Novice friendly but be prepared for slippery, muddy conditions so proper mountain bike tyres are essential. There are a few hills to climb, and a cafe stop towards the latter part of the ride which I’m sure we will deserve! However as it is in the final few miles of the ride feel free to bring snacks and water with you.
Look forward to seeing you for a bit of fresh air.
Tom Scott will be leading this week’s 2-hour clean ride round the borough.
This route uses the majority of the Urban Round loop as mapped by Swindon Borough Council, which takes in part of Route 45. The route is a mixture of purpose built cycle tracks, old railway lines and road.
A decent set of lights is required as there are some sections with little street lighting (mainly the old railway line sections).
Although we pass several pubs and shops en route, no scheduled stops are included in this ride.
Graham Burgess will be leading this ride, which will depart 7:00pm (Sharp) Coate Water by Diving Boards – faffers please arrive early
After a few weeks break, the Wednesday night rides with a few hills are back….
Running IN PARALLEL with the low-mud Urban Route, these rides are for those of you that are looking for a bit more of a challenge and help with your winter fitness….there will be hills, some of them probably quite steep and mainly pointing upwards (but some will also go down)….for the next few weeks they will be on tarmac lanes/quiet roads but as conditions improve will move to more off road routes.
Quickish pace, approx 25 miles with aim of being back by 9:30/10:00
Usual club ethos of nobody being left behind, but please ensure you have a reasonable level of fitness. This IS NOT suitable for novice riders.
PLEASE NOTE: This ride may be cancelled at short notice if weather conditions are not favourable – check Facebook event before departing.
Decent lights, warm clothing drink/snacks and basic spares essential as mainly unlit routes.
The Red Kite Events cross country race series runs throughout the winter. These are 2 hour races using mtb trails plus tracks in mid Wales. More info on the Red Kite website.
This event takes place at the Coed Trallwm trail centre.
Photos and maps from some other Red Kite Events: Elan valley challenge 2013, Devil’s challenge 2013, Jubilee trip June 2012 .
An evening/night ride at The Croft Trail. All welcome of any ability level – no one gets left behind on our group rides.
Novice Friendly group starts a few minutes after the main group.
This is a great chance to be given a guided tour of the trails if you’ve never been before and a chance to see the improvements if you have.
Depending on the season then you might need lights. Contact us if you would like to borrow some lights.
Winter (Nov – March)
Proper off-road lights will be necessary, speak to us if you want some advice on how to get into night riding without spending hundreds!
Spring (March – May)/ Autumn (September – October)
It will be light enough to ride the first lap or two without lights.
After that proper off-road lights will be necessary.
Summer (June – August)
It will be light enough to ride without lights.
We meet in the car park for 19:30, ready to leave at 19:35ish.
We go to the Check Inn at Wroughton after the ride too.
Come and help us at the February build day!
I couldn’t help but notice on the drive over that there was rain falling from the sky. It was clearly collecting on the ground in big puddles. When I arrived at the trail the rain was still falling. Oh well, nothing stops a build day.
In the triangle I found Jez, Phil, Kristian and Kirk hard at work finishing off sections of the raised woodwork. The weather gave the ideal ground conditions for banging the large stakes in. That’s about the only positive regarding the weather.
We made good progress and connected several sections. After a few hours we’d used up all of the slats and flattened several batteries. We were also wet and cold so quite happy to stop.
At our last big build day we’d lost one of our mattocks. After much searching we decided to record it as missing in action. A few days before this build day a rider posted on our Facebook wall to say that they’d found a mattock. They moved it to a special secret location. We sent Mike Jeffries off to collect it. He was gone for a long time but eventually returned with the trophy. It took a bit longer than expected because he fell over in the mud.
After a few weeks of rain the river was almost touching the bottom of the bridge in the triangle. I took a quick trip over to the east side of the pitch to take a look at the flooding and found our canal was working well. We dug this in December 2012 and January 2013 after a big flood over Christmas. We fixed the flooded section in March 2013.
Our final job of the day was to concrete in a sign post that had been ripped out of the ground a few times. Generally posts that are ripped out will be somewhere nearby. We’d spent a long time searching for it on a previous build day and given up. We decided to have a final look for it. The four of us set off in different directions and wandered around for ten minutes. Then I heard a shout and Phil arrived with the missing sign. Good job.
He hammered at least 6 nails into each of four sides of the post before we postcreted* it into the ground. You do the math(s) on how many nails that is.
*the week after my holiday in the Mediterranean was known as postcrete.
With that done we went home to dry off and warm up. Thanks to everyone who was there working in the rain. The experts on Facebook voted our Mudtrek build day as being colder and wetter.
We’re going for a big push at the February build day! (More info about the big push).
An evening/night ride at The Croft Trail. All welcome of any ability level – no one gets left behind on our group rides.
Novice Friendly group starts a few minutes after the main group.
This is a great chance to be given a guided tour of the trails if you’ve never been before and a chance to see the improvements if you have.
Depending on the season then you might need lights. Contact us if you would like to borrow some lights.
Winter (Nov – March)
Proper off-road lights will be necessary, speak to us if you want some advice on how to get into night riding without spending hundreds!
Spring (March – May)/ Autumn (September – October)
It will be light enough to ride the first lap or two without lights.
After that proper off-road lights will be necessary.
Summer (June – August)
It will be light enough to ride without lights.
We meet in the car park for 19:30, ready to leave at 19:35ish.
We go to the Check Inn at Wroughton after the ride too.
An evening/night ride at The Croft Trail. All welcome of any ability level – no one gets left behind on our group rides.
Novice Friendly group starts a few minutes after the main group.
This is a great chance to be given a guided tour of the trails if you’ve never been before and a chance to see the improvements if you have.
Depending on the season then you might need lights. Contact us if you would like to borrow some lights.
Winter (Nov – March)
Proper off-road lights will be necessary, speak to us if you want some advice on how to get into night riding without spending hundreds!
Spring (March – May)/ Autumn (September – October)
It will be light enough to ride the first lap or two without lights.
After that proper off-road lights will be necessary.
Summer (June – August)
It will be light enough to ride without lights.
We meet in the car park for 19:30, ready to leave at 19:35ish.
We go to the Check Inn at Wroughton after the ride too.
The Red Kite Events cross country race series runs throughout the winter. These are 2 hour races using mtb trails plus tracks in mid Wales. More info on the Red Kite website.
This event takes place at the Coed Trallwm trail centre.
Photos and maps from some other Red Kite Events: Elan valley challenge 2013, Devil’s challenge 2013, Jubilee trip June 2012 .
An evening/night ride at The Croft Trail. All welcome of any ability level – no one gets left behind on our group rides.
Novice Friendly group starts a few minutes after the main group.
This is a great chance to be given a guided tour of the trails if you’ve never been before and a chance to see the improvements if you have.
Depending on the season then you might need lights. Contact us if you would like to borrow some lights.
Winter (Nov – March)
Proper off-road lights will be necessary, speak to us if you want some advice on how to get into night riding without spending hundreds!
Spring (March – May)/ Autumn (September – October)
It will be light enough to ride the first lap or two without lights.
After that proper off-road lights will be necessary.
Summer (June – August)
It will be light enough to ride without lights.
We meet in the car park for 19:30, ready to leave at 19:35ish.
We go to the Check Inn at Wroughton after the ride too.
