I’ve been doing some evening riding straight from the front door and
looking for more trails in the Penarth area.

A busy job and family commitments straight after work mean that once I’ve had my tea, its around 8pm and can only fit in a ride that lasts an hour or two.

I’ve found three trails that I can easily do straight from my doorstep – Cosmeston lakes, Grangemoor park and Case Hill/Cwm George Woods, which are ok trails but nothing special, so I could do with something a bit more testing.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated!

Cheers

I live in Cardiff Bay so basically neighbours. AFAIK the nearest proper riding is near Tongwynlais. Thats where I go for riding from my front door anyway.
Happy to show you around if you’re not familiar with the area otherwise I can give you details of a few club rides that I do in the area.
I’m not aware of any trails south of Tongwynlais.

As Hugor says, the nearest decent riding that I know if is Tongwynlais/ castell coch. There is a lot of riding there which can be linked up with the garth, Caerphilly mountain, the wenallt, the ridgeway above lisvane which drops down into rudry and across to Machen. You can also ride to cwmcarn if you were feeling fit enough.

Have a search for “between trail centres” there’s 2 decent maps which show you some routes of the stuff I’ve described above

Sorry to say but Penarth and the vale have little to offer in the way of good mtb riding. Get yourself
a road bike or head for North Cardiff.

As above, Penarth is not blessed with anything remotely resembling decent trails (even if we did have a DH race a few years ago).

Castell Coch, Ridgeway, Garth are the closest for decent riding, but given your time frame you’re going to spend most of your time on the Taff Trail (avoiding walkers and their bloody uncontrolled dogs) if you ride there.
Like dgj says you can ride to Cwmcarn and back – excellent ride.
Otherwise its a road bike and Strava yourself to death around the Vale.

Not actually been there despite it being only a few miles away, but used to hear of people from that area riding Dinas Powys woods.

you’re going to spend most of your time on the Taff Trail (avoiding walkers and their bloody uncontrolled dogs)

The unleashed dog thing is an endless source of frustration for me.
I am a dog owner so I appreciate the plesure of letting them off the leash to wander a bit. Why do they have to do this on the bloody path though where the dog is a danger to itself and every passing cyclist.
Why can’t they walk 10 yards off the trail into the lush green open parks and let the mutt loose there!!
Rant over sorry! 😳

Thanks for the info, advice and great photo; When did the DH race take place? I’ve ridden parts of tongwynlais area before and still finding new routes. Its a great area to explore. I agree about the dogs on the taff, which keep me feathering the brakes! Its a real problem, particularly on weekends.

I may just have to dust off the road bike afterall and take to the vale tarmac in the rain. Or better still, I could set up a turbo trainer with a digital projector on the bars, and spin away to go-pro hero videos from youtube, all without leaving the house!

The race was in Oct.2007 If you go on youtube and search ” Penarth mtb downhill race ” there’s a couple of vids.

That’s great, cheers for the link!