Coed y Brenin

DodgeT

Got some mates going for a few days next week, plan is;

mon pm - beast
tues - tarw & mbr
wed am - dragons back

Question is, have any of these had the motorway treatment done or was it just the blue routes?
Also, sure i've heard that the beast has a lot of fireroad work to make the miles up, is it worth the slog or would it be better to do 2 trails / or take a re-route at certain points?

Ta.

thistle_

You know the Beast is pretty much MBR + Dragon's back?

There's a big fire road loop on the Beast after the cafe which you can miss out if you want and go up the really steep road instead (look on the map). You'll miss out a shortish singletrack climb, and if you miss the turning one of the descents. The fire road bit is long but you can leather it along the flat/downhill bit.

Only one bit of the Beast/MBR has been 'motorwayed' (if I understand what you mean correctly), but I don't think you'll complain when you see it.

Loop 1 of the blue is worth a blast, it only takes 10 minutes and you can do it at the end of the day.

If you're staying in the area, I'd go and do Penmachno or the Marin for one of the days unless you find you really like Coed y Brenin and want to do bits of it again.

DodgeT

thistle (MBNW) wrote:

You know the Beast is pretty much MBR + Dragon's back?

There's a big fire road loop on the Beast after the cafe which you can miss out if you want and go up the really steep road instead (look on the map). You'll miss out a shortish singletrack climb, and if you miss the turning one of the descents. The fire road bit is long but you can leather it along the flat/downhill bit.

Only one bit of the Beast/MBR has been 'motorwayed' (if I understand what you mean correctly), but I don't think you'll complain when you see it.

Loop 1 of the blue is worth a blast, it only takes 10 minutes and you can do it at the end of the day.

If you're staying in the area, I'd go and do Penmachno or the Marin for one of the days unless you find you really like Coed y Brenin and want to do bits of it again.

Didn't know about the beast, is this roughly what you mean, the circled red bit?


Remember reading about some sections being flattened, but some were saying you jsut have to hit them faster and there fun.
Will bear that in mind re the blue loop.
Staying at tyn y groes for 2 nights, so doing all coed y as it can be ridden to, be car free for a couple of days..

I did mbr last year and really enjoyed it, so hopefully going for the mon and tues rides. The others are relative newbies, so there going to make the most of what coed y brenin has to offer.

Ta for the pointers.

Briggo

Instead of repeating yourself i.e. doing MBR and Dragonsback after you've done Beast, do some natural riding.

Tyn Y Groes in Dolgellau I presume, stayed there awesome B&B (and campsite).

Right from Dolgellau you could spend a day to ride up or around Cader Idris...

DodgeT

As mentioned though, the guys who are going are relative newbies, so they want to have a few days at a good trail centre, getting to grips with the bikes etc. So no fuss signed routes are what they're after. I'm going to tag along as its better than working

Yeah, the coaching inn. Looks good, hopefully the food will be spot on after a day in the saddle and of course some good welsh beer

DodgeT

Can anyone confirm about missing out the fireroad?

x3man

DodgeT wrote:

Can anyone confirm about missing out the fireroad?

Yeah you've got it.

After the halfway cafe (definitely worth stopping at) at the area labelled Dolfrwynog take the yellow road straight up ignoring the right turn on to the fireroad. Take the second white road on the right through the gate and after a short climb the entrance to Gomez will be on your left.

It's steep.

handful

Sorry for hijacking but it's either that or start a new thread with the same title.

I'm heading up to Anglesey next Tuesday to visit some family and wanted to do my usual cheeky ride on the way, have done the Marin and Penmachno on previous trips. I thought I'd try CYB as I've heard lots of good things about it but only really have a couple of hours or so and was wondering which trail is the best to go for, bearing in mind the amount of rain we've had in the last few days. Which drains the best and is the most fun?

I'm not a very skilled but reasonably enthusiastic rider (well, for an old'un anyway) but have a go at most things and love the Twrch at Cwmcarn having done that around a dozen times now. I don't really do jumps or big drops though, far too old for that. I'm leaning towards MBR but I'm a bit worried it may be a bit too gnarly being a black run? Is it on a par or worse than Cwmcarn and is it likely to be a mud bath? Is it doable in a couple of hours? It normally takes me around an hour and a half to get round the Twrch, maybe a bit longer with a breather by the picnic area.

Any tips would be much appreciated.

DCR00

Sorry to hijack also

I went to CYB today and wasnt overly impressed

I rode MBR and Dragons Back (not B2B). MBR was good, but i think i missed some of it out as it only took me 30 mins. Nice technical descent at the end.

