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Anyone done BPW without uplift ?
We're planning 'something' for the weekend, Cwmcarn, Degla etc, but my mate just threw BPW into the mix... but uplift is fully booked.
Yep, just ride the road (forest track) to the top
I wonder if anyone's done a thread about this before....
Now you'd have thought so CFH
Maybe, however the search engine doesn't go back that far in time.... also 'bike' 'wales' etc brings up a lot.... BPW will be too few characters for the search engine.
So I asked... shoot me.
*loads weapon*
Yep did it the weekend after xmas. Fire road climb takes about 50mins that's with some below average fitness guys walking up the steep bits and cycling up the rest.
Its nice and wide so you can ride side to side and chat to pass the time as the climb is just a fire road and a bit boring.
You can also get single uplift tickets but I think you'll only be let on if there spaces and with the current popularity that's not too likely.
Its fine to ride up, use the fire road,it a nice social climb not too tough but it does take a lonnng time so will eat into your day. We rode up and only mangaged about 3 or 4 runs the whole day. You can session the top part of the tracks, which is the best bits anyway and get more runs in. Do it, its great!
It's fine, work on about an hour to go bottom to top and back down using the fire road climb. I found it felt less of a drag to occasionally just do half runs to mix up the climbs. Whatever you do, don't leave your bag with wallet, phone and car keys at the top of the hill on what is supposed to be your last run down (although only a complete nobber would do that).
I managed the equivalent of 5 full descents in the end, if I'd got there earlier I might have had time for another but I'm not sure about the energy.
Take the climb (beast of burden) to the top, ride any of the dh to the half way point which crosses a forest road, then go right up road or join back to the single track back to the top. I find the second half of the climb much easier.
You could ride down half way and go back up but I much prefer having the longer descent so I tend to ride all the way down. I wouldn't bother with Beast of Burden either, you just want to get to the top so take the fire road next to it. I prefer the shorter steeper one but you can also take the fire road used by the uplift.
Don't forget to take some pound coins with you as there will be spaces on the uplift van so you can mix it up (uplift day passes take priority but IME plenty of spaces available in the morning and mid afternoon onwards)