Guys

A few of us are off to Coed Y Brenin and Llandegla in May.

Now, I aint a massive fan of trail centres of I am honest. I find them too flowing, too singletracky and too man made. However, its biking and thats what I love so its all good 🙂

I have done Dalby a few times, Glentress a couple of times and Newcastleton and Whinlatter once enjoyed all of them. Ive also done Sherwood Pines, The North Face & Gisburn and wouldnt go back to them.

What should I expect in Wales? I love technical climbing, well, climbing in general. Any of that?

Not ridden Coed Y Brenin, but Llandegla is mostly smoothish and flowy singletrack with some jumps/berms in places. Easy to ride, but great fun nevertheless, some sections are like oversize BMX tracks. The 'black' route isnt really a black either….

Llangdegla you'll probably hate. I thought it was a bit shit, and I ride bmx.

Code Y Brenin you'll probably enjoy a bit more, longer routes and it doesnt feel like your riding round a centre parcs

From what you say you're more likely to enjoy Coed Y Brenin, which is more twisty, bumpy and varied. Personally I really like built-in flow like a fairground ride and am not bothered about just adding speed for more thrills, but sounds to me like the slightly more challenging riding at Coed-y will be more to your taste.

Don't bother with Llandegla. I was amazed to see it was voted Wales' best trail centre. I'd stick to CyB and the surrounding area. Just re-read your OP. There is zero technical climbing at Llandegla.

My take on Coed is that you can get the most out of it if you do one ride on the visitor centre and one ride on other side of the road (where the original centre was) as they are quite different. For your first trip I'd avoid the long, long ride (can't remember the name) as it is long but you'll not miss out on anything by just doing the shorter rides.

Enjoy the cake and food at the visitor centre as well as the showers with heated floors!

Nothing wrong with Llandegla – great fun. If you want an alternative which has great fun singletrack but feels like it actually goes somewhere, and has fab views, plus good climbs, then Nant y Arian is may fave.

Do CyB and Penmachno? Penmachno is better (IMO) than Llandegla.

CyB is excellent…

Although I quite enjoy Llandegla, I can see why a lot of people don't (and a lot do)

Penmachno is imo a must do if you're in that area. How a trail centre should be.

+1 for doing Penmachno instead of Llandegla.

Wow.

Thanks for the replies guys, I must say I am shocked. Ive heard nothing but great reviews from certain people about Llandegla. After that I think ill do Penmancho instead.

I do like speed etc, but prefer a bigger challenge and a nice speed for my reward. Sherwood Pines was a HUGE let down in them stakes and just dont want to repeat a long trip to Wales for a similar experiance.

Thanks again

+1 for doing Penmachno/Marin instead of Llandegla.

You will be very disappointed with Llandegla, still worth riding though. If only to pass judgment on future STW posts! 😉

I would go to Llangegla and make your own mind up. It's quite good if you go without prejudice and not at midday on a weekend. You could easy do Pen and Llan in a day if you're reasonably fit. I enjoyed Llan but when I go to Wales I stay at Aberystwyth and wouldn't drive past all the other centres to get there. CyB is more fun IMNSHO.