Si B

iTrader: (59)

Anyone been here?:

http://mbwales.com/en/content/cms/Ce...rest_Park.aspx

Looks good, me and 7 mates are off there tomorrow for a days riding.
I think most of us are not crazy full sus downhill nutters, so what trails are best, what routes are best?

Given the lack of daylight hours, the 46km Skyline route is out, unless we take shortcuts.

Any hints or tips or comments about the place welcomed

Si

Rolls

iTrader: (2)

Afan - FANTASTIC place to ride...
Are you only there for the day?
Get there early - do whites level first IMO, followed by the wall...
Either that, or do the wall first, off to the cafe for lunch, and then "july" second (this is the climb for teh start of whites / skyline - you then follow the signs for skyline, and take the first marked shortcut = this will be obvious - you get to a sharp left on the trail, with trail signs left and right. The left will take you up a stepish rocky trail, and on to the rest of skyline. Go right- its down hill, and fairly rocky. At the bottom of here, I think you turn right and you then basically do the last 8k or so of skyline. The last climb on skyline / july isn't nice, but the last descent is AWESOME (unless you've been to the alps - then it is still great, just over too quickly.)
IMO, do NOT do the full skyline - out the back it is full of fire roads, and fairly boring, and fire-road based.
Stick to the Wall / whites / july, and you'll LOVE it!
HTH.

timster

Simon,
I'm living about 10 miles away from this and its snowing here quite heavily.Just wanted to make you aware of the weather

Rolls

iTrader: (2)

that would make it interesting - forget the black run on whites if thats the case! lol

GARETH T

drove past it the other week, theres a cracking drivin road from there into the rhondda

all my biking friends in work swear by the place!

robp-tt

iTrader: (1)

afan is great for riding, i done the kona mashup last year there and then went over to the old side(the wall) and done that and i have never had so much fun, if you go do the track called granada thats good and you should see why it has its name(there is or was wahts left of an old granada in there on the left hand side, couldnt work out how they got it in there though)

Si B

iTrader: (59)

Thanks for the positive reports, sounds excellent then

Snow, also Excellent

Just finished cleaning, lubing the chain, and swapping inner tubes. Bike is ready to go, I'm not though!

We're leaving at 7.30am, 130 mile drive to the place - think we're only going to get a few hours riding in, but sounds like it's going to be a blast!

timster

Its stopped now si

Bloomers

iTrader: (1)

Love Afan and Glyncorryg

i can't reccommend whites level enough. but as said, be prepared if you hit the black run section in the snow lol

Fudgey

iTrader: (4)

my mate goes to afan often and says its ace, ive never been tho.

i did go with them to the froest of dean last week tho, first time ive been out on a bike for almost 2 years

got there and the carpark was sheet ice, and some of the ride was dodgey as fuck on the ice lol.

got all the way around and riding back through the carpark tot he car, one guy infront of me has a moment on the ice and swerevs right infront of me. i touched the brake and hit the deck doing about 1mph...

and cut my fucking knee open cunts!

take some body armour if its icy lol

JTECH James

iTrader: (13)

one of my new years resolutions is to actually use my bike this year,

Si B

iTrader: (59)

Went there today as planned. What a wicked place. Tons of routes, 2 great centres anf bike hire. Showers etc. Very well geared up.

Did The Wall, only had time for that due to day light hours, and having a large mixed ability group.

Was an awesome ride, a bit of up on Fire roads, but loads of good technical singletrack.

Tons of snow and ice made things a tad hairy!

Will be back again, but will stick with the Quantocks for now till we get longer daylight time

Thanks for all the replies

Rolls

iTrader: (2)

In that case you'll HAVE to do whites / july next time - the climb to the top is entirley singletrack.. Its quite challenging if you're new to biking (and about 6k long) ut its GREAT - very rewarding once you get to the top, and see the view of what you've just climbed!
Glad you had fun!