Mtb In Wales?

[trialsmax04]

Im hoping to take the MTB when my girlfriend and I head up to Snowdon for a week in the summer. We will be camping at Lyn Gwynant between Betws y coed, and Beddgelert. Anyone know of any little local trail gems? Will need something tame to take my girlfriend on, but would love to sneak out for a few hours on a harder trail too.

Any help would be great!

Max

Edit:

Now planning on a later weekend away with just "the boys" in the middle - end of the summer, riding in south Wales. Thinking Cwmcarn and Afan. Any other gems around? Picked up this months MBUK and hear the Skyline trail at Afan is closing? Is it worth a punt before it goes?

sorry to pick all your brains, suppose its a good thread to have in the bike chat anyway?

Edited April 29, 2011 by trialsmax04

[Fish-Finger-er]

Im hoping to take the MTB when my girlfriend and I head up to Snowdon for a week in the summer. We will be camping at Lyn Gwynant between Betws y coed, and Beddgelert. Anyone know of any little local trail gems? Will need something tame to take my girlfriend on, but would love to sneak out for a few hours on a harder trail too.

Any help would be great!

Max

Your spoilt for choice, theres coed y brenin, which is pretty extensive about 40 minutes away, theres betws y coed trails as well which are meant to be real good, although ive never road them, youve got the slab, which is above barmouth(not a trail centre, but an amazing ride none the less,i should imagine routes will be on google with a search), I couldnt advice as due to having a caravan 6 miles from it, i ride some unofficial footpath based routes out onto it, and dont take the bridleway route out of barmouth.

theres also trails at machynthleth (sp?)

mb wales

turns out theres another place with official trails, beginning with H not far from you.

mb north wales

them two should be of use

[lucas-87]

Might be a bit far from were your staying but this place is truly awesome its got everything nice leisurely trails to 13k extreme downhill there's dirt jump courses for beginners and experienced riders plus a cafe that boast to have the best bacon bap in the UK its just up the road from me so I'm there every other day again awesome place

http://www.oneplanetadventure.com/ then click the coed Llandegla forest link

Edited April 25, 2011 by lucas-87

[ireson75]

http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cms/bases/betws_y_coed/marin_trail/marin_trail.aspx

Marin Trail is really good and has an entrance just down the road from Betws y Coed.

Found a video which shows bits of it..

[Tomm]

Marin Trail is really good

I thought it was complete uninspired dross. But that's just an opinion, I know lots of people rate it.

[trialsmax04]

I thought it was complete uninspired dross. But that's just an opinion, I know lots of people rate it.

From that video i'm not going to rush to it. Might be okay for a day out with the girlfriend though.

Anyone ridden Snowdon? there is ment to be some trails down it. Although i will be there in summer, so perhaps not the best idea (angry walkers....)

Cheers for the help.

Max

[Fish-Finger-er]

my problem with the marin trail, and llandegla, are that there is little danger/difficulty there.

Because there totally man made, quite busy, and quite well maintained, the trails are all smooth,almost bmx track esque, corners are often bermed etc.

And there all to easy to just go flat out down, I was up llandegla last weekend, first time back on the bike in like 7 months, and it just seemed soo easy to go flat out.

With places like coed y brenin, yes its man made, but a lot of the trails are 10+ years old from the days of the red bull/karrimor trails up there, so apart from the new bits around the centre(even some of that isnt easy, due to being big slabs of rock, with no grip in the wet), which are in slight states of disrepair (the tarw trail or whatever theyve branded the red bull trail as now especially) but its also from a time when mtbing wasnt so popular, so the trails were aimed more at mtbers than the weekend warriors out from the city on their £3000 bike with no clue.

