Skyline not Skyling!!!

Very close between the two...

Skyline always seems to require more effort but i think thats down to all the fire road.

W2 is best ridden by ignoring the energie section on the way back and continue along the fire road back up past the black, past the top of the climb the first climb. Stay on the fireroad until you get to a right turn. Go down there cut right before you enter the trees and pick up the last section of Skyline single track & then the Skyline final descent which is probably the best one. Adds a bit of extra climbing and few more km's but not sure how many.

I thought Skyline was due to close for good due to wind turbine development? Has that been screpped now or did i get it wrong?

sections of skyline are good but far far too much fire road.

W2 anytime, as I found the skyline is excessively boring, with one good decent, which you can find (near top of whites climb) without doing the rest of it. Also with the W2 if you find a section you really like, it's easy to loop back and do it again, not so easy with the SL

W2 and after wall turn left and do it all again 3 total loops is best I done so far then back across to Whites level for end

Looking at the stats, W2 has 975m of climbing and and Skyline has 2000m of climbing which is a big difference. I did W2 last year and found it great fun but quite easy but some friends did Skyline this weekend and it nearly killed them!

Looking at the stats, W2 has 975m of climbing and and Skyline has 2000m of climbing which is a big difference.

It's also rubbish 🙂 Skyline is around 935m whereas W2 is 890m including the black section.

I think it's a similar amount of effort to get round either of them, but far more forest road climbing on Skyline.

The forestry work has made skyline into a tree stump wasteland.
Its not my idea of a pleasant ride.The long fireroads wouldn't bother me too much if the landscape looked a bit nicer.

Skyline is ok as long as you take the short-cuts 🙂

That last skyline descent is good fun but I've not done the rest of it - was told it was largely "slog"

Skyline is far tougher on the legs than W2, this is mainly due to the firetrack especially in the latter stages. I did skyline the other week and got stuck up the top of white's in the dark with no lights, had to push the bike all the way down 🙁 underestimated how long it is, you think your home and dry coming into Excalibur but maybe 25% of the track left.

W2 is taxing as well though, agree with whoever said the best route is white's uphill, do windy point, skip energy, do the link over to the top of the wall, do that, back up wall uphill, then link over to energy then complete.

I think it's worth doing the full Skyline, it's more of a leisury trail, made for the openings at the heads of the valleys towards the Brecon Beacons, if your short on time the short-cuts are handy though but do miss out some decent bits.

t's also rubbish Skyline is around 935m whereas W2 is 890m including the black section.

I think it's a similar amount of effort to get round either of them, but far more forest road climbing on Skyline.

Well that makes sense - when I used to ride on the dark side, I took my bike to France and rode the Col de Tourmalet which was 1600m of climbing over about 24km and it was mentally tiring - couldn't see how Skyline had more than this! How've they got the published stats so wrong?

Skyline stats are right 46km over 2000m ascent...did it recently with my pal
Arrived 3:30pm put basha up in soggy camp field and 7 hours later, dark wet and tired we got back...and there is MUCH to much fireroad climbing(the final 6km almost made up for the fireroad climbing)
W2 we did the next day and we both agreed it was easier...
But hey opinions are like assholes.. we all have them and they stink 😀

Take either the first or second shortcut on Skyline. The full loop has too much gravel road for not much extra singletrack.

[quote=hugor]The forestry work has made skyline into a tree stump wasteland.

Unfortunately it sounds like most of it will be like that sometime soon.. [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-16941548 ]BBC[/url] 😥

Maybe they can take the opportunity to create some more trails in the wake of the devastation..?

I cannot see how skyline has double the climbing of W2. It certainly doesn't feel it. Far too much fire road for me too but some people prefer the "out there" feeling over exciting singletrack.

Too many posters getting confused between which is "harder" and which is "better"...

some people prefer the "out there" feeling

Skyline is more comparable to the Gap in terms of feel. It's a day out in the hills feel, a bit of a slog, (especially the furthest loop through the abandoned mine, which I always find quite draining), but satisfying in that context. So, harder, yes, I would say so.

It is not a singletrack blast in the way of other trail centre trails. FWIW I applaud the trail builders' efforts to provide something out of the usual.

Long drive over, then - do Whites' including the Black extension, have lunch at the cafe then take the climb back up and across the Sustrans route to the top of Deadwood and back down.

Haven't done it for 18 months but I used to enjoy Skyline, there's way more than just one fun section on it and most of the fire road is climbs which to me is a relatively cheap way of gaining height ready for the next downhill section, can only remember one fire road downhill bit.

can only remember one fire road downhill bit.

Presumably that is the "Airstrip" section - just before the second shortcut...

Have recorded my highest offroad speed on that section - 43mph

We rode both of these over the weekend, for me the W2 was the harder trail. I'm happy to ride up fireroads (but not down them, that makes me a sad panda) and the rocky, singletrack climbs on the W2 just did a number on my legs. Also, why is it that most of the descents have a lot of uphilly bits in them?!

For a big day out you could do W2 starting the Whites climb, all of the Wall, back to do the Energy section (IMO the worse dh section at Afan), and then at the end of Energy climb back up the fire road past the bittom of the black to pick to the end of the Whites climb where you can do the July shortcut of Skyline.
I've never done it myself but have done it withouth the Wall and have done W2 then most of the Whites climb to cut across to the last 2 sections of Skyline.

Skyline stats are right 46km over 2000m ascent...did it recently with my pal

What did you measure that with? I did it on Saturday and my Garmin made it 45km + 935m of climbing. Having done road routes with a genuine 2k of climbing I believe my GPS...

2000m seems unlikely to be, particularly as the first climb is the same as W2/White's.

Perhaps a GPS altitude rather than barometric?

First climb is the same.

What more big climbs does W2 have? (never done the "formal" route) Can't be much more than half a Wall climb and half a Whites climb ??? (in additional to the initial shared Whites / Skyline singletrack climb.

There are a stack of grinding uphills I can think of on the full Skyline trail 😥

I always wonder if folks are doing the full route for Skyline. I know I always took the second shortcut for a while after it opened. The climbs on the furthest loop, as well as the fire road climb back up behind GC (to the final descent) are absolute swines, because they come later in the ride.