[Closed] The harder trails at bike park wales.

Nothing is 'natural' but there are certainly sections that feel more natural with roots and erosion that you'd expect.

i like vicious valley to rock and roll to insufficient funds

For nore natural go for Dai Hard and Fifty Shades. Plus bolt ons like Pork Belly and Deep Navigation

We had a roll down the one off the top that starts with a nasty drop off to tiny landing. It has some optional gaps but they are all off the natural line. Plenty of drops that are ok on a trail bike, overall much rougher than the blues so feels more natural.

Personally I prefer the speed and flow stuff, I can ride slow and techy at home.

There's nothing at BPW that a regularly mincing MTB'r couldn't get down* Some have some jumps but they're all roll-able, and the steep bits aren't so bad you can't just lock up the back wheel and scrape down

* it might not stylish, and there may have to be stern "go-words" uttered, but you'll get down them ok.

Way out on skiers left there is some more nadgery rooty stuff, but its not very long.
50 shades was fun in a rocky way.

I would assume that the classic Mt Ash tracks must be hidden away somewhere?

Nickc at least Dai Hard, Enter the Dragon, Deep Nav, Pork Belly and Fifty Shades have non rollable sections.

Nothing is massively mental but anyone reading your post and trying to roll everything may end up doing themselves some harm!

I'm not too worried about having to do some gaps etc. I was just wondering if all the blacks were just massive jump lines, as that's not really my thing. The qualifiers at the top all look fine to me. I guess we'll just roll down and see how it goes.

We will be riding up

Nickc at least Dai Hard, Enter the Dragon, Deep Nav, Pork Belly and Fifty Shades have non rollable sections.

yeah, ok but they're teeny! But yeah point taken. Sorry. 😳

What about the vertical wall drop bit ? That's not tiny to most/some ?

Riding up because we don't have an uplift booked, and that's where birthday boy wants to ride. It's not my choice. To be honest I'll probably just send one of the others down first and if they hit the jumps I'll just follow!

You can pay £3 per lift up mate, cash, slight wait sometimes but usually fine.

I normally prefer riding less 'built' trails. Especially steep and techy. Are all the blacks just big jumps?

Sounds like you'll like Rock N Roll, Half Cut and Deep Navigation. The Hot Stepper red bit off Terry's Belly is marginally more natural.

I would assume that the classic Mt Ash tracks must be hidden away somewhere?

Um...yeah, at Mountain Ash.... 😉
This is Gethin.

yup, what weeksy says. It will be a little busy on a Saturday but waiting in the 'spare' queue will certainly be shorter than riding up. I reckon after riding up once you'll be going back via the centre for some tickets.

there's nothing at BPW that a regularly mincing MTB'r couldn't get down

I'm not so sure about that - I've only been once and although I've done plenty of trail centre riding I don't have the skills for big jumps & gaps. There's plenty of stuff at BPW I wouldn't attempt.

OP's been before, so he knows what he's letting himself in for, but just sayin 'yeah, it's all rollable' is setting someone up for a nasty surprise!

Edit - yeah, what chrishc777 said ^

The ride up is ok, I've done it about 6 times in one day (but i wouldnt again, i was cramping the final time up).

It's the first bit that feels almost bloody vertical, and also dont ride up beast of burden the fireroad is way easier. That's if you don't ride up the uplift track I suppose.

What about the vertical wall drop bit ?

chrishc777 - Member

Nickc at least Dai Hard, Enter the Dragon, Deep Nav, Pork Belly and Fifty Shades have non rollable sections.

What's not rollable on deep navigation?

Yeah the non rollable stuff isn't hard, the only bits I haven't done are Dai Hard road gap, Enter the Dragon double into woods (well I've ridden it but not cleared it) and one big step down the woods on 50 Shades with a horrible run in.

Just be aware it's not all literally rollable!

Best thing is pick a track and session it, especially if you're riding up. Go down say fifty shades and stop at all the features, ride them once or twice then on the second run you can get a full run in knowing what's coming. If you do one run each of 5 trails you're not likely to get much out of it.

Northwind there's a new gap towards the bottom, I suppose you could roll it but you'd have to be doing 1 mph to stay on the ground.

