A few q’s for you knowledgeable peeps …

I’m nervous, very slow, can’t climb and have little stamina so would it be a waste of time going?

Thanks. 🙂

I am very slow and rubbish and went last month, with someone who had been on a mountain bike once before.

We loved it! Get a full uplift pass as the climb is tiring if you’re not a good climber. The bus smells interesting but the banter is good! Do the blues and see how you get on, from the top Sixtapod is probably the most fun, the other one has a short climb in the middle, but is still fun. 😀

Go, have fun, smash it and gain loads of confidence like we did. We drove from Scotland and will be back as soon as we can get time.

No. The blues are a great laugh and everything is rollable, and you can throw in reds to make it interesting (which are a little more ‘natural’, but everything is still rollable or avoidable).

As for the “…can’t climb…” – that’s what the uplift is for!

Wow, thanks for that! I suspect that I could only manage one run so uplift pass would be wasted.

Edit; shirley it undulates on the way down?

Mrs hoppy went with me, we got a one off uplift to begin then climbed up twice, she enjoyed the blues but did feel a little uncomfortable with the speed differential between her and the other riders.

cg – if you can actually ride a bike off road, you will have loads of fun and manage at least half a dozen runs on the uplift.

Where do you ride normally?

The climb isn’t that bad really. A pleasant stroll if you choose not to ride it.
Great place for all levels of rider.

One run with a total beginner (mum) took 20 mins inc stoppage time to talk over each section and re-group, so I think you will be surprised how many runs you might want to do. If you don’t have a pass you may wait whilst 4 or more busses fill up and leave you waiting.

Just turn up and get uplifts when there’s a space (early morning or after lunch there are usually plenty of spaces)

Once you have done Sixtapod or Melted Welly you will be straight back in the queue to go up again!

Yes and Yes, you can pedal up the fire road, I’m and unfit biffer and I pedaled up it several times on an over-geared 1×9 HT the other week. (I’m assuming you’ll have some sort of gearage available).. or there is always the uplift…

As for coming back down? start with the blues which are really fun and flow well, fast and swoopy, if you let the brakes off, but well armoured and smooth enough if you prefer to apply the brakes a bit more, they can really build your confidence I reckon. and you may well decide to migrate on to some of the Reds as your day goes on, “Wibbly Wobbly” is a good progression if you find you are comfortable on “Sixtapod” Frinstance…

You’ll be reet.

The blues are an absolute hoot – fairly smoooth, nothing too scary and as fast as you can face!

The best way to view it is a trail centre with no climbing, rather than a full uplift / DH day.

I can’t wait to go back in a few weeks.

If you are comfortable riding at Afan or Cwm Carn or any other trail centre then you will be absolutely fine.

BPW is not a DH place. Its just a trail centre with many many descent options. The trails cross over a fireroad half way down so you can start a red and cross over onto a blue to finish if you decide its too hard for you.

If you get an uplift ticket there is very little peddling required, the trails are pretty much all downhill or flat. Otherwise the climb took me about 40-50mins up a boring fire road and I am a pretty unfit weekend warrior.

I think it is much, much faster than any of the other trail centres I’ve been to, and I think this is the thing that is the hardest to get used to. I would describe it as next level stuff in that respect. The blues are very flowey though, and I don’t recall any drops, so you can take them at the speed you choose, but it’s very easy to gather pace so take your time and ride at your own pace.

It’s worth doing a few runs at least, the first one we did we all were amazed at the speed and how tense you are as a result, it seems almost scary, my fingers were hurting from braking… But on the second and all the subsequent runs we relaxed as we knew more of what to expect and it became very, very enjoyable.

In most trail centres you will have a few sections of fast flowey bits, but this is almost 100% fast and flowey.

There’s also a smaller, green run to prime you before you try the blues (but there is no uplift). I’ve not ridden it though. I spent two days riding the blues and learnt so much, I did a few runs of the red but found it tough going and less enjoyable, possibly because I was on a xc hard tail.

Anyway, go, take your time, enjoy. 🙂

Get it done! Brilliant fun for beginners!

