Swinley and Tillgate

No pics at the moment until I sort my PC out then we'll have moving pictures, hurahh.

Bracknell was super super dry and dusty, met up with Daryl and his crew from Pompey for an hour or so until his riding green card expired, would have been there earlier had it not been for the combined navigational excellence of myself and the Manning-Jones in a) Getting out of sussex b) Getting to Bracknell c) Finding the trails, well done us.

On account of being late, first thing we rode was a do-able but not insignificant drop that branched of one of the downhills.

On the trails running from the trail head by the resovoir all you could do was lock the back brake and fishtail down the first 3 or 4 corners before it became hardpacked and smooth. Less pedalling and more pumping made for a quick, smooth run.

The jump gully was inviting as ever, really really hardpacked and fast all you had to do was roll in for the first small table followed by the middle 'straight up and down' double then a couple of pedal strokes to clear the floaty double at the end.

Made it to Tillgate downhill last night, there is some BIG stuff dotted around the woods. The main downhill course is made up of well established hard packed smooth berms that have to be ridden and connected to stand any chance of making down the course never mind quickly.

Middle section is tight and has a small pump then dropoff table thingy as a connect between two berms that flows nicely if you get it right and can send you completely flying off camber and out of shape if you get it wrong.

End section is a tight steep berm followed by a loooooong floaty double and a long left hand berm and drop.

You can't rush any of it, you just have to pedal in and try and brake as little as possible and flow through the corners, any attempt to get all hectic and pedally just results in coming into the corners off kilter and with you weight all in the wrong place. All much easier said than done.

Out of 15 odd runs I connected various sections really nicely as a group of two berms and a drop for example but only came close to stringing the whole thing together propeerly once or twice, one of those places you can't really try harder you just have to keep riding it till you learn all the corners.

Vid clips hopefully coming soon.