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How necessary is it? My normal "trail centre outfit" is just a normal helmet and lightweight knee guards. But its gonna my first time there and on youtube everyone seems to be Gnar to the max.
I have a full face helmet from previous trips to Morzine so will probably take that - but wondering if i should get elbow guards as well.
All seems a bit overkill as only doing the reds and blues. Or am i missing something?
Nah you'll be fine in a regular helmet and knee pads if you're sticking to the reds and blues.
It's similar tech to normal trail centres. The main difference is you spend a lot more time riding downhill. Probably build up a fair bit of speed and confidence by the end of the day. I wear knee pads and an enduro helmet. Never felt under dressed (except on the bus)
If your whizzing downhill with gravity a full face is always a no brainer, just makes it simple to decide.
Add in what pads you have
Disclaimer just seen the vids but uplift be uplift 😉
Plenty of people ride BPW with trail helmet and knee pads. However, if you have the uplift booked and already have a full face helmet you may as well use it. I do.
Wear whatever amount of protection you feel comfortable with. For me the speed is far greater than other trail centres I've ridden especially on the relatively simple blues like Sixtapod and TB. I imagine if you hit the deck on those at the speeds they can be ridden you could do yourself quite a bit of damage.
Whilst thre blues are easy and most of the reds aren’t too bad either (nothing really steep and technical) all of the trails find you going pretty quickly as most are quite wide and surfaced. Doesn’t bear thinking about a crash at some of the speeds possible so I wear full face / knee & shin pads / elbow and forearm pads. I do keep wondering about some kind of back protector but haven’t taken a leap that far yet.
Depends what you're comfortable with.
I don't like full face helmets at all (mix of comfort because of my funny shaped head and feeling a bit claustrophobic), so have always ridden there in a trail helmet. I do also wear knee pads, and elbow/forearm pads.
I've done all the trails there, from blue to black, and not felt under protected in my gear.
I was there last week, spoke to a bloke from Essex who had knocked himself out hitting a fence post on one of the blue trails, his full face definitely saved him a lot of pain and misery, if you have a full face just take it, especially if you haven’t ridden there before,
elbow and knee pads too, if anything you will feel confident and able to commit to stuff, knowing you’re padded up!
There is quite a lot of rock on some of the trails like Rim Dinger. Easy to ride without but if you have elbow pads there is not much to gain from not wearing them when a silly fall at low speed could put you out for weeks.
Hours of fun to be had on pping and similar without too much danger though.
Last year I was dressed like a Stormtrooper - full face, core suit, hard shell knee/shin pads and elbow/forearm pads - mainly blues and reds. Totally OTT in hindsight.
Went in July with normal lid and POC knee pads. Cooler for a start as it was baking. Left FF and core suit in car - calculated risk. Didn’t need them luckily or I’d have wished I’d put them on! Nothing hairier than a normal trail center descent TBH unless you stray onto the blacks.
Fullface and whatever armour you have, don't listen to this lot - some of the reds have pretty big features, eg Insufficient Funds.
Full face is a no brainer for an uplift day. You'll probably ride more technical features in a day at BPW than you will in a month of normal trail riding, and at a higher average speed.
I always wear knee pads but I also use elbow pads at BPW. Every crash I've had at BPW has been a high speed front wheel washout on a gravelly berm or corner, and that means my elbow smacks into the ground.
My riding buddy crashed in the same way without elbow pads and made a right mess of his elbow and lower arm.
The grounds pretty unforgiving in most places, a few friends have had their day cut short by a fairly innocuous crash followed by a trip to Merthyr hospital which knee/elbow pads would have prevented.
followed by a trip to Merthyr hospital ...
This is definitely not something I would recommend! What a nightmare of a place.
However, kneepads wouldn't have prevented the busted ribs I got. Riding properly would have... 😆
Helmet n gloves for me, but see plenty storm-troopered to the max and none of it looks wrong.
Biggest thing with armour Dez, is that you don't tense up as much - when you know that hit to your elbows and knees isn't going to hurt anywhere near as much - so rolling out of the crash comes a lot more naturally.
I've done BPW in just a trail helmet with no gloves or knee pads, was riding the reds and blacks.
Was there this weekend but due to the weather wore my full face so I could run goggles and wore kneepads so I could tuck my long socks underthem so my legs didnt get covered in silt and mud.
I think each to their own TBH, I am a fool but am learning to wear more protection these days!
I was quite bummed to see sixtapod and locomotion closed on my visit, but very happy to see the revised middle section of A470 and the new line AC/DC into Watts Occuring. Does anyone know why they shut the hard shoulder which split off from the A470?
Depends if you fall off...
Nothing hairier than a normal trail center descent TBH unless you stray onto the blacks
I'd say everything is one colour harder - compared to other welsh non-uplift centres. The blues are faster the Blue Scar and the Blue at Coed y Brenin (can anyone think of other fast blues?) and the reds have non-rollable drops which I thought was an auto-black route or at least a black bus-stop option anywhere else.
I definitely wear a FF for Antur or Revolution, but TBH BPW is like the DH's at CYB or Whytes.
Nahhh everything at CYB is rollable, even on the blacks. It's all old school rocky singletrack descending.
BPW isn't.