Crudcatcher Ride This Weekend - Not Snowdon but Where?

Proutster

Those of you coming, where's the preference to spend our time on Saturday before the uplift fun on Sunday?

I've not been to any of them on the list, so will go with the advice / majority decision.

Please vote and post why you've voted that way - advice also welcomed from any other Cruddies who've experience (MTB, not other bodily experience please ) in North Wales.

If you have specific trails that you want to do e.g. MBR, Beast, Dragon's Back @ Brenin etc. then please also list.

Please bear in mind the current trail conditions i.e. DodgeT tells me that, up until yesterday, Penmachno was 60% pushing & 40% riding.

DodgeT

Seems I got the days wrong, it was a few days ago it was 60/40 pushing/riding, but would be good to hear from a local. I'll post up on the FB page.

I'd been considering coed y brenin - MBR in the morning, then maybe playing on the pump/jump track at Stiniog on the way back up to Betwys y Coed for a couple of hours, to give the bike a good shakedown ready for sunday!

thekickingmule

Having never ridden in Wales, I will leave the decision up to you guys.

lawman

Coed y brenin would be good did the MBR a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. The climachX is only about half an hours drive from Coed y Brenin and can be cut short if people don't fancy the whole loop and IMO the final descent is the best trail centre descent I've ever ridden, it is truly stunning. I also quite fancy having a proper go at it to see where I stack up on strava as I'm quite high on the leader boards on the other sections but never done the descent without stopping

Just another option really as its close and is abit of a change, but tbh I'm fine either way

projectsome

North Somerset and Failand

Richie63

I'm easy with an interest towards brennin as the last time I was there I only had a non suspended bike from 1992 so be curious to try once more

otherwise not fussed

Proutster

lawman wrote:

Coed y brenin would be good did the MBR a few weeks back and really enjoyed it. The climachX is only about half an hours drive from Coed y Brenin and can be cut short if people don't fancy the whole loop and IMO the final descent is the best trail centre descent I've ever ridden, it is truly stunning. I also quite fancy having a proper go at it to see where I stack up on strava as I'm quite high on the leader boards on the other sections but never done the descent without stopping

Just another option really as its close and is abit of a change, but tbh I'm fine either way

I reckon that this is looking the favourite for me at the moment, it seems that all of us that've expressed a preference have mentioned Coed y Brenin and then there are a couple of choices for after that.

So how about:

Morning
The MBR trail at Coed y Brenin

Afternoon
Cli-machx trail at Machynlleth

Look at this for a description of the Cli-machx trail:

The cli-machx was built in 2005 by ecotrails and is sited in the Dyfi forest; home of the Howies Dyfi Enduro.
It's a 15km round trip, with 9km of built single track with compressions and whoops, rock slab drop offs and some beautiful flowing turns.
The last descent is the longest in Wales and features rocky jumps; watch out for the 'eye of the needle'; a huge jump with a narrow landing between two trees on the other side.
The finale is a sequence of eight huge berms following quickly after each other. Hit them high enough and fast enough and they ride really well, but don't look down!

I know that DodgeT wants to go the pump track at Antur Stiniog on Saturday afternoon, so let's make that decision after the MBR trail.

Start time? DodgeT - what time are you all aiming to get over?

DodgeT

Quite like the idea of climax too, wanted to do it ever since I first got back into mtb'ing after watching the final descent on you tube.
Say 9:30 meet ready for 10 ride off, should be done mbr by 12 then we can decide from there?

Proutster

DodgeT wrote:

Say 9:30 meet ready for 10 ride off, should be done mbr by 12 then we can decide from there?

That, old chap, is a plan!

DodgeT

Sighs at the thought of packing 2 bikes into the car.. it'll be worth it

bails87

Mach is good, iirc it was very rocky so shouldn't have been ruined by the wet weather.

I had a slight preference for penmachno but only because its closer to the hostel! I haven't been there or coed y brenin before so they're both good in my eyes.

lawman

bails87 wrote:

Mach is good, iirc it was very rocky so shouldn't have been ruined by the wet weather.

I had a slight preference for penmachno but only because its closer to the hostel! I haven't been there or coed y brenin before so they're both good in my eyes.

Afaik the weather there has been terrific recently, aber at least has had sun and high single digit temps for the last 2 weeks and it wasn't exactly wet before then. I don't even think they were touched by the ice age the rest of the uk has been experiencing, looked completely clear when I drove home from uni. And yes it is very rocky and yes I look for every excuse to ride that descent, it is fooking awesome!

Northwind

Tegid says there's still snow at Climachx, will probably be clear at the weekend but isn't now. It wouldn't take a lot of snow in the wrong place to make it a frustrating ride, I reckon. And yeah, word from Penmachno is lots of orrible cut up snow, and unless they've done a lot of work the drainage is terrible, so even if it's thawed it'll be like riding in the sea. I love both of these trails, they are brilliant but I reckon we can do better...

I thought the Beast was a no-brainer personally, CYB is fantastic. Big ride maybe for some but can be taken at a nice relaxed pace and 100% worth it. Doesn't bother me none, if we don't do it on saturday I'll do it on monday

DodgeT

Would be good to know the trail conditions at climach first.

The other thought is apparently there's no visitor centre etc at machynlleth, so might not be ideal for those of us leaving bikes in the back of a car for 2hrs whilst were pedalling round. Good thing about coed y brenin is big visitor centre / lots of people mulling around so should be fine leaving them.
Of course we can talk tomorrow whilst at coed y, and see what we wanna do.

lawman

DodgeT wrote:

Would be good to know the trail conditions at climach first.

The other thought is apparently there's no visitor centre etc at machynlleth, so might not be ideal for those of us leaving bikes in the back of a car for 2hrs whilst were pedalling round. Good thing about coed y brenin is big visitor centre / lots of people mulling around so should be fine leaving them.
Of course we can talk tomorrow whilst at coed y, and see what we wanna do.

Mach is the middle of nowhere. I wouldn't be too worried tbh, if anything I'd be more worried at coed y brenin

thekickingmule

Doesn't the place we're staying have a bike store? Might be better we leave any spare bikes there whilst we play...

Proutster

thekickingmule wrote:

Doesn't the place we're staying have a bike store? Might be better we leave any spare bikes there whilst we play...

We will be, our 2nd bikes will be safe & sound, but the other 6 are only staying for Saturday night and they're staying in The Vagabond - so they'll be driving straight to Coed y Brenin.

Anyway, perfect excuse for a faff tomorrow morning - we can discuss, endlessly, what we're going to do