[Closed] Bike Park Wales - Great place but beware of vouchers not being honoured

I mean £7 for the ride up facility is a bit steep really.

Its not.

I thought my day at BPW at the back end of last year was the most fun I'd had on a bike since Verbier 8 years ago. Can't believe I've let this year slide by without at least 3 more trips down there...

Horses for courses though...

£7 is good value and about what I used to pay per visit to Aston Hill IIRC.

Shame BPW don't take the initiative to pop on here and discuss things, as it's clear there are quite a few grumbles.

Cafe. All I wanted was a coffee and a burger. You know; the big item on the menu. At 4pm they had nothing. No food. Girl on the till just shrugged her shoulders. Surely you must have something? Came up with a soggy, microwaved pie. She and her mate thought this funny, and got the giggles. The pie was horrid, coffee ok. Instead of waiting six months and being passive aggressive and moan on a forum, I had a moan on site. Guy I found just said "that's fighting talk" and walked off.

I don't drive an Audi or own a coffee machine.

Dunno. May have over reacted in expecting a cafe to have actual food, or somebody there to give a fig. 4pm is a good hour before they close.

Never tried the cafe at Afan. My only experience of that one being at 3pm on a Saturday they were clearly open, yet the bored staff just said "we're closed" so perhaps BPW is not the worst ever. And, well, on reflection Swinley is very bad. To get worse than Swinley you'd cater for pigs or dogs.

I mean £7 for the ride up facility is a bit steep really.
Is it?! What other leisure facility can you use all day for £7?

Yep, £7 park entry fee is too high.

You can compare all sorts of other activities you want.

The trip to BPW and just ride up is no more than turning up and parking, no real cost there.
A little bit of trail erosion cost by riding a lot less than the number of runs you would get by the uplift.

Can't see me going back in any rush. Plenty of other riding alternatives in the area.

As I said, it's not simply a cost thing, it's more of the overall experience of the centre.

The Coach (Griff) also runs the kids club at the weekend, I've spoken to him a couple of times, my Son loves him and he’s a nice Guy. I can't imagine him having a CBA attitude, he's always been very on the ball when I've spoken to him, perhaps I don't mind quiet people.

And perhaps you need to work on your imagination skills. It had nothing to do with him being 'quiet'.

To be honest, I don't think BPW is the ideal place to run coaching sessions - far too much faffing about - but in my experience at least, Griff made no effort to get over the hurdles BPW presents.
I can't be bothered to cite examples of his failings but suffice to say he delivered a shockingly bad session and should be embarrassed of his £145 price tag.

Denis99 - Member
Yep, £7 park entry fee is too high.

You can compare all sorts of other activities you want.

You can compare it to other biking venues though, Dalby is £8 in the summer, Grizedale is £7 odd quid, most of the car parks in the Peak or Lake District are £5 for the day.

I like BPW and never had any issues. I didn't even think paying £5 to cancel a booking was taking the piss. They've also changed names on booking no hassle!

Wife and I had an excellent half day of coaching with Griff last year. Was called Rhythm & Flow' iirc. Started at the pump track for a bit, then up and gradually worked down Sixtapod to the fire track spending time in the berms, rollers etc. Had a bit of a rest on the fire track playing around with how to manual/bunny hop, bit of jump practice on the lower bit of A470 then down Bluebelle & the other blue to the cafe.
No iPad involved just a good few hours of coaching that saw both my wife and I learn a lot & increase confidence, the afternoon pass included in the price gave us chance to consolidate & when we saw Griff again a month later he stopped & chatted about how we were getting on.
The cafe has been terrible pretty much every time I've tried it so I'll only have coffee and cake from there now, had a couple of almost inedible burgers and some pretty rubbery bacon. Service is pretty miserable too but on a par with Cwm Carn etc in my experience. Packed lunch ftw.
Uplift has always been good for me, with the drivers cheerful enough. Seemed better last time with 8 busses & no stop for lunch too, although we still only got 8 runs in that was more to do with us faffing.
I wouldn't go every week, but for a few times a year I'm happy enough with the standard of service (cafe aside) for the price I pay. FWIW I don't think £7 is too bad for a ride only ticket, how much to park at Swinley, or QECP? At least £3 so given the extra trails and work they get the price isn't too much to pay.

I can't be bothered to cite examples of his failings but suffice to say he delivered a shockingly bad session and should be embarrassed of his £145 price tag.

You could always park elsewhere and cycle in? The Taff trail runs almost past the entrance to BPW. Dalby almost encourages cycling in, thanks to the Moors to Coast trail. And Llandegla has several cycle routes in and out. Moaning about parking charges just shows a lack of initiative really.

