding a space.

I must say though out of all the doom and gloom about this loads of the trails were ones I've raced on at Gorricks over the last ten or fifteen years. They've made good choices and it all flows around nicely.

The Red route descent before the jumpy area and the red descent off the top of the jumpy bit were absolutely grin inducing, it was a lot of fun 🙂

I've seen the start of red on the way round the blue, not sure how far round though.

Been today, it was busy, but not too bad. Slower riders very kindly pulled off the path without being asked to, thanks Only negative was a few grannies walking up the blue route, stopped and told them they were on a bike only route, they said "yes, I believe we are" and carried on anyway. Ho hum.

They looked very frail, I think I wasn't far behind as I heard a conversation along those lines on the first section, I took a detour off trail to avoid them. Nearly claimed a small dog the other week when it ran straight at me up the trail on the fast bit by the res. Adds a challenge though.

I was there today aswell. Its relatively local and i've not been for a couple of years.

Blinding weather for starters! Really good fun new routes. Nice flow, good linked berms in places on the new stuff and plenty challenging if you're flying. Bone dry, well drained. I'm not moaning about any of it.

It was quiet too(2-6pm). Was everyone at the beach?

It was heaving today. Carpark pretty full at 0830.

Loving what has been done, dragged along a mate and managed to ride both my spicy and c456 around. Great laugh!

Apart from looking back to see who was behind me and riding straight into a tree. Fail....

It's great to see so many people out riding at Swinley that have obviously never been there before (as they keep asking me for directions). Can only be a positive thing for cycling and Salsa brand awareness 😉

First trip today. 20 degrees, dry trails and very few folk about. Bliss. I was very impressed with the work that has been done. I did 2 laps of the blue and one of the red (which was surprisingly tiring in the heat!). First lap on the blue was explore mode so didn't ride aggressively. This was only my second visit to a TC (Whinlatter was the other) and it took some time to get used to the surface. Second lap was much faster and more fluid and rode the brilliant berms much better.

I really enjoyed the new set up. The blue was surprising in terms of the variety, the jumps (no I didn't), the berms and the climbs. Overall I think that is a really fun blast and congrats to the trail builders. A really, really good job. To ride that flat out would take skills that are beyond me and I am sure the doubles will catch some out and the steeper little drops. But that was really good fun. I saw the aftermath of a couple of crashes, so needs respect as a trail.

I only got lost once on the blue and that was on the first fire road. Doubled back a couple of times looking for the marker as I didnt expect the forest road section to be as long. Second time round it was a nice breather!!

Not sure what to make of the red. Doesn't flow as well and not as well signposted IMO (that's my excuse for losing the way between on the long forest road section twice!) Lots of bits that are quite pedestrian versus the blue. But some great sections. Outside the obvious gems like deer maker and labyrinth, I thought the section between the reservoir and the start of deer maker was brilliant. Pity it wasn't twice as long. Obviously much less manufactured and apart form the new start (I think) to deer maker the best bits are little changed and certainly not ruined. I would probably miss the section including seagull if pushed for time, although the last twisty bit in the woods is always fun.

The late switchback section on the blue was quite tiring last time around IMO but another great section afterwards.

I will definitely start using Swinley a lot more. Good blast and surprisingly good workout (for me at least). Could do with a FS personally as my backside has been whacked around today on my old HT!

Brilliant job by those concerned. Thank you. I could become a TC convert.

dashed, i got ticketed there a couple of weeks ago.
look out car park was full, coral reef car park was full and that lay by looked fine to me.
i've contested it, but no joy. there was a load of cars done when i got mine, and i think it's gonna be a big money spinner for bracknell council.

Forgot to mention the litter 🙁 Picked up three SIS gel wrappers at start of red (by the bench) bit couldn't carry the cans, paper bags etc. WTF, why can't people manage a wrapper? Was the KOM too important to stop?

After all the hard work and future maintenance I am surprised that anyone begrudges £2-4 for a bloody good day out?

I rode Swinley on Sunday morning with some mates, first time in perhaps a year and was very impressed with the new trails. Hats off to those responsible.

We only did one lap on the blue and red due to time issues but I'm looking forward to going back. It'll be fantastic through the winter too - while it was always good fun and certainly character building to slog your way round the gloop on a cold and wet winters night, given the option it's armoured trails all the way for me!

Definitely worth getting there early, we started riding at 07:30 with just a handful of cars in the car park, trails were relatively empty. Got back to the car park just after 09:00 and it was full (including the overflow).

uselesshippy - Member
dashed, i got ticketed there a couple of weeks ago.
look out car park was full, coral reef car park was full and that lay by looked fine to me.
i've contested it, but no joy. there was a load of cars done when i got mine, and i think it's gonna be a big money spinner for bracknell council.

That is harsh indeed - there are certainly no "NO PARKING" signs in the layby. Appreciate the main road is double yellows, but the layby is so wide you'd be miles away from parking on those...

Two main issues I've seen at Swinley so far:
1) Parking!! The extra overflow car park (now the area where the trail starts) will not be opened in future and the current car park (even including coral reef) is too small.
2) Some of the (small) steeper rollers which are a bit blind are already getting the tops trashed as people panic break through them when they can't see the exit. Shame as some of them do (did!) make lovely little doubles 8)

Rode the new trails for the first time last night since they have been officially opened.

Stunning evening, bone dry dusty trails.

Thought the blue was excellent. However, by comparison some of the red (i.e. original bits) felt very dull and just didn't flow anywhere near as well. But some of the newer red bits were also fantastic.

Was extremely busy even for a weekday evening. Be interesting to see how the trails fair as they are going to get a lot of traffic and are already showing signs of wear on the edges.

Don't think I'll go near it on a weekend, as it will just be way too busy.

Given the mix on the blue trail, I guess that is going to happen a lot dashed (the shock braking). There was one short section where the braking bumps were starting to be noticeable. It will be a shame if the doubles are damaged though and I guess this will involve quite a lot of maintainence. FWIW, I was mainly rolling all the doubles but at speed that was quite difficult. I came close to quite a bit of involuntary air, but at least I didn't panic brake!!!!!

After the obvious doubles near the start, there was one bit with quite a steep (for a blue) drop before two great berms right then left. But I think that could catch quite a few people out if they took air by mistake and panicked.

It's quite frustrating, towards the end of the blue there is a 'double double' if you are on it, but the lips have already been trashed by the wobblers panic braking over them.

I was there this morning testing some bikes & they are a lot harder to hit now.