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Is Coed-y-Brenin the best Welsh trail center?

lexinoolexinoo Posts: 132
edited April 2011 in Routes
Gonna take a trip into wales this year.Which is the best purpose built trail center with some facilities?We live on Cannock chase so get to ride there a few times a week ,looking for a step up from that really.Fun,technical,fast flowing trails not the boring wide fire road type.Where would you recommend?Thanks.

Posts

  • Clark3yClark3y Posts: 129
    Not done enough to say it's the best but it IS brilliant and a must imo.
  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,899
    Can't say it's the best as I haven't ridden them all but it does have a variety of trails,enough for a weekends riding if trail centres are your thing.
    Lynskey R480
    Boardman CX Comp
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    May not be the best, but it's certainly worth a visit from Cannock. I've just spent the weekend at Brechfa, excellent trails but naff all facilities. Afan is also good but there's too much forestry work at the moment to make it worth the trek.
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    Coedy's great. Stick to the trails on the cafe side, and almost all the climbs are on fireroads, and the descents on singletrack.
    (I like the Tarw trail too, there's one lovely piece of drifty fireroad downhill, but lots of forum members don't seem to get on with it, sigh)
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    YeehaaMcgee wrote:
    Coedy's great. Stick to the trails on the cafe side, and almost all the climbs are on fireroads, and the descents on singletrack.
    (I like the Tarw trail too, there's one lovely piece of drifty fireroad downhill, but lots of forum members don't seem to get on with it, sigh)

    Nowt wrong with tarw, last time I rode it we didn't see anyone else on it - but it was 8pm in october :lol: I seem to remember that fireroad downhill has a tight bend towards the end that you don't want to brake for but end up having a little dab before running out of track
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    there's a great long sweeping left hander, that tightens, that sounds like the one you mean.
    There's more than one apex, and it's impossible to see them from the entry. Feels awesome when you get it just right, and you drift sideways right to the very edge of the trail at the exit though!
    (although more often than not I have to ease the brakes on gently, since I messed the line up!)
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    edited March 2011
    Who said fire road descents can't be fun!

    I've posted these vids before, but it's my son riding and it's the only thing he does that makes me proud :lol:

    Slated + false teeth
    Abel
  • ThewaylanderThewaylander Posts: 8,767
    Me :p cos there not

    Coed is a great trip if you want allt he facilities on tap, Tarw has some lovely sections to it, but not a huge fan it's just too short definately not the distance they state. but Dragonsback(or beast depending on how you are feeling) are lovely trails the adams family sectiosn are bumping fun :p
  • lostboysaintlostboysaint Posts: 4,252
    Just did a trip there. Rode the Cyflym Coch on Friday afternoon and then The Beast on Saturday. Thought it was great. Good facilities, excellent variety of terrain (type, gradient etc.) and excellent service from the bike shop and great pub just down the road and indian in Dolgellau!

    As Thewaylander says The Adams Family section is superb but there's other great bits.

    Oh yeah, great cafe mid-way through The Beast (up towards Gomez).

    Downside - the long fireroad run-in on the Cyflym Coch trail but now I know it's being replaced by some better stuff that they're working on at the moment.
    Trail fun - Transition Bandit
    Road - Wilier Izoard Centaur/Cube Agree C62 Disc
    Allround - Cotic Solaris
  • pilsburypiepilsburypie Posts: 891
    edited March 2011
    In North Wales I have done Coed-y-Brenin, Marin, Penmachno, LLandegla.

    Coed-y-Brenin is always one I will go back to again and again. Llandegla is second, followed by Penmachno with me advising against the Marin (boring).

    At CYB I find the Dragons back the best - plenty long with most of the best bits. The Beast is about 8-10KM longer, but only has a couple of extra decent bits for plenty of extra punishment up! Depends how you feel. Beast is damn near 40Km and Dragons back close to 30Km.

    You will certainly enjoy it.

