Doing Bike Park Wales for the first time.
Discussion
I've finally got round to booking an uplift day at BPW for myself and the girlfriend next Monday. I think she'll mainly do blues and the odd red, she's a better rider than she thinks she is just needs a bit more confidence to get her speed up. I'm not too bad as whole not mega fast but not pedestrian either. She's arguably the smarter one of us as she's on a full sus Calibre Bossnut, I'm the idiot doing it on an Orange Crush...
Main question though, any recommendations regarding what trails to do first/what are best? I figure asking now saves wasting some time when we're there.
Main question though, any recommendations regarding what trails to do first/what are best? I figure asking now saves wasting some time when we're there.
The_Jackal said:
Trying to "get her speed up", is a sure way to end up in a welsh hospital at Bike Park wales. Sounds like she has more sense anyway lol
At no point have I said I'm 'trying to get her up to speed' she's big enough to make her own decisions about what to try and what not to try. Only thing I've done is make sure she's padded up and has a decent lid on. So does anyone have any suggestions for any specific runs to do first?
Bit of a late report but I was knackered when I got back yesterday. Both of us had a really good day, GF really enjoyed it, she certainly wasn't far behind me down the blues and I made sure I didn't hang back on them. It's like she saw me as a target not to lose 
We only ended up managing 4 runs, did 3 in the morning with some exploring, had a break for dinner, then I did Vicious Valley while she did Terry's Belly again, couldn't believe how much slower VV was than any on the blues, some good tech stuff though really enjoyed it.
Then things went a bit downhill, planned to meet her back at the uplift, I got there and did a quick phone check to see a 2 missed calls from her.... she'd done Terry's Belly in one hit as quick as she could which was impressive, only to try and pedal back to the uplift and snap her chain, unfortunately by the time I got back to her it was getting on for 3 o'clock and with the last uplift at 4:30 we decided to call it a day and gesd goke before the traffic got too silly. The joy of a 3 hour drive each way....
We're going to book again soon but sort out staying over for a night to give us some more time. I've got a couple of runs I really want to do now. It's damn hard work on a hard tail though but bloody good fun, but that may well be the hard tails last time out with me riding it, I somehow ended up walking into of the shop today intending to get a chain for her bike and walking out with an Orbea Occam. Same colouring as the pic but with the Fox 34 fork rather than the RockShox. Spent this afternoon swapping a couple of bits over the the Orange to the new bike (780mm Renthal Fat Bar, Ergon Grips) and tweaking positions for the controls.
We only ended up managing 4 runs, did 3 in the morning with some exploring, had a break for dinner, then I did Vicious Valley while she did Terry's Belly again, couldn't believe how much slower VV was than any on the blues, some good tech stuff though really enjoyed it.
Then things went a bit downhill, planned to meet her back at the uplift, I got there and did a quick phone check to see a 2 missed calls from her.... she'd done Terry's Belly in one hit as quick as she could which was impressive, only to try and pedal back to the uplift and snap her chain, unfortunately by the time I got back to her it was getting on for 3 o'clock and with the last uplift at 4:30 we decided to call it a day and gesd goke before the traffic got too silly. The joy of a 3 hour drive each way....
We're going to book again soon but sort out staying over for a night to give us some more time. I've got a couple of runs I really want to do now. It's damn hard work on a hard tail though but bloody good fun, but that may well be the hard tails last time out with me riding it, I somehow ended up walking into of the shop today intending to get a chain for her bike and walking out with an Orbea Occam. Same colouring as the pic but with the Fox 34 fork rather than the RockShox. Spent this afternoon swapping a couple of bits over the the Orange to the new bike (780mm Renthal Fat Bar, Ergon Grips) and tweaking positions for the controls.
She encouraged me to buy the new bike believe it or not, I've been looking at full sussers for a while, mostly the Nukeproof Mega 275, but I just happened to ask if they have anything interesting in or any alternative ideas, and they'd knocked 400 quid off the Orbea over the weekend with the new models coming in next month. A mate has just bought the same model bike in blue with the gold kashima coated forks, after one quick go on it I was very tempted.... I've sized down to a medium rather than large i usually prefer, but with bikes getting bigger a medium has suddenly become the right size now. Feels so playful, and for the tiny distance I can currently do them, way easier to manual.
I am finding the idea of selling the Orange hard to come to a conclusion about, it's such a huge amount of fun to ride. Might give it a while and see if I still want to use it with having the new bike as well. I've got a feeling that I will do...
I am finding the idea of selling the Orange hard to come to a conclusion about, it's such a huge amount of fun to ride. Might give it a while and see if I still want to use it with having the new bike as well. I've got a feeling that I will do...
Edited by DanielSan on Wednesday 14th August 17:39
Sa Calobra said:
I love walking in to buy a chain and walking out with a bike!
Weirdly I'd recommend staying in Merthyr centre over night and going out for drinks there when you go back.
It's very raucous but there isn't a bad vibe and everyone in the pubs is having a great time.
Some good pubs too.
A stay over is definitely planned for the next visit, gf has done a couple of skills days at Cannock as it's the most local one, since we got back from BPW she's looking at doing a jump course there now so and I quote 'we could go there the day after and I can practice what I've learnt or we can go to Forest of Dean and I can do it there instead' Weirdly I'd recommend staying in Merthyr centre over night and going out for drinks there when you go back.
It's very raucous but there isn't a bad vibe and everyone in the pubs is having a great time.
Some good pubs too.
All this from a girl who until 2 years ago hadn't never even owned a bike of any sort since she was a kid, and now suddenly wants 'the same Jersey as Rachel Atherton'
there was a short explanation about the 2 ways you can get the stripe Jersey, but she doesn't want to buy one as that's cheating so is happy with her Fox tops instead.... I've created a monster. Gassing Station | Pedal Powered | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff