Being nosey about Bike Park Wales

Go and look it all up via Companies House, the records are all there to view at leisure.

Essentially the place is a Gold Mine. Constantly fully booked and rarely less than 90% full in the dead months, captive audience for food, bike repairs etc and a healthy stream of free publicity via pro visits etc means it has just snowballed since day 1. IIRC correctly they paid back their initial £5m investment loan in under 3 years all while building trails continuously, expanding the visitor centre and even indulging in publicity projects like converted Army trucks. Add in all the local businesses that have sprung up to cater for the visitors and the place is almost too big to fail now. It even came through the lockdowns in rude health having spent all that downtime refreshing the trails and building an annexe on the visitor centre!

They should do a sponsorship deal with the local NHS, maybe get the A&E named after them.

Would like to know what their Transits cost to buy and what is spent on them over their lifetime (not including fuel) as they seem to get a real beating, rarely get out of 3rd gear and are just used and abused

Beic Parcio Cymru is a limited company, it files accounts like every else 

To be fair, they’ve invested a lot and not stayed static over the years, hopefully they make a decent profit, as it’ll make this type of business attractive over the years.

They should do a sponsorship deal with the local NHS, maybe get the A&E named after them.

We quite like it, I'm always pleased to look after biking injuries!

I really like it there. The only problem I can see is that it’s killed Afan.

I hope they continue to be successful because I love it there, but they do have to be careful with the uplift cost. They tried to continue with the split days but had to ditch that idea due to it being so unpopular. I do think the price is at the max for a while and hope they don't try and raise it again this year.

Nice feedback 🚵‍♂️

. It even came through the lockdowns in rude health having spent all that downtime refreshing the trails and building an annexe on the visitor centre!

They racked up a HUGE amount of debt during COVID and took the gamble to keep on building with no income the entire time. They'll be paying that off for some time yet.

Didn't they get, and continue to apply for, quite large grants from the Welsh government?

Have to say that bpw is the best trail centre I've ridden at, great for progression, has one of the best map/trail layouts - easy to read and going from easiest to hardest so you can really work out which ones to do for skill level. Most other trail centres could really learn from them.

The only problem I can see is that it’s killed Afan.

Because

bpw is the best trail centre I’ve ridden at, great for progression, has one of the best map/trail layouts – easy to read and going from easiest to hardest so you can really work out which ones to do for skill level. Most other trail centres could really learn from them.

I've got to agree with monkey boy, it's hard to drive past BPW to go to more trad trails centres in Wales because they have't changed in 20 years and we all have.

A friend looked into running an uplift service at Glyncorrwg BITD. The insurance required by Forestry Commission was prohibitive so he didn't bother persuing the idea. Until places like Glyncorrwg and Afan i.e. places close to rapid and efficient uplift provide or allow a similar service they will continue to stagnate IMHO. Ebikes have brought some life back but it's nothing like in its heyday.

BPW is just SO good!

I remember going to MT ~30years ago for work and the difference to now is massive, fair play to BPW - it's a great success story and would have no doubt massively contributed financially to the area.

Would like to know what their Transits cost to buy and what is spent on them over their lifetime (not including fuel) as they seem to get a real beating, rarely get out of 3rd gear and are just used and abused

Had a good natter in a MT pub to the brother of the guy who maintains the vans, he was saying they're well maintained (mainly bushes, leafs & shocks - I think he said gearboxes were okay) as I owned a Mk7 Transit at the time.

A friend looked into running an uplift service at Glyncorrwg BITD

there was one for a while. a guy with a landy and a flatbed trailer. gilbert?

awesome day out..

They should buy a second hand ski lift at bow, it would save a load of hassle and money. Put it in up the left hand side of the map.

They’ll be paying that off for some time yet.

Not if they cleared 5 million in 3 years, while continuing to spend like money was going out of fashion.

They invested heavily during lockdown to improve the facilities and trails, keeping their staff employed. AFAIK that nearly broke the business financially. If they're doing well now, they totally deserve it. Great place.

Surely there's room for more places like it in South Wales? Cheap land, plenty of elevation, road access.. it's ideal.

The much smaller one in Aberdare (Dare Valley Gravity Park) was/is a good little set up - only a couple of short trails, a basic uplift but a lot of potential given where it is - local council are taking it back over now - I think the private operators who were running it were trying to get new trails in but couldn't get planning or funding - a real shame as as Molgrips says the S Wales Valleys are ideal

I’ve got to agree with monkey boy, it’s hard to drive past BPW to go to more trad trails centres in Wales because they have’t changed in 20 years and we all have

In the minority here but I’d much rather a day at Cwmcarn or Afan than BPW.

I will say that it's incredibly efficient and well run nowadays. The cafe etc is all very good. The parking is usually extremely busy, but you can generally find somewhere to park. I appreciate what they've done and the effect on the local area (albeit smaller than it could be because there's sod all else aroudn and it is, after all. Merthyr) but I just don't enjoy riding there. I rode the crap out of it the year it opened, but now it's a once yearly thing where I meet friends, ride it and remember that I don't like it. This is very much a me thing - the trails are all fairly flat and you have to work to hold speed on all the trails and for various boring reasond that doesn't play nice with asthma, so I just end up not enjoying it that much compared to what I have on my doorstep where I can plummet down something steeper that doesn't need me putting in energy all the time.

