First time doing an uplift tomorrow and I’m still in the new bike honeymoon phase so would like to avoid scuffs and scrapes from the uplift if possible. Bike is invisiframed if that makes a difference. Any tips?

Also no full face and they don’t have any available to hire, will I die?

I wouldn’t be doing a bike park without full face. As for the bike, assuming they’re just stacked against each other suck it up, you’ll do worse binning it.

The bikes are spaced apart on the trailer – just make sure the straps aren’t contacting and rubbing.

Open face helmet will be fine if you’re sensible and don’t get carried away – ride within your limits and stop and look at anything you’re not sure of.

Yes bikes well catered for on the uplift. You’re much more like to scuff bike with stones getting thrown off the tyres and if you bin it at some point (easily done as you progress up the trail progression). Ps take or hire a full face.

Bike will be fine on the trailer, the front wheel slots into a rack which spaces the bikes apart and the straps go round the grips on the handlebar, so very little danger of scratching anything unless you drop the bike.

More chance of scratching the bike from just riding it.

Open face helmet should be fine, but full face better. If I had a choice I’d take a full face and pads, but if I didn’t have those I’d be happy to ride it with open face and no pads.

The bikes don’t touch, you just have straps around your grips so if you run push on grips then they can get twisted and torn. Full face isn’t necessary but maybe worth getting in future, most of the trails aren’t that gnarly but I work on the basis that if you’re not pedaling up then heat isn’t an issue and you may as well be as protected as possible. Full face can be quite nice if the weather is bad as well!

Bike will be fine, face maybe not, you can hire a FF.
Ah- just seen they don’t have any to hire, I’d just take it easy and enjoy yourself. If you get the fear, buy one from the shop.
It will be RRP but you can try it on, which is much more important on a FF than open.
It will be worth it, I was hooked after the first visit so my Met Parachute has seen more action than anything else, it will be money well spent.

I bought a 7idp full face from the shop at BPW for about £70 a few years ago. Better to have something to protect your face than not. Even if you stick to blues and easy reds the speeds you’ll find yourself doing on the wide trails are higher than most other places.

Or just try to find a local shop that has stock – if you go to a bmx shop rather than mtb you’re more likely to find sensibly priced ones rather than £300 Bell Supers / Troy Lee / Fox etc

will I die?

Inevitably, but probably not from wearing an open face helmet.

Done 5 or 6 trips to BPW, always just worn trail helmet + knee/elbow pads. Ridden most of the trails from blue to black, not died yet.

I’ve done far more damage binning my bike at BPW than on the uplift as it’s pretty rocky in places.  I do tend to aim for the end of trailer spot if possible.

Personally FF is a must for me, if anything the speed you can pick up vs my usual trails is much higher and generally increases the consequences of crashing.  Both the worst injuries I’ve done in recent years have been at BPW (thankfully not to the face) as I’ve been pushing it at speed.

FF and proper pads for me , you’ll soon get the nack of putting your bike on the trailer – the ex army wagon is probably the worst to use.

Forgot to add – I don’t think I’ve ever damaged a bike on the uplift. Normally bouncing it off trees / sliding down rocky banks etc etc 🙈

Thanks all. You’re all much more worried about my face than my bike. If you knew me you’d change your minds 👺

Good tip on checking out BMX places @joebristol, I’ll have a look.

First thing I do with a new bike is pick it up and throw it down a rocky slope. Yes it will get scratched but from that point on you can stop worrying. You load / unload your bike yourself though the driver will pull the straps tighter than you’ll ever dare. Head to the one end of the trailer rather than middle so you’ve only got one other bike to worry about.

Full face, not mandatory, up to you, most people won’t have one.

Full face, not mandatory, up to you, most people won’t have one.

Disagree with that part.I’d say usually 10-20% won’t have one. Certainly not ‘most’ by a long long way.

I’d agree with Weeksy on the helmet front.  The pics in the mags at BPW always have the pros/journos in open face but most of the paying public tend to be in FF (good lightweight FF helmets like the Proframe, Super and Stage seem to be the most popular).

I’m here today and tomorrow. If you see a knacker on an orange and green HB160 say hello.

bike will be fine, its held by the wheels and straps over the bars
there’s an awful lot of rocks, and you may find yourself way more tired than you expect, including numb extremities. would be easy to get lazy and have an off, id definitely be in elbow and knee pads at a minimum. and i’m more than happy riding down and up in a FF so wearing one is a no brainer to me.

I usually take fullface and openface and spend most of the day in the open face. I’ll sometimes switch if I’m planning on doing bigger stuff but I’d not worry about it at all personally. And on a first visit you’re probably going to be spending a lot of the day just figuring it out rather than smashing out top speed laps and pushing it.

(I’m making a slight assumption here but I think it’s probably true… Most people will basically just go and ride like they normally ride. So if you already feel like maybe your riding could do with a full face, it’ll maybe amplify that. But if you don’t normally feel that way, probably a day at BPW will be no different. Or, put it a different way, I reckon that most people who should definitely take a full face if they go to BPW, already have one or at least want one)

You do tend to do more riding than you’re used to, and maybe get more tired or careless or carried away, and the downside of fullface is way smaller than in a normal riding day so those are good reasons to wear a full face if you have it but it’s not- imo- a reason to feel like you need it. At the end of the day unless you’re hitting the bigger features it’s just a trail centre with a bus.

I think overall what I’d say is go, have fun, if you’re feeling like you wish you had a full face then see if there’s one you like in the shop but just don’t get hung up on it.

I might disagree with northwind there. I didn’t have a full face on my first trip but wished I had. I find it encourages me to go faster and I’m definitely doing drops’n’stuff that are bigger or harder than I’d do elsewhere. Frankly I just err on the side of grabbing all the armour I own, it’s not like you have to pedal up.

That said, I’d ride in an open face if I didn’t have the option and just (try and? be a bit careful.

There are lots of things at BPW I could/will/have moaned about, but the trailer is not one of them. As long as you tighten the strap down and make sure the bike is on straight so it does not rub on the other wheel bays nearby, give it a good hard wobble, you will not have an issue.

Never worn a full face at BPW, always been fine.
It’s up to you how you want to ride and how may risks you want to take!

EC cycles is five minutes from BPW,you should be able to find something suitable there.

EC cycles closed tomorrow. Checked out a local BMX place but the only helmet they had in my size was eye wateringly expensive.

At least my bike won’t get too scratched up though which was my original concern. Thanks all!

Something rubbed the top section of stanchion on my dual crown forks once. I think the bike was closest to the van and the metal work was different in that area.

Normally there is enough room between the bikes.

I agree with nopunk, avoid that front most racks. The spacings don’t seem quite the same as those further back… I had the opposite bikes maxle lever rub my new pikes raw!

Was a good one today. Looks like some bikes are having issues on the trailers. At least one 29er had to turn the bars 180 degrees so the front wheel would go in.

We pedalled up today. It was horrible lol. Good afternoon riding and never got damaged on trailer.

Front location is for fat bikes.

An update, as I know you were all worried – they had a full face available to hire on the day, so that was all good. Uplift bike racks seemed really well thought out too.

My mate did actually land directly on his face, from quite a height, on Roots Manuva – thankfully he was wearing a full face helmet otherwise it would have been very messy 😬