Has anyone been & not enjoyed it?

Yes. Bought into the hype, found it a big disappointment.

Was bored of place by lunch time and resorted to 4 up no pedal racing for the afternoon which in fairness improved things dramatically.

Give me a Pearce track or somewhere like Llangollen any day.

Wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy it but it’s defo over-hyped and just not that great a setup.

I’ve been twice with my mates, once in the wet & once in the dry, mostly blasted the reds and blues and we can’t wait to go back. I love big nasty natural stuff and sweet local woodsy trails, but for stoopidly fast trails with perfect corners BPW will take some beating in the UK.

Let’s see what Antur Stiniog brings tomorrow..

I didn’t particularly enjoy it when I went. The riding just felt very artificial and trail centre ish which I don’t enjoy. We did a ride in Rhayader the day before and that was much better.

Mugboo…..We did antur stiniog as an intro to uplifts a couple of weeks before doing BPW.
My personal opinion
AS seems less commercial and more rider focused.
AS tracks are more technical ie blue is comparable with BPW reds….and they are a LOT rougher(didnt do any blacks as the red was more than enough for me on the day)
BPW uplift isnt as good…not bad..just not as good.
Bpw has a better trail network…ie longer runs if you link them up on the way down.

Only been to BPW once (a couple of months ago).

When we stopped for lunch, I wasn’t thinking much of the place compared to AS, but by the end of the day (once we’d sampled enough trails to begin to mix-n-match our favourites) I thought there wasn’t much in it. AS just edges it for me I think, but once your get your head round BPW it’s pretty cool.

If you don’t like trail centre-y trail centres you won’t like BPW – it’s (obviously) very ‘Rowan’ in feel.

The riding just felt very artificial and trail centre ish which I don’t enjoy

Errrrrm. Because it’s man-made and a trailcentre maybe ?

Ive been loads of time now, for me its a love-hate thing.

The busses are too slow and the uplift road takes too long, you can pedal up quicker than the busses.

The cafe shuts when the uplift shuts, so don’t think you can get a bear after catching the last run down.

Uplift pick up point is in a stupid place.

They don’t run in summer evenings except a Thursday.

They don’t have a dedicated singles only bus. This is needed when the uplift is booked solid for 3 months in advance.

A470 is pretty boring so needs a better jump trail not just a line of jumps and a berm.

You’re doing well to get 10+ runs in a day, which at 34 quid isn’t amazing value for money considering what you get at FoD or AS.

This is needed when the uplift is booked solid for 3 months in advance.

I haven’t been to BPW yet as the uplift is always booked up, and often the diary won’t let you book any further than a few months ahead. Daft system

emails I’ve sent to BPW regarding it seem to be ignored 😕

Daft system

Not really, days come available three months in advance so you know if you want to go a particular day you know you need to be on getting on the booking on particular day. If it was just a free for all every saturday for next year would already be booked out as well!

I didn’t like it on my first trip, like all the other trails they opened with the Cognation it opened before the trails were bedded in so they were incredibly sloppy and incredibly slippery.

But other than that it’s been great, It’s 30 mins from my house, but I don’t go that often – the long waiting list is a real pain for me – my wife gets 3 weeks notice of her shifts, they need 3 months, so I risk booking only to find Mrs is working and I’ve got the kids.

I have to say most of the gripes I’ve read above are 90% expectation related – it’s a Bike Park, they’re very clear about that – so yes it’s all very fake and very wide and perfectly made – like Whistler – the most famous bike park of them all, only Whistler is wider still, smoother still, and faker still. If you get caught up in the hype and go along expecting it to be different to what they say it is, you’re going to be disappointed.

Been a few times as its good to mix things up but FoD is more natural and difficult, I’d always go somewhere like that to get some DH practice in for a race.
BPW is very ‘manicured’….no bad thing I suppose as you can get some good runs in even when it’s wet. The blue runs are great on a HT, I’d imagine they’re boring on full suspension but I’ve not yet taken my FS there, I felt the red runs were no steeper or faster than the blue ones….they just seemed to have slabs of rock randomly placed in the trail…great on a full suss I should imagine….’interesting’ on a hardtail, I felt it was a lazy way of making a trail more technical.

If they truly want to differentiate the blue runs from the red ones then get rid of some of the berms on the reds, put a few off camber corners in there for riders to deal with.
Also could try putting a few more drops into the reds, nothing massive…couple of feet max would do it…riders would actually have to think a bit, change their body position and actually ride the trail instead of letting their long travel full suss soak up the rock slabs with no effort on their part…a 2ft drop also means scope for injury should be fairly low while still providing a test when stepping up from the blues.