I hope that in the slightly longer term there's a halo effect that means other locations can grow and bring in some money and people, but with the patchwork of land ownership, NRW, local councils being as they are and ebkies increasing popularity I can't really see it happening. Ideally you'd have someone,like Basque MTB doing epic tours of the valleys, but with working mens clubs instead of siderias and much, much more rain and goretex.

It's the way that difficulty is added by just adding jumps that annoys me more than the shallow gradient in the easier trails (clue is in the username). They have some trails with some great progression in terms of rocky/rooty tech but I can't access them as they have big gap jumps and drops too. Always leave frustrated by the limited trail choice for my skillet despite the place having so much to choose from. Used to go once a month for a few years after it opened but that got less and less as they added jumps to everything. I rather go to places like Windhill and Tidworth for DH fun these days despite BPW being 30 mins away.

They invested heavily during lockdown to improve the facilities and trails, keeping their staff employed. AFAIK that nearly broke the business financially.

They had a lot of help from the Welsh Govt via COVID grants etc but they did burn through their reserves. The investors behind it said it wasn't in danger of folding as they would back it up as it's a very viable business.

The big problem is that they suck all the custom from everywhere else. Cwmdown went from 2 busses to one after they opened and was a contributing factor to it closing (main one was the NRW fees), everywhere else went very quiet once it opened too. I don't know if the customer base could support two uplift venues in South Wales, especially as 417 and FOD are not far away either. What we need is a few smaller venues like Windhill/Rogate that allow sessioning in a chilled atmosphere plus refreshes to the current trail centres, allow people to make a long weekend of it with variety.

Gilbert! Top bloke!

I've read from a couple of places that they really rolled the dice during covid by investing, keeping people on staff etc, and that it wouldn't have taken much longer to wreck them. Don't know if it's true or not but it's certainly plausible. Drivers I spoke to were pretty happy with how they'd handled it all which is definitely a good sign.

I think they deserve to make good money tbh, they've done something hard and done it pretty well. Not perfectly, their trail planning is still a bit bizarre "Let's stick a big jump into an existing blue! Let's make a qualifier that's irrelevant to the trail! Let's make wheels-on-ground trails lead directly into jump lines with no alternative route out!" But, pretty damn well, and they obviously are always trying to make it better. Revo shows how it can all go wrong despite your best effort. Antur is another one doing it well, BMCC amd Flyup do the private thing fantastically but on a smaller scale, most uplifted venues are basically "an uplift service" rather than the owners and it kinda shows.

It'll be interesting to see how Dyfi matures. It's clearly influenced by BPW, but it's deliberately gone a different way - with the emphasis on jumps and features. I think it's got a rep for being "hard", - I'd be interested what others think about that. although I've found it's not really, if you can ride Antur, or Revs you'll have fun at Dyfi, It'll be interesting to see what sort of trails they build more of in the future.

It’ll be interesting to see how Dyfi matures. It’s clearly influenced by BPW, but it’s deliberately gone a different way – with the emphasis on jumps and features. I think it’s got a rep for being “hard”, – I’d be interested what others think about that. although I’ve found it’s not really, if you can ride Antur, or Revs you’ll have fun at Dyfi, It’ll be interesting to see what sort of trails they build more of in the future.

BPW caters for All levels of skill. From novice on greens to experts on purple.
Dyfi doesn't.

The parking is better, the cafe is better, the facilities are better, BPW is just the big brother with the shiny Capri 3.0 injection, not the Nova with the loud exhaust.

The problem with Dyfi is that unless they introduce greener/blue trails they'll only ever get certain clientele. Maybe they don't want to compete with bpw and that's their choice, but currently it's no competition for me.

Revs was the hardest IMO.

Dyfi doesn’t really have anything easy, and it’s easy to forget how intimidating the red trails can be for inexperienced beginners.

I prefer Dyfi over BPW.

The problem with Dyfi is that unless they introduce greener/blue trails they’ll only ever get certain clientele. Maybe they don’t want to compete with bpw and that’s their choice, but currently it’s no competition for me.

There is no 'problem' with Dyfi, it caters to a different audience, and that's okay. It would be ****ing dull if all the parks/centres offered the same thing.

What we need is a few smaller venues like Windhill/Rogate

If you like those two you should check out https://www.okefordhillbikepark.com/ in Dorset. It does close over the winter (they have had activity over the last month or so on Instagram not sure why they are not reopened ATM) but it is fun fast and steep. Not very well publicised unfortunately and not very busy. I prefer it to windhill.

@TheBrick cracking little park that. Did a few team training days when I was based not too far away. Got a lot of potential for sure.

Have done Okeford a few times now, not really my cup of tea. Probably due to every visit being in the wet and the chalk not having much grip! Definitely has potential though, but needs to be run properly and open more often!

