Afan - Advice for women

lizziebb

My boyfriend and I are hoping to go to Wales for a MTB weekend and I need some advice as to how difficult Afan and Brechfa are?

In June we went to Scotland and completed Ae, Kirroughtree and Mabie on the red routes, I found these trails to be managable and was wondering what the trials are like compared to Wales.

craker

from memory Afan's (the wall) probably easier than Mabie red, the climbing's done mostly on fire track.

You should be fine :roll:

rhyko7

they are all easy trails, the black section on the whytes level may give you a little challenge, but you dont have to ride it, its an extra section which you can by-pass.
i would say the whytes is the simpler of the trails for descending but the wall is an easier climb.

Thewaylander

yeh, as above. Pehydd being the by far simplest trail. and in terms of decending you can go so fast on the wall decent that it can get scetchy if you don't know it

matt748

as above, Penhydd is reported to be the easiest of the routes at Afan, and is really enjoyable to ride. The next day we did The Wall, which had its moments of being a bit hairy. I wouldn't call it easy as above. I guess everyone has a different opinion (it was our 1st outing at a trail centre)

miss notax

Hello

If you can handle the Scottish red routes, Afan will be fine - you shouldn't have any problems. Even the black run at Whites Level is ok, if a little 'challenging' in places!

In my opinion Brechfa is definitely harder - the red is more like a black run (in fact our guide book says it's harder than the black!) - and I struggled with it. The berms are BIG and in a different league to the Scottish / south Wales red routes. Others may disagree but just my thoughts!

Thewaylander

didnt find Brechfa that bad to be fair, though more challenging through the whole trail for certain than anything at afan, being able to ride rocks at speed is a skill where afan rewards.

Still always find the last section of the black at Whytes a bit sketchy with how rutted it was at the end of last year.

miss notax

Thewaylander wrote:

didnt find Brechfa that bad to be fair, though more challenging through the whole trail for certain than anything at afan, being able to ride rocks at speed is a skill where afan rewards.

Still always find the last section of the black at Whytes a bit sketchy with how rutted it was at the end of last year.

Really? Wow, I found Brechfa much harder than the black run at Whites (and I came off on the final downhill section). Brechfa is just BIG - I like berms and can do them pretty well, but these were just scary :shock: