[Closed] Bike Park Wales is go!

I'm just trying to work out when I can go! Back to Antur Stiniog, maybe Cwymcarn, do some xc stuff... Should be good

Does anybody actually use a 150mm full susser for Blue & Red trails?

http://www.bikeparkwales.com/bike-hire

p.s. I might try it just for the craic but will probably stick to XC trail centres........

Why wouldn't they? 160mm for blue, red and black graded DH trails is great. DH grading is [b]very[/b] different to trail centre grading (for those unsure). The blue at antur would be a black on trail centre routes I reckon.

Does anybody actually use a 150mm full susser for Blue & Red trails?

I do because it's my only mountain bike. Amazingly enough it works fine and is great fun, even on easy blue XC loops.

The red trail at Antur Stiniog or the Nevis Range downhill red are perfectly suited to a 150-160mm bike though IMO.

Does anybody actually use a 150mm full susser for Blue & Red trails?

Yes. email in profile for you to send me funds for purchase of additional bike(s). Thanks!

Despite the fact you can pay only £5 to ride. I can't see myself riding here very often really. I work in Brecon so when there was talk of this happening in Merthyr I was hoping for DH trails and a new big, fun, fast XC loop like you get at most trail centres these days. Is there a chance they could add this in the future?

Looks great. Not sure why people bother coming on this thread to explain why uplift is pointless and how they don't like doing the same trails over and over. There's loads of XC centres in Wales - can't we just be pleased there's something new and different on offer?

Aside from that, I think what they've created is fantastic; It's just not what I was hoping for.

Isnt it like 3.50 to park in afan and glyncorrwg? I'm more than happy to pay 5 quid to ride what they got on offer.

Easy climb for 8-10 mins down sounds like a great XC route to me, dont know why people are moaning about it. Probably same people who moan about taking some rocks out of cwmcarn.

150mm bikes will be more than capable to do most of the stuff there i reckon.

Isnt it like 3.50 to park in afan and glyncorrwg? I'm more than happy to pay 5 quid to ride what they got on offer.

Easy climb for 8-10 mins down sounds like a great XC route to me, dont know why people are moaning about it. Probably same people who moan about taking some rocks out of cwmcarn.

150mm bikes will be more than capable to do most of the stuff there i reckon.

I was hoping for DH trails and a new big, fun, fast XC loop like you get at most trail centres these days.

Well there are plenty of DH trails. The beast of burden is listed at 4.6km. Don't know if it's an up and down trail though.

Probably same people who moan about taking some rocks out of cwmcarn.

I moan about dumbing down trails because it's not needed and gets right on my tits. Sorry.

Booked for 30th aug. A day at Afan the day before too 🙂

johnboosh12

I was hoping for DH trails and a new big, fun, fast XC loop like you get at most trail centres these days.

thats exaclty what they've built!

thats exaclty what they've built!

Typical STW - they build a great big bike park and someone moans that it's not got enough XC trails.

Typical STW - they build a great big bike park and someone moans that it's not got enough XC trails.

There is a xc loop! Almost all single track climb starts from the visitor centre and ends at the top, only difference to most t.c is you have a choice of 6 trails to come down instead of 1

I think people are getting confused (perhaps me included), but they're not selling it themselves as a purely DH venue, the post above comparing blue runs at DH centres to blacks at most trail centres seems a bit wide of the mark for Bike Park Wales because that really doesn't sound like what they've built.

Yes all of the routes are descents, but not DH courses from what I can tell.

Is there any footage of the runs yet?

core - this is the description for the blue trails.

· Blue grade bikepark trails are suitable for: Intermediate mountain bikers.

· Bike required: Functional good quality well maintained mountain bike. Mid to long travel suspension bike recommended.

Doesn't sound like the description for most blue XC trails.

Perhaps core is right (I haven't seen the trails) but the name "bike park" suggests DH graded trails to me (like antur). For eexample the blacks at blaengarw and afan are a fair bit easier than the red at antur. All rideable for mortals though.
We'll have to wait and see. Exciting.
Edit; if they do grade them like trail centres, it'll be a bit of a laughing stock to visiting euros, Canadians etc.

Only one way to find out!

Grading's always up and down, glentress blue is harder than some reds, nevis red is harder than most blacks, and so on. But it does seem like BPW have pitched theirs a little higher.

