Bike Park Wales - any 'easy' reds?

There’s a good sign at the uplift (and possibly on their website and at the top of the park too) which splits the trails into flow and tech, and places them in order of difficulty, so you can see which are the easiest and hardest of each colour. It’s pretty accurate!

As said the grading is very good. eg. Vicious Valley is low on the difficulty reds - the tech stuff through the woods being smoother than, for example Hot stepper (I think that's the one my son leaves me for dead on!)
Maybe good to check some pov vids on Youtube - there's definitely every trail covered on there!
eg.
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I took a pal a couple of years ago, TBH as he 'progressed' he actually found that his additional speed meant that the Blues still gave him challenges.

I'd session the Blues using Strava as her 'progression' indicator - no point putting in her off.

i went with my 13yo Son - not a super keen rider, but enjoys it.

We started on Kermit (new green trail - i've never ridden it) - was a great trail to get your eye into..

Blues were cool, and i'd agree vicious valley is a good 'next step', as is 'surfin bird', though each had a small section my lad walked on. For the most part though, those are good 'easy red' trails

DrP

The main thing is drops (that can't be rolled). If she's OK with those then Vicious Valley gives a bit more rock/root chunkiness but some people struggle with the wood drop up at the top - it's really mellow but looks quite intimidating. Nothing too bad after that and usually quiet so you can break it up and check out some sections before riding properly.

@simon_g the drop at the beginning of Vicious Valley can actually be rolled (on a large 29er). I wouldn’t recommend it, but from experience it can be done.

As can every drop on Hotstepper.

I was taken down ac/DC as a warm up.

I'd suggest not doing that at the start of the day! My fault as I should have read the grading before agreeing.

I'd follow the progression bit by bit up the scale and see how you go!

I’d say it very much depends what she is used to riding. Lads I go with leave me for dead on anything with drops, like Insufficient Funds where as I’m much more comfortable on the reds that are rooty and rocky. I’d keep away from the flow or blend reds but give Vicious Valley, Surfin Bird and Wibbly Wobbly a try.

Thanks all - greatly appreciated.

She's ok on drops upto about 2ft providing there's a decent run in - not quite got slow speed technique dialled yet.

As a just plain fun reddish blue Merthyr Rocks was brilliant.
Nothing individually challenging but it just kept coming.

Kramer
Free Member
@simon_g the drop at the beginning of Vicious Valley can actually be rolled (on a large 29er). I wouldn’t recommend it, but from experience it can be done.

I saw a small child (maybe 4 or 5years old) do it on a tiny rigid bike.
Was the first red a pal was working his way up to.
He was both pleased and annoyed as it meant he had to do it in his mind.
Obviously no one would have judged or mocked him if he didn’t do it, after seeing a tiny child do it.

But yeah VV is a good starting point.

The only other thing is, don't trust the qualifiers. Qualifiers are supposed to be indicative of the actual trail but BPW are just terrible at that. So don't automatically be put off by one that seems too much and also don't be encouraged by one that seems fine. Vicious Valley probably the worst offender for this which is double bad since it's basically the gatekeeper red.

Agree with all those saying Vicious Valley if she wants to try a red. It has a suitably gnar sounding name, intimidating looking qualifier off the woodwork and runs into Surfin Bird which is also a great intro red. What’s not to like?

Is it wrong to say that some of the best fun at BPW is just really really nailling the blue runs.

I mean; I know it's great to progress your riding and challenge yourself, and I can't think of other places where you can do that so well in the UK, but sometimes, it's great just to "waste time " doing stuff for no other reason that it's heaps of fun.

The VV qualifier is certainly not an example of what’s to come on that trail but very much is so of A470, which runs off it from memory? Very nearly bottled that one!

Is it wrong to say that some of the best fun at BPW is just really really nailling the blue runs.

I mean; I know it’s great to progress your riding and challenge yourself, and I can’t think of other places where you can do that so well in the UK, but sometimes, it’s great just to “waste time ” doing stuff for no other reason that it’s heaps of fun.

Absolutely not, the lads I go with have been many more times than me and at least half the group are far better technically but they prefer to session the blues.

My main TC riding is Gisburn so I enjoyed some of the less flowing routes last time I went but would be quite happy sessioning the blues.

The Bonneville qualifier is also an odd thing - I don’t think there’s anything like that on the trail itself. It has some steeper / tighter hairpins form memory but all tollable. But Viscious Valley comes to mind as the easiest red

The Bonneville qualifier is also an odd thing

Very, one of those that look intimidating, but in reality is OK. and yes, you're right the trail after it doesn't reflect the qualifier at all. It should be on Escort (which is just Bonneville on steroids really)

Will also add Rim Dinger on the lower half as a suggestion of a "tech" red. Also "Groot" which starts just off melted welly, one of the easier reds in the dry, can be slippy tree roots when wet.

There's a certain ability level (which in the past described me) where after a few goes down the blues, you'll plateau and you won't be getting anything more out of them. However you'll have great fun picking your way down the reds and you'll improve each run.

To then come back and "master" the blues, took me a few more years experience!

I took my son for the first time a few years ago and arranged a lesson in the morning. Let the instructor advise what might be suitable progression for the afternoon. Complete cop out on my side and makes it a fairly expensive day out but worked well. We ended up doing most of the reds that day.

Is it wrong to say that some of the best fun at BPW is just really really nailling the blue runs.

I mean; I know it’s great to progress your riding and challenge yourself, and I can’t think of other places where you can do that so well in the UK, but sometimes, it’s great just to “waste time ” doing stuff for no other reason that it’s heaps of fun.

The blues at BPW are great fun 🙂 last time I was there I'm pretty sure that made up the majority of my runs there along with a few reds and blacks.

You say she’s happy with 2 foot drops, get her on Insufficient Funds, the faster you go the bigger they are but the actual face is less than 2 foot I reckon. Easily one of my favourite trails there - huge tabletop jumps at the very bottom though which ruin it for me but you can roll them or just lane on the top.

I think she’ll love it.

Vicious Valley into Surfing Bird are the two easier reds I’d go for too.

Insufficient funds is full commit over blind drops. Granted they’re not massive, but neither are they rollable.

From what I recall you can’t see the landings on insufficient funds because of the elevation and sloped upwards nature of the bit you are dropping off from (if that makes sense, I’m not sure it does)… they appear much bigger than they are.

As such I think they’re pretty intimidating, so not sure I’d personally recommend to someone dipping their toes into reds.

Just my opinion!

Yup, that. They're also bigger than 24"

Yeah, closer to 3’ I’d say. Definitely not for someone just coming off blues.

I found Groot (not losted above so must be new) easier than Vicious Valley even though its towards the black end on their scale. Its more rooty tech than rocks. No drops. Some of the blues are quite fast and a lot of fun if you like more flowy stuff.