Cwmcarn, broken trails :-(

rhyko7

poiuy1 wrote:

Ok rhyko7 and thewaylander, it might be wise not to say that 'I need to learn to ride a bike' and 'MTFU' comments when I only comment the current state of Cwmcarn atm, I have given you guys the opportunity to show me the broken spots is can be ridden over, but you have turned it down, I accept it and take it that you cant do it.

Actions speaks louder than words

Back to the main topic, it's nothing extreme repairing the two bad spots, it just need to remove about 3/4 big rocks and cut away the deep tree roots or fill the tree roots gaps with dirt/gravel to to make it nice flowing trail, job done and nothing major.

OH MY GOD you were serious about proving we can ride an easy trail!
i was being polite and didn’t really criticise your riding, i basically said practice and learn to ride it, i did not insult you or say you were crap rider.
But now you are getting on my nerves, why can’t you just accept that other people can ride what you can’t?
Im still not going to call you a crap rider although that’s what everyone here is really thinking, im not taking a camera around with me for an xc ride.
However if you can describe to me where these so called unrideable spots are, I will woop my phone out and record people riding it for you, or perhaps to be really cocky try and ride up it with one hand lol, I know how much you would love that haha
Although I have a feeling that you are doing something stupid like riding up the DH track or riding up the stream, the only time I have to get off at cwmcarn is to fit between posts or if my bike malfunctions, although I did get off the other day to do some trail maintenance (hedge bashing, fed up of catching my arm oand shoulder on one particular bush.)


anyway to summerise, please describe where these so called unrideable spots are?

welshkev

rhyko7 wrote:

poiuy1 wrote:

Ok rhyko7 and thewaylander, it might be wise not to say that 'I need to learn to ride a bike' and 'MTFU' comments when I only comment the current state of Cwmcarn atm, I have given you guys the opportunity to show me the broken spots is can be ridden over, but you have turned it down, I accept it and take it that you cant do it.

Actions speaks louder than words

Back to the main topic, it's nothing extreme repairing the two bad spots, it just need to remove about 3/4 big rocks and cut away the deep tree roots or fill the tree roots gaps with dirt/gravel to to make it nice flowing trail, job done and nothing major.

OH MY GOD you were serious about proving we can ride an easy trail!
i was being polite and didn’t really criticise your riding, i basically said practice and learn to ride it, i did not insult you or say you were crap rider.
But now you are getting on my nerves, why can’t you just accept that other people can ride what you can’t?
Im still not going to call you a crap rider although that’s what everyone here is really thinking, im not taking a camera around with me for an xc ride.
However if you can describe to me where these so called unrideable spots are, I will woop my phone out and record people riding it for you, or perhaps to be really cocky try and ride up it with one hand lol, I know how much you would love that haha
Although I have a feeling that you are doing something stupid like riding up the DH track or riding up the stream, the only time I have to get off at cwmcarn is to fit between posts or if my bike malfunctions, although I did get off the other day to do some trail maintenance (hedge bashing, fed up of catching my arm oand shoulder on one particular bush.)


anyway to summerise, please describe where these so called unrideable spots are?[/quote]

what he said ^

baba123

i remember the first time i rode the trail and i found it quite fun and there wee some bits needing repair (this was 2 months ago)Also don't have ago at somebody because they find part of the course unrideable and you don't maybe there not as good as you at something but so what who of you will remeber this in a year or so

Anonymous

:roll: I apologise for opening this thread to get bitten back with your expert comments, Cwmcarn is tip top condition with fantastic flowing trails that doesnt need any repairs at all.

poiuy1 cant ride a bike remember, some of you guys here are the best at Cwmcarn.

are you still going to bite back with more comments after this?

welshkev

i don't think any of us have been really rude or nasty. some of the comments i think have been taken out of context and i think were said more in jest but perhaps have come across wrongly. cwmcarn is rough around the edges as already said but like already said that makes it fun some peoples easy is some peoples hard again as previously said, none of us professed to be experts, only that we live locally so have the benefit of riding the trail regulary so maybe have got used to the more technical bits,.

just out of interest poiuy1 where are you from? do you have the opportunity to ride cwm more often? no one said you were a crap rider, just that you should ride the sections more and you'll overcome them.

camerauk

Sorry to jump on the thread but I am traveling up to my sister in laws on Sunday for a few days and will maybe pop over on Tuesday have a blast around
How far away is the trail to Merthyr Tydfil
and do they have a place to hire bikes?
Cheers

Thewaylander

Not sure about bike hire around Cwm certainly is none at the bike center but maybe a more local shop does(though we have few really good shops in the S.wales area.