[url=

only ride park[/url]

Just seen this 😉

I'm looking to book up for a days uplift soon

I only ride park

Parts of the blue will remind of you of fods verderers trail but longer, the reds slightly steeper & narrower with some drops & jumps. The blacks will have a couple of 20-30ft table tops, bigger drop offs, & huge gap jumps. Beginner or pro you are going to love it!

Looking forward to taking a trip out there to see what the place is like.

Hopefully once some people have been we'll get some good footage of what the trails are like.

Gareth this is singletrack world mate, a lot of folk here have a very different view to us as to what mountain biking is, there is a link to the taff trail from the visitor center i believe they can shred the gnarr on their rigid 29ers there lol.

there is a link to the taff trail from the visitor center i believe they can shred the gnarr on their rigid 29ers there lol.

Classic, a perfect description of some of the planks on here!

Classic STW really, remember this, Antur Stiniog the wheelchair access path

http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/blaenau-ffestiniog-new-downhill-tracks-architrail

🙂

1st video add

Looking awesome! Is this close enough to Revolution bike park to make a weekend of it and ride both?

Tom, rev is north Wales, bpw is south.
Have a weekend at both 🙂

Will hit this in the autumn when the natural trails get poo. Am ok with riding up if I forget to book uplift. Those burg tech trailers are ace BTW. £5 is nothing for what they have built. Don't like it? then ride over the beacons or at Aran for free or the cost of parking.

therag - won't work on my youtube, say's it's private?

Really like the look of that, will definately make a trip across at some point!

Yeah, think its been removed, it worked last night.

Tom, rev is north Wales, bpw is south.
Have a weekend at both

Ah yeah just had a look, not close at all! Weekend at both sounds like a plan 😀

where does the Taff Trail link to it then....potentially this is rideable from my house.

Video is working for me. Looking good...

It think its great, as less people will travel further down the M4 to the places i ride!

people have been riding the park early and strava'ing it too!!!

[b] gwaelod[/b]

where does the Taff Trail link to it then....potentially this is rideable from my house.

ride up the taff trail to here
http://goo.gl/maps/XmLGF
as you go under the flyover turn left and up the footpath it goes up alongside the a470 then under the a470 you then go back on yourself. this will take you to the entrance to gethin. you can see it on the map link

Yes, people have been pulling the netting off trails and riding them, which is messing up the bedding in process and damaging the trails, Tools.

Dicks... (I won't defend it, but a few times I've caught folks on closed trails that I've been working on and gave them the riot act, sometimes they genuinely are just dicks but generally they just don't know they're doing any harm... They think "the trail's finished but just awaiting official opening" or "it's just health and safety" or whatever.

So, I reckon signs that don't just say "trail closed" but "trail still weathering, please be patient, it looks finished but it's not ready to ride- wait til it comes out the oven" or something might help stop some of those guys.

And for everyone else, pit traps.

The trails were covered in netting though, so they've gone to a fair bit of effort to put them off, took one of the trail guys a day to replace it all to give you an idea of how much had been moved.

The names of some of the riders are on strava. One of the names is a bikepark employee who rode it to make the segment to catch others riding the same segment.
You can even see the whole ride they did and follow them home. There are even comments asking how the ride at the bike park went etc etc

😆 Dullards 😆

LoCo - Member

The trails were covered in netting though,

Pit traps.

The trails were covered in netting though, so they've gone to a fair bit of effort to put them off, took one of the trail guys a day to replace it all to give you an idea of how much had been moved.

WTF? What kind of disrespectful bellends would do that?

WTF? What kind of disrespectful bellends would do that?

check strava 😉

here's one of them

[img]

View this post on Instagram

....couple of planks right there!

another offender

[img]

View this post on Instagram

and

[img] [/img]

You do wonder why people do it...

ITS BLOODY SELFISH!!!

****s

There's four sh1t strava times right there

We used 40 signs,10 rolls of orange bunding, 175 steaks plus used trees & rocks to close trails. Aprox 35 hours spent putting them up & refitting them.
I set the segments on strava to see who was using it, most have removed their rides now tho.
1 dick came down the freshly raked blue family trail on Monday in his full face & dh bike telling workers it's the best trail he's rode lol

Greeble

Thanks - I know where that is...cheers

175 steaks? Rumps, rib eye or sirloin?
Id have thought T-bones would have worked well.
No expense spared at bpw

therag - Member

We used 40 signs,10 rolls of orange bunding, 175 steaks plus used trees & rocks to close trails. Aprox 35 hours spent putting them up & refitting them.

