Just booked an uplift day at Antur Stiniog for me and my son so he can try out his downhiller. Any one got any comments,stories on what to expect? whether it was a good day out? etc...
I went with my mate at the end of November and had a brilliant day out. We did 1 run on the red and blue trails then spent the rest of the day on the black , the guy in the office advised against the double black as there was a lot of ice on the hairpin corners.
It's a lot rougher than the youtube video's would suggest but everything is rollable so you can keep the wheels on the ground if you aren't an air merchant. Never waited more than 3-4 minutes for one of the uplift vans. Dual ply tyres and DH tubes are reccomended. The cafe is pretty good too. We'll definitely be going back , I'd reccomend the place to anyone.
It's crap/Always sunny/Helmets are banned/You don't need a full suss/No protection/Uplift sucks.
Standard responses.
uplifts are awesome (says the fat grandad) 8)
I was there on what the antur uplift bloke said was the worst day they'd had up until that point. It was brilliant. I was soaked to the pants and the wind was very strong at the top, but I loved it. Wouldn't hesitate to go again.
It is ace, basically. Excellent trails and a superb uplift.
Trailswise... Expect rocks- it's basically all rocks, berms, steps, jumps, and rocks. Makes sense to start on the blue, it's not dull and leads quite nicely onto the red. All the trails can be puncturey, even dh tyres and tubes if you get the pressures or lines wrong. Some bits can be quite loose too- slates up top, dirt down low,it's very "built" but don't mistake that for smooth or featureless.
The blacks are a bit of a step up- black powder reminded me of the middle of fort william. Y du has a bit of proper peril and it'll help a lot to be comfortable in the air as some bits are designed to be dropped/jumped not rolled. Fullface mandatory on the blacks (they don't tell you this til you get there).
Oh, and all the trails come together near the bottom- if you go left you get a nice descent, if you go right you get a couple of choices of lines, one is [i]very[/i] big, then a load of doubles which I'm not close to doing so it all gets a bit dull rolling them 😛 (Saw Danny Hart come up short on some, frankly if he can't clear them at will I'm not interested!) So basically if you can't jump well, go left 😉
If you want to make the most of your time, take some stuff over to the pickup (which is by the weighbridge) so you can grab a drink etc without returning to the cars. But the uplifts are so fast and regular that you don't need to stress out about missing one, it's not like innerleithen or similar.
I think we caught them on a bad day. One of the uplift vans broke down and the cafe was closed for an event. It was still a great day out. The trails are proper techy (for an XC mincer like me) but the uplift means you have enough in your legs to have a go.
It's not thaaaat rocky is it? Isn't it more rocks here and there, surrounded by hardpack? I only rode the top and bottom bits though (ie not the middle). Sure there's sections where it's essentially a continuous rock garden, but a lot of it reminded me of a slightly bumpier trail centre.
(I know that makes little sense, but whatever..:P )
See second half;
http://www.pinkbike.com/u/Laurence-CE/blog/Video-Stories-Episode-1-Duane-Walker.html
It's fun 🙂
Sounding good so far! A few other mates have booked on as well now, so it should turn out to be a good do!
I'll keep an eye out for more of your vids on pinkbike and YouTube.
Cheers for the comments so far
Ready for this at the weekend 😀
Anyone else going?
Let us know how you get on. I'm looking to book a day for the end of August 🙂
wrecker - Member
I was there on what the antur uplift bloke said was the worst day they'd had up until that point. It was brilliant. I was soaked to the pants and the wind was very strong at the top, but I loved it. Wouldn't hesitate to go again.
Can't have been worse than the day I was there. Freezing cold. Wind so strong in your face that you had to pedal down the blue/red trails or come to a stop. And then the rain got heavy. Oh my god. The rain.
But the day before was a joy - dry fast trails (still cold), a very slick and well run uplift, loads of fun, and twenty five plus runs for four lads who didn't start particularly early or do anything in a big hurry. Great spot.
A quick word on the full face mandatory thing. When we went, there wasn't anyone at the top to check what type of helemt you had on. So you could chance your amr if you like.
It's probably an insurance issue though - so they could probably get into trouble if you came off and hurt your face on the black run in an XC helmet.
Just fuelling up at McD's en route
What a day! Those guys at Antur Stiniog have got it just right (if only they were 150miles closer)
we had a fantastic day down there....sun and a visit from Rachel Atherton!
Just to put things straight we are guys that usually ride XC with the occasional downhill here and there. Signed in....got padded up and went to the uplift pickup. Approx 5 mins to the top of the run in the van and we were ready to start our first run at Antur Stiniog. Ensure you do a sighting lap of each colour run if it is your first time. we choose to hit the blue first...now a blue run here is not the same as a blue run at a trail centre!! The run was more technical than we thought it would be, but still enjoyable. We tried all the runs (I didnt do the double black but my son spent most of his time on that). Red run was more technical but in my opinion a lot less flowy? Black run was better than the red but even more technical(definitely needs a sighting lap.
I spent most of my time on the blue (pussy!!) but I really enjoyed it, trying to find smoother lines every run.
A day there and you know you've done some work...tired and almost broke without pedalling uphill?
when the uplift finished we headed for the pump track to watch some of our lads hit the jumps.
All in all an excellent and recommended day out 😀 😀 😀
i'll try get some gopro footage on youtube later
Oh and I forgot to mention, take plenty of tubes(or have high tyre pressures)I think we had about seven punctures. Ideally; spare tube, gas inflator and tyre levers in your back pocket!
Get booking now!
The blue's really good... I found it too pedally the first couple of times but once you figure out its rhythm it all works really well.
Going to feel pretty bad on the innerleithen uplift now tbh!
i think i may have been there on the wet windy day was it sunday april 14?
but generally the uplift service is the slickest i've seen outside of chairlifts and the trails are good fun and should be manageable by most competent riders.