Wales

Anonymous

Around October the 24th some time i will be going to wales biking but i need to know which one of the places to ride, what do each of the following places provide. (singletrack, freeride, downhill, xc)
Coed-y-Brenin, Afan forest park, Gwydyr Forest and Cwm Carn
Thanks and are they all ok this time of year?

Amos

This site has the answers. http://www.mbwales.com/

jsmity

living 15mins from Afan i'd say Afan. but to be honest if your stopping overnite you could do Afan one day and Cwm Carn the next. depends what you want. Afan has various rides to suite all. Cwm carn is all about its DH course with a bit of XC/ trail riding course not up to the quality of Afan.

Have fun either way

Anonymous

Thanks that sounds good

Anonymous

Another question is will the bikes survive i assume mine will but my dad who i will be going with has this http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10001&partNumber=559880&langId=-1# Yes i know, but he doesn't seem to think he will need another bike. Will he ?

jsmity

he'll need some extra padded pants!!!!!!!! i've seen lesser bikes going up........ and being pushed down. but hey you ride with what you've got and to your abilities

teacherman

:shock: Yeah it might survive - once. Especially if its muddy the transmission is going to die but as long as he's not wanting to launch it off drop-offs or jumps it should be OK. Wouldn't fancy it personally 'cos geometry probably isn't suited to trail center style riding.

Tell him to post the injuries in the biking press!

davydesign

he's gonna find afan pretty hard on that bike

You can hire bikes there for £25 upwards per day so for the effort it would be to take his bike and risk knackering it and himself I reckon he should hire one.

If you're dad still insists, once you get there (afan forest centre that is), start off heading towards the wall trail, and theres a little section through the trees right at the start that might help gauge how the bike/your dad's gonna hold up. Then you can pop into the hire centre and grab a kona coiler

dirtbiker100

enjoy the up at cwmcarn its fun. no honest it is. really. I have a little book from mbwales and on cwmcarn it says

The opening climb of 'Mabinogion' stiches a tightly weaving course back and forth across a stream rushing back down as you struggle upwards. then - and its only fair to warn you - it really kicks in... The great news is that once you've recovered your breath/sight/breakfast (delete as applicable) the climbing is pretty much over and the swooping rollercoaster trails make incredible use of the height you've gained

I rode it friday just gone and the only mud/puddles were in the first 500m. good track.

I originally thought cwmcarn was amazing then rode afan and it changed to afan being amazing and cwmcarn being real good... then I rode 7stanes and now all I just dream about is Glentress and the rest of 7stanes.

davydesign has a good point about the start of afan its a nice short section to see how you will cope. and I think a hire bike would be best, I did a sharp intake of breath when I saw the bike your dad has.

Anonymous

He refuses to pay any money on a hire bike but i carry on telling him he will need a new bike after it which will cost more. I guess i could treat him to a hire bike

dirtbiker100

Yes treat him, it'll make a whole lot of difference to your day and he'll enjoy it, not regret it.
http://www.skylinecycles.co.uk/id34.html is the page you want

shin0r

Your dad's bike will make it round Afan, but probably only once. It'll make it up cwmcarn, but probably not down! He'll have a much better time of things on one of the hire bikes I should imagine.

P-Jay

I've seen people ride Afan on worse, but I wouldn't bother taking it, it'll come home in a bag. If he insists I'd stick to Penhydd at Afan Forest, it's a nice beginers xc course, couple of miles up on fire road and nothing too serious on the way down, few drops but nothing over a foot.

Anonymous

If i do both cwmcarn and afan will i be able to hire a bike for both or will i have to hire twice. And thanks for all the replys

clanton

You would have to hire for both I suspect. Not sure where to hire bikes at Cwm Carn, Afan has a bike shop at the bottom (Skyline cycles) and do a wide range of hire bikes. Might be worth phoning ahead to book a bike though I imagine they're not that busy now.

dirtbiker100

Well skyline offer hire for up to a week so i'd have thought they'd let you take it to cwmcarn as long as its safely transported etc. but yeah give them a ring for sure.

mtblambley

iv only ridden afan and coed y brenin. coed y brenin offers lots of trails from short fire-road rides to all-day rides. no ot really any downhill from wat i can remember. afan is similar but with fewer trails. I would probaly say afan has the best quality riding.

clubsport911

joz333 - you mentioned October 24th. (mid week)... any reason for this ? I could make the following w/e and would be well up for afan (never been there)

Anonymous

Reason is it my half term hols and on the 24th is my birthday so around that time probs a couple of days after would like to ride with you but would not keep up and can't do that time :oops:

skyliner

Hi, I work at Skyline Cycles, but at the Glyncorrwg MTB Centre.

