https://www.pinkbike.com/news/bike-park-wales-begins-development-on-first-uplifted-green-trail-and-new-visitor-centre.html

Next year involves hopefully getting Mrs Weeksy into MTBing…. So this is a VERY welcome idea as it would be ace for her to share in with mine and my boys passion of MTB riding…

Should be fantastic !

In true Pinkbike style, they are slating the place. Not sure if a single comment has mentioned the green run

Baffles me. As i put in my comment i do motorbike trackdays at £250 a day, that’s without fuel for the bike… Me and my lad can do BPW for £78…. That’s 3 days for both of us at BPW for the price of 1 day at Silverstone. People forget just how cheap MTB days out are.

Good news about BPW

And good point about motorbike trackdays. And all considering, they’re quite affordable compared with car ones (fuel, consumables and track day price)

they’re quite affordable

My biggest issue in that context is that Mrs Weeksy does them too… So it’s £250 x 2, fuel x 2, then need a hire van for it as we only have a 1 bike trailer… it all just gets insane..

Cost is part of the reason i have only done 1-2 in the last few years…. MTBing is the other part of the reason of course 🙂

This is great news, better spread of runs, better (and much needed) changing facilities, improved parking- all great for attracting more people to the area and getting more people on bikes. If you want more gnar, less kids and more runs go to Revs or Antur, if you want showers / cafe / cake / easy and hard runs then BPW is the answer. Really looking forward to going back there. Its a proper destination venue for biking.
For all those who keep on about it needing a chair lift – can you imagine sitting on one in sweaty riding gear in the middle of a Welsh winter? The place would be empty.

can you imagine sitting on one in sweaty riding gear in the middle of a Welsh winter?

Its a very good point.

Baffles me. As i put in my comment i do motorbike trackdays at £250 a day, that’s without fuel for the bike…

Please forgive my total ignorance as a non-biker, but just had a gander at track day prices and times. Places I’ve heard of like Cadwell and Brands hatch look like under £100 on a weekend, where you spend either 15 or 20 minutes of every hour riding, from 9 till 5 (or dusk). Potentially 140 mins riding.
Unless I’ve missed something or misread it?

Theres probably 10mins of riding per lap at BPW so not so far away? Ignoring fuel and van hire

Please forgive my total ignorance as a non-biker, but just had a gander at track day prices and times. Places I’ve heard of like Cadwell and Brands hatch look like under £100

Brands maybe an evening one which is only 3 sessions at <£100. Brands for a daytime in summer is £169 for the Indy (short) and £259 for the full GP.

Cadwell for example is less yes, £149-169 but is a lot less in the way of grandeur, it’s more Swinley than BPW for me…. Plus is 300000 miles away 🙂

The 20 mins per hour is correct yes… 3 groups in a day, all do 20 mins per hour for 6-7 sessions. Break for lunch in the middle.

Brilliant.

I’ve always thought that a blue or green descent off the aonoch mor gondola would be bloody amazing. Would have to be done length though, to Keep it from being top steep.

Interested to see how this trail pans out

Guessing it will be long and shallow gradient, with some gently bermed corners.

If it gets too close to the blues, with small tabletops etc. then it just becomes another blue trail really, a high speed motorway which, while fun, is going to be the exact opposite of a beginner/kids route.

For all those who keep on about it needing a chair lift – can you imagine sitting on one in sweaty riding gear in the middle of a Welsh winter? The place would be empty.

Heated chairlift with cover ftw. Powered by locally sourced, renewable energy of course 😉

I’ve always thought that a blue or green descent off the aonoch mor gondola would be bloody amazing. Would have to be done length though, to Keep it from being top steep.

I think if they stuck on a couple of blues and a green they’d get a lot more visitors and I for one would be up for taking the kids along to that.

My favourite from the pinkbike comments 😂

BPW definately needs some more brown trails. There’s only one throne for hundreds of riders

 i do motorbike trackdays at £250 a day, that’s without fuel for the bike… 

Ouch !! But brilliant fun I’m sure.
MX practice tracks are much cheaper. Local one’s to me are £20/30 respectively. Likewise if it’s busy they split it into groups and 20min per hour is “PLENTY” for most people.

I bet whoever runs their SM is kicking themselves about the time they posted a pic of a chairlift before they even opened. If they had a lift in their plans, they built it on the wrong hillside, I can’t remember all the various points I was told, but for more than a few reasons they will never, ever, have a chair lift.

Anyway, I’m glad they’re getting more trails, I don’t know why but I don’t really like the place, it’s only a 30 min drive but it’s 2 years this month since I last went. I just makes me feel tense, everyone seems to be ‘on one’ which is heaven or hell depending on who they are (for me at least). It’s not like I don’t like gravity riding either, I live for my trips to the Alps and Whister BP was as close to heaven for me as I can remember, but BPW, dunno, I never feel at ease there.

