Bike Park Wales new trails

Planning for 23 new trails are on the local authorities website. 😀

http://plandocs.merthyr.gov.uk:81/NORTHGATE.WEBSEARCH/Results.aspx?grdResultsSort=Document%20Detail&grdResultsSortDir=Desc

They seriously need a chairlift…

Oh the Slashdot effect is strong in this one! 🙂

Linky no worky.

go here

http://publicaccess.merthyr.gov.uk/online-applications/%5B/url%5D

search for “bike” – 1st result

not a great deal to see though. Map shows what looks like the existing area

http://plandocs.merthyr.gov.uk:81/NorthgatePublicDocs/00048293.pdf

Yes!

And Yes – they need a chairlift

Ah, first link did work. Hope the prices don’t go up!

BPW is only 20mins away from me, but I’d go there more often if there was a quicker pedal to the top as I never use the uplift. The XC is nice, but a steeper faster climb would be a nice option.

Yea, or a chairlift 😀

There is another way to to the top other than the XC/fire road climb which is much quicker.

Thats good news but without more buses or better uplift route/road they’ll have way too many trails than what the place can handle. The trails are pretty empty now even with fully booked uplifts and a full car park.

From what I’ve read about chairlifts, the installation cost would be uneconomically vast. I don’t know how much tarmacing the uplift road would cost – I’m guessing the one at Antur got some kind grant funding as it’s a not for profit social enterprise – but a tarmac road would make the minibus uplift far quicker.

Great news AberdareMTB will be out digging again

I rode there the other Sunday and the carpark was rammed but apart from the guys I was riding with.

There are lots of ways to the top but BPW prefer you stick to approved routes to avoid interfering with the buses.

I am hoping for a longer XC style accent so you can make a decent 2/3 hour ride. I know it’s doable anyway but you get my drift.

From what I’ve read about chairlifts, the installation cost would be uneconomically vast.

Something like this shouldn’t be that expensive:

Why ildoes the guy in that picture have a large dildo attached to his bars?

They don’t need a chair lift, they need folks to realise that their 160mm 38lbs Enduro sleds are too much bike for the terrain.
Keep the uplift for the DH, make more options to get back up the hill from the bottom of the gravity assisted runs meaning you can string together a long day out making the most of all the terrain with out needed to get back to the visitor centre / car park.

The trails are pretty empty now even with fully booked uplifts and a full car park.

Interesting observation. I went there 18 months ago and the uplift was fully booked but – you’re right – I certainly didn’t find the trails busy at all.

Keep the uplift for the DH

Isn’t that why people go to BPW? To go downhill but not ride back up again? “Downhill” should not be seen as a level of technicality (and the bike that goes with it); it should be seen as a preferred type of riding. More and more people want to ride downhill without riding back up again and it’d be a shame if BPW start improving the means to ride back to the top at the expense of investing in more uplift. There’s plenty of trail centres out there already that have climbs.

I write this as someone who enjoys XC riding and climbs, but loves a day of riding down down down without any up up up.

bombjack – Member

They don’t need a chair lift, they need folks to realise that their 160mm 38lbs Enduro sleds are too much bike for the terrain.

I took my hardtail but I was still glad for the uplift. Faster you get up, the more you can go down.

But it is a bit slow. I like the contrast with innerleithen- both have fairly slow, winding uplift roads but inners starts at the bottom and doesn’t quite go to the top, whereas BPW goes all the way to the top but doesn’t start at the bottom.

I know a lift has always been a long term goal of BPW, but I don’t know if it’ll happen – the costs are huge, not only in building it, the maintence is expensive – wonder how many qualified chairlift maintence people there are in the UK, plus thing like excavation plans are very difficult. It would be great though.

There is no way I’d drive for 3+ hours in each direction for 3 down hill runs and climbing between.

I would drive 3+ hours in each direction for 8 dh runs and a van between.

If they want my money, then putting in better climbs is not the way to do it.

Also who the chuff is riding a 38lbs bike these days? That’s a DH weight not Enduro weight so its no surprise its hard work climbing

What is a Radon zone and should i start wearing a Tin foil hat to ride BPW?

Brilliant!! I did think that BPW has lots more potential. There is so much undeveloped land that could be used.

I think a chairlift would be amazing, but could risk turning the trail center into a motorway. Either way, I’m looking forward to it growing.

but a tarmac road would make the minibus uplift far quicker.

Wide enough for buses to pass. Seeing the buses sat around having waited for an uplift seriously pisses me off. Antur have got it right.

The other thing about chairlifts, I imagine they’re nice in the Alps in the summer. In the Welsh autumn, winter and spring it’s rather nice to sit in a warm-ish dry-ish bus on the way back up! And a drag lift is even less appealing than a chair…

I dont think the vertical drop is big enough to warrant a chair lift.

A loop for the uplift would be ideal, no waiting to pass. I dont think its viable with the current fire roads without major work.

The other thing about chairlifts, I imagine they’re nice in the Alps in the summer

Apparently they use them in the winter as well. Weather can be a little inclement too.

^I was going to say something smart-arse like that 😆

…then I remembered the many times I’ve sat on a chairlift in ski season. I’d rather be wrapped up in warm and dry ski clothing on a chairlift in an alpine winter than in wet and muddy MTB clothes on a chairlift in Welsh wind and rain. Brrr

Radon zone

? FWIW Radon is a naturally occurring gas, can be nasty

Hasn’t the 419 project fing in Gloucester got a drag lift going in…that hill isn’t as big as BPW so surely not an issue cost wise

I think a lift is pretty pointless at BPW, they’ve invested heavily in 6 buses and trailers so it makes more sense to just widen the uplift road and smooth it out. I’d rather see more trails in better condition than a lift through the middle despite how cool it would be. Adding another climb in would help too!

^I was going to say something smart-arse like that
…then I remembered the many times I’ve sat on a chairlift in ski season. I’d rather be wrapped up in warm and dry ski clothing on a chairlift in an alpine winter than in wet and muddy MTB clothes on a chairlift in Welsh wind and rain. Brrr

Indeed. At BPW I don’t care what the weather is like once I’m riding down the hill or sitting in the bus – it’s standing around in the queue for long or sitting on a lift that gets / would get unpleasant in the wind and rain. Conversely on skiing holidays my only unpleasant lift experience was when an extreme storm blew in to the Alps and I had a long chair lift whilst they were getting everyone off the mountain – temperatures approaching -25 plus windchill, trying to stop my face getting frostbite, sitting next to some Canadians who said they’d never experienced such cold when skiing back home.

Every time I’ve been on the chairlift at glencoe I’ve wished it was a van. Though it’d have to be a van that can drive uphill at about 45 degrees.

We were there this weekend and it was rather wet and windy to say the least. Even with waterproofs we were all soaked by the end of the day. But still riding and having fun. Whenever I’ve been in the Alps in similarly wet weather it’s been a much less enjoyable experience.

at the higher ski resorts you get the chair lifts that seat 6 and have a large “visor” (clearly not the technical term, but only way i can think to describe it) that you can pull down to protect you from shitty weather. however as others have said, the cap ex, running and maintenance on a chair lift would be prohibitively expensive.

about 7 years ago me and some mates got chatting to a guy in a curry house near innerleithan who was doing the feasibility study for the proposed chair lift. he thought it was madness and yet – and i could be wrong here – it got planning permission but no one could afford the £5m it would cost!

it would definitely be cheaper / easier / more realistic to to under take a major road project at BPW