Hiya, doing our first BPW day on Sunday 30 July (super busy day presumably).

What time do we need to arrive on site to comfortably make the first uplift at 9.30am ? I hate rushing and I don’t know what steps there are (registration, forms, finding the start of the uplift, loading the bikes etc).

I did the online registration thing but didn’t get an email so not convinced that has helped.

Any guidance gladly received. Cheers, N.

hour would be plenty. depend how faffy you (or your mates) are.

if it’s your first day you might not need to be rushing for the first one – tough to do the entire day ime.

buses are every 10 mins or so anyway. & a 5 minute ride from the car park.

Do the acceptance of risk online ahead of time to save a bit of queuing..

As above, an hour should be plenty to get signed on, get bikes and equipment sorted, get a coffee, use the facilities etc.

Thanks guys – I did the online acceptance of risk thing but didn’t get an email so not sure that saves time – either way, what is the process once I have arrived ? Is there a registration process ?

We’re driving a long way back that day so we’d rather be tired early than late hence wanting the first uplift.

Go to reception when you get there to get your uplift pass. If your acceptance of risk thing hasn’t gone through they will get you to do it on there and then.

Once all sorted ride round to the uplift, follow signs or ask someone.

If you’re not sure how to load the bikes just ask the drivers, tell them it’s your first time and they won’t take the piss too much 😉

You’ll have 10 mins in the bus to faff with your kit on the way up.

Cheers Mark

Busses tend to all come at once with a big queue waiting. I find can spend a fair time in the queue. Unless they’ve sorted them out in the last year or so. Not been for a while.

FoD and Stiniog busses are way more efficient. Bus up, ride trails, there’s a bus, get on it, repeat. But then they’re far less busy.

p.s. ditch the backpack, get a bottle of water and stash it where the bus picks up. Though BPW big queues means quick dash to drink water and then get in the queue before it gets even bigger.

Loading is straightforward but remember…straps go on the grips. 😉
The drivers are spot on.
+1 for leaving a bottle of water by the uplift bus, your off the bus & straight on to the trails then, when you get to the top.
There’s monumental amounts of faffing at the top every time the bus drops otherwise.
Last week I carried a couple of CO2 bottles & a tube. If your group is savvy you can carry 1 item each.
There’s a Park Tools rack at the shelter at the top, if you need anything.
We went a week ago last Sat, when it was stupidly hot. The seat behind the seat with the opening window gets a nice breeze.

Be sure to ride Hotstepper and popty ping, great fun!

Popty Pig looks good but reds are beyond my level of skill / bravery / age / attitude to risk.

I’ll stick to the blues as they seem to correspond to the highest difficulty that I am normally happy to tackle, albeit in shorter formats.

I guess it depends how long you need to get ready.

I live in Cardiff so I tend to rock up in my riding kit, take the bike off the roof of my car, pull on my knee pads and I’m good to go. For some reason others seem to turn up in street clothes and then spend 45 mins doing a light rebuild and systems check of their bike incase it’s self-destructed on the drive down or something…

I wouldn’t rock up an hour early – they open at 09:30, you can get into he car park but the building stays shut until 09:30. There will be a queue, you can be at the front of it if you want, first bus leaves about 10.

Or you can join the queue at 09:45 and still probably make the first bus.

@Nickfrog – worth keeping in mind the plus status of Popty Ping, I find it more challenging then vicious valley.

The cafe opens at 9 and I think reception too. First uplift is 9:30.

Popty ping can be easier or harder than vicious valley depending if you roll or jump. But if you’re not jumping popty ping then might as well do Terry’s belly.

Wibbly wobbly is the easiest full red to have a go on if you’re not sure. A couple of the blues (Sixtapod and Willy waver) have small red sections as a little taster.

P-Jay – that makes sense !

The thing is I don’t really want to try a red and be so slow that I affect other riders flow / fun.

Having said that, WW does look feasible actually although I only have a HT, albeit a Meta HT with 150mm Revs.

As the reds go Wibbly wobbly, Surfin Bird and Vicious valley would all be fun on a HT. VV is a bit more techy/rooty than the other two which are a bit more flowy. VV into SB is a lovely run down.

Of the other reds IF is droppy as is HS, A470 is jumpy, BV is steep switchbacks, RD is rough rock garden. RD is the only one I’d not enjoy on a HT.

Don’t worry too much about being slow. There are enough trails it’s generally not that busy on the trails. Set off after most of your bus and you have a little gap before the next bus.

Go to lunch early

You will just love the newly reopened Terry’s Belly on your hardtail. It’s as smooth as Barry White and so long you won’t want it to end.

Cheers – Terry’s Belly looks like the ideal trail for me indeed – I might just do it time and time again until I gain confidence…and probably crash !

Nickfrog from PH? Often read your posts and enjoyed your reasoned comments.

Let me know how you get on as I will be I at BPW in July with a couple of HT’s with I guess similar geo.

Guilty as charged ! I will take the Commencal Meta HT AM indeed – it’s 9 of us of varying abilities (mine probably being in the middle) – I doubt we’ll stay together for long.

Will it be your first time too eb ?

Yeah first time.

Happy for any feedback on how the varying abilities get on on some of the blue/red, i’m going with my wife (we both have differing abilities) and looking at a few trails including our July 12th booked BPW visit. Lets hope its not too wet

@nickfrog

How did you get on? I bet the meta was more than enough looking at its geo.

Hiya – going at the end of the month – I can’t wait – just bought a 661 FF helmet

Sorry just checked your first post again as I read it as June first time around. Those 661 helmets aren’t a bad price for FF

The reception thing doesn’t open until 9, and you’ll have a bit of a que to get your bands, but if your in the que for 9 you’ll easy make the first uplift, there is a nice bit of trail from the cafe to the uplift buses too, which will take about 5 minutes.

I’ve got the 7Idp full face helmet which is the same as those 661 helmets and they are really good, it is really light weight.

A load of us went down a couple of weekends ago and it is a brilliant day, just take it easy on your first couple of runs.

[video]https://youtu.be/YEkNUd4jNHI[/video]

Turned up at 9:30 today to make sure I missed the queues. It’s like a track day, ppl going out on the first run… you never want to go out first 🙂

The place seemed empty as I guess most were going up in the vans. We,
(wife and me), were the only ones on HT and most had lots of protection and FF helmets, so we seemed under prepared. I did six runs all blue trails and really enjoyed it.

Bushwacker is a great blue trail after blue belle as it takes you back to the visitors centre without any pedalling ;).

I could have tried the reds but I was having fun on the blues and ran out of time after 6 runs. I also thought I might run out of talent 😉

Things I would do differently:
Going down hill is more energy consuming than I thought. Take more food and waaayy more water. If you want to do the reds and black a FS would definitely be better even the blue get bumpy on a HT, so I imagine the reds would be rougher.I cased most jumps on property ping at the end of the day as I was tired and after that I stopped so I didn’t have a fall.

In summary
Loved it, everyone friendly, get a seat at the window on the uplift vans (they smell). FS would be better, perhaps I will get that commencal TR essential i have my eye on 🙂