Hello, I've stuck my head back in too, since about 3 years ago (got an pm notification, turns out to be a spammer). Nice to hear you have a job since then.

I've been back near the Swinley area again since November and will be for a few more months but I've been happily riding solo as I only have Mondays free if I want to cycle and all these upgrades to the bike still don't speed me up.

I had been diy-ing friday and saturday and did notice my back stiff on saturday.
About 1/2 way round first lap it became very painful.
Finished the race but had be real gentle on bumpy bits.
Irony is my legs and lungs could have done 3 more laps!

Next time NO decorating day before.

Next race 1st april.

Might give riding a miss this week as my back is pretty sore still.
Im going to stick a ride in calender for saturday.

Looking forward to it Max!







Kerr, Well done for taking part. The only way is up!

I can barely walk at the moment

Been doing a lot of running and my calf muscles hurt like hell.. Might be up for Saturday or may be Sunday at Frith Hill which will be at a fast pace... not sure yet

Maj

Ride for Swinley set for Saturday morning.
Its going to rain saturday afternoon - terential!
So its last chance to get summer like trails in march.
Sunday will be mud mud mud

Kerr

I might join you Saturday....

Im in

Im going to see some proper rain in Wales

Hi guys,just joined the forum from a link on the tunnel hills site,
I'm meeting some pals sat 9am for spin over swinley and looking for a few pointers

Was told Kerr is man to speak to ,any chance I can pick ya brains before ya set off ?

I'll av a green transition bandit or a grey Stanton ( not sure what bike I'm goner ride yet )

Hi guys,just joined the forum from a link on the tunnel hills site,
I'm meeting some pals sat 9am for spin over swinley and looking for a few pointers

Was told Kerr is man to speak to ,any chance I can pick ya brains before ya set off ?

I'll av a green transition bandit or a grey Stanton ( not sure what bike I'm goner ride yet )

you said that already

you said that already

Yup Tony 71 , Kerr's your man !

Sure, will be fine. I will be parked over by the go ape sign, fat bloke- silver yaris - red giant trance.

Take a look at my sig, theres a map (needs updating).

Kerr

Bring waterproofs and a change of clothes, forecast is dodgy for Saturday !

Will join you on saturday morning if that's ok guys, have been riding solo before work recently as weekends seem to be constantly busy, will be nice to have some company for a change!!

I will at last return your brush.

She's more yours than mine now, I've moved on! 😃

It looks like its going to be peeing down but at least its going to be warm... be prepared for a mudfest

Kerr, a friend of mine might be coming too, if there are any change of plans can you let me know asap

cheers

Maj

No change of plans.
Better be prepared for rain.
I recon its going to be much lighter than london way and arrive a bit later (around 12).

kerr

Good ride guys, thanks for leading Kerr , nice to see you again maj. Let me know about the trailtrax, sounds like good fun. Would be great if we can get a group together

Ben

Nightride Tuesday - meet corel reef carpark 7pm.

Started a trailtrax thread ...

http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=16581

Kerr

Whoop , whoop , could be up for this +1 .

Even better if you could start at 6:30 pm Kerr ( no harm asking !)

Can't make tomorrow as already have plans, but would be up for this if it were regular. I don't finish work til 7pm but am 2 mins from Crowthorne woods so could ride in and meet on route

6:30 it is.

Its actually better for us.
I can get back for the pub quiz

Kerr

I was hoping to see your new bike out tonight on the Trolls ride.

Although having said that we might be heading over to Swinley to avoid upsetting the men in green.

Whoops , sorry Kerr , getting my days mixed up . I WON'T be there this evening , planning to be in Swinley thursday evening..

Swinley are going to charge for the carpark.
£2 for 4 hours, £4 all day.

For me thats around £300 quid a year.
My wakeboard club is only 250 a year and thats considered a rich mans sport!
Add the mtb pass...

Pure Profiteering!