You pay to ride the trails, not to park.

muddyground - Member
You could always park elsewhere and cycle in? The Taff trail runs almost past the entrance to BPW. Dalby almost encourages cycling in, thanks to the Moors to Coast trail. And Llandegla has several cycle routes in and out. Moaning about parking charges just shows a lack of initiative really.

Not aimed at me I hope, I wasn't moaning, I've got no issue paying for parking 😀

I can't be bothered to cite examples of his failings but suffice to say he delivered a shockingly bad session and should be embarrassed of his £145 price tag.

No, please do be arsed, I doubt I would ever book a coaching session so far south of me, but I do like to know who's out there and if they are worth the travel or not

Yeah, give us a few examples, it doesn't need to be war and peace - I haven't booked mine yet. I purposely didn't quote you do avoid an internet war.

This doesn't have to be a pro BPW v anti BPW argument, but you've taken the time to slam the course and the coach, without much substance, other posters have taken the time to give reports which tend to be positive, I've got personal experience of the Guy and found him positive and welcoming.

Do you think their refusal to change the dates made you join in the course with a negative frame of mind which you expected the couch to turn around, or a determination to make it a negative experience however it went?

I’m genuinely interested in your feedback and will take any specifics on board before I decide to go – I’m looking for some specific things from the course – I have all the skills I need to ride drops, what I lack is confidence post-accident. If the course entails “this is how you do a drop, now here’s an easy 3 footer to get started” it’ll be completely wasted on me.

chakaping - Member

You pay to ride the trails, not to park.

This, you can ride in if you like, I've met people who ride in from over the back of the hill, but you still have to pay. Otherwise I'd car share more.

You pay to ride the trails, not to park.

This

Their uplift has never been great, the whole management of it is poor.

That's my biggest gripe about it too - compared to Stiniog and Revo, the uplift has been piss poor when I've been. The drivers are nice enough, but it is really slow.

The cafe is a bit meh, but no worse than some of the others I've been too.

I have to just say, the cafe and staff at Gisburn are always top notch

I've always been quite pleased with the service at BPW, and the entrance fee does not seem astronomical compared to other places. I live near Bedgebury, and that is now £12 at weekends!

The cafe however, is a little underwhelming, but does the job and does not break the bank either. Staff have always been helpful, and when my mate smashed his helmet and gashed his leg going OTB, they were excellent.

All of those complaining about the speed of the uplift: are you on about the actual long drive up (which is long but dictated by where the forest road goes) or the long wait at the uplift queue that can happen? Genuinely interested as I've only found it frustrating once or twice in many visits and then only at weekends. Lots of times when riding alone I've spent the whole day getting off one bus at the top, blasting down then getting on the same bus exactly as I reach the pick-up point. I'm not even that fast!!

I've only used the uplifts at BPW, FOD and Antur so I don't have vast experience of them. Antur is just brutal for turnaround, FOD seems the same as BPW in my experience when you take in the length of each run vs time on the bus.

@Milky

I don't complain, but when I hear people moaning it tends to be about the length of the drive, not the wait for the Bus.

There's not much they can easily do about it, the route is the route and even with the number of Vans they run now - 8 at weekend, it's a veritable ballet to get them up and down without blocking each other.

I feel like the most wide-eyed over optomistic nutter in the world on this thread, I don't tend to gush about BPW and I have my own issues with it, but I've ridden the bus at FOD, Stiniog and Cwmcarn and I don't see this glarring massive difference - Bus arrives, you load up, you take a ride, you get off and there's a little pedal before you get going. AS always gets lauded as being brillaint - why? It's a Yellow Transit Mini-Bus with a trailer, BPW has a Silver / Black Transit Mini Bus with a trailer, the drivers are nice and friendly at each, the system is pretty much the same (although, on the QT BPW drivers do tend to allow a few ad hoc passes to get on even when theres a queue) I haven't used a stop watch, but I suspect the ride is a bit quicker at BPW, AS is smoother because it's on tarmac - Cwmdown is the best, but I know Darrell well enough to chat and I enjoy his company.

I had a lesson with Griff and really enjoyed. I went to learn 'bigger' drops. He sorted out my technique and though I didn't do any massive drops I felt far more confident afterwards and I'm glad I had the lesson. £145 is a bit on the high side though.

I have no complaints about the service but was embarrassed when they couldn't be bothered to change the brakes over on the hire bike for my Finnish mate, particularly after he emailed them to warn them beforehand and they agreed. On the day they were just 'too busy'. I think that is terrible service and dangerous.

if you have been to bpw in the last 6 months and noticed how slow the uplifts are compared to previous trips .
its not the vans they are looking out for or the rd.
some guy went to great lengths for compensation when his bike got damaged.
another persons brake lever gouged his forks .ever since then they drive like mrs daisy lol.