If you've got a 360 and a good stock of brash, it would only take about an hour at most to build a good pit trap. A little longer if you want to put spikes in the bottom but you could use the glentress variant, fill it with snakes and claim money back from the government for supporting wildlife.

Not long now and just over the hil from us 😀

Same for me, in the other direction tho. lol.

Glad i booked on opening day uplift as well.

Ooooh I missed this thread first time round and I've Been waiting for Gethin to reopen...

Good excuse to plan a bit of a road trip and join it up with some other places.

Looks like I might get my long promised "free weekend" to go riding some time in September now...

So I'm quite tempted to book on the uplift for BPW, maybe chuck in a day at Cwmcarn and/or a detour Via UKBP on the way home make it an all DH weekend and leave my HT at home... Hmmm

or spend two days at bpw. it has nothing on cwmcarn

I'm booked on the uplift on 16th Sept & have a 2 day pass from the wife so wanted to do a second day at the bike park. Annoyingly the lads I'm going with voted for day 2 at Afan, shame as we've all been there before...
Either way I can't wait 😀

or spend two days at bpw. it has nothing on cwmcarn

Did you mean [I]Cwmcarn has nothing on it[/I]? 😀

I'm booked on the uplift on 16th Sept & have a 2 day pass from the wife so wanted to do a second day at the bike park. Annoyingly the lads I'm going with voted for day 2 at Afan, shame as we've all been there before...
Either way I can't wait

TBH I was originally thinking a bit of variety would be worth while by visiting a couple of different venues, as I'm in Reading using the M4 as the main route for such jaunts makes sense, less motorway time and more riding.

Before I was aware BPW was now open I was more than likely just going to have a HT day at Cwmcarn and then a 2nd day at Afan, not very imaginative I know but a nice trip none the less.

Now BPW is an option I sort of fancy sticking more to just DH riding and only taking the big bike, which I've not been getting to ride lately, rather than go to BPW and then Afan and then have to take my HT as well I reckon I'll exclude AFAN it from my plans...

Basically I want to ride my DH bike as much as possib;le for 2 days, if there's enough tto occupy my at BPW then I'll do that but I had thought I'd look at doing BPW and then swinging by somewhere else (possibly something more familiar) on the way back for day 2...

I can imagine Cwmcarn won't be as busy now, which might be a good thing if I'm a bit tired from day 1 at BPW, and then there's UKBP a bit more of a detour south but I've not ridden there for a couple of years, they've apparently done lots of work and I've always liked the place and the people in the past, probably one to keep for another time.

Thinking more broadly what sort of scope would there be for similar regular uplift services and trail developments at some of the other older M4 corridor DH locations?
Mtn Ash? Taff Buggy? Rheola maybe?

If Cwmcarn and Gethin can be seen as demonstrating the viability of uplift services in that particular area due to the good transport links, having the right terrain and pre-existing tracks with scope for further development can you imagine what that would be like, a chuffing huge draw for MTBers...

I've said it before and I'll say it again - A chairlift using the Tower Colliery Winding gear to the top of the Rhigos to just where the Skyline goes past would be an awesome idea.

Downhill tracks all the way back to the Tower Colliery Bike Cafe.

[img] [/img]

I spy with my little eye, teh cure for post-alps blues... Wonder how many days' holiday I have left.

http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2013/08/15/exclusive-photos-from-bikepark-wales/

Yesterday we opened up 1 red trail & 1 blue trail to give all the volunteers that have helped us a taste of what's to come.
The park is still closed but opens this Saturday.
This was filmed by Aberdare mtb group who helped with the build.

Excellent, the only thing that film is missing is more jersey close ups 😉

Man, they are FAST 🙂

Seriously though, it looks great.
Hope to get down there some time.

Loco, nice jerseys 😉

yep the Jersey are ace 😆

A mate has just started working there. Can't wait to find the time to go 'visit' him.

Bottom half of a red, filmed by buzz, one of the volunteers

Looking forward to riding it tomorrow 8)

Looks awesome, booked in for Monday 9th, looking forward to giving the hardtail a damn good thrashing!

Looking sweet. We're booked in for Mon 26th, cant wait! 😀