This will push parking out to the surrounding area. Also push mountain bikers to tunnel hill and other areas.

What a terrible idea!

Ill be parking in the easthampstead recreation ground just off the ninemile ride when this starts.

kerr

Don't think of it a profiteering Kerr, think of it as a tax on fitness!

Or £60 if you buy the annual parking permit.................

This might be of interest to you - note the double yellow lines!

Thiefing bar stewards

Do they expect people to pay for permit and parking?

Tax on fitness

Its just cars are an easy target as always



How long before people start taking a crowbar to the ticket machines? or are we paying for cctv as well?


Looks we will hqve to get all mucky then going swimming to get your parking refunded

I have doubts about their survey results, or maybe everyone else who answered it was just stupid and didn't just said "stuff that!" at the loaded questions about how much you'd be prepared to pay. My answer was zero.

Thing for me is they are providing free parking for people who pay up for the exhibit in the Look Out or a session in Coral Reef, but nothing for those of us paying for the bike permit!

Pure cash in by the council. Knew this would happen. It's got far too busy in the last couple of years at the weekend and the council noticed and thought that's a way of filling the holes in their budgets thanks to years of wasteful tax spending.

£50k per year is all they expect to raise. Not really much considering what a council typically spends. How much will the cafe lose, or even Gorrick?

Claims that some money goes to Swinley estate I have doubts will actually go to real maintenance of the forest and even less so that it would go anywhere near trail maintenance or building.

Anyway, stuff their parking charges as the permit obviously remains and it's only going to profit the council (and it's not my council, and Bracknell is a dump anyway ). Will be riding in from an alternate entrance, but Surrey Hills will be more my main ride. That could mean I won't be getting an annual permit depending how much I ride Swinley. On the other hand I'm perfectly happen to voluntary donate to the Friends of the Hurtwood which pays purely for land maintenance, the ranger and the car parks to provide free access for all. I'm not required to so happy to do so. So there.

Actually you have people like me that said "yes please and make sure it is enough to reduce the number of visitors so that I can actually park"
I for one welcome the charge.
The Bracknell-Forest council has a £6M shortfall this year as they did not raise council taxes. I rather they charge people for usage than me via my council tax for you lot to use stuff free.
Maybe people will start coming with 2 or 3 car as start car pooling more!
I rarely ride weekend as I can be bothered wit the car parking. And don't think that you will be able to snick in on the side road of the nine mile ride as that is getting double yellow, and I am pretty sure Poo alley and the a322 entrance will also be taking care off.

Whilst I sympathise with Frenchies point of view to an extent, I imagine the residents of Bracknell will end up paying for it in the form of traffic congestion around all the local cul de sacs of Martin's Heron/Ringmede which are within very easy cycling distance of Swinley...

..and that's just the obvious place to park. There's plenty of other spots around the area. I'm sure it won't be long before these places are shared with people who are regulars there.

Having said all that, it does seem ridiculous that they've not used the opportunity to encourage more people to pay for a bike permit, or set aside a % of the funds raised to pay for maintenance.

Bracknell council do NOT fund the forest. The forest is funded by the Crown estate. This does not come from council tax.

They fund the museam, which charges for entrance. errr why not up the entrance fee ?

The issue is they do fund the corel reef and want to charge for the parking at the corel reef. Hence they also need to charge for parking at the lookout so people dont park at the lookout for free and walk to the pool. errr why not up the entrance fee for the pool ?

Reality is they see lots a parked cars as a big cash injection so they can hide the fact they are incompetent about managing bracknells books.
The town center is mostly empty and dire and they know they cant up the parking costs.
Shoddy council.

Maybe if they didnt have the council works wages in an icelandic bank in 2009 they wouldnt have needed to do this. 2.5millon lost!

Anyway its rubbish about the council tax. To raise 50,000 a year they need to up the council tax by £2 ... a YEAR per household! big deal!