As part of the Kona Bike Parks scheme, we have Kona hire cycles from basic HT's from £25 a day, and quality Caldera HT's for £30, up to 6" Coilers, and 4" Kikapu deluxes, and 5" Dawg deluxes(my recommendation for comfort and stability) for £40 a day. All of these are available from the Afan Argoed Visitor Centre. Where The Wall and Penhydd trails start. If you wish to hire, Jaime & James will be happy to help, and give you pointer on the best trails to ride.
I'm not sure about your dad's ability, but a new section will be opening tomorrow on the White's Level trail which you may enjoy. We can direct him around the more technical sections, and allow you to meet up for the final 2 sections, while you both get a good experience out of the ride. It's easy to follow both routes, so you shouldn't miss each other at the meeting points. And there are usually friendly riders about to guide you on the right path though.

Cwm carn is great too if you like technical climbing and flowing descents, or blasting a DH track.

If you're into something a little more FR, you could head west, and try Brechfa. There's some fun sections there too. If a little steep for beginners or less tech riders.

Whatever you decide, have a good time.

clubsport911

skyliner - that is superb advice. However, could you please clear up a preconception I had / have ?

I was under the impression that of Cwm Carn / Afan, it is Afan that is more flowing / faster.

For me, Thetford "with hills" (nice, side by side singletrack in trees etc) is heaven. I'm happy for the mega technical downhill - to a point, - but am not up for reckless banzai action for 2 hours (my cahones are just not what they were and I only have 4" sus / hardtail bikes) :x

Anyhow, any advice you have - appreciated

Anonymous

Ye thnaks for the info its great, i talked to my dad about the hire and he thinks its a good price so may be down there some time soon,l'm not the fittest so may have trouble on the uphills but do love coming down, am usually used to jump biking.

skyliner

It really depends on which trail you choose to ride, and the speed you wish to ride at.
All of the trails at Afan are graded red (even the section of White's known as The Black Run).
All of the trails are easily rollable at a sensible speed for your ability. Only you can be the judge of what is too technical for you. (and there's no shame in walking it first, or just walking it. You're out for YOUR enjoyment not anyone else's)
But we have a mix of classic hand cut old skool flowing trails (Penhydd, formerly 9 foot.com), and slightly more technical but still flowing for 80% (The Wall), then up at Glyncorrwg, you have more rocky terrain to deal with.

White's Level is regarded as the most technical trail, but if you don't go offline to hit all the dropoffs, and roll the tabletops, it's got an almost mesmerising flow. Where you just get carried from one corner into the next almost automatically (if you relax and let the trail take you where you need to be).

Skyline is the most underrated of the descents IMO. It's probably because it's at the end of a 46K lung bursting climb and descend rollercoaster of a trail that encompasses an initial singletrack climb (shared with White's) that gains most of it's altitude in the 1st mile, then goes on to provide a mix of flowing, pedally, and technical singletrack, interspersed with fireroad climbing and stunning views. But then you get to the final 2 sections of fast flowing into rocky, pedally, technical, kidney shaking descents that form the best descending to be found at Afan. Most of our visitors get to this point, already battered from the onslaught of the previous tech sections, and have to ride at a measured pace to stay upright. But if you take a shortcut from the top of the climb to this section and pin it, it kicks ass.

Then you get back to the Drop Off Cafe, for friendly service, and masses of fresh home cooking. That just tops the day off for me.

In general, you can take from it what you want. All it's missing is a DH track But we're working on that.

I drive 20miles for the trails on my day off, and they never get boring. There's a line to suit all of my moods.
I feel lucky to have it on my doorstep.

skyliner

joz333 wrote:

Ye thnaks for the info its great, i talked to my dad about the hire and he thinks its a good price so may be down there some time soon,l'm not the fittest so may have trouble on the uphills but do love coming down, am usually used to jump biking.

That's why I think you'll like the new "Energy" section on White's. It starts with some nice tabletops, then gets into some fast berms, then takes you into a tree dodging fast flowing section with small lipped boardwalk bridges that launch you towards the trees, but you land in some nice cutties that throw you back on line into the next straight, and then you jump again, land in the berm, and the it goes out into a pedally bit o get into position for the smooth rolling long berms into some step up jumps that flow into trannies, and if you hit'em right, you can pump it out to the "shore" section. The you get a bit of pedalling, into some more flowing singletrack, and a short sharp climb out. It's fantastic!
And that's just one small section of a 17K trail with only 6K of climbing to get you there.