I'm camping with the family near Porthmadog and if I promise to be good I'm allowed out for a few hours with me bike. I need bang for my buck so it's a trail centre I think, Coed y Brenin or Betws y Coed seem the obvious choices.

Any suggestions? I fancy Penmanchno trail as it has a cool name.

personally, i like penmachno.
really open in places, got more of a disorganised feel to it.
and the moor section rocks, its really good (personal opinion)
coedy is toss, its all slabbed and a pain in the arse to ride. does have a cracking cafe and shop though.
the natural stuff out the back of it is good, but if i were there for the day, i wouldnt want to be messing about with maps.
betws is awesome, and is closer to shops and civilisation than penmachno…
the final descent at betws is epicly good too.

i vote for betws i think.

then penmachno if youve got time

Agree about the slabs at Coed y Brenin, not to my taste at all and adds little to the ride. All the same though, departing and returning aside, as a trail centre it flows amazingly well and gets my vote. The ham ploughmans is top notch too!

Not done Coedy so can't comment. We did Penmachno then the Marin trail aftewards in May. Both were great, but Penmachno edged it for us, seemed less fireroad climbing and a bit more open space feel to it (if that makes sense!)

CyB by a country mile. "All slabbed" suggests you haven't ridden much of it. Penmachno is great for the out there feel but lacks the buzz that riding a greater variety of trail features brings. My advice would be to sneak off 3 times and do Marin, Penmachno and CyB!

Did the Beast at CYB recently and thought it was great. Penmachno is good but I preferred CYB personally.

I did the Beast on sunday and thought that most of it was pretty good , although I thought the bits that climbed fire roads and then descended the same fire roads were a bit pointles just to add the mileage.

Agree CYB is the best, Carl that loop is easy to skip, stay on the road from the cafe half way round

Right, cheers. CYB it is. Beast first, missing out said pointless fire road loop half way round and Tarw after if I have time.

Then sneak of when no one is looking to do Penmachno.

Job done.

Penmachno.

Is that the cafe thats really somebodys house that does the excellent ice cream?

nobody mentioned llandegla

*runs*

I would have to say Penmanchno

Did it for the first time on sunday, and was really impressed.
Less fire road climbs than CYB. Trail reminded me more of Afan – less compacted than CYB and llandegla more natural. Last 2 decents are wicked

No trail centre – just a car park (and donation box) but this is a good thing as the trail was way quieter than others

If you need bang for buck, run up Moel y Gest from town. That'll get you tired quickly 🙂

relboy i love coedy but have nt tried penmachno so hopefully if you do both please postwith your findings/recommendations

Coedy's great fun, Olly i honestly dont know what youre on about?! The rocky bits are great!

Penmachno if you haven't done it before, but have done CyB.

It's just as enjoyable but quite different.

Just throw a dart and go to the closest, they are all great!

Yeah good point Sofatester, I think people on here get too hung up on the centres, I ride them and enjoy them all myself, also love wild stuff round Snowdonia and will be heading out to my local trails with a bunch of mates in an hour or so…really spoilt with how much stuff we have on our doorsteps in Wales.,

If I had to rank them it would be CYB or Penmachno for a day ride, just because there's more to CYB it edges Penmachno, then the Marin and Llandegla both of which we tend to do as evening/night rides cos they are a bit shorter.

CYB has great trails and good facilities can't see how you wouldn't enjoy it unless you set out with the intention not to!

I was staying near Barmouth recently and did Coed-y-Brenin and Pont Scethin. I enjoyed blasting around the trail centre, but the ride up to Pont Scethin and back was a lot more fun.

climacx is excellent and i really enjoyed penmachno ive done a few at CYB the beast was ok but i found the twyr ( i think thats what it was called) was crap a few good bits but mainly fireroad

oh llandegla is good for a laugh just go there expecting sillyness and you cant go wrong

Marin and Coed Y Brenin both good, I preferred Brenin, but not by a huge amount.

I quite liked the rock slabs.