I’m staying in a yurt near Welshpool over the bank holiday weekend – just wondering what is the best biking to be done from there. We will be with a reasonable sized group – I think most are up for biking some of the time but not all have bikes/are very experienced.

Is Coed Y Brenin the best bet – and is it gonna be horribly busy on a bank holiday? Is there any good natural riding I could sneak off and do with the more experienced people?

Ta

Suprisingly little riding out-of-the-door but loads of great stuff within an hour or so’s drive.

CyB, Machynlleth (CLimach-x) & Llandegla are the closest trail centres but Nant yr Arian & Betwys y coed (penmachno/marin) are only an extra 15 minutes drive. Yes, they’re all likely to be busy but, for most, once you’re out on the trails you don’t really notice.

If you want natural stuff, there’s some great riding to be had round the Long Mynd and the Berwyns or Eastridge has some way-marked trails that can be extended over the Stiperstones and is only 30 mins away.

The variety of easily accessible riding has kept me here for 10 years now 🙂

Caersws downhill track is nearby too but I’ve no idea what access is like or facilities. I just know they hold events there

There are these 2 that I’m doing this w/e with my gf…

http://www.mtbtrailfinder.co.uk/html/SAMPLE%20-%20N%20Wales%20-%20Tanat%20Valley%20Berwyn%20Hills%20(Medium)%20-%20MBR%20May%2008.htm

http://www.mtbwales.co.uk/RouteDetails.asp?fldid=2

Weather permitting 🙂

Paul

Hmm sounds like Caersws is on Private Land so that’s a non starter I’m afraid.

There are regular DH events at Caersws and Moelfre (near oswestry) but both are on private farmland.

If you get a group together and speak nicely to the land-owner at Moelfre, he will often run private uplifts at the weekend for not much cash. I haven’t got contact details though I’m afraid.

clarkpm4242 – I’ve done a similar ride to the Lake Vyrnwy one many times – the descent down to the Hotel is great fun. You just need to look out for the sheep 🙂 . The view over to Cadir Idris from the top is worth the effort too.

Cheers folks – don’t think DH is on the cards for most of us (I’m probably the only one with a full-face helmet).

Which is best out of C-y-B, Machynlleth, Llandegla, Nant yr Arian, Penmachno & Marin Trails?

I’ve done Penmachno and Llandegla – enjoyed both but would probably like to try somewhere else. Am tempted by CyB just cos of the variety of trails and bike hire/cafe etc. It seems to get very mixed reviews on here though.

Which are the best trails at CyB?

Right then..

CyB = good range of trails and terrain. Yes it gets a slating, especially since it’s “tarmac’d” a lot of the descents but it’s still entertaining, esp if you like Llandegla etc. Dragon’s back & MBR routes are both good mid distance routes. The Beast is a long distance combination of the above 2. The Tarw is good in places but is showing it’s age a bit with a lot of fire road stuff. There’s a shorter route for more novice riders too if you’re a mixed group.

Machynlleth (Climach-x) = good short blast with nice singletrack and great views. Not much technical stuff…. except the last descent which is long, gnarly and will have you going back up to do it again (there’s an un-signed short cut back up to the top)

Nant-yr-Arian = one of my favourite places to ride – if the weather’s good, you get a real sense of being out in the middle of nowhere, especially if you do the longer distance tracks (The old MBR killer loop that heads off the continental trails is the best for a real variety of terrain from man made singletrack to rocky forest descents)

Penmachno & Llandegla – you’ve done them so know what to expect 🙂

Marin – a good mix, great views and some good descents. Again, this trail is showing it’s age a bit though with little technical riding.

All the above is IMHO of course 😉

Oh, and if you want an end of ride Cafe – it’ll have to be CyB or Nant yr Arian. There’s a private house half way round the Dragons back at CyB that does cracking food & drink too.

Hey that’s really helpful, thanks very much. 😀

Will check out Nant Y Arian, sounds good.

No problem. If you’ve got MemoryMap or a GPS I can send you the tracklogs I’ve got from round there if you like (including the MBR long route (36km)).

Hope you have a good ride.

Neil

Yeah that would be great ta – email is in my profile. Nice one!

Like the others have said, closest is Caersws DH track, but tbh I’d pop upto Llandegal and have an sfternoon over there. If you get bored then Climach-x (Machynlleth) and NyA (Aberystwyth) would be easy to get to as would CyB (Dolgellau)

The best for variety for me would be Nant yr Arian but I’m baised as I live down the road (as does surfr)

ygm 🙂

There are some good tracks and bridleways around the Dyfnant Forest to the south of Vyrnwy ( as the english prefer to spell it) i think there was some kind of horse riding project that produced material with route info… Other than that I’d try the Berwyns, there is lots of good riding around Welshpool but it’s all OS map based, you are not that far from Bishops Castle and can access both the Long Mynd and Ceri Forest as well. Back of Oswestry is the Ceriog Trail and a maze of amazing bridleways including one that goes right past the downhill at Moelfre.. in fact the downhill crosses it.