The "Photos From Today's Ride" thread...
Discussion
Today was my first century of the year and my mates first one ever, given the option of a nice flat ride he declined saying he 'wanted hills', well hills is what he got, just under 7000ft of climbing including Buttertubs pass, was a fantastic day and it took all of my motivational skills to keep him going!
Today's 'mini epic' to Swinley Forest...
Devil's Highway (restricted byway) looking back toward Crowthorne
The start of the Red Trail at Swinley Forest
Me! (in a PH jersey - first time out of the wrapper)
So, explain to me again why exactly they call this section "Tank Traps"
Slow Worm! Silly reptile was sunning itself ON the Red Route. I stopped and gently 'encouraged' it to find some cover OFF the MTB trail
Relatively (very) easy section of the 'difficult' Red Trail
High ground on Red Trail - cheeky climb up to the top of this one
Was this the bit called "Labyrinth"? I was certainly disorientated by the time the section was over
Back in Hawley Woods - nearly home (2hr29mins in total, Farnborough-Sandhurst-Crowthorne-Swinley and back, including a 1 hour lap of the Red Trail)
At last. I have managed to get out of the house early enough to get to Swinley and do the Red Route in daylight. Not the kind of circuit to try learning in the dark really. I left at 1530hrs from Farnborough and rode mostly on-road to Crowthorne, where I took the Devil's Highway up past Broadmoor Hospital and under the A3095 and headed toward Upper Star Post. To my surprise I found myself at post number 8 on the Red Trail, so I joined it there and got round in about 1hr0min34.13sec
This was my 'moving time' not including stopping to take the photos, but including the extra time taken slowing down and getting back up to speed after stopping.
Not as difficult/technical as I expected for the most part, but there were some 'interesting' sections in between the fire roads. I didn't get up to the cafe/visitor centre as I needed to get home to fetch the car to collect the wife from work, but all in all worth the 7.5 mile (mostly) road ride to get there. I'll certainly be going again!
Devil's Highway (restricted byway) looking back toward Crowthorne
The start of the Red Trail at Swinley Forest
Me! (in a PH jersey - first time out of the wrapper)
So, explain to me again why exactly they call this section "Tank Traps"
Slow Worm! Silly reptile was sunning itself ON the Red Route. I stopped and gently 'encouraged' it to find some cover OFF the MTB trail
High ground on Red Trail - cheeky climb up to the top of this one
Was this the bit called "Labyrinth"? I was certainly disorientated by the time the section was over
Back in Hawley Woods - nearly home (2hr29mins in total, Farnborough-Sandhurst-Crowthorne-Swinley and back, including a 1 hour lap of the Red Trail)
At last. I have managed to get out of the house early enough to get to Swinley and do the Red Route in daylight. Not the kind of circuit to try learning in the dark really. I left at 1530hrs from Farnborough and rode mostly on-road to Crowthorne, where I took the Devil's Highway up past Broadmoor Hospital and under the A3095 and headed toward Upper Star Post. To my surprise I found myself at post number 8 on the Red Trail, so I joined it there and got round in about 1hr0min34.13sec
This was my 'moving time' not including stopping to take the photos, but including the extra time taken slowing down and getting back up to speed after stopping.Not as difficult/technical as I expected for the most part, but there were some 'interesting' sections in between the fire roads. I didn't get up to the cafe/visitor centre as I needed to get home to fetch the car to collect the wife from work, but all in all worth the 7.5 mile (mostly) road ride to get there. I'll certainly be going again!
TheFungle said:
Today was my first century of the year and my mates first one ever, given the option of a nice flat ride he declined saying he 'wanted hills', well hills is what he got, just under 7000ft of climbing including Buttertubs pass, was a fantastic day and it took all of my motivational skills to keep him going!
Ohh, bet your mate was cursing you for that one!
yellowjack said:
So, explain to me again why exactly they call this section "Tank Traps"
Celtic Dragon said:
If your not a fan of the WRC, Rally Germany has these lining a route, in German they are called "heinkelsteins". They are designed to keep tanks on a particular course, being big enough for the tank drivet to have to fight the controls to go over them. Over here they have a few nicknames, tank traps, dragons teeth are 2, on the WRC,you can imagine the carnage they cause to a car as they are designed to stop 55 ton+ main battle tanks like the Challenger 2 and Leopard.
Plenty of footage on Youtube of cars hitting them and stopping dead.
itsnotarace said:
Your typical German cycle path, super awesome. Why can we no haz in UK?
If only 
If there was more of that kind of thing in the UK, I'd be much more inclined to give road* cycling a go, rather than sticking pretty much solely to MTB as I do now.
(*Not technically road if you're on a path I suppose, but you know what I mean!)
2013-06-15 12.46.18 by h4muf, on Flickr
2013-06-15 11.41.46 by h4muf, on Flickr
Nice 67 miles on the Pipedream!
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