Bike park wales

[h4muf]

Going tomorrow.

Slightly bricking it now i've seen the red runs on youtube! Hope the little BFe is up to it!
Anyone else going?

[Flood]

Looks amazing eh? Going there week after next hopefully, long day trip from the north east mind. Let us know how it is will ya?

[nessiemac]

10 of us there next Saturday and can not wait!!

[joema]

I went yesterday. Was good fun.

Blues and reds were good for trail bikes. Think my favourite was a blue called melted welly into a red as it had a bit of everything. Everything's rollable so you'll be ok.

Definitely more gravity based and the ride up is a bh. Worth uplifting but i reckon 6 is the most I'd want to ride up. Trail centres have loops where you mix up and down but this definitely up then down.

Borrowed a trek remedy 650b too for a loop. Quite impressive. I hope they didn't mind when I went through the old dragon dh rock garden. Ha.

[skibum]

My brother and I are off here in a couple of weeks.

Apparently the uplift tickets have all been sold out already, so we'll have to do the ride up. Interesting to hear that it is not a good ride - why is that?

We've both got FS bikes, but certainly not DH rigs (Mine is a 2006 Kona Dawg and his is a Trek Fuel EX9 - I think) so hopefully they will be up to the challenge.

[P-Jay]

Was up at the weekend, the push up is a slag of a thing, it's easier to push up the uplift road than take the xc climb, it's pretty steer.

Trails are awesome, but the grading isn't like Trail Centre grading, it's a real step-up in terms of obstacles, saw a few people go down, but nothing serious.

Uplift is booked solid for a month, and weekends for two last time I looked.... but... it's by no means an exact science, but unlike say Cwmcarn there are lots of trail options etc and the bus is much quicker down than most riders so they're not always full of people with all-day passes, if you're prepared to wait you'll get on for a single lift (£4) I haven't done it, but I was speaking to a guy in the queue for the café who had been on 3 lifts already that day paying as he went.

Also, by 10:30 at the weekend the Carpark was full and they were turning people away to park elsewhere and ride the Taff Trail in (not a real hardship), it was a 45 min wait to get served at the Café lunchtime and a 20 min wait to sign the disclaimer to ride - it's THAT busy at the moment.

Saw a Suzuki Swift with a PH sticker in the Carpark.

[skibum]

Great

Any idea what time it opens? I'll be heading over from Kent so will be leaving crack of dawn (or earlier!) but dont want to be sat in a car park for 2 hours waiting for it to open up.

so, by push up do you mean that there are a options? You can ride up the XC way, push up the road or get the van/lift?

[joema]

I did six ups on saturday. It's all rideable. Trail ride up is more varied so breaks it up.

I take the first bit of single track then stay on the fireroad after the fire road section.

I ride a pitch with 1 x 9 gearing so you'll be fine.

What day were you there PJ? Saturday was quiet compared to the previous weekend!

[nessiemac]

We turned up at just after 9am on Saturday and it was already quite busy. The uplift vans were full all day long and were a bit slow turning round compared to say Cwmcarn or FoD.

But lots of trails to suit all abilities and skill levels.

Favourite of the day was enter the dragon followed by pork belly (both black runs) and finish off on bush whacker which is a flowy blue to the cafe.

Awesome fun.

This is us...

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/329840/

[P-Jay]

joema said:

I did six ups on saturday. It's all rideable. Trail ride up is more varied so breaks it up.

I take the first bit of single track then stay on the fireroad after the fire road section.

I ride a pitch with 1 x 9 gearing so you'll be fine.

What day were you there PJ? Saturday was quiet compared to the previous weekend!

Went up Sunday, the Wife was out with friends the night before so I organised to meet a friend there for 10am, joined the queue for the car park just before 10, met him at 10:45, by which time they were turning people back at the gate with maps to an aux car park.

Cracking place though, I guess it'll either die down a bit soon, or expand very quickly.

[P-Jay]

nessiemac said:

We turned up at just after 9am on Saturday and it was already quite busy. The uplift vans were full all day long and were a bit slow turning round compared to say Cwmcarn or FoD.

But lots of trails to suit all abilities and skill levels.

Favourite of the day was enter the dragon followed by pork belly (both black runs) and finish off on bush whacker which is a flowy blue to the cafe.

Awesome fun.

This is us...

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/329840/

Nice Vid, highlights my one small bugbear of the day, the little Grannie meetings that go on after the tunnel, why people can't move to the side I don't know. I guess lots of visitors are used to riding in their local woods with friend or alone and just not used the traffic.

[nessiemac]

That was very annoying! Every time through the tunnel there were always people sitting in front of the run you wanted to go down. Great fun though, even the blue run (sixtapod) all the way down was great and that included an over the bars moment for me on the 2nd to last run!!

[JayHeal]

Place sounds great. Cant wait to go next month when i'm back in the counrty!!!
Form this post it sounds like most people have been there on trail bikes.
Is it best for Trail or Downhill bikes??? ( using the uplift )
I have both so was wondering which bike is best to take?

