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My wife is doing an Ultra from Brecon to Cardiff along pretty much most of the Taff trail. I'm thinking of taking a bike and riding up from Cardiff to meet her and give her some support on the way in.
What's the surface like and will a road bike be OK or should I take the hardtail instead?
Oh yeah, it's the end of feb if that makes any difference to the conditions?
Whatever is easiest for hauling over and round all the anti-cycling obstacles.
Is it not a shared trail then?
Of the limited knowledge I have it seems to be a Sustrans route - is that not correct?
I live near the trans Pennine trail, so I'm used to the barriers.
Also, I'm not going to be smashing along it so a few stops isn't going to worry me.
Near Cardiff it's (nearly) all (fairly) well maintained tarmac. Further north it's much more mixed surfaces - nothing you couldn't ride on a road bike, but your tyres probably wouldn't thank you for it. Take your hardtail if you're not sure.
EDIT: when is it? I right on the taff trail a few miles out of cardiff - we've turned out to support folk doing this a few times - they need the encouragement by that point! - and might try and do so again if we're about.
Cheers David, hardtail seems the sensible choice although I'm sure the road bike would be fine as it's sporting 27mm Open paves.
It's the 19th Feb - well a least that's when we're going, so I hope it is 🙂
I'm sure the encouragement will be most welcome.
I've done it a few times, once on a full sus mtb, once on a CX bike and once on my road bike. Road bike took a bit of a battering, I would recommend the hardtail.
Cheers Dan, that seems the sensible option. Hardtail it is.
CX would be perfect, hardtail with fast rolling tyres more than acceptable.
Yeah HT, I don't think it's been gated for years, theres a few anti MX stuff, but nothing that's too taxing to cover.
My over riding memory of this route was the endless anti bike gates which start around Merthyr but really kick in with a vengeance further South. Might not be too bad with roadie bars but on an MTB they were a pain in the arse.
Did it on a full suss and there is no need at all, if I were doing it again it would be hardtail all the way. Nice route though, I used to live in that part of the world and I enjoyed the ride South a lot.
Just take a road bike, south of Pontstcill is just tarmac really, I do it quite regularly on my 50lb Dutch bike, easy peasy.
There's still a fair few anti Moto gates but you can fly through them on drop bars as long as they are not super wide.
I'd have thought the open paves would be great for everything but the first climb out of Brecon which is bumpy gravel.
CX would be perfect, hardtail with fast rolling tyres more than acceptable.
This, in February it could be a bit wet and soft in places to make the road bike the best choice.
It's an easy trail to ride, so any bike really. Just try and ignore all the awful fly tipping that goes on at Merthyr....
Thanks for all the info. I don't think I'll get as far as Brecon as I'm setting off from the finish at Nantgawr, so should probably get past Merthyr before meeting the wife somewhere. It's only really going to be pootling speed so I think the hardtail will suffice.
bike gates in Cardiff Council area - is South of Taffs Well have now pretty much all been removed.
ah - but if finish is at NantGarw that's irrelevant!!