Croft Mountain Bike Trail

Charlie_mtb:

it’s a good beginner track with some dirt jumps hidden away which are good during the summer covered in leaves the last time I went in autumn. overall good trail!

fun wooden course near the end of the trail very fun and cool!

stumpy_dan:

I recently rode the Croft Trail on the way back from an Afan Trip. It was just off the M4 Swindon way. There is a car park but no other facilities. The trail is really short single track and it is quite flat as you would expect in Swindon. The trail team here have packed a lot in for a very short trail. There are kickers, little drops, rocky sections and a small North Shore section. There is a blue and a red option (within the same trail).I would use this trail if I lived local and only had an hour to kill but otherwise I'd travel further afield. I wouldn't though make a trip or specific journey to ride as it lacks height and length. 

- lots of features in a small area

Kurt Jellyfinger:

Just had my first ride around. I have been off MTB's for 20+ years, so I took the Blue route and then went round again on the Red. The first thing to say is that I am really impressed at the amount of work the volunteers must have put in. The surface is loose enough for it to be technical, but firm enough to be a good all weather track. It's a bit tight in places and the hairpins (some with berms) really run close to the trees, you need to be awake if you are going to avoid them, some of the faster sections lead straight into a really tight section. The Red routes contained a few bit's I'm not confident enough to tackle at speed yet, but thats just motivation to improve, If I (a novice) could do it all first time out, there would be nothing to aim for. Thanks to everyone that took the time to build and maintain this. The only negative I can thing of (which is beyond the control of anyone responsible for the track) is that the carpark seems to be a waiting area for some fairly dodgy looking characters. Careful what you leave on show in your car if you drive there.

Free to use Compacted surface will make it a good winter training track free parking

Iain:

Great little trail if your in the area has little bits of everything packed into a compact space No massive elevation changes, or anything overly complicated but there is more interesting little features to keep you on your toes packed into this 4 miles than most trails have in two or three times the distance Excellent work by a small and dedicated team of volunteersI really enjoyed the couple of laps I did when I stopped off on my way from Bristol to London I wouldn't really go out of my way too much to ride it as it is very short but if you find yourself in the area with a bike it's a must do

Short and fast Can do multiple laps Great little features Good use of space and elevation Right next to M4 Free to park and ride

Ben:

Great trail for skills progression. The short lap means you can session a huge range of man made TTFs. It's well maintained by the MB Swindon club and drains well year round. Centralish for the south.

Paul Kidd:

Impressive use of space available with quality of trail taking president over length. Very little elevation to play with but what is available has been used well. Wide variety of single track conditions and features to contend with. Has a shorter blue route and a red route of around 2.4 miles. All obstructions/technical sections can be ridden around if you don't feel like tackling them. I regularly take my 9 year old around there and he can do all of the red route. He also enjoys playing on the jumps off the main trail. There are bridges, berms, north shore type woodwork, small drops, log steps, rock steps both up and down, a small drop off some small jumps and rock spines both up and downhill. The trail has a great mix of open wide fast open sections and tight twisty and technical in dense trees. The trail is continuously maintained by MB Swindon and it is ever evolving with plans for larger woodwork section and other skills challenges on the way. Over time the club have made the trail ride able year round in any weather. There are normally club members around and they are friendly and helpful, there are regular club rides there with a social ride on a friday night. The trail is also close to other small copses with options to get to the Ridgeway if more distance is required. Personally i find that one lap is never enough i always want more as i will always make a mistake somewhere, and i also find the faster you tackle the course the more rewarding it is to ride as the difficulty increases with the speed.