Morning Folks,

After a bit of advice here….

In a couple of weeks I have the opportunity for a days riding at Cwmdown.

Thing is I have never ridden a trail centre before (only been riding about 20 years 🙄 ) Are the trails made up so that even if you are riding solo (which I will be) its still fun etc or is it more of a group feel.

All advice, guidance welcomed.

Cheers,

Mark

well if your doing the uplift, you will be in a minibus with around 17 other riders, so you won't really be alone. I've gone on my own a few times.

I'll be there on the 21st if you going that weekend

Trail centres are ideal for riding solo as you're always going to meet other people, either to hook up with or simply as a saftey thing – if you crash and hurt yourself, you know someone will be along soon.

One of things you could do is buy a multi lift pass with the uplift service that runs there. You pay I think around £15 and you get five lifts that you can use all in one day or over time. The atmosphere on the bus is always lively and there will always be some one who would happily show you the (safe) way down the DH track. Plenty of trail riders do the DH track so you shouldn't feel intimidated.

geetee, got a spare space in my car, fancy giving your am a test, yo said you were home alone for 2 weeks

Cool. Thank you for the responses.

I guess part of me is worried by the youth on their fancy 8in bikes (I'm 28 😆 and ride a 5in bike) but this will also be the first real test of my recently build first FS bike.

I think I would be looking to do the uplift thing – so it is good to know that there will be others on the bus etc.

I wouldn't worry, I'm going with some 30yo odds on smaller bikes.

Cwmdown is the company at the Cwmcarn trailcentre which runs the uplift, mainly intended for the dh track. There's also a waymarked xc trail there, the Twrch trail, as well as quite a lot of unmarked stuff. Did you want to ride the dh, or the xc?
Both are fine by yourself, though the dh is probably more sociable, with people tending to session sections of it a few times, hang around and talk etc

I would want to dabble on the DH runs but also do some of the XC stuff. Like the fact that it seems to be a friendly place

Like everyone has said your not going to be riding alone!

As for the Cwmdown service you'll be able to chat to the other riders if for whatever reason none of the riders speak english the drivers are always a friendly bunch! The actual downhill run was designed to make it as technical/hard/fast as you want to make it, there are only two sketchy bits which your kinda forced into:

• The drop off the firetrail, which is a drop and or a chicken run which sometimes is actually tougher than doing the actual drop!
• And then there's an annoying (for me) off camber drify left hand bend which I always spaz out on!

Enjoy yourself, with 20 years riding experience you'll know what you can or can't ride, at the end of the day its a trail centre so nothings going to be stupid!

Ian – PMd you via MTBR

im 35 and went a few times with 14-30 year olds on the bus a few times, some had some very good riding skills and nice bikes but it is fun, ok you get the odd one who thinks they are god and will try to show off but on the whole its just a groupl of people having fun. I have even seen the odd XC rider on the uplift with their 100mm hardtail, just go and dont worry about other people! just make sure you ride with the group, its a fair wait for the next group if you crash…

I would definitely say that as I have gotten older the lines have blurred as to what I can do and cant do 😆 🙄

Riding with a group acknowledged 😉

Looking forward to it now….

And then there's an annoying (for me) off camber drifty left hand bend which I always spaz out on!

Go high and over the roots. (Assuming we're talking about the same bend.)

Oh yeah, and, to the OP, you'll be fine as a 28 year old on a 5 inch travel bike. (Speaking from experience.) The XC loop is fine on your own, as is the DH.

Just a quick highjack here, but are they planning to build more trails over there, or expanding it? It looks like nothing has changed since several years now.