Ah, that might be new since we rode there (I didn't insist on doing it all with the landing gear down but I convinced a friend to ride it by saying it would all roll :oops:)

First time at BPW for me last Tuesday. Certainly wouldn't say it was all rollable. The wall drop and I think one other on Enter the Dragon I wimped out of. Pork belly was fine, one little drop about half way that was probably rollable, just hucked it. Coal not dole was all rollable. The qualifiers by far harder than the actual trails. This was all on my Anthem.

I liked Hot stepper for a natural(ish) trail with few small drops. A470 certainly seemed the most jumpy / bike parky trail that we rode (only blacks rode as mentioned above).

The qualifiers by far harder than the actual trails.

I would say the qualifer features for the black runs are far easier than the features you encounter on the trail. Some of the drops and jumps on those trails dwarf the qualifiers!

Enter the Dragon > Coal not Dole > Insufficient Funds probably my fave easier run top to bottom. Good place to start. CND is possibly the easiest black when ridden at steady pace, get some proper speed up though and it gets scary after the berms through the rough straight section

smatkins1 - Member

I would say the qualifer features for the black runs are far easier than the features you encounter on the trail.

It's not so much difficuly, just appropriateness. Like, the one with the wooden gap jump. I [i]really[/i] don't like that gap. But then it turns out that the rest of the trail is completely different. So if you're a jumper that's good at that sort of manmade feature but bad at natural trails, the quali fails. But if you're like me, not much of a jumper and not keen on such overly manmade features but good at the trail that follows, again it fails. It's just bad trail design frankly, a quali has to be in keeping with the trail it's guarding if it's going to work.

Agreed there Northwind, Dai Hard and ETD qualis should be the other way round. Or the Dai hard one shpuld be a steep tight rooty chute

Always found the gap at the start of dai hard weird. After that everything is rollable and not very difficult. Yes you can hit the road gap at the end (if the berm isnt destroyed), the rock drops arent really drops unless you hit them with some speed either.

Enter the dragon is a step up from Dai Hard imo.

If you want more natural feel without qualifiers or jumps imo the best combo is...

vicious valley - rock and roll or bonneyville then deep navigation (i personaly would do insufficient funds then).

What's this wall drop people are talking of? Is it a new feature on the old blacks? I was there last Wed and didn't notice a "wall drop", but we mainly rode stuff that we hadn't ridden before/the newer trails.

It's a drop off an old wall on ETD, near the bottom.

Oh, that wasn't there last time I rode etd. It has been a while though.

Oh, that wasn't there last time I rode etd. It has been a while though.

Yes it was.

Its been there longer than BPW has.

I agree with Phil warren. ETD is a step up from Dai Hard. I'm a fairly competent trail hacker but I've never really been comfortable in the air. Individually, I don't think there are any drops worse than the entry to pork belly, but, sight unseen, at the end of the day, ETD but me on the arse!

I think Dai Hard is a harder trail because it's techy, ETD just requires more speed and commitment. However ETD is higher risk due to the speed, broke my wrist in the woods section last year.

Wall drop has always been there, just you wouldn't know it's a wall unless you stopped and looked from the landing. One of my fave features at BPW, sends you mach 10 into the rocky gully, wheels and rocks pinging everywhere

Well if its always been there then I havent noticed it lol! I suppose 1 persons wall is another person drop/stepdown.
There is a large drop on 50shades that is a pretty memorable wall to drop down. Just after the road gap and left,right.

The one you're on about on 50 Shades is a wooden board. The one on ETD is a wall. I don't believe opinion comes into it really, a wall is a wall, whether you live inside them or ride your bike off them

Yeah that wall has always been there - even from Dragon uplift days & races.

I think most seem to treat it as a drop these days - the landing always used to be a fair out distance out, you had to be motoring to clear it properly.

Just googled it. Yup, its a brick wall! Never noticed that before.
Walls can still be wood BTW

i find the step down into rock and roll more daunting than pork belly, as it has a slight bend after you land 🙂

I see what you meant now superfli, sorry! Yes it's not a wall as in Fort Bill DH 'The Wall', but an actual wall.

Surely a wooden wall is a fence though? 😕

Fort william's wall's really not a wall- it's just the place where they store all the gradient they carefully removed from the motorway.

My point exactly

Enter the Dragon = wall
Fort Bill wall = not a wall

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