I am going on holiday with the mrs and have convinced here somehow that BPW is on the way from Southampton to Leeds 😈
I would have been quite happy going on my 150mm forked 456 which has done all the coedy blacks and snowdon but came accross a bargain on a spesh sx trail on the local buysell site and am tempted to bring that. However the uplift is booked out and will have to pedal to the top..
The SX is heavy and not pedal efficient at all and on top of that i’ve noticed the blue trails seem very pedally. so either i go for the reds and the blacks on the sx or the blues on the 456.
The blacks from what i see on youtube seem within my reach on the sx (except enter the dragon where the gaps seem a bit much)
Help! any advice? how do the reds and blacks compare to the reds and blacks at coed y and brechfa?

You will die twice… once when the Mrs discovers that South Wales isn’t on the way from Southampton to Leeds and secondly pedalling up the fire road on the SX….

Personally I think your 456 will be spot on for the blues and reds and then the climb.

Although you can queue and pay for uplift on the day… which could bring the SX back into the equation ….

yep that was another thought i had, can you get in though? it says priority to those who have booked on the website, does this mean waiting 5 minutes or 2 hours?

I had an uplift day a few weeks ago. There was enough space in the morning for the day passer but after lunch I must have had 4 runs with the guys in the day pass queue still there (over an hours wait). It eased off again from 15.30 onwards though.

The reds and blues are generally very smooth and I’d be more than happy to ride them on my hardtail.

My fav combo: Sixtapod into Willy Waver.

yep that was another thought i had, can you get in though? it says priority to those who have booked on the website, does this mean waiting 5 minutes or 2 hours?

Yes. Which of the above (5 minutes or two hours) is anybody’s guess though.

I had lots of fun on reds and blues on an inbred, and it climbs nicely. Plus in this weather the mud on the black trails will destroy your new full susser.

I happily rode reds and blues on a 120mm 29er HT, didn’t ride any black so can’t comment. The ride up took about 35 mins from the very bottom at a gentle pace. People were standing in the queue in the rain, I’d have got cold and was happy to ride. Also I found the spin up quite relaxing after the bast down – the downs are more continuous than other trail centres, where they’re more chopped up, so blast down and chill out up worked for me.

I’d say the grades are a notch up compared to CYB (BPW red = CYB black). The BPW reds aren’t difficult per se but you do have to pay attention, they have a lot of detail in them.

456 will do just fine you’ll have a hoot 😀

grap an uplift if you can but if not as said 35 mins and you’re back up top.

Start on the blues and work from there loads of fun to have.

Melted welly into vicious valley. Along the fire road into coal not dole then hit the rocks on zute alors
Lovely stuff

i’m going on a weekday so hoping the uplift queue isn’t too bad!

Decent build 456 should be good. Consider double-ply or protection tyres as there are some sharper rocks on some red trails you can end up hitting it all quite hard. The guy in our group on his HT was still quick, but kept slicing and pinching his rear tyre.

I’ll go with the trusty baron on the rear then!

I was on 2.25 Nobby Nics and would have preferred something bigger, apart from that my HT was spot on.

I think they’ve done a great job on the trails, much more interesting than CYB. I had my doubts about the big up – big down layout too but it works well. They’ve raised the game on “trail centres” IMO.