The hill side isn’t silly steep, unlike a “proper” DH course, so you can easily find a speed that suits you. Start off nice and slow, and as your confidence grows so too will your speed. Blues and Reds are all rollable as mentioned above, and starting on the small “drops” (probably max 2 kerb heights so nothing rad!) on the blues will give you confidence to hit the reds.

Regarding holding other riders up, just be last off the bus! The keener lot rip off the bus and sprint to the trails, let them go, and you’ll have an nice un-interupted run down at what ever pace you see fit 😉

Thanks for all the helpful replies. Been checking the website and it talks about needing a full suss plus body armour. 😯

It’s a 150 mile round trip and would take nearly 3 hours to get there so wondering about an overnight stop. Any recommendations for accommodation?

My problem is that I’ve never really recovered after my roadie accident in that I’ve lost my confidence when descending. Added to this have recently been diagnosed with osteoporosis so maybe it’s not the smartest place to ride!

We stopped at the premier inn down the road. Cheap and nice enough, good breakfast too.

Chances are you won’t need armour for the blues, I used knee and elbow pads and a trail helmet, I didn’t have any offs (apart from venturing off the trail a bit), because I was pretty careful about staying within my limits, but one of the lesser experienced riders in our group went OTB and lost his front teeth, the dangers are real, and a reminder to ride within your limits, it could have happened anywhere. If I had a full face, I’d wear it though, especially if you are on the uplift.

There’s lots of videos on youtube of the blues so you can see them, but I video’d a few runs if you wanted to get a feel for them: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3X5GUBHyvvqT6Q0gYHHlop6uHDpuz_R_

I watch them back it seems so slow compared to how it felt!

If you’re only riding the blues, a HT is fine. Reds you could argue a FS makes life easier.

We were 9 hours each way! 😉 We stayed in a cottage as there were 6 of us.

We all wore helmets and knee pads, those who had them wore elbow pads. I got fully kitted up for my last 2 runs, full facer and pressure suit, just to go a bit faster and test my limits, it was great!

2 of our lot were on budget xc hardtails and had a blast. The blues are armoured and smooth, rollable.

Its really not that intimidating or scary, well not unless you really want it to be, you certainly don’t need an FS and a full on DH bike is overkill TBH also (IMO) a FF lid would only be needed if you were properly attacking the Black runs.

I wore my FF the first time I visited for riding the reds and blacks but just found that it was making me too hot which was probably more likely to cause a tumble than simply backing off a shade and wearing a piss pot…

The atmosphere is good, and I don’t think I’ve caught up with anyone or been caught by anyone on any of the runs, there’s enough stuff for people to ride that it doesn’t seem to get that busy on the actual trails even if the car park is Choc full…

When you going CG?
Will you be riding with some mates of about the same ability/experience?
They designed the place to attract people of all experience levels, not just the elite Trail-centre-ista…

You should have a good day there, plenty of banter with the locals its worth going for that alone never mind the rather fun bicycle riding…

Thanks again, working my way through the vids!

Last time I went to a trail centre saw me told that I should move out of the way for other riders. 😐

Last time I went to a trail centre saw me told that I should move out of the way for other riders.

Rubbish. It’s polite if they’re going quicker than you, but on the same point only do it when safe to do so – you certainly shouldn’t feel pressured to.

me and my friends are booked on to go in august…some of the lads are novices but are willing to give it a go. also some of them will be on hardtails and one on a short travel full sus xc bike.
as said already stick to the routes you’re comfortable riding and stay within your limits. dont attempt anything you’re not happy with and you should be fine…but most of all enjoy the ride!!

Hi CG,

Took my 8 year old son there last week on his fully rigid Isla.

No body armour, no suspension. 😆

It was his first time at a “trail centre” and on his new 26″ bike and he managed the blues no problem. We managed two runs of the blue, quite a few laps of the (very short) green and spent the rest of the time on the pump track. We probably could have packed more uplift runs in but I pulled the plug whilst he was still really enjoying it and not tired, so that his experience was a very positive one.

No real issues with faster riders, although I rode behind him and took up the whole trail just in case.

