Hi,

My mate and I have organised a weekend riding going to BPW and Afan. He is hugely experienced, however I am very much still learning! Is there anything I should be aware of before going? We are doing Afan on the saturday and then uplift at BPW on the sunday.

I am going to stick to blue trails at bpw, maybe venturing up to red if I feel brave enough.

What are both places like, I am really excited to be getting a weekend pass from my wife for riding with my mate, but I really don’t have much of a clue as to what I am letting myself in for!

Finally does anyone have any suggestions for overnight accommodation somewhere near bpw?

Cheers

Advice; have fun, take it easy until you get your eye in, you can go faster than you thought but you can come unstuck too.

As far as accommodation sory dint know i’ve got family in Bristol which can be handy.

There is a premier inn off the roundabout near BPW, let you take clean bikes into rooms too.

As above, save energy and enjoy!

At BPW, the red has a qualifier at the start, it’s supposed to put people off riding it who’re not good enough. Fair enough but it’s not a good qualifier, it’s not really representative of the trail. So if you find it offputting, don’t be too stressed.

As others have said, take it easy to begin with. Afan is great but the f you go too hard and mess up there are lots of stumps etc that could really mess you up. BPW, cliche but generally true; blues are more testing than blue elsewhere, reds are redder than elsewhere and black equals instant death (as far as I’m concerned anyway). The blue runs are great imo. Can get some lovely flow going without too much experience of them.

Have fun!

Well, there is nothing too ridiculous at BPW on the red trails imo, certainly nothing that is unexpected. I’d suggest in all cases doing a slow, calm sighting run down any trail the first time, be prepared to stop and look at stuff. It’s all pretty fast and flowy generally, and only the blacks are rough surfaces really (and even they aren’t that rough) and nothing is that steep.

So, make sure you control your speed, pick some nice lines (leave yourself time to read the trail) and have fun! Having a good berm technique will help too btw 😆

The only red I struggled with at BPW is Bonneville, but at least it does have a good qualifier at the beginning of the trail.

If this qualifier puts you off, then it’s not for you.

The blues however, are. Great fun.

We stayed here at BPW http://www.gethinlodge.com/cottage.html

Brilliant place. There is a drive in garage so bikes are extra safe, plus the owner even got the pizza oven started ready for our arrival!

I took two complete novice riders as part of a group (stag do) to BPWs and they both had a brilliant time. They went at their own pace and we’re soon getting into the swing of things. Both stayed on the blue trails but that was more than enough for them.

Take your time on the first few runs down the blues to get your eye in. You can pick up some mega speed on them.

I’d advise knee pads. One of our group had a silly slow speed off which resulted in a nasty gash which pads would have avoided.

The reds are all fine too if you feel up for it. I think boniville is the steep one that’s quite tricky when wet. Vicious valley and rim dinger are fantastic fun.

There’s a youth hostel 10mins from BPWs that’s actually great. Stunning location, bar and cheap filling food. Bunks are on the small side though.

Afan is also great. I personally like to do the wall or W2 and have a play in the skills area. I wouldn’t bother with skyline. Nice views but long and not a lot of bang for your buck IMO.

Have fun. We’ve got a group going in August and I’m already excited 🙂

take it steady at Afan on your first day, drink loads and go slower than you think. make a day of it and don’t forget to stop and look about, some of the views are pretty nice. The ups are pretty long so give yourself plenty of time, and don’t spanner yourself for BPW.

BPW can be a bit intimidating to start with (lots of big bikes and full face helmets) but again, go steady and give yourself plenty of time, Terry’s Belly has a rest stop (for instance)

Enjoy 🙂

At BPW, the red has a qualifier at the start, it’s supposed to put people off riding it who’re not good enough. Fair enough but it’s not a good qualifier, it’s not really representative of the trail. So if you find it offputting, don’t be too stressed.

I’d tend to disagree – it’s an easy 18″ drop for the qualifier – the one off the rock slab straight after the fire road has more potential for mistakes

Never done Afan – that’s the next trip.

Did BPW last week and stuck to the Blues, apart from Vicious Valley which is the red from the top – the small drop of as a qualifier isn’t hard but by far the hardest thing on the section!

There is a handy chart at the top before you set of which grades how easy -> hard the trails are in comparison to each other

At BPW don’t be put off by all the body armour and full-faced helmets on the reds – which might make you think the trails are difficult. The reds at BPW are no different to other trail centre reds.

the one off the rock slab straight after the fire road has more potential for mistakes

Isn’t it another qualifier as you can switch trails at the fire road?

cheers all!

I reckon I am going to stick to blues with maybe a foray onto a red as my last run 😀 I want to enjoy myself, and slowly build up to more technical things! It is still going to be there next year once my skills have developed somewhat!

BPW is excellent.
My first time htere was on my hardtail, as the chainstay cracked on my Enduro.
Also done it on a Giant Trance (4″ travel) and it was great.
FS probably slightly less harsh on the body, certainly on the HT after a day standing up most of the time my legs were mush.

Beware the last run. You’ll be knackered so upping the challenge on the last go could prove painful! I did the ‘one last run’ thing on Sunday – and I actually even dropped down a level of difficulty for it. Was knackered, wasn’t concentrating properly and the inevitable happened – I smashed into a tree 🙂

A chap I know has the ignominy of being the first person airlifted from BPW. Broken wrist, ribs, ruptured spleen and pneumothorax.

Overcooked the blue because they can get FAST.

Cheers, that is reassuring!!!!!!

phil40 – Member

cheers all!

I reckon I am going to stick to blues with maybe a foray onto a red as my last run I want to enjoy myself, and slowly build up to more technical things! It is still going to be there next year once my skills have developed somewhat!

Not a bad plan for your first trip, Blues are epic fun, if you’ve been riding a few years you can really let rip knowing there’s plenty of room to fix it if things start going wrong, although accidents do happen of course as above, if you’re newer to the game you can pottle down as your own place and it’s still lots of fun – for exmaple I took my 10 year old down Sixapod, it took ages and I glazed my brakes staying behind him, but he loved it, the same trails as warp speed feel like the bike is floating you’re going so fast – Bluebelle especially you can get to warp speed for a long time.

I/we are far from riding gods and first trip to BPW we did all the black’s in the rain – none of them are that hard, albeit not done the new ones which I believe are a bit ‘jumpy’. No reason not to try the reds if you are anyway half competent on an MTB

<—– fully incompetent 😀