Pictures from our recent Afan trip.

[g_stacey]

http://tinyurl.com/5dzhxr


And hit slideshow.


G

Edited by g_stacey on Tuesday 6th May 14:21

[-C-]

Good shots.

How did you rate the Whytes Level trail? We recently rode 'The Wall' and left feeling suitably unimpressed.

There seems to be a bit of a trend with trail centres of wasted opportunity. Far too much fire road & not enough trail. The only one I have come away impressed with the challenge so far is Laggan.

[WBC]

Wicked photos. Off to Afan in a few weeks and that has really whetted my appetite. Planning to ride Skyline but not sure if it is the best idea on a singlespeed!

[GHW]

-C- said:

Far too much fire road & not enough trail.

Try Cwmcarn. Almost no fire road at all, and the uphill trails are just as gnarly as the downhills

[-C-]

Have done Cwmcarn in a DH capacity, and on occasions have ridden the bottom of the XC trail from the fire road rather than the DH trail.

My concern is its very tame from what I have ridden. I think we would prefer something far more difficult on a technical level, rather than something anyone can ride around, as long as you are fit enough.

[GHW]

That last bit from the fire trail is probably the straightest, fastest bit of the entire loop. The uphill sections are definitely technically challenging - I've done plenty of laps, and I still can't get to the top without getting off and pushing over a fair few of the harder sections. There's nothing especially scary on the way back down - generally as long as you're able to point the bike over the lumpy bits and ride it out, you'll be OK. The DH course above the fire road is definitely much more technical than the downhill sections on the XC loop.

[atom111]

-C- said:

Good shots.

How did you rate the Whytes Level trail? We recently rode 'The Wall' and left feeling suitably unimpressed.

There seems to be a bit of a trend with trail centres of wasted opportunity. Far too much fire road & not enough trail. The only one I have come away impressed with the challenge so far is Laggan.

The Wall is probably in my opinon not as good as ANY of the other trails, if that is the only one you did you will leave with a bad impression, Whytes or Penhydd would probably have made you feel differently.

Whytes and Penhydd are amongst my favourites trails but they suit my riding and won't suit everyones's before anyone starts

[snotrag]

Great pics.



You know why they call it a wallride, though, yeah?

[g_stacey]

When your riding with a lot of company as we did the long fire roads never seem too bad. Of our rides Brechfa had the longest fire road climbs to down hill/singletrack ratio. Glad we rode it, though would rather spend the travelling time riding 2 laps of a nearer trail. My favorites? The fast downhill singletrack of Whytes level, The Wall and Cwmcarn.

P.S. Snotrag, I'll tell the ( jey' ) boys to ride the wall next time!

Edited by g_stacey on Tuesday 6th May 23:24

[Chris71]

I used to live quite close to Afan and my personal favourite is the Penhydd. I'd drive up there (all of 20 minutes from uni), do it twice back to back and then home!

I gather Whytes Level has changed since I was there, but I believe the rather evil rock steps at the end remain?

I must admit I thought The Wall was a bit overated, but I have to stress that was a relative thing!

The road over is quite good fun in the middle of the week too.

Sorry, kind of wandered off topic - some awesome photos! Braver man than I taking a 1D out on the trails though.

Edited by Chris71 on Wednesday 7th May 09:40

[matthew_h]

It's White's, not Whyte's.

Pics look good. We're off to Afan in a couple of week's time. Looking forward to it.

[neil_bolton]

atom111 said:

-C- said:

Good shots.

How did you rate the Whytes Level trail? We recently rode 'The Wall' and left feeling suitably unimpressed.

There seems to be a bit of a trend with trail centres of wasted opportunity. Far too much fire road & not enough trail. The only one I have come away impressed with the challenge so far is Laggan.

The Wall is probably in my opinon not as good as ANY of the other trails, if that is the only one you did you will leave with a bad impression, Whytes or Penhydd would probably have made you feel differently.

I have to agree with you there: I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, however it wasn't as good as say, the Cymcarn trail.

I've not ridden any others, so I cannot comment, however I prefer the Cymcarn XC loop over The Wall (and there's waaaaaaaaay too much fire road on The Wall for my liking).

[neil_bolton]

-C- said:

Have done Cwmcarn in a DH capacity, and on occasions have ridden the bottom of the XC trail from the fire road rather than the DH trail.

My concern is its very tame from what I have ridden. I think we would prefer something far more difficult on a technical level, rather than something anyone can ride around, as long as you are fit enough.

I think this is indicative of the sucess of Trail Centres:

We all want a knarly trail to ride, however in order to get the facilities that you gain at trail centres, you have to cater for those whom may not be in the 10% who can hit everything with confidence - there have been many articles in mags recently talking about this.

I prefer more technical trails myself, but in fairness, I do like the swoopiness of Cymcarn, as it is fun to ride a quicker trail.

Add in the convenience of the trail centre, I think it's a fair compromise to forgo some of the technicalness of the trail.

However, the techy stuff IS out these if you know where it is