north wales by train

Will Snow
Will Snow Posts: 1,154
edited May 2008 in Routes
heyyyyyyyyyyyy... trail centre virgin here, looking for something in the north of wales, i.e. easily accessible from manchester... oh and heres the catch, it has to be acccessible by train, coz i dont have a car (poor student) :D any reccomendations?? looking at gwydyr forest, maybe coed ed brenin?? just let us know if youd had any experiences. cheers!!!
i ride a hardtail

Comments

  • millster
    millster Posts: 209
    unfortunatly. nothing in north wales is accessible by train. llandegla is about 9miles from wrexham train station, and coed y brenin is pretty much in the middle of nowhere, i would assume the nearest train station would be dolgellau, which is similar distance away.
  • Santibes
    Santibes Posts: 46
    should be able to get to the Marin from Llanwrst station (10 min ride), & Penmachno from Betws y coed (bit longer)
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    beautiful, sounding good
    i ride a hardtail
  • Xybadog
    Xybadog Posts: 124
    I have pretty much the same problem.

    I live in Wrexham, only 8-9 miles from LLandegla, but it's a b*tch of a journey, and I don't have a car. It's annoying that there's somewhere so close...yet so far!!

    I also wan't to go by train to other areas that are more accessible by train, but finding it difficult.

    Anyone else from the Wrexham area, who actually cycles to LLandegla and back? :? :shock:
    "Life is like a box of chocolates..." what the f*ck is that all about? 8)

    http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/2038431/
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    Santibes wrote:
    should be able to get to the Marin from Llanwrst station (10 min ride), & Penmachno from Betws y coed (bit longer)

    sorry what station??? tisnt on the rail website :?
    i ride a hardtail
  • Xybadog
    Xybadog Posts: 124
    Will Snow wrote:
    Santibes wrote:
    should be able to get to the Marin from Llanwrst station (10 min ride), & Penmachno from Betws y coed (bit longer)

    sorry what station??? tisnt on the rail website :?

    I think he meant to say Llanrwst (w & r were wrong way round)
    "Life is like a box of chocolates..." what the f*ck is that all about? 8)

    http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/2038431/
  • Will Snow
    Will Snow Posts: 1,154
    oh to easy with the welsh language :lol:
    i ride a hardtail
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    millster wrote:
    nothing in north wales is accessible
    Is actually more accurate! :D
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    Xybadog wrote:
    Anyone else from the Wrexham area, who actually cycles to LLandegla and back? :? :shock:

    I cycle to Llandegla from Buckley nearly every weekend :wink:

    Surely 9 miles is only 45mins or so by bike - easily doable.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Red dragon, if you're not knackered or fu**ed by the time you get back to the cafe, you're not trying hard enough :wink:
    so riding an additional hour and a half on top of that means you'd have to hold back.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    It's all good training - the journeys don't have at 100% effort surely?

    But I know what you mean, it's too much effort, that's why I don't get a MTB, if I had a car the story might be different.

    Anyway isn't it downhill all the way from Llandegla to Wrexham? Making the return journey easy peasy?
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    You still mis-understand. The amount of fun you can have once there is diminished if you can;t give it your 100%.
    It's one of the reasons I ride in Llandegla more than in Coed y Brenin, because in coedy, the trails are so long, you have to hold back a bit to make sure you've got enough left in reserve to finish the course.

    Most of my time in Llandegla is spent playing on the black runs until I'm knackered, then it's only about 3 miles back to the cafe for a cup of tea and a muffin. If I had to make sure I still had the energy for a 45 minute ride home, then I couldn't muck about half as much.

    You really seem to misunderstand the point of mountain biking, that it is done for fun, more than excercise.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    You still mis-understand. The amount of fun you can have once there is diminished if you can;t give it your 100%.

    You still mis-understand, I mean the journey there and back doesn't have to done at 100%. I was always under the impression that MTBing has more "technical sections" where you can take a breather, not like a TT where you are at 100% for the entire distance.

    A 45min ride there and back seems like a good warm up and warm down to me. If you can't do the trails at race pace (or whatever you call it) and have a warm down perhaps you aren't fit enough or fuelled properly. Surely a 10 or 20min break after going on the trails should be enough for you to recover enough to have a nice gentle ride home - if you are that tired you shouldn't be driving.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    Give it a go yourself then. hire a bike and try it out. it's not 100% aerobic effort all the way granted, but unless you're not knackering yourself (shoulders, forearms, back, neck, wrists, hands - they all take a battering on a mountain bike) you're not really getting the most from it.
  • omegas
    omegas Posts: 970
    Red dragon, if you're not knackered or fu**ed by the time you get back to the cafe, you're not trying hard enough :wink:
    so riding an additional hour and a half on top of that means you'd have to hold back.

    Someone is off another planet with that quote, in fact is probably the most misguided piece of junk I have ever seen on this forum.

    A 9 mile ride is a good warm up and for anyone that has a reasonable amount of fitness , if anything the benefits of doing a short ride like that is better than getting the bike off the back of the car and climbing that first section of hill at Llandegla without warming up.
    As for impacting your performance absolutely no chance you don’t even use the same muscle groups.
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    yeah. whatever. :roll:
  • marmitecp
    marmitecp Posts: 203
    My neighbour is the same - he puts his mountain bike in the car for the 4 miles to Greenfield for the Trans Pennine Trail.

    Its too far and too scary on the roads apparently.
  • redddraggon
    redddraggon Posts: 10,862
    omegas wrote:
    A 9 mile ride is a good warm up and for anyone that has a reasonable amount of fitness , if anything the benefits of doing a short ride like that is better than getting the bike off the back of the car and climbing that first section of hill at Llandegla without warming up.
    As for impacting your performance absolutely no chance you don’t even use the same muscle groups.

    I agree :wink:

    I still don't his argument of being too knackered to cycle back home - if you are that knackered you definitely shouldn't be driving.

    It's by far safer to cycle home if you are knackered than it is to drive.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    There's a difference between being physically spent (which is what I meant by knackered), and being tired.

    But I wouldn't ride the 60-odd miles home in either state.