Going next weekend with mrs soap and not sure what trails would suit her. having never been before.
She’s ok with FOD and most of Afan but really cannot get to grips with CwmCarn.
My question is would the Raven Black trail be to much?
Or beter doing the red and blue.?

Stick to the Blue, its a great fun loop. It is easy enough to add on sections of the Black if she is happy/confident.

Red should be fine, but if you start from Abergorlech you are limited to just the red unless you are up for a much longer ride.

The red and blue are cracking trails. She will probably really love the blue. Experiened riders have a great time on it too.
I did the red last weekend and its suffering a bit from the Enduro the week before.
Some areas of great flow are pretty damaged with brake bumps and washaways.
Not sure what she didn’t like about Cwm Carn though.
If its the steepness of the descents then Brechfa can be similar in parts. There’s a couple of pretty steep and very fast roller coaster tyre descents. The final descent is long narrow fast and right on the edge of a pretty big drop.
Mrs Hugor is scared of Brechfa and Cwm Carn but OK with most of Afan.
The black takes off from the same carpark as the blue whilst the red is 3 miles furthr up the road. I think the black might be too much for her IMO and I wouldn’t take my mrs on it.

The Blue/Green at Brechfa are among the best to learn/progress on, IMO. Great trails, great fun!

I’d avoid the black. Blue and red are flowing and easy and fun. Black is much harder physically and technically.

@ Hugor, the red was like that before the Enduro too… I actually think it’s in a better state now as they drained most of the puddles before the race. Still got a soaking on Sunday though!

I think the problem for her with CwmCarn is that the vast majority of the trail is not smooth and requires more advanced skills in moving body weight and the bike about.
Hitting roots and rocks uphill and gully drops are not her cuppa.

I’d take her on the blue then and she could do a few laps and get some confidence.
Otherwise consider Cwm Rhaeadr. It’s a cracking short route without the tech of Brechfa and very smooth.
It’s 10 miles north of Brechfa.
@ chrispo I don’t get to Brechfa that often as I live in Cardiff but I was a bit disappointed with it compared with how I remembered it.
Afan is my favorite local trail. You went out on Sunday!!! Too cold for me – Saturday was beautiful!

Do a few laps of the blue/green and add in some of the black bits if you want in the morning and then go to Cwm Rhaeder for a couple of laps in the afternoon. It’s about about 20 mins away and a bit of a hidden gem IMO.

Cheers guys
So is there an easy way to link the red and blue trails

You can link red and blue in two ways: 1) Carry straight on along fireroad at top of final red descent and you end up at the bottom of the blue. Simple but a waste of height! 2) Better is to carry straight on but then follow signs for the black after half a mile or so and do a nice singletrack section of black (and maybe walk a couple of hard bits) and then the black joins the top of the blue. Then do the blue descent.
Either way you have a big climb back to the red after finishing the blue.

The red descent is better than the blue though, and it takes you back to where you started. So they’re best done separately IMO.

Green/blue in morning and then drive to red in afternoon, perhaps.

I agree Cwm Rhaedr is loads of fun. Short so do it 2-3 times, faster each time. Well, faster down, slower up probably!

@Hugor: Sunday was a nightmare!

Blue & Red Would be best.

You can link red and blue in two ways

Three ways :
3) Carry straight on along fireroad at top of final red descent and after 1.7Km turn up another fireroad to the right which after 1.5Km will bring you out at the top of the blue descent on your left. The blue descent is definitely not to be missed !

You can link red and blue in two ways
Three ways :
3) Carry straight on along fireroad at top of final red descent and after 1.7Km turn up another fireroad to the right which after 1.5Km will bring you out at the top of the blue descent on your left. The blue descent is definitely not to be missed !

Or you could go on the black for a bit.

That bit of black has ‘the big dip’ in the middle and two steep berms at the end. OP suggested that that sort of stuff might be off-putting for the lady in question.

any reason why it has to be brechfa?
cwm rhaedr – although its short is awesome and not far away. Or go a bit further and ride nant yr arian – smooth, flowy, fun with a little natural section and view to keep everyone happy – would be my choice personally!

Was there on Monday and red was snowbound and unrideable after around three miles.

Cracking fun riding in virgin snow though!!

Staying at Afan Lodge for half price so using that as a base.
we road Nant in November and come to think of it she road ClimachX which I thought pretty gnarrrr. so may have a rethink.
But the plan so far is
friday will be Whites,
Saturday will be the main days riding at Brechfa so Red trail first because its longer followed buy the blue trail
then Sunday W2 or just the Wall.
heres hoping next weekend will be crisp winter sunny days 🙂

Rusty’s way of linking to the blue is the best, should have thought of that myself. (Would never actually do it myself though – would rather cycle back up the final red descent and do it twice!)

The big dip on the black ain’t nothing next to the big dip on the red IMO… Best walked if faint of heart… but that’s the only scary thing on the red.

NB SOAP – you will almost certainly get wet feet half way round the red resulting in frostbite by the end at current temperatures unless you have waterproof footwear!

We have had a change of plan now gonna ride the blue trail and then go up the road to Cwm Rhaedr.

@chrispo and other locals when riding the blue trail is it easy enough for me to ride some black and not leave the misses for to long, or is the blue just as good as the black bits?
Also how is the snow up there at the mo?

No snow!
Check the pdf maps as per other post!
Alternative mapping showing how the trails tie together: http://www.mbswindon.co.uk/trail-guide-brechfa/

Blue is straight up and straight down, black is much longer
Most of the blue descent is shared with the black anyway
At end of blue you could carry on up fire road to the left to the bike park bit with BIG table tops etc, then take forest road at right back to end of blue, all while she sessions the end of the blue descent.
There is also a black bit off the first section of the green on the way to the blue.
The top section of the black is good fun and easy and the black and blue climbs are virtually parallel, so you could do that together.
It’s kind of complicated to explain… But explore and have fun!
All the tricky black bits are short and walkable though. Hardest thing about the black for most I think is not the technicality but the length/climbs!

You can add the top loop of the black from the top of the blue – at the top of the blue climb turn left on the fireroad instead of right to the blue descent, after about 400 metres the black goes off to the right up into the trees. Follow the signs round and you end up at the top of the blue descent. Adds about 30 minutes.

You can also take the fork off the blue descent onto the black. Then at the bottom of the big jump section on the black turn right onto the disused fire road and this will bring out near the bottom of the blue where you can join the green again. Adds about 10 – 15 minutes.

Cheers lads great advice, I’ve printed them out and can see a route now 🙂 will check back later in the week for the weather

Anyone ride the trails today?
How are they for snow?

No snow. Had a bit of rain over the past couple of days, so muddy in places. Should be dry at the weekend, but cold, with hard frost overnight, so watch out for icy patches.