AFAN ? CWMCARN? i aint got a clue av u?

Moteymoney

Guys, i have ridden a few trails at the forest of dean and loved it..whats next. should i do afan or cwmcarn?? not full on downhiller but love downhillin and trails. any thoughts would be appreciated.

topo

are you looking for DH or xc?
Cwmcarn has both, downhill track is ok not that technical but youd enjoy it on your first visit. It also has xc, although ive only ridden the last 1/2.
Afan doesent have any purpose built DH tracks although the descents are good fun. Only ridden the whites level but on that alone its worth a trip.

craker

Cwmcarn is nearer.

bones3027

I do a monthly trip to Afan and think it's awesome. Whites has the best decents followed wall and you get best of both on W2.

joec1

i would try cwmcarn first, its shorter and whilst the climb is a little difficult (for the untrained) its good for building confidence. where as the afan whites climb put me right off of riding (due ot its steepness) hwever a few laps of cwmcarn over a few months, and im flying up afan nowadays.

a group of us go across regularly (once or twice a month) as well as riding the fodca if your ever interested in riding with a group?

JustGoRide

I would choose Afan over Cwmcarn. There are far more trails to keep you entertained. Twrch is a great trail but not a patch on Whites Level.

dodgy

Get a sense of adventure and keep away from trail centres for an entire 12 months, go on, try!

welshkev

JustGoRide wrote:

I would choose Afan over Cwmcarn. There are far more trails to keep you entertained. Twrch is a great trail but not a patch on Whites Level.

disagree totally, i don't see the big hoo ha with whites, i prefer the wall.

but hey, they're all good rides and life would be boring if we all liked the same thing

saprkzz

I did cwncarn for the first time a few weeks ago, and absolutly loved the red route, but then last weekend headed over to afan and it blow me away,

I am a XC rider, and so not a DH rider, and also ride a carbon lightweight xc bike and still fell in love with the trails there. We did The wall in the morning and after lunch rode penhydd.

The journey aint too bad from where we are, so hopefully will visit regually.

Get over to both, they have a different experience, but both roxxx

Anonymous

Only done the two once each, but for me Cwmcarn is better for the DH stuff. If you want to get scared it's a good place to go .

For XC I prefer Afan, but I've only done Whites so far.

As I'm more of an XC myself I'd probably be happier at Afan as the XC isn't much at Cwmcarn (and a rather more annoying initial climb). I'm up for giving DH courses a try if they're not too savage, but I don't have a DH bike or currently enough protection, so I take it a bit cautiously. Most of it at Cwmcarn is rollable anyway if you avoid the black sections. It's fun, but I'd get bored after a few runs. I know the D'Hillers like to just get the day pass and do it all day, but I like to explore. I could probably do a day sessioning it for practice though, but need to get the full-face and the rest of the gear first.

Silversladey

cwmcarn is my local trail and is well worth a visit as mentioned above the initial climb is technical and a vicious lung burner overall the twrch trail descent more than makes up for it. My favourite trail is whites Level a great trail with an awesome climb and great descent.

speedy21

where is afan please, :shock:

roger_merriman

both are nice and are trail centers but worth pointing out that to get to either you've got to pass the Breacon Beacons which are some what bigger, with a number of hills well close to or over 2000ft.

but the issue is none of the trails are to be found on the internet, bar the tourist trails such as the Gap and what not.

topo

speedy21 wrote:

where is afan please, :shock:

Google > Afan

Anonymous

roger merriman wrote:

both are nice and are trail centers but worth pointing out that to get to either you've got to pass the Breacon Beacons which are some what bigger, with a number of hills well close to or over 2000ft.

but the issue is none of the trails are to be found on the internet, bar the tourist trails such as the Gap and what not.

Are you referring to Afan and Cwmcarn :?

tilt

saprkzz wrote:

We did The wall in the morning and after lunch rode penhydd.

Interesting...Penhydd was recomended to me as the first Afan route to try with my wife, but according to the webiste it's shut for forestry works?

Is that not the case?

Thewaylander

joec1 wrote:

i would try cwmcarn first, its shorter and whilst the climb is a little difficult (for the untrained) its good for building confidence. where as the afan whites climb put me right off of riding (due ot its steepness) hwever a few laps of cwmcarn over a few months, and im flying up afan nowadays.

a group of us go across regularly (once or twice a month) as well as riding the fodca if your ever interested in riding with a group?

Cwm is way steeper than white's climb...

in fact i would go as far as to say thats whites climb is nice shallow and winds up for a long time, its almost fun single track at points...

welshkev

^ what he said

and yes, as far as i know the penhydd is officially closed. i think you can get to the trail but they look dimmly on it as they're felling trees etc and it'd be dangerous

Anonymous

Thewaylander wrote:

Cwm is way steeper than white's climb...

in fact i would go as far as to say thats whites climb is nice shallow and winds up for a long time, its almost fun single track at points...

Whites is a breeze by comparison. The only plus for Cwm's climb is it doesn't last as long, but it's a killer. It's no wonder the DH'ers have the uplift. I wouldn't be doing with that climb all day!