Bike Park Wales for a scared beginner

[Barchettaman]

Well, not scared, but absolutely not interested in jumps, drops or massively high speeds on steep gradients.

Would I be able to cope with the blue runs, or are they scary as hell?

Bike is a Cube E-Hardtail, so I reckon I could get away without using the uplift service.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Simes205]

Yes.

[SwissJonese]

Yes to be honest if you can do the first trail to the uplift then that is the idea of what you are in for regarding blues.

My 7 year old kids have done all the blues trails no problem. My wife hates DH biking and did all the blues too on a hard tail so nothing really that crazy. All the trails are very well looked after.

I normal take new people on Sixtapod - nice flowing trail can go fast or super slow, no jumps into Willy Waver which is like a big pump track - so much fun. Then try Melted Welly into Roller Disco.

[Tall_Paul]

Some (all) of the blues are fantastic, there's enough of them that you can spend all day on them.

Some, like willy waver, do encourage speed so just watch you don't get caught out by the small humps, you can easily get some unintentional air!

[anonymous-user]

Personally I’d go to the Forest of Dean instead, the (blue) Verderers trail has a superb final 3kms of fast descent and the downhill trails are almost all rollable

[SwissJonese]

pablo said:

Personally I’d go to the Forest of Dean instead, the (blue) Verderers trail has a superb final 3kms of fast descent and the downhill trails are almost all rollable

I would actually say the opposite as I find FOD more technical and not as much fun. FOD has more natural trails so lots of roots and the mud last weekend was bonkers, made it very hard to ride smoothly, lots of falls. BPW is very well maintained so even if it rains it is not as difficult to ride.

If you really are still scared of BPW and want to try a bit of DH then I recommend Flyup 417 in Witcombe, as it is a brilliant place to start, small trails, very well maintained.

[daddy cool]

Been to BPW 3 times now - first time did a mixture of blues & reds (and had an accident), and the 2nd and 3rd times decided that while I can probably technically do most of the reds, I just wanted to have fun - and the blues provide that in bucketloads without anything seriously hard, so I stuck to them all day - doing different combinations of trails.

I'd reconsider not using the uplift - its a long way up, im not sure you could beat the van, even on an e-bike. Using the uplift should get you ~8 runs in per day - and the ride up is a nice chance for a breather and a bit of a chinwag.

[daddy cool]

I think its been wet every time ive been... but then, its Wales, what do you expect!
Its flinty ground so it drains quite well, but there will be big puddles, and you'll end up mucky.
We usually find that lube is washed off by lunchtime, and resort to heavy duty grease on the chain for the afternoon.

[Barchettaman]

Thanks all for the advice.

[shouldbworking]

The thing with Bpw is to not be intimidated into going faster than you are comfortable with. There will be a lot of people on full on dh bikes flying down the hill but trying to copy that will get you hurt.

Only people I've seen hurt themselves there are ones who put too much pressure on themselves to go faster than their ability allows / keep up with mates.

[smifffymoto]

I think mountain biking as a whole has changed with the bike park thing.Very few people cycle up hill any more and only focus on going down as fast as they can.With bike parks many people don’t experience what I call proper mountain biking,cycling natural trails.

To answer the OP,just do what you are comfortable with.

[timnoyce]

I'm going tomorrow.

As has been said before. Pretty much anyone will be fine on the Blues, just go your own pace and take it steady. It's possible to come unstuck at pace and bin it on any of them. I've seen people stack it on the first ride to the bus and not make it any further! I've been 5 times on a variety of bikes. First trip was on a 26" On One 456 with 140 fork and I rode blues and reds. I then upgraded to an Orange 5 and probably went a bit quicker and was less beaten up. Last trip I binned it on my 3rd run and spent the day at the Hospital getting X-Rayed as my confidence outweighed my apparent skill in the rain.

Just go at your own pace and you'll have a fantastic day. The trail map is pretty good and shows the progression between the trails so start at the bottom and work up till where you feel most happy.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

I'm a pretty experienced rider and find the blues at BPW an absolute blast. Great for pootling down if you want to but they definitely become more fun the faster you go. Can't remember the names of them but from what I can recall, the two blues that come off the left side of the drop off area at the top and Terrys Belly I could just lap all day long.

[TT1138]

smifffymoto said:

I think mountain biking as a whole has changed with the bike park thing.Very few people cycle up hill any more and only focus on going down as fast as they can.With bike parks many people don’t experience what I call proper mountain biking,cycling natural trails.

