Review for Swinley Forest Mountain Bike Centre

Chris Hodge:

Swinley forest has always been a great place to ride but getting lost every time I went was off putting as I could never find the good bits, that is now pretty much resolved, the signage is largely excellent, a few places it leaves you guessing. The trails are fast when wet or dry with good drainage, but when wet, some of the trails are scarily skittish, the hardcore in the surface makes some of the trails feel like your on ice or marbles, so take care, specially as where it happens most are off camber bends. I am fortunate that I can commute home from work via most of the red and the latter part of the blue and it is seriously fast in places, if your a chicken you can negotiate the jumps without losing face and if you like big air you can grab that too. It works really well, connecting the blue and the red run up, there are some bits that are in both routes which aren't the most exciting or interesting but they get you to the good bits, so you get your rewards in the end by the bucket load. Feels a lot like Forest of Dean but better except the facilities aren't great but they are geared up more for everyone else rather than the MTBer's, that will likely change in time.

Can be ridden in all weathers Quite fast, encourages you to ride fast so will help your fitness easy on the inexperienced if you keep your speed down rewarding on the experienced, specially if you can keep your speed up