[Closed] So I'm hitting Afan....

Ignore Skyline, that's unless you want a long XC ride. Whites level and Y'Wal are brilliant, if you're up for a long ride do W2, that's both one after the other - about 40km. Superb singletrack.

A decent day is to do one of the climbs AM, the other PM - logically Y Wal then Whites - after a legendary lunch at the Ponds Cafe.

If you are parked at the Ponds then Final Decent/Zigzag is a pain in the a**e distance back, albeit a ling gentle smooth ride.

Stop and admire the views, and the trees because they aint long for this world

whites best, however,the last 2 sections are closed
accident with a logger so HSE involved.

there is a trail diversion to take you to the top
of the skyline descent. (rather long fire road but
WELL worth it)

If staying over (£10 camping for 2) try the rugby
club for an isotonic beer!

Hitting?

I find it better to ride it than "hiting" it.

If you want to do The Wall and Whites Level then follow the W2 route rather than doing them separately. It cuts out some of the unnecessary and stopping for lunch between trails makes for a sluggish 2nd half. Food at the Glywcorwg is 1000% better than Afan so it's better to start from there. If it's wet make sure you have plenty left on your brake pads (although the grit that wears your pads also makes the trails very grippy).

dependent on where your staying and the weather as it was biblical last sunday id do w2's starting on whites climb then on the way back from the traverse skip energy and whites decent - huck up the fireroad and go do the skyline up to the first shortcut .. thats my 5 pence worth

huck up the fireroad

What rebound setting for uphill fireroad hucking?
😆

Stu, I rocked up to Afan recently and shredded the gnarr all day.

😉

[b]AWSUM DUDE. YOU MUST BE SO SO SIK[/b]

Did you say go or no?

[b]AAAAAARRRRRR[/b]

8)

I'm rad to teh powa of sikknezzzz, Stu.

😉

sss & CFH.

Grow up.

Look at their post count and when they joined the forum. As newish members they probably don’t need [b]superior niche uber-pedants[/b] giving it the big’uns ... putting them off posting.

def not for hitting and I have the cracked pelvis to prove it!

Hey delu-dude what's the head angle on that thing. 😆

Maybe you should check out how antiniche CFH's history is.
Though you do have a point with me. 😆

Take midge repellent all the felling has concentrated them, into smaller areas..... And they are hungry little f%& *ck ers

I am a pedant, though! 🙂

Flashy on the subject of pedantry, it was you that said 'stable' on here the other day too. 👿 Unless you are that posh that you keep your bicycles in with your racehorses, that is. 😛

danielgroves, it will be great fun but if you don't have much in the way of rocks or braking bumps round your way, you may have hurty forearms by the end of three days! As above, Syline is loooooong and mostly less technical and lots more forest roads in between the squiggly bits. The last bit is a lot more lumpy/challenging/fun, and you can do this bit without the first 30k of it anyway, but Skyline is also way quieter than the rest of Afan/Glyncorrwg if you find yourself there when it's mega busy. It has some lovely views too if you are into all that. Have fun! 😀

If you have time after W2, do the final segment of Skyline back into Glencorrwg. You can access it from the top of the singletrack climb by turning right.

W2, then do Brechfa and Cwmcarn. There's not 3 days of riding at Afan IMO.

Julian, what I do with my stable of dandyhorses is my own business...

(Hard to spot a tongue in the cheek on the interwebz, isn't it?)

😉

Thanks for the advice everyone. A friend suggested doing the whites level climb, then over onto skyline then cut off onto July trail. Well probably do that on one of the days then W2 and see what energy we have left for the final day.

Staying at Glywcorwg for the cheap camping, being students and all we dont have a ton of money, we naturally spent it all on our bikes O.o

sheesh i got my words wrong I meant hump rather than huck, but thanks for pointing that out eh. i bet you guys are great to have a beer with !

Danielgroves have a great trip and if you can spare a few quid for pints and pool take a trip up to the refresment rooms pub in cymmer About a mile or 2 from the ponds - Pool table good food and nice people! if you get adrian pissed he might even show you some card tricks.

Hard to spot a tongue in the cheek on the interwebz, isn't it?

Duh, right back atcha Flashy!

BTW, you do [i]have[/i] racehorses, shirley?

Did Y Wal on saturday evening and Skyline on sunday morning with some mates after camping over saturday night.

Only other time I have done a trail centre was Y Wal 4 years ago when I had just started mountain biking and the climbs killed me and I just held on for dear life on the singletrack descents.

This time I loved it. Y Wal is brilliant for a shortish blast with excellent singletrack. I only ride natural trails which change a lot so you never know what to expect so it was a really nice change to be able to go as fast you dare and trust the trails.

We did skyline as I wanted a longer ride with good views and nothing too technical. Views were amazing, the climbs were long and took their toll ( bad leg cramps on the final climb) and it was so quiet we hardly saw anyone. Now I've done it I will do another trail next time. But I would agree the final descent is fantastic so I will do that again.

I am now covered in bites from the thousands of little flies which swamped us at the Afan centre on Saturday night and the campsite.

Makkah - thanks for that, given the whether forecast basically says "bring a boat" we may want that for some shelter in the evening!

Going to be interesting to see if these welsh midges are as bad as the Scotish ones I'm used to from long summer holidays up there!

They are not like normal midges but tiny little things that swarm in their thousands!

You run around trying to load your bikes onto your car and jump in only to find there is thousands more inside your car - all waiting on your dash to mobilise as soon as you close the doors!

We left the car park quickly with all the windows open and the fans on full trying to get them out of the car.

I think a whole load of Scottish midges came to Afan to celebrate the Jubilee and bite some Welsh last weekend. Most of them seem to have gone back now thankfully.

I'm off to Afan this weekend as well with some mates- been there before so I know it's ok in the wet but I must admit the forecast looks a little sketchy.. 25mph winds with gusts to 46mph anyone?

Hopefully it'll improve!! Any one know what it's like out there at the moment?

Well, the forecast now says 14MPH wind with 35MPH gusts on Friday, 19MPH with 45 gusts on sat and 12MPH with 31 gusts on sunday.

So at least its improved a bit O.o

Staying at Glywcorwg for the cheap camping, being students and all we dont have a ton of money, we naturally spent it all on our bikes O.o

How things have changed. When I was a student, we spent all our money on wine, Women and song innit... 😀

'Hitting' Afan myself on Saturday most likely. Hopefully the wind'll stay down a tad.

If doing w2, which centre is best to park at?

"If doing w2, which centre is best to park at? "

Glyncorrwyg. Get the harder climb done first. The Wall climb is mostly fire road and better on tired legs than the techy Whites climb.

Much better cafe to finish at too. The servings are big!!

It's very very very very very very very very wet n windy at the moment!

Got back yesterday afternoon, it was absolutely amazing!

Did Whites Level the first day and then W2 on the second. Ran out of spare brake pad so the two of us ended up doing the second half of W2 with metal-on-metal braking, somewhat less effective then normal. Good fun all the same, need to get some new pads on order now so I can get back out on the bike and looking foreword to going back in the dry.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.