🙁 😳

Make the most of it this weekend guys and girls.It was awesome there today . . . proper good.. I shall miss it, and plan to send her off with a few sherbets this evening!!

It's in good company, the LHC is closed for all of 2011.

why?

I rode it wednesday it was excellent 😀

I rode it Wed too then back up the Wall and down Whites in the first sunny outing of the year – It was worth the pain of a bad back which started after the first 10k's! 😀

The original and, IMO, still the best loop at Afan. Maybe not as big as its newer cousins but just as involving. It just goes to show how far trail centres have developed since a group of local riders started out on what became known as Penhydd.

Why is it closing?

forrest works? Or are they concentrating all the trails at the other centre?

but have to agree penhydd is th best at Afan, I tell my guests to ride the penhydd so they can practice some switchbacks.

It's closing due to major forestry work, but apparently will be coming back bigger and better.

I hope they keep sidewinder.

B*gger! My favourite Afan trail – much more varied than the others IMO.

Made a special visit this weekend, rode its full length on Friday including the pointless bit after desolation that ends in a short sharp climb for old times sake, and today we went straight to Hidden Valley and sessioned that and Sidewinder a few times and then did the rest of the trail.

It was brilliant to ride it as hadn't been there for years and to use some of the new skills I've learn't in that time made it all the better and with the weather and the last few days it was running really fast and is still in good condition.

It's a great loss and Penhydd V2.0 will have alot to live up to, the Penhydd was the first purpose trail I ever rode so many happy rides there.

We did the same.. was worth a special trip.
W2 and then Penhydd today, also including the dull and pointless bit! and it was faaast. I'd never been there in the dry, and the Sidewinder is an absolute ripper when it's not a river.

Here's hoping that the Hidden Valley is kept as it is..

The weather made it an even better farewell, I've ridden in the wet, wind and dry, but was running so well, shame really no areas felt they needed any maintenance which isn't bad really.

Have a feeling that part of the forest is going to look so so different in a years time.

thanks for this, may travel up today for old times sake 🙂

It's a shame this is closing down for a year for maintenance work which I think the trails is fine, I spend all day yesterday there and it was fantastic, IMO it's the best one out of Afan.

It's Cwmcarn that need maintenance work atm really.

guybe – it's closing for foresting as opposed to maintenance, as you say it's doesn't ride a trail that needs any work.

I'm a bit gutted, I live oop north but I'm going to Cardiff on Wednesday. I've ridden the Wall and Whytes many times, was hoping to get a second ride in on Penhydd, week too late by the looks of it 🙁

Did it wed evenin in the sun (ok, without the boring bit) great trail, hope it does come back & doesn't just disappear…

was there 18 months ago , was graet , will defo go back when it reopens.

Uploaded a couple of videos from the weekend but the camera angle was a bit wrong so it's filmed at an odd angle.
The social version was me following a couple of mates down.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=9AC3EB503AD82968

I remember riding it one the day it opened, called the 9feet.com trail then. took the wife and two boys round it, youngest was only 12 but managed the lot. she went over the bars and took a break from mtb-ing…for about 10 years. great trail back then, great trail now. look forward to rididng it again once the work is done.

rode this yesterday for the first time since the 2001 SS World Champs were held there. I remembered not being hugely enamoured with the long fire road climbs and brutal rocky descents aboard my rigid, skinny tyred, shonky skip build 32:16 SS and after the first lap (of 2 or 3?) my front hub (old Hope borrowed from main bike) shearing across the spoke holes (wheel remained intact-ish for rest of race).

It was, then, a very nice surprise to find an awesome trail, in awesome dusty conditions, with Hidden Valley & Side Winder being really, really, shit-eating-smile inducing, good fun. Hopefully, the forestry work won't affect these too much as HV is on super-steep ground & SW isn't running through woods. Rocky Rebellion felt like a good & fast Peak run. In't mountain biking brilliant 🙂

forge – what camera is that?

hitman – Contour HD720 would have been better if I had sorted the angle of the camera but not had it long so still playing really, although an odd angle it's handy to see where I am braking and stuff 🙂

I did it yesterday, too, with my 12 year old son. Agree with all that has been said. It's a shame that we haven't got more trails of this grade that bridge the gap between towpath riders and the more tricky offroad stuff.
As I went round, I wondered if the FC were dependant on admission fees to boost income whether they would close it down for a full year and lose the income or do it bit by bit, whilst keeping it open. I'm not necessarily avocating charging admission, but it does make you wonder about the perspective in getting the tree felling done when it doesn't hit income.
Chatting to one of the rangers, the river bit at the end is definitely going (shame – was looking forward to introducing the wife to mountainbiking on Penhydd after a few days good rainfall…), but the rest is staying with extra drainage to sidewinder and an extended bit too.

How sad.

Wifey won sswc around there and we re-visit with fond memories every few years (conveniently her granny lives down the road in Cwmmer).

It was 1 lap for the girls and 2 for the boys. She did a second lap in the hope of avoiding the winner's tatoo but Mr Flooks clocked her first time through – come to think of it I don't think Chipps ever paid for the "prize" 🙂

I helped build about 20 feet of the Hidden Valley section, back when it wasn't even the 9Foot.com trail. I had a farewell ride last week. I hope that it is reinstated at a similar degree of difficulty to the present one; as others have said it is a nice fast but friendly trail that all can ride.

BTW- was it anyone from this site who has nicked the trailside signs?

mick-r as far as I can recall Chipps didn't cough up for the marshalls either. Or if he did, none of it ever reached me. I was eaten to death by midges that day. Four riders were 'lost' at the end of the event. We walked back up to the top to find them only to be told over the radio that they had been found, drinking Guiness and reading 'gentlemen's literature' beside the trail.

Does anyone know when Penhydd is due to re-open?

Ha, just read this and only noticed afterwards, it was started 11 months ago! So due to re-open soon? Got a group trip planned for the end of April.

I wondered about this lately & checked the http://www.mbwales.Com site, & it said it was due to reopen April. Just checked it again & can’t find the reference (on a mobile, so may have missed it). Also just checked the http://www.afanforestpark.co.uk/Default.aspx?page=6338 page & their link goes to a dead page.

So anyone asked @ the shop/centre lately?

According to this the Penhydd trail is undergoing work during the summer of 2011 – so it doesn’t look like it’s due to open just yet.

I’m sure the wait will be worth it though.

Just want to ride hidden valley again 😀

hidden valley is no more. with the amount of tree felling going on up there due to the tree disease it’s gonna be at least another year before it reopens

Damn it, I guess they’ll build something good to replace it.

must say I missed Penhydd when I was up there last week
Y Wal was just a bit, well, dull