Yeah, just the usual whinge about bike park Wales.

The trails are great ,but the uplift was terrible, on Sunday morning the priority queue was down past the van turning area, the non priority queuers were waiting about 1 hour for a lift. There just weren’t enough vans on for the number of tickets they had sold.

Service in the cafe and the ticket desk was surly as usual, as if they don’t actually value your custom in the slightest.

Bike shop was great , managing to fit in a bleed of mates brakes at very short notice.

I’ve left a review on the bpw website saying the same,but I’d imagine noone will see it.maybe some more public whinging here will achieve something.

I’m sure the management don’t intend bpw to be run this way  ,but they don’t seem to be doing much to sort it out.

Had a very similar experience on Saturday. Chatting to some guys who go pretty regularly on the pay as you go uplift, they said it was the longest wait and fewest runs they had ever experienced. Also heard they were running 10 out of the 12 vans even though uplift was sold out and there was obviously a lot of PAYG riders there too.

And while we’re having a moan, I’m not a fan of the blend trails idea. If you want to ride tech ride the tech trails, similarly for flow, if you want to ride both then alternate trails. No need to dilute the character of individual trails.

Waiting an hour?  Could’ve ridden back up in less time.

Waiting an hour?  Could’ve ridden back up in less time.

I must admit, I’ve managed more runs without a day pass than we managed Sat. Usually a smaller group though. I thought the cafe service was pretty good considering the number of people. The Curry was a nice change from a burger.

Agree with Mark,  Root Manoeuvres is great though, my new Favourite I think.

Speaking of moaning about Uplifts – The Uplift Bus at Antur Stiniog is always absolutely filthy whenever I’ve been. Do they ever clean it ?? It’s not like the trails around there are even muddy anyway, it’s all rock and slate

I much prefer the pedal up at bpw. Don’t think it’s too bad. We often ride the top half to the fire road and pedal up from there, then maybe a couple down to the bottom over the day.

All the boys wanted uplift for Sunday though, hopefully it’s not that bad!

I agree with mark, I prefer riding down to the fire road and then back up again. Decent workout and you can get quite a few runs in.

I was there on Sunday. Got 8 uplifts between 10 and just after 3 with a break for lunch. Sometimes we rolled straight onto a waiting bus, longest wait was 10 minutes

I was there on Saturday and although busy the uplift seemed very efficient for those prebooked. A couple of times the queue was down past the railings but the buses tended to come in 3s or 4s so quickly moved. They seemed pretty efficient at loading the bikes/vans.

I was pleasantly surprised at how quiet the trails seemed given all the people.

My two gripes though are firstly the queue to get the tickets. Took about 40min and for a first time visitor a little confusing – did I get my hired helmet from there or bike hire etc? Given that I’d paid online and filled in the risk form there ought to be a more efficient way, perhaps printing your ticket yourself?

Secondly keep the bikes off the terrace! There wasn’t enough seating as it was and half the benches were occupied by bikes leaning on them. And it was pretty hard just walking round them all with a tray of food! Maybe more racks at the side and a no bikes on the decking policy?

Speaking of moaning about Uplifts – The Uplift Bus at Antur Stiniog is always absolutely filthy whenever I’ve been. Do they ever clean it ?? It’s not like the trails around there are even muddy anyway, it’s all rock and slate

You want to go to Revs and have a damp collie sit on your lap!

FOD, Stiniog, Revs and Pearce uplifts are amazing, quick turnaround, no mucking about

BPW is very hit and miss, very rarely go there nowdays. Hopefully they sort the uplift road out (its in a state) and get their new uplift bus running.

We had the same issue there a week last Friday, we were queued right back to the turning circle, then 4 buses appeared.  Bunching can easily be avoided.  Think we got in about 9 runs that day, very poor.

Rode Revs last Friday (22 runs) and Antur last Saturday (18 runs), granted I was on my own on the DH rig and I didn’t hang around, first off the trailer and beat the bus back down, great fun even in the rain.

