Review for Swinley Forest Mountain Bike Centre

MarkSmith:

Swinley has now officially become a trail centre. Years of being maintained by hard-working pixies and maintaining a growing popularity eventually took its toll and the Crown Estate had to step in. They've ploughed a lot of money into weather proofing some of the existing trails and building new ones - and the result is fantastic. A blue and red loop that stack on top of each other, with a green loop just to get families started. This has become the perfect place to take your friends and family who aren't sure about how much they love MTBing, and letting them realise they do! The blue has a few sections to challenge newer riders, but is mostly aimed at putting a huge grin on riders of all abilities. The red has a lot of the old favourites in and more technical challenges for better riders taking sections at speed. A remarkable amount has been done with the gradient available and the rumour has it there's more to come, with TrailTeamSwinley taking the reigns on development. For the old-timers there's still trails available in Crowthorne Woods with a more natural feel, but as with the old Swinley: you'll need to know where to look. I don't know if it's worth the long travel times that some of the Welsh trail centres justify, but if you're in the area it's well worth a small detour.

New trails are very weatherproof - the sandy surface will munch your drive-train, but it won't hinder your progress Some signage should ensure you won't get lost any more Brilliant flowing singletrack - the blue will make you look good!