[Rob_T]

interesting point.

i don't have a downhill bike and i've always wanted one, just because

i don't think this is really downhill territory, but as far as my wife is concerned, it most definetly is....

[joema]

Even bpw staff will tell you you are best off on a enduro bike.

There is only really one track where you would want one. and you would need to ride that track all day to get it dialled.

I ride pretty much everything on my trail bike. I would be pissed off if i took a dh bike there as was a few people on dh bikes i spoke to.

[Digga]

P-Jay said:

Nice Vid, highlights my one small bugbear of the day, the little Grannie meetings that go on after the tunnel, why people can't move to the side I don't know. I guess lots of visitors are used to riding in their local woods with friend or alone and just not used the traffic.

TBH, I'm sick and fuicking tired of this sort of fvckwittery. It's inconsiderate and, in mamny cases dangerous.

I've come across this twice in the last few weeks; last night on the local Follow the Dog XC trail (which I tend never to ride at weekends or daytime during school holidays, to try to avoid the masses) a bloke who, to be fair, had fallen off, but was fine, but was fannying about in the middle of the trail on the same blind corner that proved too difficult for him to get around.

Worse still was the bellend who thought it would be "okay if they went slowly" to ride down a black downhill route on an XC bike with two of his kids following. they were stopped about the 4' drop-off (thankfully no one tumbled off it) totally unaware of how fast riders might come down behind them, fully cimitted to hitting it.

[chrisga]

Looks like a cool place. How many uplifts are people managing in a day at BPW?

[P-Jay]

Digga said:

P-Jay said:

Nice Vid, highlights my one small bugbear of the day, the little Grannie meetings that go on after the tunnel, why people can't move to the side I don't know. I guess lots of visitors are used to riding in their local woods with friend or alone and just not used the traffic.

TBH, I'm sick and fuicking tired of this sort of fvckwittery. It's inconsiderate and, in mamny cases dangerous.

I've come across this twice in the last few weeks; last night on the local Follow the Dog XC trail (which I tend never to ride at weekends or daytime during school holidays, to try to avoid the masses) a bloke who, to be fair, had fallen off, but was fine, but was fannying about in the middle of the trail on the same blind corner that proved too difficult for him to get around.

Worse still was the bellend who thought it would be "okay if they went slowly" to ride down a black downhill route on an XC bike with two of his kids following. they were stopped about the 4' drop-off (thankfully no one tumbled off it) totally unaware of how fast riders might come down behind them, fully cimitted to hitting it.

It is something that gets on my nerves, I don't want to sound like a 'locals rule' wker, but it's the day trippers on a roadtrip to the centres who are the usual culprits - they're just not used to sharing trails with other people I guess: They'll congregate on trail heads for a bit of a brief "whose going first" Granny meeting, completely missing the point that you can actually carry speed from the last section into it - on the switch backs up and down, on bends, at the stiles effectively stopping anyone else getting on or off a section.

Oh, and I bloody love people who push back up a blind bit of trail to have another go instead of going around.

The worst place used to be the road drop at Cwmcarn, you'd be coming down the DH, and there's a few bits that are points of no return, once you're on them, you have to finish, it's too steep or too sloppy to stop, well gracefully anyway - one of those used to be the run in to the road drop, you'd commit and be greeted by a sea of people starring over the edge of it going "ooo" and "ahhh" best of all occasionally they'd part about a bikes width to watch you go over - fan-bleeding-tastic, now I've got to go over a thing I hate, completely blind, with an audience, and hope their little red sea gap doesn't point at the big tree.

/rant

[Digga]

P-Jay said:

The worst place used to be the road drop at Cwmcarn, you'd be coming down the DH, and there's a few bits that are points of no return, once you're on them, you have to finish, it's too steep or too sloppy to stop, well gracefully anyway - one of those used to be the run in to the road drop, you'd commit and be greeted by a sea of people starring over the edge of it going "ooo" and "ahhh" best of all occasionally they'd part about a bikes width to watch you go over - fan-bleeding-tastic, now I've got to go over a thing I hate, completely blind, with an audience, and hope their little red sea gap doesn't point at the big tree.

/rant

Yes, I;ve not ridden that but seen enough footage and heard enough about it to know, you don;t need further, additional hazards!

The bit I shooed matey and his two kids off was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_6pQwHNnxQ

There was a nasty accident there a while back. Someone came in at 'rotate' speed only to see some muppet walking about 'under' the drop. The rider took evasive action, injuring himself in the process.

[P-Jay]

Digga said:

es, I;ve not ridden that but seen enough footage and heard enough about it to know, you don;t need further, additional hazards!

The bit I shooed matey and his two kids off was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_6pQwHNnxQ

There was a nasty accident there a while back. Someone came in at 'rotate' speed only to see some muppet walking about 'under' the drop. The rider took evasive action, injuring himself in the process.

It's not so bad now, they've levelled up the landing and even moved the XC trail 100m up the road so it doesn't get as many people riding by, but I used to absolutely hate it, it's not a big drop, it's 4 railway sleepers stacked up, but the landing so steep you can easily make it a 6ft drop with a bit of speed. Kind of glad I don't ride DH anymore ha ha.

Cool vid!