[Closed] Afan Forest

to me, (my opinion) I would travel up the road to Brechfa,,

I rode Afan a few weeks back, its definitley showing its age. Very worn and rocky (ready to smash your pedals) on the 6km Sheep track climb.. (which isnt too bad, just not much fun...)
Probably wouldnt bother with SPD's.. Saw many many people failing when trying to clip in whilst trying to ride up a rock garden!

We ran the raven trail at Brechfa - and preferred it, was no where near as busy as the hyped Afan, which was nice..
I would say more technical, and had some nice bermed sections you could ride back round and hit again..

Some of the sections are gnarly! with danger of death signs.. Dont worry about em. Care obviously needed.

Have fun dude!

not sure we are going to have the time to make it further north unfortunately, but sounds like one for the list next time 🙂

We were there a couple of weeks back. It's a bit beat up here and there, but then again it is mountain biking and it's not supposed to be tarmac smooth.

The Penhydd trail is closed at the moment, which is a shame as it's a good ride.

ha ha mtb trails too rocky!

Rode afan yesterday and it's running lovely IMO. The "Black" section was perfect!
Cleaned the "sheep track" whites climb on my new bikes first outing too!
Haven't ridden brechfa raven but have done the red. Nice out there feeling but very little technical challenge.

I love it. Once a trail centre gets past smooth enough to flow and more work it becomes worn out! Wish someone had told that to the quarry horses that created a lot of the stuff arond me - wearing out the trails with thier damn iron hooves!
Sorry, can't answer the OP question, one day I'd do W2, 2 days dunno - I live to close to stay over, to far to know it well!

If you can't get up that first climb and clip in maybe you should get a roadbike!
Skyline is more if a social ride with mates with a bit if Singletrack here and there thrown in IMO.
If I was there for 2 days I'd do W2 on the Sat with another lap of the Whites trail or up whites across and down July trail Sat then Skyline chillout Sunday.

i wouldn't bother going at all, we stayed for a weekend there a month ago and as well as rocks on the path we even had to ride through mud...never again. 🙄

we did the july trail to warm up then w2,it was ace fun and a good long ride. oh yeah and i was clipped in the whole way round i am that skilled, also I didn't notice any blown out sections cos i iz 2 rad an didnt notice coz i wuz goin 2 fast init.

If you can't get up that first climb and clip in maybe you should get a roadbike!

I like the sound of that combo [b]tollah[/b] 8)

What's the "sheeptrack" climb? Start of Whites?

Must be gary, the only other climb is the wall fireroad.

Yeah i agree with Tollah, good shout.

or spend Saturday on W2 then head back down the road to Cwm Carn on Sunday, Both Mojo and Tywch are in good shape at the mo

and yes GaryLake "sheeptrack" is start of Whites

[i]"Saw many many people failing when trying to clip in whilst trying to ride up a rock garden!"[/i]

where on earth is this unrideable uphill rock garden at Afan...I must have missed it?

just to point out, I didnt say I couldnt do the climb - I was fine on my V12's..

The rock garden section (We saw people failing on) was towards the top just before the last wooded section (I think) .. Cant remember exactly.

Also didnt say it was "too rocky" just pointing out to the guy that it was rocky!!.. 😮

yeah I think a loop of Cwm could be a good call on the way back, maybe if we sacrafice a bit of the skyline for that

thanks for the ideas all 🙂

@Twodogs

The only two places I can think of that you could describe as a rock garden ascent in Afan trails would be Two Tombstones, just before the finish of the Whites Climb.

And the section after On the Edge on Skyline, just after Short 'n Sweet, after the first big climb.

I'd assume it's Two Tombstones, as it can get slippy.

EDIT: Do you mean at the end of Energy? It's a little rocky, and can get slippy too - wouldn't like to fall off there clipped in mind.

Oh, and should say Skyline is pretty nice at the moment, there are diversions in place, but a lot of the singletrack is open, and it's such a nice, remote (well, it feels it) ride.

