Coed y Brenin - which trails for newbies?

dodgyknees

I am off to Coed y Brenin with my two teenage sons at the weekend for the first time. We were in Wales in August and rode the blue and red trails at Llandegla Forest which was great.
We're relatively new to mountain biking so I was looking for some advice on which of the red trails would be most suitable for us at Coed y Brenin. Will be riding hard tail bikes so don't want to take on anything too technically demanding.
I was thinking of doing 'Temptiwr' to get a feel for the place and then either 'MBR' or 'Tarw'. I did however recently read a report on MBR which made it sound pretty demanding.
Any advice/tips would be much appreciated.

Andy B

There is not much difference in both distance or total climb between MBR & Tarw trails, both approx 20km & 400m of climbing.

I did the MBR & The Beast (Black) last year, the MBR is a great trail (The Beast is a hell of a trail!!)

Do the Temtirw (green) first & see how you cope, some of the sections are shared with the MBR trail.

If you can do the trickier sections of the green the MBR should be a good challenge, there are a couple of killer climbs, not technical, just long slogs up fireroads.

dodgyknees

Thanks for the info. I was a bit worried about the 'Pink Heifer' & 'Beginning of the End' sections on the MBR trail and wondered if the Tarw trail would be a bit less technically demanding.

Andy B

'Heifer's' a lovely flowing piece of singletrack, nothing really technical about it, but like any trail the faster you go the harder it gets to stay in your comfort zone.

All the trails use the 'beginning of the end' section(s), which is great fun, not really technical, but techy enough to give you some fun.

I think that the Tarw is one of the older trails from a few years ago when CYB was on that side of the forest, it will probably be as hard as the MBR, but as I've not ridden it I can't really comment on a comparison.

Troopy

The tarw trail is little less demanding technically, has a lot of steady climbing but is probably a safer option of the two for the first time. If you struggle with it then you're probably not ready for the MBR.

stevebrock

dodgyknees wrote:

I am off to Coed y Brenin with my two teenage sons at the weekend for the first time. We were in Wales in August and rode the blue and red trails at Llandegla Forest which was great.
We're relatively new to mountain biking so I was looking for some advice on which of the red trails would be most suitable for us at Coed y Brenin. Will be riding hard tail bikes so don't want to take on anything too technically demanding.
I was thinking of doing 'Temptiwr' to get a feel for the place and then either 'MBR' or 'Tarw'. I did however recently read a report on MBR which made it sound pretty demanding.
Any advice/tips would be much appreciated.

Hi there.

Me and a few mates were there a few month ago and did the Tarw trail (old red-bull i think),
I found the trail didnt flow very well and was very disappointed with it, I wouldnt say im a technical rider or a beginner but found some bits very technical and very loose so was nervous about putting the power down.
My mate came off and he was on a FS and quite experienced, so i would steer clear as i don't think you will enjoy.
We did the Sport trail in the afternoon, and that was better and a bit more flowing.
I wasn't that impressed with what i saw of CYB and much preferred and enjoyed Llandegla Red and Black trails!
If you get the chance have a look at Nant Y Arain, the summit trail is pretty good with some great twisy, flowing fast singletrack at the end, mind you there is a massive climb in the middle!.

phil_h

I'm no beginner either, and I didnt like CyB either. Too many stupid rocks.
More natural trails are much more enjoyable all in all.
NyA has some really good stuff, and (apart from the leg burner) calls you to come back and ride it again.

nknowlton

I to was a little disappointed in CyB after a visit in September and agree it lacks flow ( for me anyway) and in a couple of places I would want body armour to tackle the singletrack. That said the fireroads were less of a drag than say those at Afan. The visitor centre was verg good and generally its a pretty location.
Afan was better for me on the singletrack, more of a drag on the fireroads, visitor centre was good but blimey its stuck in a miserable part of the country
Shame you can't take both and mix 'em up.

phil_h

nknowlton wrote:

I to was a little disappointed in CyB after a visit in September and agree it lacks flow ( for me anyway) and in a couple of places I would want body armour to tackle the singletrack. That said the fireroads were less of a drag than say those at Afan. The visitor centre was verg good and generally its a pretty location.
Afan was better for me on the singletrack, more of a drag on the fireroads, visitor centre was good but blimey its stuck in a miserable part of the country
Shame you can't take both and mix 'em up.

