Afan next Monday

Over in Swansea for business so it seems rude not to visit. Haven’t been before, thinking of doing W2. Anything I need to know?

And will I die if I use a stupidly long-forked hardtail?

yeah, mountains are high 🙂

Nah, but at times it gets a bit bumpy/hard work on a HT. I love Afan though personally… enjoy 🙂

My advice would be to start w2 from glyncorrwg, the first climb is more engaging than the walls staggered one. Take some form of wind proof as the cross over between the two trails can be very exposed! Other than that it’s running well and is still lovely and grippy. Enjoy!

Only thing to bear in mind is a small section of Y Wal is closed, or at least has been this week – Nant y Bar and the very short section that follows that – due to forestry shenanigans, and whilst there’s an obvious diversion in place if you’re just following Y Wal round, I’m not sure the same is true if you want to branch off onto the linking section of W2 that takes you over to the windfarm. I came over from the windfarm the other night to join the top of the Wall to be confronted by a load of machinery – that was the first I knew about it (I may have missed the signs though, it was dark!!). I just threaded through and carried on (everything was parked for the night) but that might not be taken kindly during the day when they are busy ripping up trees…

There are mountains there?!!

So looking at the route map thing, it seems you can start at either end, do a big climb to the top of one of the two trails, then ride that trail’s downhill, then do that same climb again, then across the linking bit past the windfarm, and then down the other trail’s downhill; and then ride back to the carpark along the road. Correct?

And what tyres?

😉

almost anything for the trails, maxxis wetscream for the trail connection 🙂

ardents, even for the connection bit ha ha

Chiefgrooveguru

You climb up either trail, but on whites you only descend for 1 section before branching off to cross the top to the wall then you do all of the wall descent, after that you climb back to the top of the wall , cross the top back to where you left whites and do the rest of whites descnt back to car park. Enjoy.

Cool, thanks! How long should it take for a fairly fit but non-racing-whippet? Any cleaning facilities (business meeting in the afternoon…)?

Showers (mediocre if I recall correctly) and a bike wash at Glyncorwg.

I haven’t ridden the linked route so not sure how the timings across work out but unless you’re starting early you might only want to do one of them trails if you have to get cleaned up and back into Swansea for a meeting but then again you might be a fair bit quicker than me!

Did it the other weekend, started at 10am and got back at 4pm.. Including a reasonably leisurely lunch at the half way point. Decent into glencwyrg was a highlight for me.. Helped that the weather was perfect!
All the fire road out of Afan was a bit of a downer, possibly worse due to the diversions than normal?

Showers at both centres , times are difficult to say it depends on the individual but I would say 3-4 hrs if reasonably fit.

I think I’ve ridden my bike too much these last few days, not sure the legs will survive W2 (and I want to try the new Bristol trails on Tuesday before heading back east). So which trail if I just do one?

Whites.

The wall

start from Glyncorrwg. you can get awesome food in the cafe afterwards plus you get the Whites climb over and done with. The wall climb is a better gradual warm up though if thats what you prefer.

Dont miss out the black run at the top of whites.

+1 Glyncorrwg get off M4 at Jnct 37

No.Park at Ryslyn, do the wall climb, then the high access road over to whites.Do energy, then climb up to windy point,do that, then back over the high access road,then do Graveyard, and the zig zags ( wall descent ) back to Ryslyn Car park. 2-2.5 hrs.

That was fun! Went round White’s Level including the black section. Was a bit dubious about my skillz vs the black bit in the wet (especially after having a really inept ride on Saturday) so it was a shame it was the first descent but it was fine, just had one moment of thinking “this’ll be messy if I crash” on the steepest part, otherwise I was In The Zone.

Made a bit of a breakthrough on body postion / weight transfer so got a nice flow between the jumps/drops and corners. Still not very good at 180 degree berms, am way too slow through them, need to look round to the exit (and beyond) and brake less. Granny ring was once again ignored so 1×9 or 1×10 is looking like the next step with the transmission – I seem to deal with the technical parts of climbs much better in a higher gear.

Good trail – nice variety of gnarly rocky bits, rolling jumpy bits (w00t, air!!!), corners, berms, north-shore (why does that stuff scare me so much?!). The Soul was in its element. The new winter front tyre (Super Tacky 2.35 Swampthing) was great too, very trustworthy. Shame I didn’t have more time because the legs were still working and in the mood for more…

And a excellent full (welsh?) breakfast from the cafe post-ride!

Glad you enjoyed it.

Junction 37…. Thats porthcawl!! No trail centres there!!!

Come off at jnct 36 and head Maesteg cuts the corner off 😉 Look at the map its the direct route to Glyncorrwg

I was close 🙂

I’d forgotten about that Mr Bear! Thanks to you I ignored the satnav telling me to take junction 36, came off at junction 37, then ended up back on the M4 at junction 40ish, then couldn’t come off at the junction the satnav wanted to take, off at the next and then doubling back alongside the M4 before finally heading in the right direction… I’ll send you an invoice for my time and petrol. 😉