Beginners hitting Brecon- routes & kit tips?

LondonMTB

A group of us are going to Brecon soon, none particularly experienced (although some have high expectations!). I have only been out on my road bike recently, so my mountain bike has been languishing in the shed for a while...last year i went on quite a few very muddy forest rides, but no serious downhill. Apart from that the bike has only done a week cycling holiday on french roads, and about 200 off-road miles. So my bike and I are not hardcore (yet?!)...
Does anyone recommend particular trails, or been there recently?
I wondered if I need to take spare disc brake pads? Surely not if I'm sticking to green/blue runs? The brakes seem fine on a road test, but I might take it off-road tomorrow.
Any other tips very much appreciated!

Stu Coops

Regarding routes your best bet if your not local is to go online and buy MTB Wales costs around £8.00 but really good it has information on th area also 14 pull out mapped routes all graded for you with directional support on the back of each map.

Advice is carry an OS map of the area as back up cost around £10.00,pocket first aid kit, spare layers and waterproof jacket as the weather changes quickly, then obviously your usual stuff i:e enough food and fluids for the day and make sure you leave a copy of the route with a third party each day.

Back to the routes in this book which are great they do air on the side of caution if i'm honest with grading as even the black graded routes are doable by a good intermediate rider which is all i would class myself as and i have ridden all the red/black in the book but the black just tend to be longer in route but no more knarly than the red routes.

Make sure your bikes are in good condition and tyres and carry a couple of tubes and all the usual everday stuff you would for any long day out i:e multitool,brake pads, chain splitter,power links, pump, alan keys, tyre levers, cable ties, ID tags and of course the most important JELLY BABIES.

Seriously though some of the above may sound like overkill but all may be needed and when your remote it's either a temporary fix or a long miserable walk.

Hope that helps.

LondonMTB

Yes thank you, that's VERY helpful, just what I needed! Thanks for your time

rockmonkeysc

Try a day out on the Quantocks before heading up to the Brecons, much less severe but will show up lack of fitness & route planning though it's still pretty wild with lots of long steep climbs.
Also before heading in to the hill make sure you know how to read an OS map properly & can work out grid references accurately. If it all goes wrong you need to be able to give mountain rescue a grid ref so they can find you fast.
The Brecon Beacons might not be particularly big but the weather can change fast up there and it can get pretty severe. Have a couple escape routes planned incase bad weather comes in or you have a mechanical & you need to get off the hills.
Take plenty of high energy food & water, energy drinks can dehydrate you.
Enjoy it, the Brecon Beacons are a great place to ride.

al2098

Some good advice. You do need to take fuel and water and don't expect a mobile signal..
Look up some popular routes like the 'Gap ride' which starts in Talybont and is quite demanding (up and down) easily a black run.
The 'Black mountains killer loop' is a long physically tough route but not too scary.
Abergavenny has two nice routes, the 'Blorenge/Sugarloaf route is excellent.
Go to Bikebasewales.com and go to the link which states 'bikebase links and routes'. you can download decent pdf's of many good routes. Beware the Mynyddhowyougo route as the downhill if frankly scary and dangerous but the rest are good.
Best option is to try and hook up with a local rider or group for the sweetest route though.
You will not be disappointed with the options in this area.

LondonMTB

Thank you all for your help. Pleased to say we enjoyed our trip to Brecon, we did a variation of The Gap which ended up being 31 miles (instead of the planned 23 miles!), no major incidences, technical problems nor injuries And no rain!