LOL
I agree, for me a trail that makes you think of body armour isnt 'cross-country' its 'downhill'. Both misused terms these days, and I have wished for armour when sliding off the side of a steep traverse in steep woodland with no rocks (or anyone else ) in sight.
Variety is a spice tho, so we mustnt grumble
We didnt go back down to Afan this autumn simply because staying around there is so grim, so we kept up in mid-wales all week where the weather may have still been welsh, but at least it was quiet and scenic. Except when we went up to dolgellau and its grockles

nknowlton

Blimey me and you will be banned from Wales if we carry on critisising them this much
Anyone know of anything else that was similar to Afan ? i.e more cross country based

phil_h

Cwm Carn near Newport is worth riding if you are passing. Its a mixture of trees and mountaintop, some road-track but not much. A bit iffy on the top if the winds blowing.
Not at all scenic nearby !
Coed Trallwn near Beulah is short but sweet. Three short trails, almost all in trees. You can do all three at once or stop for a drink between each.
Machynlleth has 3 open country trails, with Mach 3 taking up onto open moorland - again very iffy when the wind blows, and best to avoid if its foggy on the top.

prophet_1000

I have ridden Coed y Brenin (The beast and Tarw only) a few times now, they are all the same kind of trail i.e lots of tightly spaced rocks sticking up at different angles but they are ridable on a hard tail, I beleive that the Dragons back is incorperated into parts of the beast and there are a few newer sections of the beast(Maybe Dragons back too) that are very smooth and flowing like Llandegla with out the tabletop jumps (Mind, only a few sections though).

The Beast is very demanding on the climbs though and seems to go on for an age, also note that not all the beast is rocky, some parts are rooty/ muddy. My mates rode this trail, who have never ridden before at this level so it is possible if your sons have a fair level of fitness. (it is a long trail though, 22 miles I think, or there abouts)

The Tarw trail is a little easier as it's descents are a little shorter and I think a little less technical and more fun (especially the very end) although it does get a little boring around 3/4 of the way around near the summit before the long fire road fast descent.

Depending on your location? climachx is an easy trail and quite a short one compared to Coed y Brenins trails, a little boring for the first 1/4 way around but you wont see anybody else on the trail and there is no trail centre.

Visit my site www.27gears.com for trail reviews on Coed y Brenins trails and 2 short video clips of the Beast (New section) and one of the descents at Climachx

Hope this helps?

dodgyknees

Re-visited Llandegla Forest and did the blue and red trails there again. This really is a great place to ride, for my level anyway. The blue trail is a great fun ride with a wonderful free flowing descent to the visitor centre after the tough climb. The red trail isn't too difficult technically but I find it pretty demanding on a fitness level as there are a number of further climbs after you split from the blue trail. The visitor centre at Llandegla is also very good and the place has a really good atmosphere, on a Sunday anyway.

Went to Coed y Brenin a couple of days after Landegla and the trails here are a different ball game. Did the Temtiwr with my two teenage sons to get a taste for the place and found it very technical. This trail is only about 6 miles long but they seem to have packed an awful lot into it. Lots of uneven and sticking up rocks to negotiate right from the start, a tough climb in the middle, and then the 'Beginning of the End' to finish. At our level this was a demanding ride and didn't quite have the fun factor of Llandegla. But that said it was enjoyable. Might try the MBR next time.

juankerr

I'm used to the Red & Blacks at Llandegla. Visiting CYB and doing the MBR was a bit of a shock as they don't have rocks and drop-offs at Llandegla, and in my opinion the red rated CYB is harder than Llandegla black.