Theres nothing trail wise on llandegla(even the 13k extreme downhill bit as you put it) I wouldnt take a novice on a rented bike on. But theres bits at say coed y brenin(using it as i know it, but i remember other trails being the same) I.e after the first long climb on the beast, where you jump onto a bit of a rocky uphill singletrack for a bit, then back onto the fireroad. where you go up onto a rocky outcrop with a short, but steep rocky descent, that I still find a mission to get down in the wet now with several years of trials experience, and a lot longer being a youth hitting jumps.

[trialsmax04]

I see where your coming from. I may take my girlfriend up to the Marin trail in Betws y coed for a day out as like you say, it looks pretty tame (im not the worlds best rider by a long way. Im just used to hitting Gawton DH in the middle of an XC run, so i dont mind a challenge). The new plan is to possibly spend 5 days up at a campsite near Snowdon, then come a little further south for another 5 days perhaps, hit up some of the Family trails with my girlfriend and perhaps some of the more tech stuff at Coed y Brenin.

I have also heard that there is a visitors centre / cafe there too? Perhaps drop the missus off there before i sneak off for a bit?

How long time wise do the Brenin red/ black runs take to be ridden? Dont really want to leave the missus for an all day epic, but anything an hour/ two I should get away with.

Cheers for the help!

[lucas-87]

my problem with the marin trail, and llandegla, are that there is little danger/difficulty there.

Because there totally man made, quite busy, and quite well maintained, the trails are all smooth,almost bmx track esque, corners are often bermed etc.

And there all to easy to just go flat out down, I was up llandegla last weekend, first time back on the bike in like 7 months, and it just seemed soo easy to go flat out.

With places like coed y brenin, yes its man made, but a lot of the trails are 10+ years old from the days of the red bull/karrimor trails up there, so apart from the new bits around the centre(even some of that isnt easy, due to being big slabs of rock, with no grip in the wet), which are in slight states of disrepair (the tarw trail or whatever theyve branded the red bull trail as now especially) but its also from a time when mtbing wasnt so popular, so the trails were aimed more at mtbers than the weekend warriors out from the city on their £3000 bike with no clue.

Theres nothing trail wise on llandegla(even the 13k extreme downhill bit as you put it) I wouldnt take a novice on a rented bike on. But theres bits at say coed y brenin(using it as i know it, but i remember other trails being the same) I.e after the first long climb on the beast, where you jump onto a bit of a rocky uphill singletrack for a bit, then back onto the fireroad. where you go up onto a rocky outcrop with a short, but steep rocky descent, that I still find a mission to get down in the wet now with several years of trials experience, and a lot longer being a youth hitting jumps.

You must be a shit hot rider the black run aint exactly smooth & the new free ride part is epic what a laught and you can get some major air if your good on a bike a bloke is still in intensive care been in for 3 months had a bad fall of the big drop off

[haydon_peter]

Just spent 4 days based near Machynlleth.

The trails we rode:

Nant-yr-Arian - Syfydrin Trail.

Machynlleth - Mach 3 and Cli-Machx Trails.

The 'trail centres' were nothing like I had experienced before and had a different feel to them. They were definitely more XC biased and less man made than the South Wales trail centres but the views were really nice and it was awesome to be out on the bike! Nant-yr-Arian had a visitors centre, the Mach 3/2/1 trails start in the Machynlleth town centre and the Cli-Machx trail has a car park but no visitors centre. The trails were very quiet which I was shocked about considering it was a long weekend! The Cli-Machx trail was the most man made trail we rode all weekend, the final descent was good fun and the climbs were not too harsh. The other 2 trails had less man made sections and made use of byways and country roads with some longer harsher climbs. We wouldn't have actually got around the Mach 3 trail without use of a map which was a nice change compared to just following arrows on man made single track and fire roads.

There is a voluntary ban on cycling the main Snowdon byways between 1st May and 30th September between 10am and 5pm. More info here.

[Tomm]

my problem with the marin trail, and llandegla, are that there is little danger/difficulty there.

Because there totally man made, quite busy, and quite well maintained, the trails are all smooth,almost bmx track esque, corners are often bermed etc.