I haven’t been to BPW since before the pandemic but I’ve always really enjoyed it. My only niggle was the addition of qualifiers I was too scared to do on some trails I was perfectly competent at (Dai Hard is one of my favourite trails there but I do not have the mental fortitude for that gap, so I just go round it!)

Going back at the end of the month - really looking forward to it! Kudos to them for making it work - it looks a difficult business to run.

We’re heading there via Dirt Farm (FKA BMCC) which I’ve only been to once before, has a totally different vibe but is super fun too.

I think it’s got a rep for being “hard”, – I’d be interested what others think about that.

I'm a pretty competent rider, but I've never been especially interested or good at jumps/gaps.

I look at all the marketing for Dyfi and write it off entirely as a place for me.

I've not been to BPW since before the pandemic, but I've always enjoyed it as a place I go specifically to pin the crap out of everything, but it just seems to get more and more expensive. Oddly, I don't seem to miss it.

Ideally you’d have someone,like Basque MTB doing epic tours of the valleys, but with working mens clubs instead of siderias and much, much more rain and goretex.

Sounds awesome.

There's got to be potential for another uplift venue in the valleys.

Barry Sidings or Risca spring to mind. There must be a blocker for Risca though, or the Cwmdown guy would have done that instead of shutting up shop.

I’m a pretty competent rider, but I’ve never been especially interested or good at jumps/gaps.

I look at all the marketing for Dyfi and write it off entirely as a place for me.

There is a fair amount at Dyfi that isn’t jumpy, although it is quite jump orientated.

It is a great place to learn to progress jumping skills IMO.

The first couple of times I went there I was happy spending all day on Super Swooper to be honest. It’s got to be up there as one of the best intermediate trails in the country, it’s such good fun.

I look at all the marketing for Dyfi and write it off entirely as a place for me.

I'd strongly encourage you to give it a go. You'll have a great time.

I'm there weekend of the 12th if you wanted to give it a whirl.

I went to Dyfi with a couple of mates for the first time yesterday. We’re vaguely competent, happy on everything at FoD, reds and blacks at BPW and Golphie/Yair level off piste.
We mostly rode Super Swooper and Lovey Dyfi with Turns in the Ferns as a side dish. We did accidentally end up on the bottom of Racetrack. In the wet. It went about as well as can be expected. 😂

We ended the day in agreement that Dyfi > BPW but the progression isn’t as good. The jump from Red to Black was pretty severe.

We did accidentally end up on the bottom of Racetrack. In the wet. It went about as well as can be expected.

I did that, also in the wet. The bit by the catch-nets...Concentrates the mind, no?

Annual trip for me tomorrow with riding on Thursday, can't wait! Don't like jumps either but want to explore the reds a bit more this year so which ones should I go for? From memory after the blues we did Insufficient Funds, Vicious Valley and Surfing Bird which were decent.

There’s got to be potential for another uplift venue in the valleys

You would think so but as BPW is so good and has so many trails, how would they complete? Look at 417 for example as that's an hour away (granted it is not in the valleys and not on a massive hill but...) it has 10 odd trails vs BPW's 45 odd so unless they charged 1/4 the price of BPW, it is never going to be great value. If they charge 1/4 or even half the price then how would they make any money to grow the place and build more trails.

BPW have created a monopoly for themselves by being so good at what they do, as a result they could double the price and I suspect they would still be busy.

You would think so but as BPW is so good and has so many trails, how would they complete? Look at 417 for example as that’s an hour away (granted it is not in the valleys and not on a massive hill but…) it has 10 odd trails vs BPW’s 45 odd so unless they charged 1/4 the price of BPW, it is never going to be great value. If they charge 1/4 or even half the price then how would they make any money to grow the place and build more trails.

The two places I mentioned have very decent trail networks already.

So long as an uplift venue has four or five good, long tracks I reckon they can justify the £40 a day or whatever.

BPW is often sold out, isn't it? So there's excess demand for uplift and lots of people would do a weekender with another uplift venue (and I'm sure lots do already with FOD or that Black Mountains place.

Barry Sidings in particular seems perfect for it. I'm sure it must have been mooted.

As above, two weeks we did Forest of Dean 28 miler taking in loads of the off piste stuff on the friday, a full day of BPW on the saturday, then rode Cwmcarn Twrch on the way home on the sunday, and the best thing was the variety, from old school rocky, muddy and rooty trails, to BPW's huge variety of trails.

BPW for me is worth every penny, purely because they are so slick, you can get in so many runs, that you can feel yourself progress as the day goes on, especially for someone like me that doesn't get to do much quality riding these days because of where I live. if you go somewhere and spend 80% of the time riding up to get 2-3 decent descents in, you don't really feel any progression.

The only thing i'd like to see at BPW is a more Red Flow trails/ sections, some of the best trails to me, for pure fun are the Blue Flow trails, and the fact you can carry so much speed, there then seems to be the step up to red, but they become more technical and feature packed, rather than faster, steeper flow trails, that progress on from the multiple Blue ones? But that is just being picky, and some of the best bits have been starting on a blue flow trail, then skipping half way on to some of the techy red ones