Heading to South Wales for a long weekend in a month’s time, with BPW booked for the Sun and Mon.

Debating what to do on the Saturday, with one consideration being that we’ll have been in the car for 4-5 hours that morning, and want a fair bit of energy left for the next two days at BPW. So 2-3 hours of interesting, techy riding without any mahoosive climbs would be perfect.

We’ve done Afan before, and found it quite good. Blade was terrible but newly opened so might’ve improved since then; final descent was ace. Never been to Cwmcarn though so I was wondering how that might compare to Afan?

The Cwmcarn DH uplift is another possibility – how technical are the DH trails?

If your main consideration is the two days at BPW then the Cafall trail is a nice warmer after a stint in the car. I enjoyed the up and the down.

If you didn’t like blade then you’ll love cafell, it’s pretty much the opposite. No tech but very flowy, low risk blue-ish XC trail.

Cafall is awesome IMO, doable in a couple of hours (and I’m a chunky beer monkey). The ascent of the ride is an ‘M’ shape so most of the climbing is at the start with an equally long descent.

If time permits then you can do a couple of pay-as-you-go runs on Pedalhounds. Everything is rollable but it’s bloody good fun, similar to the blues at BPW.

FWIW, I’d choose Cwmcarn over Afan every time.

Screw it, you’re going all the way to South Wales you might as well get a proper ride in – do W2 at Afan it’s brilliant. Everyone in our mixed ability group loved it the other week.

Or just do The Wall if you’re feeling soft.

Why not go to blaengarw?
short little black trail, but as much fun as a bucket of puppies.

wrecker – Member

Why not go to blaengarw?
short little black trail, but as much fun as a bucket of puppies.

Never heard of the place but as I’m from south London that’s not surprising. Am heading back to south Wales next month. Is it easy to find the trails at Blaengarw?

🙂

Yes it’s a proper official trail, rowan sorrell IIRC. It’s not a proper big ride or anything, it’s a few laps of a little loop with a brutal steep climb but it’s a hidden gem IMHO. postcode CF32 8AT. It’s a proper chunky south wales trail; about as far removed from cafell as possible!
Here you go;
[video]https://youtu.be/k_cVA9bBXCs[/video]

I find that a lap of Cafall followed by a lap of Twrch makes a good ride. Apparently it’s all fully open so enjoy! It’s also less driving as Afan is a good hour further.

yeah, we had a great time at Afan – forgot how good it was… but mates say that Cwmcarn is one of their favourite riding locations… if the weather is good you won’t go wrong with either mate.

…although personally, I’d do both and skip one of the days at BPW. 1 iday s usually enough for me for a few months at least. 🙂

Enjoy.

Thanks everyone

Cafall I find is up a lot then down, up, down, up and finally get a reasonable descent. A bit meh.

Twrch I’ve not done in a long time but used to be a right arse of a climb (worse than Whites), though satisfyingly technical, but then superb flowy all the way down. Also used to have a really nice mini freeride bit at the top but that got tamed or removed. Not been since the corkscrew tunnel was removed!

The DH stuff is different in that it’s DH. Really I’d pad up and full face for it to make it worth the bother, else you’ll cautiously roll it all. It’s all rollable on Y Mynydd at least, but hitting it with a bit of speed makes it way more fun. Take care though as you can get air.

That said, uplift is only running up Pedalhounds as I understand it.

I’d go with a Twrch (newly reopened) and possibly Cafall run. The latter maybe is easier, but the former is more rewarding.

@wrecker – thanks. Looks a cracking trail, now on the to-do list. 🙂

We started early morning and did all the trails in Afan, finished by 1800. All day.

CC is great and has a fun/tough climb – good for a few hours.

We’re on the uplift tomorrow and I think it’s the pedal hound track that’s open which we haven’t done before, hopefully it’s as fun as the other DH track. Will let you know what it’s like?

The PedalHounds DH run was a lot of fun yesterday-especially after the rain. It has a few drops here and there but it’s not that technical so hit it with speed to liven it up. 🙂