To answer the OP,just do what you are comfortable with.

I completely disagree, ‘natural’ mountain biking seems to be doing really well at the moment. Instagram in particular is full of people riding mountains, natural trails and old hiking trails worldwide, both down and up.

What bike parks have been brilliant for is those of us who don’t particularly enjoy half a day slogging up a hill to get to the downs. I don’t get to ride my mountain bike anywhere near as much as I’d like so when I do, I’d much rather it was pointing in the direction I enjoy, down.

Additionally, bike parks let you progress in a linear way, and let you progress much faster. Natural trails are great, but I like to have the jumps/ drops/ man-made features that a bike park has.

[timnoyce]

Well, BPW yesterday was a delight. It was even sunny at times and was dry all day. Who'd have thought it.

As expected, I took it steady all day and showed some great progression. Then in my excitement I binned it on the last run of the day as my confidence outweighed my skill and my tired body! It's such a great day out though. Trails are maintained to such a high level, the bus service was great (as I know on some forums it takes a bit of abuse) and the general buzz about the place is top notch.

Now... when to go back again...

[Court_S]

TT1138 said:

I completely disagree, ‘natural’ mountain biking seems to be doing really well at the moment. Instagram in particular is full of people riding mountains, natural trails and old hiking trails worldwide, both down and up.

What bike parks have been brilliant for is those of us who don’t particularly enjoy half a day slogging up a hill to get to the downs. I don’t get to ride my mountain bike anywhere near as much as I’d like so when I do, I’d much rather it was pointing in the direction I enjoy, down.

Additionally, bike parks let you progress in a linear way, and let you progress much faster. Natural trails are great, but I like to have the jumps/ drops/ man-made features that a bike park has.

I agree.

I’ve been riding since the late 90’s and I don’t miss days slogging about on rubbish trails for little or no reward, but I’ve always been attracted to DH / mucking about type riding.

Most of the stuff I ride locally away from the trail centre is all built by the trail pixies; jumps, drops, berms etc. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy a day in the peaks riding the cheeky, natural trails that I know.

[daddy cool]

dibbers006 said:

Anything you wished you'd brought or bought, packed or visited etc?

Hes probably thinking "body armour"

On that note, BPW is the only place I do wear kneepads (cheap Nukeproof ones) and elbow pads (30 year old skateboard ones) and a full-face helmet (a fairly cheap SixSixOne jobbie).

One other thing - I end up pretty dehydrated by the end of the day, because I don't want a bottle in the cage (worry it will get knocked out on the many bumps), and cant be bothered having a camelbak on my back all day, and end up not wanting to waste time going to the café when the Van has just arrived and theres a place for me on it! I mean, its not the end of the world, but getting dehydrated tends to make you think less rationally, especially at the end of the day when you think "one last go, hell for leather!" and that's where you'll probably come off! Something to bear in mind anyway.

[Fluffsri]

daddy cool said:

dibbers006 said:

especially at the end of the day when you think "one last go, hell for leather!"

NOOOOOOOOO!

Never think or say this, its an unwritten rule

Anyway, its funny how the riding scene has changed with the bike parks cropping up everywhere it seems trail centres have become very quiet. We rode The Dragons back a few weeks ago and I forgot how good it was to be out in the mountains riding up and down LOL. OP if you liked BPW give the Black Mountain Cycle Centre a go, terrain isn't as rough as BPW but lots to keep you interested. Riding Coed actually reminded me of the days we use to ride Afan and Cwmcarn and I plan on a organising a weeks riding to include BMCC, BPW, Cwmcarn and Afan.

[BRR]

I absolutely loved my recent couple of days at BPW, as has been said the blues can cater for people with a basic level of skill but still be exciting for experienced riders due to the higher speeds enabling small details in the trail to be turned into features. Even if they only had the blue trails there I'd still go

I don't understand the reluctance of people there to wear body armour or a full face, even if only doing the blues you're going to have bad time crashing at 30-40mph

can't wait to go again

Also with regards to more traditional mountain biking not being as popular, I'm not sure, I live next to cannock chase and it's as busy now as it was 10 years ago, maybe even more-so now. Personally i enjoy going fast, jumps, drops etc so it's the downhill that I enjoy, traditional trail centres = 80-90% of your time riding just grinding along then with 10 minutes of the stuff I find fun, bike parks completely reverse those numbers and for me that's a good thing.

I am considering an e-bike so I can session the more fun stuff without having to waste so much time and energy grinding up the hills

Edited by BRR on Monday 28th October 13:02