Tag that and W2 in the same day, and you've got yourself a nice loop - and you can stop off for a quick blast around Cwmcarn on the way back.

Cafe's open too at GC.

5 of us from our club are heading back to Afan on Friday for the weekend, I was going to post up if Skyline was open?

Went in Nov last year and there was some halfarsed diversion setup that got us totally lost, ended up making our own route back which had a nice ride down a waterfall which was cool

There are diversions in place, but Granada it back open - you can't cut is short after this section though like you used to be able to (July). But you can climb up left, and back - eft on yourself back onto the fireroad climb up and down to Windy point - that's if you wanted to shorten it at that point.

To be honest, I'd just do the full Skyline loop, I enjoy the diversion sections - as they're akin to the open sections on Nant y Arian (ish).

It's still a really good ride, with a good amount of ascending.

[b]Just remember to was your bikes off before taking them anywhere else, due to the Photophoria (Larch tree disease)[/b] it's a big reason why there are so many diversions, and why Penhydd has been out of action for longer than planned.

Just make sure you wash them down, so you dont spread the disaease to anywhere else.

Cheers chaps

Went to Afan for the first time 2 weeks ago in the rain and enjoyed it, midges aside. First evening went round White's, then next day up White's climb and across the link for the downhill sections of the Wall, which were overall less enjoyable.

The White's climb was nice and varied - one or two tricky bits - although there is a very steep short climb slightly further on round White's, which even the many riding gods evident on here may have raised an eye brow at, and i reckon a fair few fail the Graveyard Rock garden on the Wall.

There was a diversion in place by the cafe/bunk house half way round The Wall, but a bod from the FC said it was fine to continue as they were not working at the weekend.

Also, beers after down in the village from the Skyline bike shop/camp site - locals were nice and friendly.

Ah, you mean the climb on the Energy section - the short steep power climb - it's a bit more tricky at the moment due to erosion. There's a good line there though 😉

Y Wall is currently fully open too now - and the random rocks I started a thread about have had some trail pixie magic done on them, and are now far more suitable - good work trail pixies 🙂

There will be a new climb up from the Afan trail centre (not GC) to Y Wall, missing out about 60% of the fireroad climb, it's not open yet - but looks awesome. It's one that's had Rowen Sorrell working on, and it shows.

Afan does look like it's going in the right direction, and if it carries on in the same manner, with the other trails will be hard to beat.

I did White's and July yesterday and had a blast having done Cwm Carn the previous afternoon en route to Glyncorrwg to camp/snorkel! The trails are pretty beat up but i kind of like that as it feels a bit more natural than it is.
Was much less fatigued at the end of the day having ridden my Pitch this visit, i was on my Soul in January when i last rode there and felt truly beat up at the end of the day, was still fun on the hardtail just harder work. If i dedicated 2 days to Afan i'd opt for White's and July one day and the Wall and July the second. The Twrch at Cwm Carn is well worth doing though if you fancy a change of location.

What is missing from Afan these days -

[url= http://www.mtbbritain.co.uk/images/hidden_valley1.wmv ]Enjoy[/url]

Went round Skyline last sunday. Only bit that was closed and impassable was the section before Joyrider. According to the FC site all of Skyline was supposed to be open by the 17th June. Granada is now a bit of a moonscape and the diversion along the Glamorgan Way is more entertaining imo.

Did the Wall today and 'had a little look' at how the Penhydd is these days - desolate and destroyed currently. Hidden valley in particular.

The Wall was fully open but there was a small diversion after the graveyard section before the final descent. Graveyard now has a naffy chicken run for the kids 😉 The problem with that is it smooths out the approach to the techie bit making it much less of a challenge. Overall there was certainly more water than i'd seen over the past few years but it still ran really well particularly that lightning fast final descent. I nearly lost it on the slab jump after the final switchback.

and yes GaryLake "sheeptrack" is start of Whites

Ah ok. When people talked about riding up rock gardens I thought there some new amazing bit I'd somehow missed having not been in a while.