Just booked a week in a posh tree house (cool!) in August near Builth Wells.

Agreement has been made that I’ll a get a day out on the bike 😆

Where should I go to ride then? I like XC exploring and singletrack, don’t mind climbing, but not averse to a bit of gravity action either. I’ll be on a hardtail, or maybe even my Stooge.

Elan or Brecon Gap? Not done either yet but they get mentions https://pedalnorth.com/wales-mountain-bike-routes/

The Gap is all about scenery apart from the 100m of techy rocks at the very top. But it’s great scenery 😁

There’s a lot of riding in the Elan Valley which is closer to Builth. Some is techy, mostly though it is proper old school real MTB riding.

What type of riding are you after? I work part time and might be around if you fancy a bit of localish knowledge.

Probably my favourite ride is Devil’s Staircase to Strata Florida and back, via Moel Prysgau bothy and the Tywi track. Very wet, very fun.

Also, the descent down to Dan Yr Ogof caves makes the endless moorland ascent more than worth it. Others may not agree but I love it.

I did this (I think) some years back. A decent mix of trails and scenery, and some stiffish climbs.

https://www.alltrails.com/en-gb/trail/wales/powys/llanbedr-hill-circular-route

Brecon Gap doesn’t really make sense as it’s an hour further south, there’s loads of decent riding in the vicinity if you check out something like Strava heat maps.

The Gap is a bit rubbish in reality, almost any ride in the same area is better.

Nice little ride starting at Llyn Brianne dam, pick up track that goes SW from SW corner of reservoir, at the bottom turn right, left past a remote house up steep twisty hill, after a couple of miles trail becomes tarmac, eventually turn right and right again past ty cornel YHA, from there you can either head straight to Soar y Mynydd Chapel, or turn right after a stream and follow the Doethie valley trail, but obvs you’ll have to wind back up the hill to reservoir. I’d go to the chapel and then follow the trail back to the car on the west side of reservoir.

At some point this summer I want to do Strata Florida > Moel prysgau bothy avoiding teifi splashes as wet feet make me cry, devil’s staircase on the abergwesyn road, abergwesyn to Beulah road,  B4358, left at crossroads to Pontbren-ddu b&b, follow the trail across country to Llanwrthwl, Elan village, elan valley, claerwen reservoir, teifi pools, downhill on bridleway that heads SW from the pools, back to Strata Florida

Good luck with the weather

Good luck with the weather

I live in Devon, and ride MTB through the winter. I’m used to it 😆

Cheers for the various suggestions. I’ll have a look at some routes and maps.

Riding from the door would be better – so the wife has use of the car if needed.

There is plenty of riding from Builth. We’ve done the MTB marathon there for a few years and had a great time. It helps if you like climbing and fast singletrack as the stuff I’ve done is not super technical. Maybe there is locals only stuff that is more challenging?

For local recommendations you might want to speak to Cycle tec https://www.cycle-tec.co.uk/ They organise the MTB marathon and I believe they also organise a weekly night ride.