[Closed] Afan Trail Centre - advice please?

140mm minimum for Cwmcarn, i'm afriad! Your mate will most likely have his bike confiscated in the carpark 😉

What about the XC loop at CwmCarn, surely they don't expect you to take it with a DH bikAe 😉
Are some people willing to express an opinion on Afan?

Afan is more challenging than verderers, but nothing scary. All perfectly rideable on a rigid bike never mind 120mm FS.

120 is absolutely fine for Afan. I set my fastest Strava times on Whites on my old 120 stumpy 🙂 Same goes for CwmCarn XC.

chuffin awful on a rigid. all doable with 120mm ht/fs, do check the fc web site for trail closures etc.

Aran is pleasingly rough. I always take my 5" FS there.

Personally, I love Cwmcarn. It's perfectly doable on a 100mm HT, and your inexperienced mate will be just fine.

The wall at afan is similar, although White's level is a bit more difficult.

Have fun!

chuffin awful on a rigid

Sounds perfect then -I'll ride the wall, and then Whyte's if he's feeling up to it.

White's* sorry I thought it was sponsored by Whyte, but that's the CwmCarn one 😉

Definitely stop off on the new bike park ehich is half way round the wall, brilliant fun!

Have a look at W2. Combines the Wall & whites. Cracking ride!

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My weapon of choice for Afan...

Oh and if you are heading down pop over and check out the new trails at the Garw too

Funky lookin' Kona. I want one.

Garw? Where is that and how the hell do you pronounce it?

Cheers mate, was a £15 second hand unit frame built with bits I has knocking about.... Hence 29 front and 26 rear wheel

Garw pronounced Garrrooooo,

Just over the valley from Afan

(Search Garw valley mountain bike trails on fb)

Sounds like the howl of a retarded wolf.
I bet that turns a few heads, and gives the bike snobs a lot to talk about 😉
Is Garw any good?

I have done all three in a weekend. We started with the Red trail at Cwmcarn. All on 100mm travel bikes. Decent trail, pretty technical climbing at times with small rocky inclines and very rooty if I remember.

Then down to Afan and Glyncorag (Spelt wrong I know), again, great trails. All easily doable on the bikes we had. You will be fine and have more fun because a bit more travel is nice

Hmm, might be an idea to do CwmCarn first then and then head down to afan 🙂

Don't waste your time on Skyline, Whites Level and the Wall are both good though.

W2 yesterday, Twrch today. Both on a 120mm bike.

Twrch is way more fun on the descents. Climbs are more technically satisfying on Twrch too.

not sure if serious?? the twrch descent is as boring as a fire road, i find it the least rewarding of any of the welsh trail centers.

Afan will be fine.

I am no technical master and i like it just fine on a 140mm hardtail.

He might want to skip the black loop near top of whites as iirc it has a couple of significant drops in. Been over a year since I was last there so my recollection may not be bang on.

If you find you cant ride it on an AM fs bike then I am afraid you must be more of a coward than me!!!

Twrch is the only other Welsh trail centre I've ridden! I thought the final descent was pretty cool after a struggle up the icy track to the top. So may have coloured my perceptions.

I think I prefer it over White's Level because it's got a few more berms I reckon. I like berms.

Garw valley for me is the best, yes its only 3 miles in total but what you get from it is amazing. Steep climb up and fun packed down.

Dont bother with Skyline if you dont know the route, tree felling has cut the official route down loads and the diversions are shocking to the point it actually misses the still open stuff, but the July descent is still awesome. The whole original skyline loop is still perfectly rideable if you know the area or have GPS maps.

If i was travelling down i'd be doing W2 wih extra stuff on the wall at the bike park. Or if you want some fun, park at the bike park, ride the fireroad up to end of Picadilly and do new 373 and graveyard loop, carry on down ziz zags and take the Enduro shortcut back up then mess about in the bike park and do the extra loop just past the zig zags.

Or you could go do the masts. 😉

All perfectly doable on a hardtail (maybe not the masts), ive ridden them all loads of times on mine.

Might head up to Afan and ride W2 then, and then maybe onwards to Garw, or do Twrch on the way back - depends how long it all takes.
@Garage dweller - I'll be fine, it's my friend I'm worried about 🙂 I'm sure he'll be fine, so long as its not full on DH level trails.

None of the stuff we rode yesterday was anywhere close to a DH run.

It's more of a fun, point the bike forward and go fast type ride. You'll probably be held up more by his climbing ability (or lack thereof).

I suspect he's probably fitter then me 😳

Personally I much prefer Cwm Carn to anything at Afan although most tend to disagree with this. Whatever you choose don't worry about the bike!

Well by the sounds of it I can't go too wrong with either 🙂

How long to do the W2 and the new parts? Unfit rider btw 🙂

Wall is 44km with approx 1000m climbing. It took us 5 hours with a 1 hour break for lunch at the trail centre canteen. Waiting around for the enduro riders to finish a seeding run, sorting out a number of mechanicals and one rider getting injured and having to go home.

I reckon if you're pretty fit you could do it in under 3 hours. Else just do it as an all day ride type thing. Wrap up warm, perhaps take a spare pair of socks, and take some food.

taken from the Cognation website:

the wall is 23k
W2 is 44k
skyline is 46k

Sorry, meant W2 is 44km. We didn't do the new trail Cognation have built.

There's also a muddy mess that is being used as a detour which we had to push up.

lovely Kona that

Oh right, just the wall for me then...... 🙂

If you have the time brechfa outshines them all

I thought Brechfa was allright, preferred Afan though which I feel with either the Wall or Whites Level makes a better use of the terrain. Brechfa is also a long drive to get to.

I second the Paineys post, did Brechfa (gorlech & raven) & Afan (W2) a couple of weeks ago over 2 days & enjoyed Afan way more.... so much so I went a back a week later & rode W2 again. Started at Glyncrwyg & had lunch at the Afan forest park centre (sausage egg chips & beans cake & filter coffee's = quality lunch) you can pay with a card so don't need cash.
The detour up Whites level is proper shit though....

W2 would get my vote. You'd be a brave man to do both W2 and Cwmcarn in a day though, the climbs on W2 are pretty progressive, but Cwmcarn is a bit of a bitch of a climb (especialy yesterday, covered in ice!). And the bit from the BBQ area to the start of Castle Valley is closed too, so you miss a bit of the downhill.
If you're going to do W2, I'd start from Afan and stop in the Glyncorrwg cafe for lunch - much better grub. And there's no snow at afan either, Cwmcarn still covered at the moment.