If you haven't tried the Llandegla black runs then go for it - they aren't much more difficult than the red, and you can pick and choose which bits to do quite easily.

Penmachno near Betwyscoed is another option if you fancy something a little more natural - again this is tougher than Llandegla but it flows beautifully and the scenery is impressive.

anto164

When i did the MBR at CYB, it was MUCH more challenging than that at llandegla. the descends are much faster, and often a lot more sketchy. the climbs too are a lot harder than that at llandegla.

as said in previous posts, llandegla black is easier than CYB red.

phil_h

Its difficult to judge routes by how much elevation they climb.
- 2 examples come to mind immediately :
the red route at peebles (7 stanes) and the summit trail at nant yr arian.
the elevation covered at peebles is far greater but there is no appreciable slog involved (unless you take shortcuts to redo some sections)
however, the slog back up the hill at NyA is just plain offputting.

Ther is apparently a guide to trail grading, but I've yet to look it up and see whether to laugh or not

phil_h

I looked it up
http://www.imba.org.uk/index.php?page=W ... railGrades
And it is a laugh IMO
Its wording is just designed to put off the casual cyclist from trying 'proper' routes and getting unstuck. IMO
If that is what the trail builders are using as their rating system, no wonder we never know what to expect. Its utterly subjective.
There is a big blur between red and black, with no guidelines whatsoever to help consistency of grading. ie they are not bothered.
No mention of expectd fitness levels at all, which makes a biiiig difference to how a whole trail is ridden.
We will have to start trying more black routes ...... but it gets so negative if you have a go and there are no so-called 'chicken runs' (whoever invented that term knows nothing about encouraging people do they !) for tough sections so you end up having a scrappy frustrating ride and never going back.

haydntal

dodgyknees

Do not be put off by what you may read about the legburner at NantYr Arian. My two boys (aged seven and eight at the time) started their singletrack riding at Nat Yr Arian. There are several routes that you may take without having to ride the legburner. You may just ride to Nant Y Moch reservoir and back or you may wish to take in part of the longer Syfrdin trail and still do a little singletrack riding. You can also do the Pendam trail which is about five miles and would appeal to your boys.
What we did was take them along the initial climb and loop back down , incorporating the 'Drunken Druid' and 'High As A Kite' single tracks (roughly two miles) a couple of times before graduating to the 'Italian Job' and then they were confident enough to progress form there. Within six months they had done the red route at Llandgla a couple of times, the Derwen trails at Brechfa, and also the Whytes Trail at Afan and the MBR at Coed Y Brenin.
The Derwen Trail at Brechfa would be ideal for any beginner. It was designed by Rowan Sorrell and has just opened this year. The family route is about five miles which has an optional extension, giving an overall distance of about mine miles. This trail should be easily accomplished by your boys. It flows very well and has no really technical sections.
If your boys are anything like mine you will have difficulty keeping them away once they get a real feel for this sort of riding.
Good Luck!

dodgyknees

Having now been to both Coed y Brenin & Llandegla I personally prefer Llandegla. At my level the trails are sufficiently demanding to make things interesting but still have the smile factor. And the centre itself is great with a wonderful atmosphere, although I've only been there on Sunday's when the place is humming with riders of all ages and ability.

CYB is definitely more demanding with no equivalent trail to the very enjoyable blue route at Llandegla. It's essentially all red and black trails and as mentioned by others the red trails here are all tough. The one thing CYB does have over Landegla though is a very good green family trail. The green trail at Llandegla is a rather uninspiring short circuit of a lake, but at CYB the family trail is a 5 mile or so circuit along a river up to a couple of waterfalls & back to the visitor centre. Certainly not for the adrenalin riders amongst you but it's a nice ride for those in your party who don't want to put their lives at risk, like my wife who enjoyed this trail a lot.