Coed y Brenin

bwstokie

Hi all

Me and some mates are thinking of going to the above in a couple of weeks. We are all pretty new to the game and have only been riding local trails and been to Cannock chase a few times during the last 12 months but fancy a change. We can all cope with follow the dog and the monkey trail well enough so was wondering what people would recommend doing for a day at coed y brenin?

Cheers

GSP1984

I want to go do 'the beast'... It's a trail centre after all and as everyone always slates them I'm thinking there can't be anything to hard. The hardest bit will be the distance of 40km if your fitness isn't there.

Dirtrider

the MBR is a great trail, one of my favourites, also has one of my favourite bits of singletrack ever.

You should be able to do it, I would of thought, don;t underestimate yourself. Maybe do two of the trails in one day?

Thewaylander

Far far more rocky that the cannock trails, much steeper, and miles more climbs.

Depends on yoru fitness and your riding abilities, i found the cannock trails time and little dull to be frank though good considering the area that it is(not much hieght) So climbing may come as a shock, and the rockyness can too so get some fatter tyres to cope, but otherwise shouldn't be much of an issue

VWsurfbum

What he said ^^^
Great fun just make sure you take cake and Jelly babies and plenty of water to do the beast, it can be a all dayer if your fitness isnt there!

bwstokie

Thanks so far chaps.

It's the fitness thing that worries me to be honest, the most I've rode in a day is about 30 miles, 10 of which were on the road and the other 20 nothing compared to what I'd expect a coed y brenin. I haven't got any problem with pain and suffering as long as the rewards there at the top. I suppose I'll have to suck it and see, the only way to learn, get better and fitter is to do it!

Presumably the trails there are doable on a 120mm travel hard tail?

delcol

should be a good challenge on a harttail.....
from what i remember it's rocky.... i still say it is one if not the best place ridden over here....

Northwind

bwstokie wrote:

Presumably the trails there are doable on a 120mm travel hard tail?

Yeah, no worries there (tbh there's not much anywhere that isn't). CYB is pretty hard work- not just distance, the surface in some bits really eats your momentum, and though the descents aren't exactly massively, they're hard to ride quick. Brilliant place...

If you've only got one day, make it a big one and do the Beast. Take it easy on the climbs, try not to crash into any massive rocks... Oh and watch out for the shortcut out in the top/northmost corner, there's a completely pointless fireroad climb-and-descent which you can skip with a very short (horrible) tarmac climb/push.

The Tarw is fab too but does feel like a lot of effort for the reward compared to some other places. Still well worthwhile though.

CYB's the only place we rode in Wales that I'm really itching to do again. Everything else was good, but it was a bit special IMO.

Neal_

I did it years ago on my brother's Orange hardtail and loved it although the climbs nearly killed me as I was horribly unfit at the time, "very short (horrible) tarmac climb/push" brings back a fairly shocking memory I'm dying to get back there, it pisses all over Llandegla and Lee Quarry which is all I've done this year.

My advice is to do some high intensity interval traing on the steepest hill you can find in the next two weeks.

VWsurfbum

I remember a really short sharp climb that if you get wrong, wel its almost inpossible to walk up
I'm going to try and get there in between xmas and new year?

milko9000

I'm about to head up there for a ride tomorrow morning! Thanks for the tips folks. I've heard a few reports that combining MBR and Dragon's Back/Tarw is better than doing The Beast, as they take much of the good bits from that but skip some of the boring fireroad. Any agreement on that?