Ahhh, change the front rear levers, I thought you meant swap out actual full brakes at first, I thought that's a bit extreme!

Haven't been for a long time, but the uplift hardly seems worth it - was a real challenge to get more than 8-9 runs in (managed double figures only once there).

I can go there and ride up 6/7 times & actually feel like it's been a proper workout.

Probably should go back now there are a few more trails 🙂

I tend to struggle with uplifts in general these days however - a huge amount of doing stuff that isn't actually riding a bike.

F***ng hell, Big bud, it's a mountain bike, not a fashion parade, if I'd got precious over every scratch chip and rub on mine, I'd have a nervous breakdown 😆

the cafe and staff at Gisburn are always top notch

I have never known the place to be open. Ever. Early, late, weekends, midweek...

P-Jay, I've no interest in starting an internet war either and I'm glad you and your son have had a good experience but that doesn't give you the right to dismiss mine as you did.
To be honest, I think I was looking for the same as you: confidence. I understand that it's hard to give people that but there are ways of helping people and, for whatever reason, Griff failed to do this for me.

I understand teaching is a two-way thing but all I can say is that at the time, I was as keen as mustard. Far from being annoyed at having to take my mother's place, I was in fact glad (not that she was injured of course) but because £145 is a lot of money for me and I wouldn't have spent that on myself so I was kind of glad when it fell to me to take my mum's place.

I also consider myself to be a good student and have been told words to that effect before. I am still likely to break out into a beam when I remember some of the encouraging things the guides told me when I was on holiday with The White Room.

Perhaps Griff is better at coaching some people more than others. Perhaps I am able to take direction better from some people than others. But in my experience, teaching/coaching is one of the most undervalued skills in the world and there are far too many people in teaching jobs who do not have the skills to do those jobs effectively.

A brief list of BPW moans:
Griff seemed to want to interact with his mates more than coach me. Whether that be the mechanics in the workshop, people in the queue for the bus, the trail builders, or looking at his mobile phone. This not only showed a lack of interest but wasted valuable teaching time.

I was annoyed that he hadn't seemed to bother to read my pre-assessment form meaning we had to go through all that again thereby wasting more time. Anybody who has any experience of teaching will tell you that you don't go into a lesson 'blind'. Sure, you might have a standard lesson but you've got an idea as to how you are going to adapt that in order to suit the person you are teaching/coaching.

Spending 20mins at the top looking at other people riding trail sections on an ipad seemed like a waste of time for me, especially when we could have done that on the bus if he hadn't have been so busy with his phone.

Other than that, my session was similar to Mattbees. We started at the pump track, then spent time on fire track practising manuals, then a bit of jump practice.

I'm sure his coaching style will suit some people but I'm sorry to say it didn't suit me. All of the above is just my opinion of course but if you decide to book, I hope it works out for you.

Yes, change over the levers! Quite important!!! Anyway, he was stuffed, didn't know his left from his right, was all over the place, did 2 runs and bailed out back to the snow...

@The Pilot

Thanks, I'll keep it in mind, I'd find a lot of that annoying myself.

Promise I wasn't being dismissive, even if it sounded like that, I have a 'unique' writing style I'm told.

There's not much they can easily do about it, the route is the route and even with the number of Vans they run now - 8 at weekend, it's a veritable ballet to get them up and down without blocking each other.

It does seem odd going downhill at points though. A circular route would avoid the passing problem, but that would mean either adding in a second lane or finding another way up/down.

some guy went to great lengths for compensation when his bike got damaged.
another persons brake lever gouged his forks .ever since then they drive like mrs daisy lol.

Strava times for the uplift route would seem to back that up, they really need to tarmac the road! Or a ski lift 😀

I was there a while back and the trailer snapped in half on the top bar on the way up, right next to my bike! Took me a second to realise why my bike wouldn't release. The same trailer is still in use, albeit with a very large pair of plates welded on to fix it. Those buses and trailers lead a very hard life.

I aint done Gisburn since October just before the clocks went back, but I always dialled in a full day midweek, a quick loop of the lower of the 8 up to either hope or bottoms, bringing me to the cafe at around 11am to lunch time, and it's always been open, another loop and drop in for a coffee before heading back to the van.
I couldn't say about weekends as I never ride, but I'm sure it's open as the dig team trail fairies speak of free brews from there

@ P-Jay
No worries and I promise not to take offence next time, unique writing style or not 😉

Sounds like you had a much worse experience than we did. Shane. I wonder if we were lucky or you were unlucky.

