Every Thursday night there is a social ride out from the Jovial Monk pub in St Andrews Ridge. The ride is between 16-20 miles, depending on that week’s ride, but always at a pace to suit all those that attend.
After the ride there’s chip butties on offer for £2 a pop – well you’ll have earned them by that point!
Helmet’s a must. Lights also still required at this time of year, but if you don’t have any drop us an email or message – we’ve normally got a spare set knocking around for the evening.
Every Thursday night there is a social ride out from the Jovial Monk pub in St Andrews Ridge. The ride is between 16-20 miles, depending on that week’s ride, but always at a pace to suit all those that attend.
After the ride there’s chip butties on offer for £2 a pop – well you’ll have earned them by that point!
Helmet’s a must. Lights also still required at this time of year, but if you don’t have any drop us an email or message – we’ve normally got a spare set knocking around for the evening.
Every Thursday night there is a social ride out from the Jovial Monk pub in St Andrews Ridge. The ride is between 16-20 miles, depending on that week’s ride, but always at a pace to suit all those that attend.
After the ride there’s chip butties on offer for £2 a pop – well you’ll have earned them by that point!
Helmet’s a must. Lights also still required at this time of year, but if you don’t have any drop us an email or message – we’ve normally got a spare set knocking around for the evening.
Its been 3 years since i was last there and now its time to visit again. This is an awesome place to visit with some serious trails worth riding. Some tough hill climbs, but with rewarding descents.
Current weather forecast is for showers, but this is Wales, so make sure you bring waterproofs! A helmet is also essential.
Our usual Wednesday visit to Croft will incorporate some skills practice this week.
After a warm up lap, we will do a development lap. This will involve doing a lap of the trail stopping at certain obstacles to practice our skills: rock gardens, cornering & small jumps. There is also an option to practice drops if anyone fancies that too.
After that we will finish with a quick lap to blend all the practice together.
Meet in the car park at 5.45pm
You will need a helmet, but not lights.
Our usual Wednesday visit to Croft will incorporate some skills practice this week.
After a warm up lap, we will do a development lap. This will involve doing a lap of the trail stopping at certain obstacles to practice our skills: rock gardens, cornering & small jumps. There is also an option to practice drops if anyone fancies that too.
After that we will finish with a quick lap to blend all the practice together.
Meet in the car park at 5.45pm
You will need a helmet, but not lights.
Thursday’s ride will start from the Jovial Monk Pub on St Andrews Ridge and led by John Jefferies.
Planned ride is weather dependant. There may be a more urban ride if it’s too wet and cold. We will leave @ 7pm and head out through blunsdon, stratton & Stanton woods to south marston ind est. from there through a nice little single track to south marston. A bit of road to Nightingale woods for a lap or 2 then back to the Jovial refreshments. It may be cold and wet, so dress appropriately.
A helmet, lights and a serviceable bike required.
Nice steady pace to suit those in attendance – nobody will be left behind.
The Peak District is simple awesome for mountain biking – stunning scenery and brilliant riding.
I’ve done lots of riding up there and am putting together some of the best in one long weekend.
We will be based in the Hope Valley, which has a great selection of campsites, B&B accommodation, cafes and bike shops. Personally I’ll be camping and will make a recommendation for a campsite after sampling a few, but there are plenty of great B&Bs for anyone that doesn’t like camping.
For the riding, we have 3 days:
A scenic starter, along the Monsal Trail. Starting at Bakewell Station up to Blackwell Mill and back. This is a former railway line that has been converted into a bridleway, using all the old features, including a number of viaducts and 4 tunnels through the Peaks. This gives us the chance to soak in the gorgeous scenery along the route, as well as a stop to enjoy them with a drink.
Day 2 is an epic XC ride starting in Hope and heading over Mam Tor out towards Derwent Water and back. The views on this route are even more stunning than the previous day, but the riding will be amazing too, with some epic descents – this one isn’t flat! 😉 We will be doing 25-30km with 1200-1500ft of climbing (depending on the weather), but the pace will be relaxed.
The final day will be a trip to the brilliant (but short) Lady Cannings trails, which we will use to end a 10km loop of the local Blacca Moor, which is another Peaks “must do”. That should see us finish at lunchtime, on the Bank Holiday Monday.
If you are planning on coming, please register either on the Facebook group event or by sending an email to adrian@swindonmtbenthusiasts.co.uk – just so we know to keep an eye out for you before setting off anywhere.
Following on from the success of the previous Get Into Mountain Biking events we’re heading to Afan in Wales!
This will still be aimed at improvers/intermediate riders but will be a progression from the previous trail centres we’ve visited.
Meeting at Afan Lodge at 11am we will take a short ride to the start of the trails and begin our day on the blue-graded Blue Scar. At the top of the Blue Scar climb we can then decide whether to climb a bit more and do the first part of the red-graded trail Penhydd or continue straight to the Blue Scar descent. There is a fair amount of climbing at Afan but most of it is on fire roads and there will be plenty of opportunity to stop and admire the stunning views.
After lunch those with the energy can climb back up and do more of Penhydd or Blue Scar again, and there is also a small skills area and lovely scenic route with short section of blue-graded trail along the valley.
Those that are really feeling energetic and brave may be tempted to give the red-graded trail Y-Wal a go, but be warned, Wales trail gradings are harder than English ones.
Afan is roughly two hours drive away from Swindon so we will meet at Afan Lodge at 11am. Afan Lodge is further up the road past Afan trail centre, you’ll see the trail centre on your right and Afan Lodge is on the left. There is plenty of free parking here and a lovely cafe, and an old railway line cycle path links the two.
Since we’ll be in Wales it would seem rude not to stay a bit longer and go to Bike Park Wales on the Sunday! This won’t be an official club trip as such but there is a bike-friendly Premier Inn 5 minutes away from BPW which I may well find myself in that night 😀