And cwm 45min to an hour i think from merthyr.

poiuy1

the only person being rude now mate is you. We said you need to practice them they are hard and i screw sections all teh time, but if you have nothing that challenges you how are you meant to improve? if everything is smooth where is the fun?

Cwm was serviced middle to end of last year with all new trail signs and all sorts, The sections are rocky and rooty because thats the intension as we have tried to explain. it's a red trail which means deangerous not for everyone, alot of trails centers rate trails red that are very easy giving people the wrong idea.

welshkev

Thewaylander wrote:

Not sure about bike hire around Cwm certainly is none at the bike center but maybe a more local shop does[/b](though we have few really good shops in the S.wales area.

And cwm 45min to an hour i think from merthyr.

poiuy1

the only person being rude now mate is you. We said you need to practice them they are hard and i screw sections all teh time, but if you have nothing that challenges you how are you meant to improve? if everything is smooth where is the fun?

Cwm was serviced middle to end of last year with all new trail signs and all sorts, The sections are rocky and rooty because thats the intension as we have tried to explain. it's a red trail which means deangerous not for everyone, alot of trails centers rate trails red that are very easy giving people the wrong idea.

try PS cycles, i know they hire downhill bikes, not sure about xc bikes though

cee

Thewaylander wrote:

The sections are rocky and rooty because thats the intension as we have tried to explain. it's a red trail which means deangerous not for everyone, alot of trails centers rate trails red that are very easy giving people the wrong idea.

and maybe here we come to the real rub of the issue.

how does one red route compare in technicality to any other in the UK? I would wager that in the red category there is quite a wide variety of technical difficulty.

Even take GT and Innerleithen....Inners red xc is more on a par with the black at gt.

GT Orange bike park sections are striclty speaking in the same category as the Oragne Bike Park Grade DH trails at inners....I can ride all of that 'freeride' section at GT on a hardtail....I could not do the same with the DH runs at inners.

better national trail grading could perhaps be really useful.

I actually think that you get a lot of folks riding the red at GT who are probably not at the level yet, and that is where you get people asking for corners to be taken out of the pie run and i suspect that similar happened with the aforementioned boardwalk sections at afan was it?

someone who should have really been riding blue, rode the red and got pasted, then complained, cue the FC sanitising the trail.

Of course...the other thing is...how does the blue rider improve to red level without moving up?

toughy

Thewaylander

Oh i agree with you Cee.

Have you seen what has happened at C-Y-B lend of last year, now allt here trails are black! thats a joke and when someone really comes on a black section thinking its like those trails which some were bairly reds really, they really may come a croper.

It's a side effect of us starting to live in a nanny enviroment.

camerauk

Ok cheers guys

Northwind

cee wrote:

how does one red route compare in technicality to any other in the UK? I would wager that in the red category there is quite a wide variety of technical difficulty.

Yup... Ride Glentress red or most of the english reds and decide you're good enough for reds. Ride Nevis Red and die on the rocks

(actually though, there's more challenge on glentress red than most people credit, just that people choose the easy lines, most people skip Hop Skip and Jump frinstance, loads of people do the bridges instead of the beams on Pie Run and walk Trail Perfection, or avoid the roots on Magic Mushroom or the rocks and the proper exit on Pennel's Vennel... Which is basically all no different from taking chicken runs.)

rhyko7

poiuy1
i made a little video on my phone today riding cwmcarn, my mate was on his 1996 voodoo riding up the bits i suspect you call "unrideable"
give me your email address and ile send them to you

welshkev

rhyko, mail it to me mate, i wanna see if it's the same parts i was thinking

camerauk

I will have a copy please I have sent you a pm with email address

I was up there today to have a look around but not with my bike though as i had family with me and bike is back in Devon waiting for parts for the forks which I hope cure the problem which is the lock out has stopped working and the forks wont compress fully LBS reckon its the motion control unit seals or could be the motion control unit itself(hope not) as they think the oil has leaked into the lower leg stopping em from compressing starting with seal kit which is cheap then not sure if its the motion control unit I may get another set of forks as a upgrade as there seem to be some bargains at the mo
Forks are Recon race solo air

