Living fairly close to Llanwrtyd Wells I often wonder who’s quickest over the local terrain. When MTB’s were involved it was invariably the bikes that won the Man vs Horse vs MTB. Horses generally beat runners- but not always.

There is an amazing trail nearby, the Tywi Track. It runs from near to the Devil’s Staircase to Strata Florida abbey. There and back it is 26 km, with 650m of climbing and descending on rough Landrover track, plus some forest road. It is one of my favorite rides. I often meet Landrovers and motorbikes and we repeatedly pass each other.

When all is said and done though I reckon if I was on my old XR 220 I’d have whipped everyone’s ass!

GNARRRR!!!

On the return leg much to my surprise I managed to overtake the three Landrovers that had set off about 5 mins before me and then beat them back to the end by approx ten minutes.

Is this normal- I was really surprised (and very pleased!) with this. Gnarr!!

When MTB’s were involved it was invariably the bikes that won the Man vs Horse vs MTB.

As soon as an Tim Gould beat the horse it went back to man v horse.
I had the pleasure of doing the Twyi trac when it used to be part of The Welsh Two Day.
There’s no way on earth anyone could even get near the time chamionship riders were set to clean that check in unless they were a chamionship rider. 😉
Most of us thought it was a “slack” check. Though I keep hearing from bimblers how tough it is to even ride. 😆

I’m intrigued as to the time that was set for the track, and in which direction. I reckon it is quicker heading N- S if you use the forestry road climb from Strata Florida to the watershed at Bwlch. I tend to ride the fire road until the crossing then up the ‘proper’ track.

When it was used in The Welsh the end check was just past the abbey.
No idea where the start of the check was.
The time was tightish. But not as tight as the 12 minutes we had to get across The Trod.
That was a “tight” check. 🙂
Most of the faster lads cleaned it though. 😉

I’m going to say none of those will touch me on my xr600.

Monk’s Trod in 12 minutes- don’t be daft!

It’s 5 miles long- where were the cut offs?

My guess is the 4x4s weren’t racing…

Monk’s Trod in 12 minutes- don’t be daft!

I shit you not.
I came in on towards the end of my extra minute LTA like most.
Still counts as a clean check though. 8)
Talk to any of the oldtime Welsh Riders.
They’ll tell you how daft some of the check times were.
Start was just before the river off the mountain road from Rhayader and finish was about a mile after the river that feeds the dam crossing.

In other words from Pont ar Elan to Afon Claerddu? That’s 11km, over 300m of climbing, much of it on bog. Plus a substantial river crossing immediately followed by 1km of swamp. Fair play to you, I’d have thrown my toys out of the pram a long time earlier.

All I can remember was after the initial uphill double track bit it was a case of aim for the V between the two hill in the distance, ignore the track on the ground and any waymarkers and hold it on the stop.
Drop down to the river crossing.
Ignore the markers again and ride down the river for a bit before getting out of the water and holding it flat out again into the check.

much of it on bog.

When in dought , go flat out. 😉

It did make me chuckle last time we rode it on MTBs faster that the trail riders on the same campsite as us.
I didn’t have the heart to tell them they’d taken most of the day to cover 12 mins of trail at Championship pace.

Even a modified Land Rover isn’t really suitable for high speed off roading.
If you add inertia to the weight when hitting obstacles, it can do all sorts of damage. Best to just creep along slowly.

I think that was the last year they were able to use the trod.
Maybe 87ish.
The real tough check that year was in the Tarenig. That really did have a bog of doom in it.
I thing there’s still a sidecar buried in it now. 😆

Where do you draw the line

No budget/talent limit would completely redefine this – think Paris Dakar type set up, or monster truck!

I can’t imagine anything would be quicker than a motorbike if the rider and bike were vaguely good

Sure the bike would be the quickest, but you’d have a lot of fun in this trying to keep up:

😉