[Closed] Llandegla v Cwmcarn

Llandegla. Great views, nice riding, good cafe.

Cwmcarn has a horrible climb that I find soul destroying and may currently have some closed sections but I'm uncertain about that.

Hmmm llandegla has the better cafe, best trail centre cafe in UK imho

Some fun flowy sections too, but cwmcarn has longer trails (twice the distance), even if the climbs are grim! Off piste at cwmcarn has much more to offer as well

'degla will heaving BH Monday?

Not ridden it yet but given that choice I'd try Cwmcarn I think.

I would check the website for Llandegla. You did have to prebook as they were distancing in the car park. I think they had hiked up the parking charge too. Im not sure if this is still the case. Marin trail and Penmachno will be fine as you can access them at multiple points though.
There is no cafe at either until you get into Llanrwst

No pre booking at Llandegla, but you need to be early. Parking £8 at moment to help cover losses. They have been busy putting in features on The B Line though. Not been yet.

Llandegla always reminds me why I love my hardtail. New bits are mostly just added/reshaped jumps (some of the new ones are pretty hefty kickers).

Honestly for me both are a fun option I really would just choose on distance

Llandegla is likely to be really busy on a bank holiday if it’s back to its pre-lockdown levels of visitors. It reached the point where we were only going mid-week, or late afternoon at weekends and never on a bank holiday.
Went for a ride there the week it reopened after lockdown and it was quiet then!

Was at llandegla in the week, not too busy... Cafe was struggling to cope with food orders. Took an hour to get our some plain burgers and chips. Was about 5 orders in front of us.

Trails were great.

Maybe take your own food?

Cwm Carn for me. No idea about the cafes and other stuff, just prefer the trails there....

I’ve not ridden Llandegla yet but it sounds fun.

Cwmcarn is decent now - there’s a little new blue circuit that’s all pumpy and jumpy and bermy which we did as a quick warm up about a month ago.

Then there’s Cafell which is the biggest red circuit in terms of climbing - it is a bit of a beast, but the downhill is worth it. If it’s a windy day I tend to skip the main downhill and turn off left down the pedalhounds DH run. The main downhill since a lot of trees were felled is quite exposed now and if you have a headwind it sucks the fun out of it. Pedalhounds has more gradient and tree cover so it’s great fun.

Twrch is now all running properly again - very different to Cafell. I tend to spin up the fireroad next to the start - especially if I’ve already done the blue and Cafell first. If you like that kind of thing the uphill is more rocky and technical than Cafell - which is more smooth but longer with lots of switchbacks. Airstream 2 is the better option to take at the top - that’s flat out fun with berms and jumps. Then you go into a more rocky / rooty natural section through the woods - and the final downhill is really quick and lots of fun.

If you’re still feeling energetic you could finish with the blue again. I think that combo of blue / red / red / blue worked out to be about 30k and 1100m if climbing.

Thanks all, Cwmcarn it is.

Thanks all, Cwmcarn it is.

I see I'm late to the party, but that would be my choice.

Cwmcarn is 'local' to me, 20 mins down the road and I ride there more weekends than I don't.

Grim climbs, yeah, but I skip most of them. I'm not into technical climbing, but I doff my cap to those who do.

Top of Cafal was closed a few weeks ago when I was there, might be open now. I usually ride the pair of them in a loop that skips the hardest climbs. Don't ignore the short blue loop, it's a real love/hate thing for people it seems, for various reasons, "it's too short" yep, it's not worth a drive alone, "it's too slow" yeah, it can be a frustrating enigma of a thing, it's easy, yet hard to really go fast unless you can jump well enough to double (or even treble) things, then you can go very fast indeed. "It's easy" well, it's a blue, and I've seen enough crashes on it to say that, it's only as easy as you want to make it.

I love Llandela, it was always our BH road trip destination, I like MTB Meet-up too, the Cafe is brilliant, joint 'best' with FOD TC for me, better food, but FOD has a nice vibe.

We went a few weeks ago, got to say the revised sections aren't our cup of tea, I wouldn't say it's ruined for us, but it's close. There's still some great sections there, but B-Line is for people who can jump far better than me, and my mate who really can jump says they're terrible anyway, I doubt many riders will manage to clear the last jump on B-Line, it's huge.

We're off to Nant yr Arian this weekend instead, it's brilliant in my book, no cafe (at the mo) even the toilets are portable, but the trails are great and there's massive f-off birds to look at.

there’s massive f-off birds to look at.

I always thought that was somewhere in the North East...

I'm off work this Friday and was thinking of visiting Degla for the first time. Do you have to get there mega early on a weekday to get parked? If you can't get a space is there anywhere else safe and considerate to park up for the day?

It's a 2 hour drive away if we have to set off at 6am it's not happening.

I always thought that was somewhere in the North East…

I think you'll find that Sandra and Tracey are from Nottingham.

I've never had a problem parking if I'm there before 10am.

I rode Cwmcarn a few weeks ago and went down Airstream knowing there's a fire road at the bottom of it that takes you back up so you can ride Airstream 2 as well. Although on the day I visited it was fenced off. Bugger!

Cwmcarn. Not to ride the loop, but to ride Risca, Wyllie & Machen.

If distance no object why not go up and do a decent tail centre like Inners, Laggan or Glentress?

Llandegla is overrated. It's too much up and down, a 'big' climb then a load of of half arsed descent and lots of annoying little climbs to string the distance out. Welsh trail centres all seem to be like this. What's wrong with just going all the way up the hill then back down (and repeat?)...

Apart from the cafe at Llandegla I don't really see why people rate it so highly, especially given how busy it would be on a BH and you have to pay a load to park.

I rode Cwmcarn a few weeks ago and went down Airstream knowing there’s a fire road at the bottom of it that takes you back up so you can ride Airstream 2 as well. Although on the day I visited it was fenced off. Bugger!

I know it's of no use now but for anyone else you can loop back via the bridleway and field to the left of the Airstream sections. When you get to the bit of concrete by the car park (just befrore you start the Odin section running alongside the road) there is a silver gate to your left. Go through that and up the grassy hill. When you get close to the summit follow the obvious track back up to the left. You will soon see a small stile that you can jump over to get into the trees, go over this and follow the track to pop out at the beginning of the two Airstream sections.

If distance no object why not go up and do a decent tail centre like Inners, Laggan or Glentress?

I didn't say distance was no object, I said to ignore distance as a deciding factor.

Cwmcarn is 80 miles, 'Degla is 122 miles. Glentress is 306 miles, too far for a day trip.

It's a Bank Holiday weekend you say! I'll change my earlier thoughts. Avoid both, go to somewhere quieter. I hate crowds. Brechfa, Cwmrhadr, or somewhere natural perhaps?

Hit and a miss.

Cwm Rhaeadr mountain bike trail remains closed due to ongoing tree felling and harvesting work by NRW (Updated 3 July 2020)

All trails at Brechfa are currently closed due to tree felling and harvesting work by NRW (Updated 3 July 2020)

Define "natural". I'm not dead set on a bikepark, I usually ride off'piste in the FoD, but I'd need somewhere with easily found trails.

Cwmcarn has loads of off-piste. A few of the trails cross the main twrch trail. All quite sessionable and there's always people riding it. If you have a look on strava segment explore you should be able to find most of it as it all hangs off the scenic drive roads.

Most of the Risca trails are on Trailforks.