And there all to easy to just go flat out down, I was up llandegla last weekend, first time back on the bike in like 7 months, and it just seemed soo easy to go flat out.

Yeah but "flat out" is about 12mph, because there's always a sharp corner or a TTF* to kill your flow and you can never go particularly fast. That would be dangerous... Coed-y-brenin was the worst offender for that. As soon as you got any speed there was always something to annoy you/slow you down and since they're aimed at retards who can't really ride bikes, none of the obstacles offer any difficulty for anyone on this forum. Feels like you're riding uphill for miles and then you get back to the car park.

Anyone ridden Snowdon? there is ment to be some trails down it. Although i will be there in summer, so perhaps not the best idea

Yeah, I've done it a couple of times. Basically the Llanberis pass is the one you want. It's all rideable down and probably most of it up, too - although it's a bloody big hill so serious man points if you can ride it all without dabs For most people it's a 50:50 combination of pushing and riding up. The Miner's track and Pyg track are also good ones to push up, but I wouldn't bother coming down them - it wouldn't be any fun.

In summer you'll probably get told off for riding, there are hundreds of people around and I'm sure someone will have a moan. Having said that, bear in mind that if you ride down it will take 20-30 minutes (plus punctures) whereas it's a minimum of 2 hours for walkers. I.e. you can reach the summit with only an hour or so of daylight left and then ride down when there's no one else around (the walkers will have headed home ages earlier).

It's a pretty epic ride, but it's not amazingly fun/difficult/technical etc so I probably wouldn't bother, particularly in summer.

There is some amazing landscape in North Wales, there will be some amazing XC I'm sure. But I don't know where

*TTF - Technical trail feature. Yes, they really do call them that.

[haydon_peter]

I want to ride the Rangers Path on Snowdon, it's meant to be the most technical and it frequently causes a fuss on the STW forums with people moaning its impossible unless you are a gnarcore DH rider with 99 inches of travel, full face helmet and body armour

STW Forum - Snowdon Rangers The Truth

Planet Fear Article

[Tomm]

Yeah I thought there would be arguments about what constitutes "ridable". Thing is - most people with a trials background could easily ride anything the average STW reader can. but just because you can doesn't mean you should, 'Technical' isn't the same as 'fun' in a lot of cases.

I've no idea about the ranger's track. I've walked pyg/miner's and ridden llanberis, and llanberis would be by far the most fun one to ride up (it's doable). The others would be ok to push up but a bit crap to ride down unless you wanted to be a masochist. Sometimes a challenge is good though )

[trialsmax04]

Just read the Planet fear article on the ranger path on snowdon. Looks epic, and i'm VERY tempted to ride it, just to say ive done it! The bike ban is a bit of a bugger though. Anyone know how long it takes to ride up the main bridleway? (am i right in thinking this is the one that ends parallel to the railway?)If i could sneak up onto the mountain, and be up to quarter/ halfway by five o'clock, will I have enough day light time?

I think its do-able on my hard tail (140mm Ragley MMMbop), but might start some fitness training for the assent (in fact, would deffinatly!)

Coed-y-Brenin is looking promising. The Beast of Brenin looks like its worth a punt.

[haydon_peter]

I have been reliably informed that the push up is about 2 hours, the same reliable source has ridden all the routes and advices me that the Rangers Path is by far the most interesting although the Llanberris Path is meant to be silly fast

If you push up the Llanberris Path you have to cycle down it because the Rangers Path descends to a totally different side of the mountain, or if you follow the instructions in the Planet Fear article they go up the Llanberris Path, descend part way down the Rangers Path then push up Telegraph Valley to rejoin the end of the Llanberris Path.

I did manage to find a helmet cam of the Rangers Path from top to bottom and it certainly looked like an awesome track.