Dragons Back was a different matter. Appreciate that the trail is prob quite old now, but that amount of climbing done on wide open fire roads is not what i would class as a Red route. The descents were pretty good, Lurch in particular, but not so good that i wanted to do that climb again.

Wont be going back

Briggo

DCR00 wrote:

Sorry to hijack also

I went to CYB today and wasnt overly impressed

I rode MBR and Dragons Back (not B2B). MBR was good, but i think i missed some of it out as it only took me 30 mins. Nice technical descent at the end.

Dragons Back was a different matter. Appreciate that the trail is prob quite old now, but that amount of climbing done on wide open fire roads is not what i would class as a Red route. The descents were pretty good, Lurch in particular, but not so good that i wanted to do that climb again.

Wont be going back

You wouldnt class it as a red because the climbs are on fireroads? Huh?

Majski

For anyone asking, if you have the stamina do beast with the shortcut shown above. MBR and Dragons back take Bits of the same single track from beast. Though they include dreamtime which is very fun! For shorter loops MBR is fairly short and pretty technical, has some 1-1.5ft drops in it too but theyre made rollable if you go slow. Dragons back is less tech but has great scenery and good flowing singletrack. There is also tarw in the other side of the valley but theres a lot of fireroad on that.

DCR00

Briggo wrote:

DCR00 wrote:

Sorry to hijack also

I went to CYB today and wasnt overly impressed

I rode MBR and Dragons Back (not B2B). MBR was good, but i think i missed some of it out as it only took me 30 mins. Nice technical descent at the end.

Dragons Back was a different matter. Appreciate that the trail is prob quite old now, but that amount of climbing done on wide open fire roads is not what i would class as a Red route. The descents were pretty good, Lurch in particular, but not so good that i wanted to do that climb again.

Wont be going back

You wouldnt class it as a red because the climbs are on fireroads? Huh?

I guess I'm saying that i would expect the trail to match the ascents with the descents. The descents were pretty good and what I would personally call Red, but the ascents were just slogging it up a long straight wide fireroad.

If you compare the Red trails at CYB (the Dragon at least as i didnt ride any others) with say The Monkey at Cannock, the climbs at Cannock are more technical, followed by some wicked descents. On the Dragons Back there aren't even any switchbacks...

Not difficult (apart from a cardio fitness perspective) and pretty boring IMO.

Briggo

DCR00 wrote:

Briggo wrote:

DCR00 wrote:

Sorry to hijack also

I went to CYB today and wasnt overly impressed

I rode MBR and Dragons Back (not B2B). MBR was good, but i think i missed some of it out as it only took me 30 mins. Nice technical descent at the end.

Dragons Back was a different matter. Appreciate that the trail is prob quite old now, but that amount of climbing done on wide open fire roads is not what i would class as a Red route. The descents were pretty good, Lurch in particular, but not so good that i wanted to do that climb again.

Wont be going back

You wouldnt class it as a red because the climbs are on fireroads? Huh?

I guess I'm saying that i would expect the trail to match the ascents with the descents. The descents were pretty good and what I would personally call Red, but the ascents were just slogging it up a long straight wide fireroad.

If you compare the Red trails at CYB (the Dragon at least as i didnt ride any others) with say The Monkey at Cannock, the climbs at Cannock are more technical, followed by some wicked descents. On the Dragons Back there aren't even any switchbacks...

Not difficult (apart from a cardio fitness perspective) and pretty boring IMO.

I see what you mean in that respect, although switchbacks are not majorly technical they do add some thought processing required.

Although sometimes it is just nice to get in a gear and rythm and slowly make your way up a simple fireroad.

Good job you didn't ride Tawr, because unless they've changed it theres a good few downhills on large open fireroads...

drumandguitar

MBR was good, but i think i missed some of it out as it only took me 30 mins

Well Id say you missed approx an hour out of MBR. Go back and ride the lot, its a great trail. As for not being impressed with CyB, well have you ever considered golf?

DodgeT

So, tuesday did mbr in the morning, about 1hr 50 taking it easy, stops etc. Fantastic trail, every uphill was rewarded with a cracking descent, put simply an awesome trail.

Pm did tarw. Absolute dog turd. First mile or so OK, then what seemed like about 7 or 8 miles of going up a fireroad to come down a fireroad, with perhaps 2 very short ie 100 yds or so of rocky stuff. Finished of with a couple of miles of good stuff right at the end.

If the beast is a longer version of mbr then do it, but the lads who did it monday said it was a monster

If you've got anything less than 4 - 5 hrs, I'd do mbr then if you,ve still got time, there's a route which takes in the good bits of it again and only takes about an hour.