Thinking of riding up Snowdon this spring/summer and was wondering if anyone has any info about good routes up/down, dodgy bits to watch out for and generally if it’s worth doing?

I’ve heard of people riding up the Llanberis path and down the Rangers… does anyone know of any other good routes? I’m very familiar with the mountain from walking but never biked it!

I’ve heard there’s a voluntary ban on biking between 10am-5pm May to Sept so I was hoping to go before the end of April.

Any further tips would be much appreciated! Cheers 😀

Do a search it has been asked loads recently.

just don’t do it on a BMX,, I did an it’s too hard!

Heading up there aswell in April for the first time. from what i”ve read on here it is well worth doing and up llanberis down rangers/telegraph velley seems to be the most popular choice.

Stay at the Royal Victoria, ride straight out the front on the cheeky trails to the bottom of the Llanberis path. Summit then ride down the Rangers then hang a right and take Telegraph valley back to Llanberis. Leave early enough and you’ll avoid walkers, won’t violate the ban and be back for a fry up. I did this in Feb. It was a bit icy and windy on top! Some proper gnarly sections on the Rangers. 😆

Start very early to get a clear run down. Some walkers stepped aside for me shouting go go go on the way down. Others just look pissed off because you are having a lot more fun than them.

Nah, start late, mid summer months. Come down about 7pm ish. No walkers, and if there are any then you’ll see them on the way up so you can warn them what you’re about to do 🙂 They all tend to be good about it.

I’ve been a few times and walkers really aren’t an issue just make sure you ride at the right times.

Llanberis route is the best route up. The best route down is dependant on what you’re looking for. I’ve done both the rangers route down and llanberis. Rangers is much more technical, much harder on the arms etc and also slower (suppose depending on skill)

Llanberis is fast and still has good technical sections. It’s my favourite as the flow is far more fun than the broken rangers descent.

Beware though, if you’re running tubes, get the pressures up as pinch flats on the sharp rocks is inevitable

Done it three different ways over the last couple of years.

1. Up Llanberis, down Llanberis – took us about 2:15 hours up and 16 minutes down. Great fun if you can be sure there are no walkers to get in the way. Nothing even remotely technical, just a fast blast, which is undoubtedly good but can feel like you’ve just wasted a lot of hard won altitude.

2. Up Telegraph/Llanberis – down Rangers – can’t remember timings but definately takes longer than 1. above. Rangers descent is more slow-tech in places and is a real challenge to clear without dabs. (I haven’t managed it clean yet, there’s just one 5 metre section that I repeatedly fail).

3. Up Rangers/down Rydd Du – basically a push up but not too bad, followed by another cracking slow-tech descent, lower section is better as there are a few unridable obstacles at the very top. There’s a high price for failure on some sections, which adds to the experience.

We started off on a mega route about this time last year (up Ranger, down Rydd Du, up Llanberis, down Rangers) but I had to bail after a painful off-ski on Rydd Du. Some of the group continued the full route but were too tired to have a proper go at the crux section of Rangers on the last descent.

All three are really good routes, just different characters. Do em all.

Rangers is probably my favourite TBH, mainly for the challenge of trying to clean it, which will doubtless keep me coming back for a while yet.

Good fun ride, worth doing at least once. If you do the rangers down don’t miss the telegraph turn off. Much more fun if you do it when there are few walkers about, although I have to say that everyone was really friendly on the mountain.

How was it on your Spearfish Johnnystorm?