Hi folks,

I’m heading to a stag doo in North Wales (exact area tbc) in October, and the stag has just got into mountain biking. So, he now wants to do a bit of biking during the weekend, and it’s been left to me (as the resident mtber of the group) to scope out a suitable place.

I’m looking for a trail centre or network, in North Wales, where a party of say up to 10 guys could hire bikes (some may bring their own).

Only some members of the group have experience biking so ideally a place with some good blue routes with the option for those with more experience to hit some reds / blacks.

Any ideas or recommendations? Happy to consider non-trail centre options as long as there is a hire facility relatively near by.

Cheers all

Coed Y brenin? They had a big old hire fleet last time I was there.
http://www.beicsbrenin.co.uk/bike-hire

Llandegla or Brenin.

CYB.
Hired a HT for my daughter a couple of weeks ago. All good & loads of riding options.
Might need to book up a bit in advance for a party as they were pretty busy.

recommendations?

1) the Minotaur trail (it’s blue) at coed-y-brenin is bloody great.

2) let them know well in advance that you’re going.

LLandegla rent out bikes

Thanks for the recommendation guys, i’ll scope them out in more detail.

Cheers!

Coed Y Brenin is a good shout. The skills area near the car park is good fun and a good way to get anyone who is not experienced warmed up before heading out on the trails proper. There was a stag party there doing just that when I was there a couple of weeks back (the groom had a lovely pink basket on his FS bike!). You can mix and match the different grades of trail fairly easily too.

CYB have fat bikes on demo too..

Coed Y Brenin is a good shout. The skills area near the car park is good fun and a good way to get anyone who is not experienced warmed up before heading out on the trails proper. There was a stag party there doing just that when I was there a couple of weeks back (the groom had a lovely pink basket on his FS bike!). You can mix and match the different grades of trail fairly easily too.

Haha! That sounds ideal – especially the pink basket. Might need to add some spokey dokeys and tassles as well; you know, just to complete the look!

Llandegla; I dragged a group to for my stag, it was a mixed ability group too – so a couple of guys bailed on the route after a bit and went back for a coffee. One guy ended up buying a bike not long after though. As a fun activity it doesn’t get much better.

Turns out we are staying in Arddleen, so I guess that means both Coed Y Brenin and Llandegla could be a shout – spoilt for choice!

Cheers guys

I’d go Llandegla – the routes are pretty straightforward and the step-up from blues to reds is a bit less in case your novices want to give it a shot.

Coedy is great. Though I thought the outer loop of the Minortaur was bloody terrible tbh! (it’s 3 loops, one after the other, the first is great). But it’s also good for accessible trails, if someone wants to dip their toes in harder stuff you can do badger/beginning of the end/etc as a very short loop and get a really good taster.

Llandegla would be my recommendation for newbys. The blue is much more fun than the blue at CYB. I only really rate the first short loop of the CYB blue. CYB is prettier though. Llandegla has a long first climb, which is quite evil in the wrong weather conditions. Cafe at Llandegla is better than CYB.

Llandegla’s Blue is easy and a lot of fun when ridden fast but more Red than CYB’s Blue which my wife can do (she can’t do Llandegla’s Blue though). As above the step up from CYB Blue to any of the other Red/Black trails there is huge compared to Llandegla’s step up from Blue to Red to Black (shouldn’t be a Black really IMO).

Llandegla’s hire feet has also just been completely renewed to Orange Crushes with Di2 electronic shift hub gears. I fancy a blast on one of them myself, they look really good.

The cafe is better at Llandegla too. CYB is fine and ok but Llandegla really has a lovely cafe with brilliant cake.

Book in advance for Llandegla too. They run out of hire bikes.

Llandegla has a long first climb, which is quite evil in the wrong weather conditions

This. If its newbies who are otherwise fit, Llandegla is a great shout. As previously said good blue and you can step up onto the reds without too much difficulty.

If they’re unfit then CyB without a doubt. The blue is good fun and there are no horrendous climbs.

Otherwise you may wish to try Penmachno**

**Joke

You could go over to Antur Stiniog up the road from CYB they have some DH bikes for hire as well as a few XC bikes.
Day of uplift on the Blue trails would be fun for a group

^^Don’t do that.

Antur stinog is very hard as trail centres go. Inexperienced riders will really struggle on the blues.

Large stag group of hungover newbies with little experience…that’s pretty much Llandegla’s target audience.
You’ll love it.

^^Don’t do that.

Antur stinog is very hard as trail centres go. Inexperienced riders will really struggle on the blues.

Seconded; Stiniog Blue = BPW red = normal trail centre black

I took my girlfriend who’d never ridden a mountain bike round the red at Llandegla, she didn’t die.

Did you try again on the black or just give up and hit her with a shovel instead?