Ace, mtb is a massively cheap hooby. As posters above I’ve come from motorbike trackdays which on a powerful bike are closer to £400 a day especially if you’re quick enough to eat a £250 rear tyre every 2-3 days, the cost is £150-£300 for track hire plus £45 of fuel.
I’ve stopped doing them since my mtb days have picked up, I can drive to wales stay in a hotel and have meal and it’ll cost me less than £100 all in for a day out with mates.

I think those complaining perhaps ought to look at the cost of land and groundworks as I doubt BPW are making millions at this.

In addition I’d happily pay more for a premium service with a quicker comfier uplift that served drinks and food too lol

trails, I don’t know why but I don’t really like the place, it’s only a 30 min drive but it’s 2 years this month since I last went. I just makes me feel tense, everyone seems to be ‘on one’ which is heaven or hell depending on who they are (for me at least). It’s not like I don’t like gravity riding either, I live for my trips to the Alps and Whister BP was as close to heaven for me as I can remember, but BPW, dunno, I never feel at ease there

Early Jan, me, him above and my 11 year old are going if you want some non pressure fun and just a bit of a jolly day out, come join us.

For all those who keep on about it needing a chair lift – can you imagine sitting on one in sweaty riding gear in the middle of a Welsh winter? The place would be empty.

I’m sure there are chairlifts operating during Alpine winters. Might be wrong.

Ha ha, the comments are brilliant. To think some of those people get to vote!

Good news on the plans, great to see it being a success and bringing people to the area.

I’m sure there are chairlifts operating during Alpine winters. Might be wrong.

Aye, there are. Ever sat on one in the rain???
Even in ski kit you just end up wet and miserable. And this wouldn’t be an all singing all dancing turbo detachable 6 seater with heated seats and a wind screen. It would be a second hand slow, 2-3 seater POS which would have to stop every time someone decides they need to download.
Give me a warm bus anyday. Preferably with the reggae driver.

It’ll never happen.

In fairness it was a driver who told me this, but Darrell who runs Cwmdown said pretty much the same thing to me years ago.

1) I guess with the new expansion, they might be getting close, but even a slow 2 seat lift would throw up far more riders than the trail network could deal with, especially considering most riders stick to the blues and easier reds.

2) the cheapest s/h lift would be £2m once it’s fitted, unless local gov or Eu want to pay for it, it’ll be a £18k-£20k a month for the cheapest business loan over 10 years to pay for it and they’re not cheap to run.

3) It’s not a case of hiring a couple of Surly Frenchmen to stand up the top and drag off bikes and you’re done, you need a really robust procedures in place should you need to evacuate it.

4) it’s too small a hill to really justify it, it’s really the wrong hill, if you’re going to go to all that expense it would have been far better to start on a bigger hillside.

For all those who keep on about it needing a chair lift – can you imagine sitting on one in sweaty riding gear in the middle of a Welsh winter? The place would be empty.

The biggest issue with a operating a chairlift is weather, go to Ft William some days early/late in the MTBing season and you’re lucky if it’s actually running, once a bit of wind picks up. for all their issues the Vans can be run consistently throughout the year in all but the very worst weather…

Interested to see how this trail pans out
Guessing it will be long and shallow gradient, with some gently bermed corners.
If it gets too close to the blues, with small tabletops etc. then it just becomes another blue trail really, a high speed motorway which, while fun, is going to be the exact opposite of a beginner/kids route.

^^THIS^^ it must actually be quite hard to put together a top to bottom green given the terrain and vertical drop, but it’s probably one of the most important trails they’ll have ever built because it has the potential to make the venue truly “Accessible” for all familiarity/skill levels…

No idea why people still go on about chairlifts/gondolas, Antur basically proved that buses can do the job and ever since then it’s been daft to look at anything else. FOD, BPW, Flyup417, Innerleithen at last, minibuses are the way. Or TRACTORZ.

(BPW’s uplift could be faster, just like Inners, with a better road. And it could start at the bottom, that’d be good. But what it does not need, is a chairlift. If anyone out there would rather spend money on that than on trails, they’re just a bit simple imo.)

As for value for money- every year we drive from scotland and spend a week doing Welsh/west English uplifts. WE never ride anything you couldn’t ride to the top of, but the uplift means all the time and energy goes into the fun bits. You can’t buy time, usually. I push or ride up at Inners because it’s local and I’m not wasting holidays that way, but even then sometimes you just want to ride a shitload of trails in a day. Worth every penny.

Up there somewhere someone mentioned alpine uplifts being open in the winter, yes they are but you are usually dressed for an alpine winter based on skiing (not pedalling) or snowboarding (still not pedalling) so are obviously better wrapped ( i’d hope anyway) and usually in warm windproof gear not waterproofs.