Cwmcarn DH Track 08/09/09 Pics

P-Jay

SInce I can't ride I thought I'd go along with one of my riding buddies and take some shots on Sunday.

Took these with his old 5meg compact, they don't seem to translate so well after being given the photobucket treatment.

Need something with a faster shutter speed, ha ha.

If I caught anyone here, give me a shout and I'll e-mail you some higher quality ones.

P-Jay

P-Jay

Anonymous

any rocky gardens?

P-Jay

P-Jay

And took these on my iPhone.

supersonic

Looks fast! But dare I say it.. apart from the first drop, an XC course?!

cgarossi

I was there last week and was uncertain. Is it safe to do on a Trail bike like my Fuel EX8?

I would get a full facer first though.

P-Jay

GmanUK101 wrote:

any rocky gardens?

At Cwmcarn? yes some, no pics though. I'm pretty bashed up so Daryl kindly dropped me halfway up and I stuck to the easier stuff to walk/climb on.

Anonymous

looks nice and fast for sure...

CustomReign

Ther's nothing XC about the Cwmcarn DH track. You need to hit it hard and have the bike to take it too. You could - and I have - done it on an XC rig, but you'll be missing sections by going around them and taking the easy line. Not what it's about.

cgarossi

So I take it you need 300 yards of travel for this course?

supersonic

Maybe the pictures don't do it justice! It does give an impression of a fast, but loose surface - but no obstacles.

P-Jay

supersonic wrote:

Looks fast! But dare I say it.. apart from the first drop, an XC course?!

As you can guess, the camera flattens things out. As above I stuck to the fast/open bits on the bottom third. It gets more tech the higher you go.

It was, and is designed as a 'everyman' DH track, there's no obstacle that can't ether be rolled or rode around. You can ride it on anything really, but I know of stumpjumpers snapping frames on it.

There's loads of different route choices, it's a Red/Black (actually the FC grade it Black/Double Black, but they lump all MTB tracks in together) with multiple versions of each, they also overlap each other for 80% of it. Yeah you've got to keep an eye out for other riders coming in at all angles for a lot of the time, ha ha,

I don't know what I'm trying to say really, there was a guy there that day on one of the new Evil Revolt bikes, him and his mates where flying around and hitting all the tough lines, there was also a couple of guys on 5"'ers going half the speed and rolling more things. It's a tough as you want to make it really.

legin

you can do it on a hardtail an xc bike might suffer if you do the big jumps but your ex8 should be fine

cgarossi

Thanks. I was unsure when I was there last time. Didnt want to go down it and look a fool.

P-Jay

This bit for example.



You can't really see it, but that's tough.

There's 3 line choices coming down there, well a few more, but 3 real ones. It's very very steep. 2 jumps ether side of the middle. ones about a 2fter but because of the drop you fly for miles, the landing is very rooty so you have to stay off the brakes and just let the massive berm catch you.

cgarossi

Is that photo take at the top then?

supersonic

It does look like a track I would enjoy. I like choices in lines, and fast swoopy bits! And you can take a variety of bike types too.

P-Jay

cgarossi wrote:

So I take it you need 300 yards of travel for this course?

Nah, a full DH bike is ideal and what 90% of riders most days use.

But anything 6" and above works well.

Anything lighter/smaller and you're gonna suffer and things like rims and frames tend not to be able to take the pushisment.

People, kids mostly, sometimes ride it on HT's and all sorts of supermarket crap, but you've ether got to be, very good / very slow / very stupid.

CustomReign

I've just remembered. About 2 - 3 years ago, a load of us were at the road gap section nattering on the best line and having a rest. All of a sudden, this young lady shot past us on her pink hardtail. As she prepared for the turn on loose gravel, her leg was out to gain stability. After that she was gone on to the berm and next section. That shut us up and I wanted to marry her ! A quality moment.

P-Jay

cgarossi wrote:

Is that photo take at the top then?

Nah, I'm about 15ft up on a bridge. The track goes right underneath.

The Northern Monkey

supersonic wrote:

It does look like a track I would enjoy. I like choices in lines, and fast swoopy bits! And you can take a variety of bike types too.

Hehe... and guess where i'm moving to just after xmas

I'd been chatting to Nick about what DH frame to buy myself when I eventually move

P-Jay

Found some more. The first two give a pretty good idea of the speed difference between a 6" bike, I think it's an SX Trail and a full DH Bike.

supersonic

As I said before, it looks like a track where you can get a lot of speed! I will visit.

Wharncliffe looks a lot rockier (but shorter)

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/ ... 24d298.jpg

M6TTF

Guessing it's down to the photoraphy like you said, but that just looks like fast trail riding. Looks ace

M6TTF

Guessing it's down to the photoraphy like you said, but that just looks like fast trail riding. Looks ace

deadpool2e

All those pics where taken near the bottom, the top half is a lot more tech.

Daz555

P-Jay wrote:

Found some more. The first two give a pretty good idea of the speed difference between a 6" bike, I think it's an SX Trail and a full DH Bike.

To be fair, the first guy looks like he's on it, and the second like he's out for a morning stroll.

Daz555

Helmet cam down Cwmcarn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poxe7tnMn6U

Rowan Sorrell messing about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flGKHUPg9k4

nferrar

The only DH track I've ever ridden is Cwmcarn and I've only done it once. It is, as I understand it, designed to be a quick track but as has been said there's a lot of line choices available and chicken runs for all the big stuff (at least on the red run). I did it on a Zesty 314 and for a decent rider it's probably all you need but personally a bit more travel would have been nice The road drop (first pic) looks very tame from that angle, it isn't when you look over the edge I even walked the chicken run on that bit as was running a triple and every one I saw doing the chicken run (probably about 75% of the people in total) were grinding over the lip and there's a berm just after it so if you get squirrely on it you probably won't recover in time to make the berm.