    PS Cannock is my local haunt and CYB is a good step up for fun....
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    Does anyone remember the "Karrimor" trail, which was, pretty much, all of the Tarw, plus all of the Dragon's Back?
    That was pretty epic!
  • pilsburypiepilsburypie Posts: 891
    Really? That puts the beast to shame!
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    pilsburypie wrote:
    Really? That puts the beast to shame!
    Pretty much, yeah. It was the trail my father fractured his vertebrae on! :D
    (Which meant I had to drive us home, before I'd even got a provisional, and then mum nagged the censored out of him until he actually went to hospital :lol: )
  • welshkevwelshkev Posts: 9,690
    YeehaaMcgee wrote:
    Does anyone remember the "Karrimor" trail, which was, pretty much, all of the Tarw, plus all of the Dragon's Back?
    That was pretty epic!

    yep, i rode that a long time ago 8) and i rode Cyflym Coch 2 weeks ago as i was working in north wales and had an hour spare. it certainly has a great variety of trails and i loved riring there :D
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    Found some old maps (but not old enough, R74 didn't exist, when the Karrimor was made, did it? hmm :? ) and it seems, that the Karrimor was most of the Red Bull run, plus basically what is now called the Dragon's back.
    None of the maps add up though, I recall that there were two road crossings nearer to Ganllwyd.
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    This might be it Karrimor? It only has one crossing, though I'm sure it was across the road as the underpass was a bit further north.
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    That's a very similar map to what I found, but I distinctly remember there NOT BEING an underpass for the river back then! And there was a road crossing on at least one occasion around Ganllwyd, maybe slightly south of it.
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    I'm sure you're right about the underpass as my memory is rubbish, but i found this map too which is from the same time as the previous map and the crossing is a bit further north so I assumed it was the underpass. Acording to adobe the files were create in october 2002.
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    You know, that first one you posted wasn't the Karrimor, or the Red bull. Dammit, what was it called?
    Was there an entire trail called "The Pink Heiffer" at one point?

    (which in itself confuses me. I've heard two stories about that. One, that it's based on Coleman's alter ego from Mint Sauce, and another story that it's to take the pi** out of Red Bull)
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    The "old" Red Bull.

    Hmm, Pink Heiffer might have been a whole trail... so kinda back to your original question, what was the Karrimor?
  • jj1048jj1048 Posts: 107
    Google always has the answer... But tbh I don't remember riding that :? .
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    I remember that the Karrimor followed the Red Bull unti the end of Snap Crackle and Pop, at which point it descended down forest tracks, south easterly, then crossed the road to the other side of the river, before carrying on.
    hmm
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    jj1048 wrote:
    Google always has the answer... But tbh I don't remember riding that :? .
    That does follow a similar route to what I remember. I'm sure it was 40-odd KM though. Although that might be what it felt like at a young age I suppose :lol:
  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,899
    The Karrimor was indded a long slog(38km sounds familiar).We rode it the last week before the cafe/trailhead moved across the road.I've also done the Beast and that and the Karrimoor are slightly different.There were the Karrimoor,old MBR and Red Bull trails then IIRC.I have an old leaflet/map from CYB circa 2003/04 I'll dig it out
    The Pink Heifer is a section on the Beast/Dragons back but don't remember a full trail called that.There's also reputed to be an "unofficial" extension to the PH :wink:
    Lynskey R480
    Boardman CX Comp
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    It may be that unofficial extension I was remembering then. It does ring a bell, actually.
  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,899
    I've never actually ridden the secret Heifer but a group on another forum rave about how much better it is than the official bit 8)
    They also know some secret stuff in Gwydyr to make the Marin less fire road orientated .
    Lynskey R480
    Boardman CX Comp
  • AnonymousAnonymous Posts: 79,692
    From what I gather, although my Betws based mates are very cagey about it (it's pure comedy for them to keep it to themselves :roll: ) the Marin "interesting-izer" is basically just a way to cut the trail short, and just enjoy the best bits of singletrack.
  • sniper68sniper68 Posts: 2,899
    That being the case then even I could probably Penmachno and the Marin together :wink:
    Lynskey R480
    Boardman CX Comp
  • dan sharddan shard Posts: 722
    Im off to CYB for the weekend at the end of the month, really looking forward to, also doing the cli-max (However you spell it) on the same weekend.

    TBH theres so many great trails in wales its hard to choose from. Nant Yr Arian is brilliant, Llandelga is up to now my all time fave, particularly the new black section 'parallel universe'
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