Might as well share my coaching story. Booked for me and my wife but it turned out my wife couldn't make it so I tried to move it. They said it was possible but kept either not replying or being very vague. Just had to give up in the end and I went on my own.

No idea who my coach was supposed to be but he never turned up. After an hour or so waiting around a young lad was introduced as our replacement coach. He was ok. Obviously not very experienced or used to working with people. We did a few different skills. The cornering stuff was ok, we then did a bit on pumping rollers which was fine. Next, wheel lift stuff as a prelude to drops was very uninspiring with little feedback then the course sort of petered out which was a bit disappointing especially as we started late. One plus was I then had an uplift ticket for the rest of the day. It was actually a good format with coaching in the morning then a chance to practice some skills without expending too much energy. Overall it was an ok day, just a bit disappointing to pay for two courses and get about 2/3rds of one.

Just for balance I've been a few times now and bloody love it , all of it in fact
I have it's worth mentioning on more than one occasion witnessed riders talking to the uplift drivers like they are morons and just generally treating them like shit
So it goes both ways I guess

Was going to go, but decided that the thought of booking in 6 weeks in advance and then waking up to lashing rain wouldn't be a good day for us - so waited until the week before saw the weather was nice and went to snowdonia instead.

Looking at the bad press on here - rather surprised they don't monitor it - I'm kind of glad i didn't give them my money

go BMCC instead, uplift doesnt stop for lunch they are friendly and actually appreciate the business and the tracks are very good, i think we got around 15 runs.
After my last visit to bpw rude staff and a poor total of 8 runs and a lot of waiting around I wont ever go back again.

The issue I have with BPW'a uplift is slow. There always seems to be a queue at the bottom. Never an issue at Stiniog or Revo.

Last time I went you'd, after a massive wait you'd pass two buses pulled up next to each other chatting and in no rush to head back down. It took the edge off the day for us.

muddyground - Member 
Cafe at BPW ... Worse even than Swinley.

Harsh! 😮 😀

All of those complaining about the speed of the uplift: are you on about the actual long drive up (which is long but dictated by where the forest road goes) or the long wait at the uplift queue that can happen?

Last time I went you'd, after a massive wait you'd pass two buses pulled up next to each other chatting and in no rush to head back down.

Last time I went you'd, after a massive wait you'd pass two buses pulled up next to each other chatting and in no rush to head back down.

That's very common. It has to be throttling.

It's not throttling, it's a single track road with long stretches where you can't pass so they run to a sort of timetable to keep it all flowing - they're about every 15 mins and on full capacity days they're running vans in twos so they’re taking up 144 bikes an hour. I spoke with one of the drivers a while back 8 vans is about the max they can run (which they do) without having too much over-lap and the whole thing grinding to a hault. To do any more they'd either have to build a circular uplift road which would be a massive undertaking or the thing that's the ulitmate goal - a lift.

Looking at the bad press on here - rather surprised they don't monitor it - I'm kind of glad i didn't give them my money

I think they do, but possibly more on the mainstream social media rather than delving into forums. They've been particular hurt by comments about BPW being a faceless corporate entity, when to be fair, they really aren't at their core. The founding directors are all very sound, very passionate and very dedicated people. They took a big personal financial risk going all in for this, and they've created something that at its core (the trails, the site) is totally brilliant. I don't think anyone who knows wouldn't applaud them.

But...that's all well and good, but if you get grumpy service, or poor experience at coaching, or overly officious enforcement of rules, you must expect bad feedback. My feeling is that at its core the place is totally ace, but let down by perhaps poor training, some less than passionate people or even some total dead wood that shouldn't be let near a customer facing environment, and they need binning.

Actually going tomorrow for the Manon Carpenter thing, but I'll eat somewhere else because I'm sorry, I don't care how cheap it is, I don't want to run the risk of being served by someone with a face liked a slapped arse, who can't even be bothered to muster up a please or thank you, they just extend their lardy hand outwards for the cold hard cash. If that makes me an SC riding, Audi driving pansy (I own neither of those forms of transport) then so be it. If they don't like working in a café (I have, its hard but can be good fun if you have the right positive attitude) then they should cock off down the job centre.

so they’re taking up 144 bikes an hour

Which isn't great really if they are full, that's pretty much just one run an hour for everyone.

I love BPW. If you think of it as a DH venue like Antur then you may be disappointed. Treat it as a trail centre with techier bits (I'd say the reds would be graded black in most UK trail centres, etc) and even if you think the uplift takes a long time, where else will a rider of normal fitness be able to do 10,000' of descending in a day?