bikes and things

It used to be that every weekend I would get up early, drive out to Surrey or Swinley forest and get a few miles in on my MTB. I did this rain or shine and, due to there usually being more rain than shine, I eventually bought a van to avoid ruining the interior of the car. Then I got into road riding around 18 months ago and got a bit crazy for it. Mountain biking kind of fell by the wayside. Why drive for an hour and a half each way for a 20k ride when you can ride from your doorstep and be in Kent in 30 mins? The fitness of road riding appealed and also seeing lots of new places on my bike also helped.

I’ve been back a few times but trips have been few and far between. I went at Christmas after a long period off which was a bit odd. I’d completely forgotten how to ride the thing as well as automatically starting to point out holes for the first few mins – a hangover from riding road in a bunch. This Sunday I went again with Matt to Swinley just for a change of scenery. The weekend before had seen me do my biggest ride to date so maybe a shorter chatty affair was a bit more sensible. We headed out to Swinley in the van which took a lot longer than I remember. However it provides plenty of time to chat and shoot the breeze. Shit coffee is always found and then time to unload and get changed and get out on the trails.

One of the things I enjoyed about road riding was not wearing a rucksack of any kind and travelling relatively light. Years of mountainbiking were spent lugging heavy loads around for no apparent reason. This is the second ride where I’ve just had a bottle on the frame and some essentials in a jersey and gone riding. It feels so much nicer and you feel more agile and faster too.

I found a similar thing a few years back when I got a short travel full suspension bike. The arrival of ‘freeride’ meant bikes got a lot heavier and overspecced for the riding round the South East. Getting a shorter travel lighter bike was one of the best choices I made.

Swinley is pretty flat but they have managed to make some fun sections out of it. The swoops and berms are highly enjoyable but require so much pedalling to get you through as there is no gravity to assist. Finally having put a load of work in on the road bike I had the fitness to push through it all and keep my speed. It’s way more fun this way although does go on a bit.

There were s series of trail diversions in place but new sections of trail had also been created to accommodate this. A massive water pipeline was being laid which looked expensive. It was seriously shitty out with the muck flying everywhere. I was so glad I brought some cheap clear glasses with me.

After the first set of trails we headed over to my favourite sections by the reservoir which had got even further cut in with the many thousands of tyres running over them. The v shaped cut in the trail added to the sense of speed as we shot down them. Being so close to the trees also helped. I cased a few of the first jumps but happily cleared a few of the later ones. It takes a while to get the hang of it I guess.

At the bottom of this you end up on a slightly uphill twisty section which goes on and on and on. I love this bit so much as again with some more fitness it allowed a bit more speed and therefore fun. I always come off that trail with a massive grin on my face.

After that it’s the final loop back towards the centre. Before you get there you are treated to this wonderful open section with huge sweeping berms which again is brilliant to hammer down. It has a few lumps to get a little bit of a kicker off as well as do a silly little tweak whilst air borne.

One of the things I also found interesting was that I wasn’t as afraid of descending as I usually am after a few months off. In fact I’m sure that having got over my fear of descending on the road that it almost certainly helped with the off road which is one crossover I hadn’t quite expected. The whole area felt much flatter and tamer than before and I didn’t drop my post at all for the whole thing. It’s still a fun place but not the lumpy section of trail I used to think it was.

Brilliant fun, even though it was only 20k, and even more fun to have a trip to the jet wash on the way back, drop the bikes off and sink four pints of Gamma Ray after. Next time it’ll be Wales hopefully.