I’m booked on again for the 30th of this month but I’m also at the Black Mountain Cycle Centre on Aug 5th and will probably get another day in at FoD this week…shift work is brilliant for easy booking of midweek uplift places!

As usual will be on the Ragley HT with big tyres, trying out a 2.4 HighRoller-2 on the front at BPW, my knobbly Magic Mary got a bit squirmy there on the hard pack trails last time!

Back to the OP’s question though, yeah if it was the only uplift spot in the UK it’d get boring quickly. I need to try Antur as everybody raves about it and the YouTube vids look great!
The uplift pick up point at BPW is bloody stupid, if you follow a trail all the way down you actually then have to pedal back up a fair old way to the minibuses!….may as well get some cardio in and cycle all the way back to the top!…,(I won’t be doing that though).

Re. the jump line (A470?)….crap, tabletop….tabletop….tabletop etc etc….much prefer Flatland line at FoD which is their jump line, the jumps vary from little rollers, to tabletops, some land immediately into a corner making them genuinely challenging, there’s a peach of one that rises out of a turn going between two trees and makes me feel like Gee-bloody-Atherton when I get it right!….that’s a jump line, take note BPW.

I live not far from it.

Been a few times when I didn’t enjoy it much.
Been many other times and enjoyed it loads.
It’s a good centre, lucky to have it nearby but it’s not the be all and end all of biking that the magazines suggest!

One point, for those who complain about smooth flow trails: go ride all the black runs, most are anything but. In particular rock & roll, half cut, 50 shades, deep navigation and zut alors. Unfortunately two of those I just listed are too hard for me – would be nice to have more trails of that character but easier – still nice to have something to aspire to.

One point, for those who complain about smooth flow trails: go ride all the black runs, most are anything but. In particular rock & roll, half cut, 50 shades, deep navigation and zut alors.

The only thing black about those runs is that 50 Shades and Enter the Dragon have big jumps and drops on them, otherwise they’re fairly tame. The biggest challenge with them would be not killing wheels if you’re on a mid-travel bike with a fairly lightweight setup. The rock garden ones near the bottom are good fun, but nothing wild

Errrrrm. Because it’s man-made and a trailcentre maybe ?

You say that like it’s a bad thing?
Whistler is man made and a trailcentre. So are most alp based parks.

don’t think you can get a bear after catching the last run down.

It’s a bloody good job too!

Legend – that’s what I mean – would be nice to have more stuff like rock & roll, or like 50 shades without the bigger drops, or half cut without the insane tight corner -> drop -> tight corner. Then again the red runs, while in the woods, offer good natural riding as well. Just grin and bear the jumps and berms when they break out into the open 😉

I enjoyed my day, but I wasn’t blown away and I’m in no rush to go back in the short term. I see it as a 1-2 times a year venue for me. Prefer FoD uplift or Mendips winch & plummet, but both are prone to getting waterlogged which the all-weather grit of BPW should address.

You’re doing well to get 10+ runs in a day

I managed 12 and called it a day as I was tired & making silly mistakes on the last run. I felt like I’d had may money’s worth.

I go occasionally and it’s nice to break up the usual riding and to push myself harder. Comparing it to places like FOD and Gawton it has it’s place in my portfolio of riding destinations.

As a concept I think it is a brilliant place for people who don’t have the fitness or experience to get into something they may (or maynot) enjoy. I have a friend who I’ve been trying to get there for a while but our diaries haven’t let it happen yet. There is no where else where you can get a lift to the top and have so many options for beginners to build their skills and enjoyment of this sport. Most people I know who have not given it a try or have not continued are put off by the level of fitness needed so I think this place is playing to a certain demographic which is much needed.

By the way I was there last week and I could have sworn I heard the driver say there were 7 buses on the weekend before.

Anyone spent the night in their carpark, in a van / camper whatever? Is this possible?

The busses are too slow and the uplift road takes too long, you can pedal up quicker than the busses.

😆

Bump for the sleep over question

I’d drop them a line but I doubt you can

sideshow or half cut without the insane tight corner -> drop -> tight corner.

er wouldn’t that just make half cut like the rest of the manicured trails there? i love that corner! When you nail it, in the wet, clear it without a dab, with a little nose endo round it, that’s when you start to like Half cut!

(the other 99 times out of 100, when your front wheel slips off a root, and you OTB headfirst into a tree, that’s when you’re less enamored with it……. ) 😉