Went to Afan for the first time this weekend. Arrived at Glyncorrwg Ponds campsite on the Friday, set up the tents etc, locked up the bikes to the back of a mates camper van and retired to the bar to discuss Saturday's plan. Woke up on Saturday to find some scrote had been along in the night with a pair of bolt croppers and nicked off with two of our bikes. Things weren't looking good for our much awaited weekend away. In fact, at that stage it looked like we'd be heading home on the 180 mile trip without having turned a pedal.

We waited for the Drop off cafe staff to arrive who informed us they'd had a call to say someone in the village had found a bike whilst walking his dog. At this stage things were starting to look up but this still left me without a bike. We retrieved the bike from the village and returned to the bike centre. I went into Skyline Cyles to see if they could do me a bit of a deal on a demo bike for a couple of days and the nice people in there (sorry I didn't get your names) said they could lend me a brand new Norco Faze free of charge. Things were really looking up now !

I borrowed the Norco for the day, rode the W2 trail and had a great day. When I returned the bike they said it would be OK to use the bike the following day, again free of charge.

Basically, what started off looking like a totally written off weekend was transformed thanks to the staff of Skyline Cycles so I'd like to say a massive thankyou. It's nice to know there are people out there who care about our great sport and are willing to help out when things don't go quite to plan.

The local police were also very helpful and I only hope they manage to catch the thiefs who are ruining the reputation of what is otherwise a fantastic riding venue.

I will definitely be going back to Afan because it's ace and I wouldn't give the thieves the satisfaction of knowing they've won.

scumbags. glad things turned out "well" in the end. God wouldn't you just love to have caught them? 😈

Well I'm not sure that the thieves will be that fussed but eitherway, bad luck on the loss and props to Skyline Cycles.

I'm there in a couple of weeks so I'll be sure to see if there's anything I want to buy there – worth supporting people who behave well – It's karma innit.

My mates were there, nearly lost their bikes too. waiting to hear from him, although he said they caught someone!

Skyline Cycles people are great – dealt with madison and sorted me out when I had a problem with a frame a couple of years back.

I wonder how much money mountain biking puts into the local economy? Local thieves are likely to start getting a hard time if they start affecting people's livelyhoods.

Aye, one of the better LBS around albeit not that local for me! I will always try and get parts from there when I'm visiting.

I'm pleased that your weekend wasn't ruined.
Skyline are definately good guys and I will happily give them my business. Top bike mechanics too.

member of staff?

Me? ha! I was asking what tubeless tyres were earlier!

I was there too for the Yeti tribemeet, I heard of 5 bikes going missing in 2 nights and some Camelbaks.
I heard that 1 bike had been retrieved.
Glad you had great service, it was my first time there and I was very impressed, although I won't be camping again!

I bought an innertube in there and the guy behind the counter was really friendly, asking me what had happened, how I enjoyed it etc.

I heard of the one that got nicked and someone tried to get into another guys van. Our bikes were locked in the van with us inside too. Such a shame as the trails are so good, puts me off going back a bit. perhaps the campsite fence needs to be a little taller and the exits covered with some slightly bigger security (no offence to the guy wandering round with the security guard badge telling us stories about bbq's but I reckon he wasn't going to stop a determined bike thief) I remember teh first time I went before all the main stuff was open and there were kids hanging round eyeing up my car, I turned round and left.

Seems to be a little to tempting to bring a lot of expensive things to an area that is very poor.