Just had two great days with the lad at Llandegla and now planning for next year. I’m in Yorkshire and he’s in Bournemouth so next year thought he could have the shorter journey if we go to South Wales.
All my normal riding is natural XC stuff but a trail centre works great for us when we meet up, easy parking, bike shop, food etc all on hand.
I’ve got Afan on the list but anything else we should be looking at? We’re not interested in the uplift stuff and we loved Llandegla as it was nice and quiet and I think the big bike parks would be too busy for us.
So wadda ya reckon folks?
Llandegla is the busiest trail centre I've ever been to, so you should find anywhere else acceptable.
Afan's a pretty good shout, Cwmcarn is closer (the Twrch trail is quite enjoyable and I've nto ridden the others).
There are also some good off-piste trails accessible from it, and open to view on Trailforks, if you like enduro-y stuff.
FOD.
You’ve got the trail centre at Cannop and a million shit tonnes of off piste stuff that you’ll barely scratch the surface of in a week, let alone a couple of days.
If a trail centre that you’re not going to deviate from marked trails on then I’d head for Cwmcarn. It’s my favourite trail centre - just edging out Brechfa as that is a bit too far west Wales for me to really hit in a day. I always find Afan just rocky and annoying without the really high highs from a decent fast descent.
We’re trying Afan again this year but we’re going to do off piste stuff at the masts rather than the actual trail centre.
Cwmcarn has 2 decent length red loops - they’re not old school cross country though. Both have a chunk of climbing but plenty of fast fun descents. Cafell is the worst climb as it doesn’t let you get into a rhythm - but it’s not tech at all. Twrch is more of a technical climb but not as long.
In terms of downhill the Cafell one goes on for quite a long time - it used to be flowier than it is now - the trees all had to be felled so it’s gone more rocky and barren like Afan. Previously it was a loamy rollercoaster. There’s an alternative descent from the top of it called pedalhounds which I enjoy more but it gets you to the bottom much quicker. It’s plastered with warnings about body armour and FF helmets at the top but it’s not that bad at all. You can go round all the drops should you not want to hit them.
Twrch has more variety of downhill sections - airstream 2 is the best one from the top - flowy berms and rollers - then there’s a straight rocky section and some lovely swoopy stuff.
Should you want it there is now some official (but not surfaced) off piste that’s quite easy to find from the highest point of the Twrch - they’re on Trailforks - in order of each to hard - Busy Lizzie / Wacko / Mayhem / Conda.
Forest of Dean is also a good shout - the main trail centre is well sign posted - although the official blue and red aren’t as good as Cwmcarn and the hill is smaller. There are some official enduro downhill bits that are fun and then just a bit further along that same fireroad there are some off piste bits. However almost everywhere you go in FOD you’ll find some unofficial trails. Some lovely flow stuff about as well as some steep janky stuff.
Edit - kit to add all of the above (including Afan) are better than Llandegla - we went to ‘degla last year and found it quite disappointing. If there was a lot more of the black graded stuff (that in reality is red in most welsh trail centre) it would have been better. Just felt like a lot of unexciting filler round the whole place and missed potential
Old skool xc feel Nant Yr Arian, more mid Wales but it's lush!
Afan is always criminally underrated in my opinion. Cwmcarn is a good one too. Don’t think you’ll go wrong with either.
Plenty of decent downhills at Afan just different to Cwmcarn. Both the reds at Cwmcarn are one big climb and then staggered ways down whereas Afan is more undulating. W2 (walls and whites
Connected) is a great earmarked trail, nearly always quiet when I’ve been and a decent days riding.
The red and blue at FOD I find really dull, never sure why they get rated so highly. It’s always really busy too. The push up downhill is fun there though but doesn’t sound like that is what you’re after.
BPW and ride up? I had a smashing day doing that a few weeks back. 2000m climbing gives a lot of descending.
Thanks folks, plenty to go at there. I shall have a look at all the above mentioned and make a decision early next year. Might even be able to sneak a couple of days in later this year. Don’t think we will disappointed which ever we go for.