It looked a great place will def be back for a go in a month or so when I next get a few days off work
I drove around the Cwmcarn forest drive which is great to spend the day with family and have picnic etc, saw a few points of the trail when it crossed the road in places and a few tired riders at the top lol(will be me for sure)

oldstyle

cwmcarn regular myself , yea theres a few tricky bits on the climb up , but they add to the challange of clearing the run up , within the last week they have leveled the bit just before the fire road to the top , for me it was a bad move . Yes it does need some work in places but mainly to block all the short cuts where people have just run over the tops of turns in a straight line . The way they keep removing the technical bits before long we will all be riding the taff trail for some excitement .

rhyko7

i will upload video to my youtube link below in the next couple days, i tried to do it one handed and failed but filmed my mate doing it
Kev the bit thats hardest before the fire road to the free ride section has been resurfaced and its really easy now so didnt film that bit, but im sure the rest we were thinking same bits.

Thewaylander

Screwing more of the trail up there again are they?

rhyko7

yo guys i posted couple quick vids off my phone, although poiuy1 seems to have dissapeared.
i think these are the parts he may have struggled with.
only leaving videos up for a week as i have street cred to consider, uploading ascending XC just aint cool lol.
my mate was on a 15" 1990's Vodoo heap of crap with 2.1 Crossmark tyre and cage pedals yet still didnt have to get off and walk. (his commencal has cracked)
i think thats conclusive evidence that poiuy1 really does suck on a bike

rhyko7

welshkev
yo Kev
how long is the DH run at pontypool?
im looking for sumin to ride this wkend, off to ride Risca DH or Machen DH friday if you wanna come out to play?

TheNorthernTrain

My problem is that i can't take it fast, as im pretty unfit, and so not being very good technically, especially uphill, and being crap at picking lines through it means that when going slowly every now and then slip up and have to stop. I then find it very very hard to start up again mid section and end up sacking it off and walk it until i can find a nice smooth bit to start up again.

If i was there every week things would change. I have never done tricky uphills like that before as i have never even tried, i amazed myself at how easy it can be if you just stick it in the lowest gear and spin.

rhyko7

north-sure wrote:

My problem is that i can't take it fast, as im pretty unfit, and so not being very good technically, especially uphill, and being crap at picking lines through it means that when going slowly every now and then slip up and have to stop. I then find it very very hard to start up again mid section and end up sacking it off and walk it until i can find a nice smooth bit to start up again.

If i was there every week things would change. I have never done tricky uphills like that before as i have never even tried, i amazed myself at how easy it can be if you just stick it in the lowest gear and spin.

sorry no offence meant to you, its just the other guy was basically calling us liars.
yeah the way to go is is too keep energy in reserve by cruising as much as possible before the hard bits and attack the hardest most tech bits fast. but thats very hard if your already struglling due to fitness.
its really really hard when you cassette is knackerd too-thats the problem ive had recently, every time i put power down it jumps.

TheNorthernTrain

rhyko7 wrote:

north-sure wrote:

My problem is that i can't take it fast, as im pretty unfit, and so not being very good technically, especially uphill, and being crap at picking lines through it means that when going slowly every now and then slip up and have to stop. I then find it very very hard to start up again mid section and end up sacking it off and walk it until i can find a nice smooth bit to start up again.

If i was there every week things would change. I have never done tricky uphills like that before as i have never even tried, i amazed myself at how easy it can be if you just stick it in the lowest gear and spin.

sorry no offence meant to you, its just the other guy was basically calling us liars.
yeah the way to go is is too keep energy in reserve by cruising as much as possible before the hard bits and attack the hardest most tech bits fast. but thats very hard if your already struglling due to fitness.
its really really hard when you cassette is knackerd too-thats the problem ive had recently, every time i put power down it jumps.

Oh i wasn't taking offence, i was kinda agreeing with you by saying that it is very easily done but kinda went off one and that was sort of hidden!

Yeah im getting back to the gym and shit after that climb up at cwm. That and the fact that i need to work on my beach bod for summer!

welshkev

rhyko7 wrote:

welshkev
yo Kev
how long is the DH run at pontypool?
im looking for sumin to ride this wkend, off to ride Risca DH or Machen DH friday if you wanna come out to play?

sent you pm.