Bike park Wales

Aquila

Any good? we live in the grim north and normally do the trail centres, Hamsterley being what we would class as our local venue we also take a trip out quite often to keilder, Glentress, Dalby, Whinlatter, mabie, Ae etc.

One of the lads has spotted this http://www.bikeparkwales.com/ and suggested making a weekend of it instead of the usual annual pissup errrr bikeride to the 7stanes routes. I'm not to keen, mainly because of the distance to S Wales from where we live.

So, is it worth the drive and the expense and how does it compare to other places mentioned?

whitey161

Cant't compare it to your scottish areas because i have never been.
It is a good facility and it books out months in advance (uplift), tbh though i'm not sure if it warrants driving from Scotland!!

Aquila

Thanks 'for the reply mate,
I think " it books out months in advance (uplift)" has answered my question wonderfully, sounds far to busy for my liking.

jimothy78

Yeah, but you could do one hell of a south wales roadtrip. Loads of new and old trails round here. Afan alone now boasts a huge number of trails, Cwmcarn has new XC and downhill trails opening soon (you don't say when your trip is to take place, but they should be opening sometime in Feb, hopefully). Then Bikepark just acts as the icing on the cake (and although the uplift gets booked up, this doesn't actually translate to very busy trails - there's a lot of trail to spread out over).

Aquila

Ta for the update Jimothy, can you compare those trails I've mentioned earlier to the ones in Wales? looking at May possible bank holiday weekend.
My problem is: Am I really going to get much more out of the Welsh trails (if anything), to what I'm getting from the local trails?

jimothy78

Can't compare personally, no, as the furthest I've strayed with my bike is Bristol in one direction and Brechfa in the other :oops: Can't be a bad idea to broaden your horizons, though, plus you get the "been there, done that" factor.

Aquila

"Can't be a bad idea to broaden your horizons" true but i use South East Asia for that

UH DH

If you are debating if it's worth driving all that way for a ride, yes. Yes it is.

It doesn't matter if the trails are crap, if the riding is awful. It's more about getting out there and riding somewhere that isn't the same old stuff you do every week.

In the past year, I've ridden pretty much a new place every ride. Fair enough thats because I'm filming them all, but it's good to go out of your comfort zone and do somewhere you've never done before. I live in the south of Scotland and in the last year I've ridden as far north as Glenlivet near Inverness, as far south as Haldon at Exeter, and done the Alps as well. I've ridden north Wales, The length of England and a good proportion of Scotland.

And it's worth it to just ride trails you've never ridden before.

You'll know your local trails. The turns and twists. It gets boring. Go do the unknown!

whitey161

I do agree with this man above though. Nothing better than riding new trails, the feeling you get from exploring new areas is what its all about for me.

Aquila

Agreed i do like trying new places, I think we're gonna try Gisburn forest in Lancs...........much closer and being a tight arse much cheaper option

Aquila

Uh DH, i notice next to your location your in Cambo, was out there last year and did a bit biking brilliant country loved it there.
*jealous

UH DH

Aquila wrote:

Uh DH, i notice next to your location your in Cambo, was out there last year and did a bit biking brilliant country loved it there.
*jealous

I'm actually in Scotland. I don't know why it says Cambodia.

Aquila

ha ha never mind, broaden your horizons mate get your yourself out there

Stevo_666

There's enough there to make a couple of days of it and yes it is good IMO. There are quite a few runs - no more than a few km each and some only a few hundred metres - you need to be doing the uplift to get the most out of it as the trails are all down rather than round in circles.

The weekends are booked out months ahead but if you can go in the week there's plenty of availability in Feb.

whitey161

Did a full uplift day on Sunday. Weather was herrendous with Rain then sun then rain then snow. Still had a blast and it was great fun.

I do think you could do a couple days on it if you are really into just trying to improve how you ride the trails. I would say there are only 5 runs and so doing the uplift which did each 1 at least twice. Would happily go back again soon but probably have to wait til summer now.

big_southern_jesse

Am I right that all the runs are just pure downhill? I can understand the fun factor, but a lot of the satisfaction I get is in the climbing, and then buzzing downhill knowing you earned the down with the climbs...

Is the climb they have marked just a plain bridleway to transport you to the top, or is it an interesting climb?

jimothy78

Yes, all the "runs" are downhill type runs, however there is a proper singletrack climb, not just fireroads. A lot of folks like to use the fireroads or the bus road(with a couple of sneaky shortcuts thrown in to cut some corners), but personally I find the singletrack's better, as it's fairly technical in places, and isn't just a straight grind to the top. Includes natural rocks and roots, as well as slabs and a couple of short, sharp inclines, which helps to take your mind off how hard it is (and it really is a proper slog at times). If you look at the trail map you will see the "Beast of Burden" climb marked in orange - that's the proper one, the fireroad runs more-or-less parallel to it, and the bus route's on the other side of the hill.