I was planning to push up and descend back down the Rangers Path last weekend but no one else in my group was up for it and I had enough other options to keep myself busy anyway so decided to leave it for another day, Snowdon isn't going anywhere

[trialsmax04]

In that case I would be well into riding it! Might have managed to nab a GoPro for the week so

Will have to wait and see about a video of the decent. Is the Lamberis path rideable upwards? Would like to do as much as possible for man pride.

[Fish-Finger-er]

Yeah but "flat out" is about 12mph, because there's always a sharp corner or a TTF* to kill your flow and you can never go particularly fast. That would be dangerous... Coed-y-brenin was the worst offender for that. As soon as you got any speed there was always something to annoy you/slow you down and since they're aimed at retards who can't really ride bikes, none of the obstacles offer any difficulty for anyone on this forum. Feels like you're riding uphill for miles and then you get back to the car park.

which trails did you ride? I find i agree with you on the tarw trail(the old red bull trail)

but the beast/devils back etc, I find them really enjoyable, theyve got long flowy bits(only thing is theres a couple of switchbacks i always assume are bermed and go into them way too fast, but thats the issue with llandegla,everything is bermed, so its too easy) then theres other bits which your meant to take slow.

Although i suppose the fact ive rode them several times means I know where I need to slow down/where i can put in a few pedal strokes, and that I dont notice them as much.

With regards to llandegla again, im absolutely shoddy on a bike, but as i said as far as trails are concerned, theres nothing at all difficult, the free ride area has one thing which makes me go "hmmm, ill air some caution into that" and thats the 3rd drop off, but im sure a lot of that is the fact that you pick up a lot of speed off the 2nd one.

time wise, im not the slowest on the downhills, but im also not very quick on the uphills. but use these times as a guide.

llandegla - 1 hour 40,to do all the blacks (but quite often they cut off 5 minutes or so as a section is quite often shut) Ive down it in 1 hour 24 before, but thats knowing the trail, and i was giving it some serious pasty that night)

coed y brenin - mbr trail - 1 hour 45 to complete.

dragons back- 2 hours 45.

beast- i wouldnt like to say, ive done it 4 hours 15, but that was sheer grit and stupidity pitted against an awful fitness level, time isnt related to skill, its all about endurance,

marin trail - took me around 3 hours i think, but its a while since ive rode it.

[Matt Burrows]

I have been reliably informed that the push up is about 2 hours, the same reliable source has ridden all the routes and advices me that the Rangers Path is by far the most interesting although the Llanberris Path is meant to be silly fast

If you push up the Llanberris Path you have to cycle down it because the Rangers Path descends to a totally different side of the mountain, or if you follow the instructions in the Planet Fear article they go up the Llanberris Path, descend part way down the Rangers Path then push up Telegraph Valley to rejoin the end of the Llanberris Path.

I did manage to find a helmet cam of the Rangers Path from top to bottom and it certainly looked like an awesome track.

I was planning to push up and descend back down the Rangers Path last weekend but no one else in my group was up for it and I had enough other options to keep myself busy anyway so decided to leave it for another day, Snowdon isn't going anywhere

I did the Rangers path 2 weeks ago. We rode up the Llanberris path, down the rangers and then a short push uphill to come down telegraph valley. I didn't think it was that great and would definitely recommend just up and down the Llanberris path instead. The knarly rocky sections ruined the flow for me, even if you can ride them you have to go slow. For the really difficult bits I would have been faster on the trials bike... what's the point?

It's funny reading that thread and watching the videos where people are riding the rocks slower than walking pace, closet trials riders I think! To me I'd rather blast down the fast and flowing llanberris track. An epic descent which is as scary and difficult as you want it to be. Its all completely rideable for the average rider, it's just a case of go as fast as you dare.

[trialsmax04]

I have slightly changed the topic (see first post).

Cheers for the feedback on the rangers path. Did you manage to do it non stop and "clean"? I get your meaning about it being rough. I still fancy doing it though just for the "man points" and to say ive done it really.

Any south Wales recommendations?

Cheers for all the help.

Max

Edited April 29, 2011 by trialsmax04