Bike Park Wales

Ok then learned STW peeps, it’s been open a while now and I’m heading there on thursday, which trails are the must do’s?

all of them are doable in a day even on a non uplift day

Any of the blues and reds are very fast smooth(mainly) bermy fun.

right just got the trail map up.

Blues:
Sixtapod, Willywaver, Blue Belle

Reds: Wibbly Wobbly, Rim Dinger, Insufficient Funds. The others were ok too
(def not Bonneyville)

Blacks: Only did Dai Hard which was okay. Doing the rest of the blacks in 3 weeks on uplift day.

Managed several runs of the same sections of blues and reds. They’re very addictive and fast but not technical at all. Be prepared for wheels off the ground fun

You should be able to blast the lot out in a morning, even without the uplift if you are no slouch on the ride up (it’s less than 20 minutes if you give it some).

Then spend the afternoon riding what you enjoyed in the morning 🙂

FWIW I like the blacks, and in general the blues flowed better than the reds at speed.

Sixtapod in to Willy Waver is teh orsumz.

Ring Dinger is a hoot. Loved that.

On Melted Welly, take the first of the two red options, Vicious Valley not the second, Bonneyville, which is a bit gash.

The flapjack is truly epic, and served in MAHOOOOOOSIVE portions.

Thats great info, cheers, no uplift but good to know you can still do it all. The map makes it look more complex I guess

Bonneyville could be brilliant but it’s crap because it’s a swamp.
Been wanting to ride some decent switchbacks for a while so was very disappointed.

how long is the climb back up – distance / elevation? I know someone up there ^ said 20 mins, if you’re no slouch, but that might have been Nick Craig posting for all i know.

According to Stravorz it’s ~4.5km & approx 250m up.

I’m no climbing beast, but that put me in the top 20 for it. The first bit is nasty until you hit the fire road.

25 mins up fire road (the steep gravel one)

Edit. Only the start is steep and gravelly

Reds: Wibbly Wobbly, Rim Dinger, Insufficient Funds. The others were ok too
(def not Bonneyville)

Bonneyville was my favourite bit of track! Those corners are great fun!

just found it too muddy and dull and is no different to what the local (natural) trails round here offer so for me the other trails offer what I cant get so much of in other places

Sixtapod in to Willy Waver is teh orsumz.

Yep, definitely my favourite combo. Dai Hard would be fun on a dry day.

All of them?

I confess i set off on one of the blacks, I forget which, and started to freak so stuck to the reds and blues which are fast, pumpy jumpy and a total scream if you lay off the brakes. I don’t recall using the brakes except to screech to a halt and collapse in a heap at the end.

I’m sure I did use the brakes a lot, but I’m trying to convey the silly speeds involved.

It’s all good.

loving it up there, all my other riding has ceased while I get the most out of a season pass

climb is about 20 mins with a couple of cheeky shortcuts

best black is enter the dragon which follows the old dragon dh course (although for the welsh champs this weekend they had the top section of enter moving into dai hard (best bits of both)

pork belly / zut alors best black lower sections

willy waver proper fast blue

Top section of wibbly wobbly

bush wacker lower blue mega fun blast

I personally like the fact that sections like Bonneyville and Dai hard are more natural singletrack and make a refreshing change to all weather trail centres

more trails are already in the pipeline…

best black is enter the dragon which follows the old dragon dh course (although for the welsh champs this weekend they had the top section of enter moving into dai hard (best bits of both)

This was an awesome combo to ride and definitely worth trying if you can, however it might be a bit churned up still in places if they’ve not gotten round to trail repairs yet.

20 minutes climb? Maybe on the fireroad but the “official” climb – C1 on the trail map – I was told by staff the Strava best was 20 mins and we took 30 each time (but we are old and slow!)
Rim dinger was ace and enter the dragon awesome but I had to take a couple of chicken runs – oops, no I mean “alternative lines” 😉

Went today. Rode all of it except the pro line. All awesome. That is all 😀

Nacho definitely not the official climb
Fireroad, double track up as quickly and straight line as possible 😉

What new trails are being planned? I’m really hoping for a jumpy red in the style of crank it up or something, that would be amazing!

They’ve got planning for 20 trails, but that’s a long term plan.

Something crank it up-esque would be pretty amazing.

I’d love a bit of woodwork, nothing ever seems to last when its built in the UK

Cwmcarn drops
Haldon
Glentress wallride

So are most of the runs downhill bike orientated or all fine on a trail bike?

Trail bike is fine.

other than the blacks id be quite happy on my xc bike

A trail bike is better than a DH bike for the blues and reds as they are very pedally compared with most bikeparks such as Whistler, Alps, Finale Ligure etc.
The blacks are good on a DH bike but still good fun and rideable on a trail bike.

You had to pedal on the blue and red trails? You weren’t hitting them fast enough 😉

I took my Voltage which is 160mm each end and it felt about right for getting the most out of all the tracks. I wouldn’t mind trying a hardtail there for the blues though. I think a full on dh bike would probably slow you down on the blues and reds a bit.

Yep, full on DH bike surplus to requirements, unless you want to shred the gnat in your gnar-pyjamas on your gnarpoon. (Most of whom seemed to spend most of the day sitting around being stoked rather than actually riding!)

I was on an Enduro, and it was just the right sort of balance of light and bouncy to have real fun! As above, the blues and reds aren’t pedally if you lay off the brakes and go with the flow…

Not a good jumper, I was starting to think I needed a pilots licence on the blue trails! Would love to try them in my Sovereigh. I was glad of the squish on the reds though.

I thought the climb was more than 250m. Be haven’t measured it. I was pretty knackered after 4 runs/climbs too top to bottom. Legs and arms blown after the descents if done flat out which makes the climb somewhat harder. Usually about half an hour for us. Running 1×11 29er probably doesn’t help..

Just got back, loved it, so many trails! It was all about the reds for me, blues were a bit too kitty litter. Vicious Valley and Bonneyville (it was dry) were my faves. Thanks for all the heads up on what to ride. 🙂