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Can't find a thread on this (someone mentioned they'd ridden a bit recently).
http://www.moredirt.com/photo/89167
New trail apparently opened on Friday, though very little info to be found, more on Xtreme track facebook page.
Judging by the pictures though, it looks like they have gone for CyB/Afan style wide mtb pavement. I'm sure it'll be fun, but I liked the trails at Nant because they were narrow singletrack that mostly utilised local surface material. The old trails fit in to the landscape far better, even taking into account years of bedding in/softening of edges etc. It seems as though the specification for new trails has changed a lot recently: wider, more surfacing, uniform untechnical surface, a lot more banking (what's wrong with some flat cornering?), a lot more obtrusive on the landscape too..
give it 6 months of weather and it'll be bedded in nicely.
I saw the end of it a couple of weeks ago, before it was officially opened, and thought oh dear that's rather bland.
I guessed it was an access path for the Enduro there next month, but obviously not!
I agree with wookie though, bed it in, rough it up and it'll be fine - I for one am pleased to see more trails at Nant Yr Arian, I love that place for a blast.
Seems to be in a tree factory, so impact on the natural landscape is zero really. Looks a bit light on drains, for wales, though? It'll be less overt once the sharp edges are gone and the surface gets clarted up.
Question for me is always, is it new trail, or a replacement for old trail, that has different implications. But the simple truth is, smashing in a broad armoured trail with a 360 and a good operator is way faster than handbuilding up to durable spec, so usually the question isn't "would you rather have a bucket-wide pumps-n-berms track or a lovely rooty rocky singletrack", it's more "This trail or no trail" or "500 feet of machine built or 50 feet of handbuilt"
Amazing, brand new bit of trail and people start moaning.
Mab Zorro means the son of Zorro.
I thought the Welsh for 'son of' was Ap?
Anyway, looks fine, there's plenty of rock gardens and gnar at nant yr Arian to allow for some smooth flow etc.
I'm so chuffed to see the place expand
I can see the value of doing it cheaper with a digger rather than hand built, and happy to see more trails over none at all. The video helps to see where it is and how long, and it makes a lot more sense than losing height on a bit of fire road.
Guess it'd still be nice to see more hand-built technical stuff being built. Nant is still my fav trail centre though!
yes ap is son of but they seldom use it.
They still use ap in some surnames,in the past most people were called ap something 😉
eg ap ioan - jones , ap dafydd - davies, ap ifan - evans and so one.
Mab is used to describe someones son.
No way is that a red trail. Barely even a green imo
that's awesome! looks like it's built to last too, perfect.
it does look a little tame, but what's wrong with that? We need more tame-but-fun trails for beginners. There are too many 'blue' routes that are just forest roads.
Rode it yesterday. Not a new trail, just a short linking section with a few berms and jumps. Like Hippity Hop crossed with the Minotaur at Coed y Brenin. My son will love it.
I know it will mature somewhat with time but it did feel a bit weird having something so nu-skool leading into the original Mark of Zorro which is so much tighter and more old-skool, though maybe that started out smooth too once upon a time.
But all new tracks are good news!
Thanks beiciwr64, my Welsh teacher was Mrs Ap Gwynedd hence my vague recollection of it.
Aha, now I understand where the trail extension is it certainly is an improvement over the fireroad.
It's my favourite centre too, especially given it's an hour from home, rideable in all weathers and has a brilliant 'secret' DH track.
Its taken the fire road out of a trail which is a good thing in my own opinion, to make it a Green would entice a newbie or novice rider to ride that bit of trail then where do they go when they have explored their new found passion, out on to the Red where every one will moan that the trail is cluttered up with lads & Dads.
It makes sense to grade it red, and it makes sense to omit the fire road in favour of an all weather trail.