Whether it’s worth the drive and cost of the full uplift for only a few runs though I’m not sure.

You can pay as you go, but full uplift tickets get priority and the queues were quite long last time.

You could combine with a trip to Cwn Carn or Afan aswell to make it worth the drive.

If your coming that far come for a pootle round the Gap – much better than BPW.

This has cheered me up a lot. Off there soon.

Booked on the uplift for Saturday, really looking forward to it 😀

Damn! And there was me thinking I was super ‘rad’ riding BPW on a hardtail 😉
You’ll love it cinnamon_girl, I’m at a similar level to you and had a fantastic time. Some of the reds had a few heart-in-mouth moments – and they are fast – and I didn’t try the blacks but had the most fantastic time ever! Let us all know how you go 🙂

The blues are only as scary as you want them to be; at 10mph they are as easy as riding down a towpath, if you don’t touch the brakes they are about as fun as anything in the world could be!

The vibe is great there. Chat to the people on the bus and at the top, explain your concerns, let the faster people naturally filter off before you, then enjoy the hugs and high fives at the bottom. There are so few riders for the number of trails there is no ‘road rage’ at all.

Just back from a trip last weekend on mt HT as usual. Feels like leaving a secret, Welsh, foliage adorned lover, in order to return to the whistle at the factory gates.

Lovin’ the BPW chat it is something I’ve wanted to do for some time, the only thing that puts me off is the way you have to book up the uplift so far in advance I’m more of a jump in my car & go type rather then plan months in advance.
My question is with out a pass and paying per uplift what would the expected time delay be? do the buses come every 20 mins or is there a constant flow, having never been, whats the vibe man? would hate to have a 4Hr drive & only get a couple of runs in.

Cinnamon Girl if for some reason you decide BPW isn’t for you take a look at some of the new blue trails at Afan. They are easy going and made of nice flowy berms. Some are on the shortish side so you can do multiple laps if you feel like you want to put in more miles.

Also for accommodation check out the mtbwales website.

Lovin’ the BPW chat it is something I’ve wanted to do for some time, the only thing that puts me off is the way you have to book up the uplift so far in advance I’m more of a jump in my car & go type rather then plan months in advance.
My question is with out a pass and paying per uplift what would the expected time delay be? do the buses come every 20 mins or is there a constant flow, having never been, whats the vibe man? would hate to have a 4Hr drive & only get a couple of runs in.

I cant remember exactly how many runs we got in, but it was well into the teens. There was a pretty good flow of buses and we were determined to make the last one, so our second to last run was a bit sketchy as we were pushing on when pooped.

I wouldn’t stress too much about faster riders, most of them charge straight off the bus a two seconds chill at the top normally meant an interrupted, clear run down.

My question is with out a pass and paying per uplift what would the expected time delay be? do the buses come every 20 mins or is there a constant flow, having never been, whats the vibe man? would hate to have a 4Hr drive & only get a couple of runs in.

There’s a pretty constant flow, with a break from 1-2 for lunch. Apparently it’s a legal requirement (not sure why the breaks can’t be staggered) but then it also pushes people into the café…

I’m more of a jump in my car & go type rather then plan months in advance.

You can pay on the day if there’s room (people do pull out), but you are a lower priority on the uplift. The other option (and one I’m probably doing next time as I missed the uplift spaces) is go along with mates, see if I can get on and if not just ride up. A 45 min climb will be a good workout and warm me up nicely for the descent.

…whats the vibe man?

😆 It’s – like – so cool dude. West coast man. Chilled, yeah? 😆

Thanks again. It is a long way and trying to decide whether it’s worth the petrol and all day uplift, bearing in mind that I won’t be able to do much thanks to a rubbish body and the idea of not riding uphill appealed.

Lovin’ the suggestion of The Gap – it’s brilliant and would love to do it again but no way could I manage the climbing.

Afan is another possibility but, again, the climbing.

“Nipper99 – Member
If your coming that far come for a pootle round the Gap – much better than BPW. “

Not really a pootle, is it?

Afan is another possibility but, again, the climbing.

It’s nearer than Afan (unless you’re in westest Wales) and has an uplift… 😉