Kerr

I just feel it's a lot of money to pay just to get a quiet car park, especially if you already pay for the facilities there.

As said it's only about the car park which is the only bit the council have control of, and the estate itself is partly within another county. As a Surrey tax payer maybe I'll stick to the Surrey bit . Or stick to Tunnel Hill, though can see it getting more popular there as a result and the MOD kicking us off .

Price hike on the permit by the way. Was £18 a couple years back, then £20, now £25! Okay it's massively less than £200+ if you were a frequent weekly visitor.

I think it's a shame that they are going to charge but was probably inevitable. I personally think people will start to park over the other side of the main road in one of the many cul de sacs and annoy the residents. I am lucky that I can cycle in but feel its a shame as its one of the few 'free' things families can do inbracknell forest

With regards to tunnel hill and other military land, according to the tunnel hill trolls The mod and police are going to start patrolling the area as you shoul not be biking anywhere apart from fire roads, you could be stopped and possibly even have your bike seized. I understand they are in discussions to try and resolve the issue. There is more info on the tunnel hill trolls forum

I think it was inevitable the council see a big popular car park as a cash cow, the politicians have been suggesting supermarkets and shopping centres be made to charge for parking as whilst it's free it shows their town centre parking charges are excessive. Also I think pressure on parking outside is going to explode, I mean we're on bikes, who cares about a 5k warm up ride into the forest ?

Just pay and be done with it.
Might stop those sad dog walker that insist on putting wood logs in the middle of the trails to stop mountain bikes using 'their' trails...
Just for that I like the charge very much and £60/£100 per year isn't that bad if you come often enough and if you don't £2 for 4 hours is not that much either if you car pool 3 or 4 bikers per vehicle.
And the sneaking parking on adjacent roads is not going to work for long once the council notice an increase of complaint from residents. They will soon introduce a parking permit scheme to force people to pay their charge and reduce residents complaints....
Popular things are always raising in price. Such is life

On an other subject, should find some change in between the last 2 jumps in the sand cut as Jesus (the original Swinley trails builder) was there last night in is lonesome fixing the damages made by the riding during the winter months...

Is anyone riding swinley this weekend?

Yes and Yes

No but I'll be there tomorrow at 17:45 for a quick blast.

How much parking have you got at your house?

I can see the cafe really suffering its happened at Stockgrove park near Woburn it used to be packed out at weekends. In came the parking charges and cafe is empty now




Hope to make it down on Saturday if anyone is about before permit runs out

The notice the MOD put up a little while back said to stick to "established trails", which to me includes any existing trail off the fire roads. Their notice was clearly about not getting in the way of army operations and absolutely not doing any trail building.

I'd say it has nothing to do with the police as normally it's a civil law issue (trespass), *but* MOD land I think is different legally. Though they have their own police anyway.

Me & a mate are out Friday evening 18 30 , if anybody wants to join us .

May be I should charge, 50p for the day! I think you may be right with the cafe, only time will tell

@ Stan , would love to join you Friday, but hoping to get out early Saturday so unlikely to get a double pass for the weekend !

Ride posted - sign up

Ben, Kerr or someone else will lead i hope...

In!

Well thats if i can find a petrol station to fill up at.

Was getting some petrol for my brothers boat yesterday. Filling two cans (not car) I was approached by some knob who started spouting about how irresposinble i was. Pointed to the waterski kit in the car and told him " i got 20 kids, 4 who are disabled waiting to do wakeboarding, watersking and kneeboarding. mind your own business"

I left car at home today and cycled to work. Only because of the training Im doing for SDW 100. 14 miles in 48 mins with full panieer weighted flatbar road bike. Thats avg 17.5 mph.
Saw all the queues. At 6am!!! WOW!

I will prob cycle over to lookout sat... wait for me

Kerr

Hi Kerr, i'm sure no matter how late you are, Maj will be later. See ya tomorrow mate!

I might join as well.