A couple of us are going for a MUni ride and if anyone wants to come along please do.
I’m thinking of arriving at around 10:00 but that’s flexible. I’ve a spare wheel if someone needs to borrow one.
Cheers
Mike
Do you have a link to a map for ‘Swinley forrest’, Mike? I did try live maps but it did not find it. It all depends on how far it is for me and maybe one other, and if there is a nearby train station.
It would be awesome to start actually travelling a bit to go for good muni rides.
it’s the car park just east of here. Trust Google maps to get it not-quite-right… the ride area is the large green bit to the south. For more information have a look at the link GKMac posted, it’s good fun! weather forecast isn’t too bad either. I’ll be riding my 24 most likely and hopefully we’ll find that singletrack again - if not there’s a plethora to choose from!
Gavin, go for the 24, you’ve been on singletrack much more recently than me!
Ok - I’d like to come but I can’t really.
Single far is £15, so return is £15 + and I don’treally have any money saved up, and the train journey is 3:25, earliest train arriving and just after 11 
Plus the train from stratford to waterloo doesn’t have a cycle policy I don’t think, so I suppose that means I cannot take my uni on it.
Meh, when I’m old enough to drive…
That is currently very easy, head south until you see the blue water pipes - you won’t miss them unless they’ve been buried in the last few days. Turn right and follow pipes. Singletrack is on the left, getting wider due to use. If you reach the covered reservoir you have missed it, probably hidden behind blue pipes!
As you say there is plenty of single track if you don’t find this particular one, even more in the mountain bike area.
Nope, I’m coming too:) Almost certainly on my 29er because it’s already covered in mud and the 24" is clean!
Damn just stumbled on this thread, but I’m off to chicksands tomorrow, have fun guys.
Have a good time, dont forget to bring back some footage 
don’t worry, we’ll try to stick to the stuff that’ll suit us more than him 
[QUOTE=gkmac]
And I’ll bring the GPS so we can find that epic singletrack again.
/QUOTE]
I think you’ll find the single track starts at the 1.7km marker in the attached image.
Have a good ride, don’t follow the rest of the ride it was cut short by a certain very young rider wanting the toilet!
I’m looking forward to the challenge:) I’ve only ridden the 29er once before, on Gavin’s local trails that are a lot less tricky than Swinley, and it was still quite difficult so tomorrow might be quite hard work!
And Gavin even if I can stay on I’m not going to just ride off without you am I, would be a bit pointless going on a group ride and doing that!
I wanna go, I wanna go! I love riding in Swinley Forest with you guys.
Oh wait, I’m back in Seattle, stuck in the rain. I hope you have a great ride today! Hopefully my work will give me another chance to get to Reading in the coming year, and I can nose in on another ride.
It was a real blast, sorry you missed it & hope you’re better now - don’t worry, we only waited a few minutes for you before ringing to see where you were!
So I don’t annoy anyone in the north of the UK, Seattle or most of Europe I won’t mention the unseasonally warm weather, just the difficulty in parking and the excessive number of walkers, runners and bikes. Lots of breaks, lots of fun and no really nasty falls - it was good to have a biker fall spectacularly on a line that Liam had just cleared.
On the way back from the designated cycling area we twice found discreet trails off through the trees - tight twisting and very long routes that could only have been created by a lost drunk unsure of which bar to head to next. A soft bed of pine cones and so narrow at times a bike would’ve had problems.
Back on the fire roads all the gawping small kids in t-shirts were told what to tell their parents to buy them for their next birthday.
As well as the glorious weather, I won’t mention that it was Petra’s (3_unispin) first proper MUni ride or that Liam was far too fit. At least we kept him waiting frequently!
Mike on the singletrack:
Those trails through the trees were great, if anyone else wants to find them I think the first one started at the start of the car-park side of the first big ‘valley’ on the singletrack, and headed back towards the car-park.
was it at all muddy? gong to be going there this saturday i think
just a smidge in places, but nothing too drastic. it certainly wasn’t muddy enough for bog snorkelling
Are you going to publish a time? Although it can get muddy immediately after rain it does dry up pretty quickly other than a few bits of standing water.
Keith - who’s normal commute is straight through Swinley 
oh cool, if you want to come along I’ll try and tie Matt down to a time and let you know.
Liam should be up for it too - he was silly enough to tell me that he’s not working at weekends at the moment. I won’t be able to make it though
I will be up for it, will depend on what time it is though as I’ll need my wife’s car to get there!