BPW aren’t the gold standard in uplift and if it wasn’t as trail orientated as it was, would suffer from running such a poor uplift.

Think I’m going to take my ebike next time and save a few quid. It’s the future! Until we all start doing it and ebike ticket prices go through the roof….

It’s funny – I’ve never had a problem with the uplift at BPW – not sure if that’s luck or not, have been going on average 1 week a month this year. Admittedly haven’t been this month or in July, when it’s the holidays, but next up in September.

If I went on a weekend, I think I would expect the queues to be pretty manic. Better to take a day off and go during the week.

I’d only complain about the food choice – MASSIVEMEAL! CHIPS! Don’t know how anyone can eat such a full plate at lunchtime in the midst of riding. They really need a decent snack/sandwich type selection. The only alternatives to a MASSIVEMEAL are dried up french sticks. Not great.

No complaints about the trails, man that Roots Manoeuvres is fab!

Did someone just complain about getting dirt on there mtb clothes???

3 or 4 buses coming at once is great if you’ve just joined the back of the queue and get one, not so great if you’ve been waiting at the front for 30 mins. As said other places (Revs, Stiniog, FOD, etc) seem to manage a more efficient service, maybe it’s down to numbers of tickets sold versus number of seats. The work on the uplift road appears to have finished but didn’t seem to make a significant difference to uplift time, it’s still a rough bumpy track, just easier for the busses to pass now, which negates their reason for running busses in bunches previously.

Ticket queue was the worst I have experienced. Nothing till 9am then slow progress, I’m sure they started giving out tickets a little earlier than 9 in the past. Uplift started at 9:30 and people still queueing to get their tickets, well I suppose it helps relieve pressure on the first uplift busses. Always used to pick up tickets from the desk for mates etc, heard that wasn’t being allowed now so I guess that means everyone has to queue up.

I have been going to BPW for a couple of years and I’m sure it used to be much slicker. The trails are great and the quality of the food has certainly improved, but the overall efficiency of the place seems to have not scaled up well with the increased ticket numbers.

Speaking of moaning about Uplifts – The Uplift Bus at Antur Stiniog is always absolutely filthy whenever I’ve been. Do they ever clean it ?? It’s not like the trails around there are even muddy anyway, it’s all rock and slate

No time to clean it when it’s super efficient. Never stops, always just arriving when you get to the bottom, no matter how fast or slow you are.

I’ve never had an issue there both times I’ve been. Once on a Sunday in May, and again in July on a Friday. My girlfriend and I had a day pass but the queue for the payg line never got big either time.

I’m going this Friday too with my friend who’s never been, both doing payg uplift this time so we’ll see. There was a bit of a queue to sign in the first time I went, but the second time I arrived at 10am and it was straight through, lovely.

Don’t particularly understand the ‘surly’ comment. The people at the desk seem pretty young so give them some slack, and the kitchen staff have a lot of work to do to get your food out in a very quick time, so I don’t particularly care if they’re not giving me the fake American style courtesy.

Did someone just complain about getting dirt on there mtb clothes???

It dulls the flouro

the second time I arrived at 10am and it was straight through, lovely.

That’s to be expected when you rock up well after everything has kicked off

What I really love is the fact that after it’s taken me 90 minutes to get there I can’t go for a pee until the cafe opens at 9am.

What I really love is the fact that after it’s taken me 90 minutes to get there I can’t go for a pee until the cafe opens at 9am.

Actually you can now, there are a few portaloos in the car park now, presume they leave them unlocked.

It’s funny – I’ve never had a problem with the uplift at BPW – not sure if that’s luck or not, have been going on average 1 week a month this year. Admittedly haven’t been this month or in July, when it’s the holidays, but next up in September.

Same here, I don’t go that often, and I never pre-book.

I can see how you’d get a bad day there though, I don’t know how many tickets they sell or how many vans they have, but it’s a lot more than it was 5 years ago!

I suspect they’d only need 1 driver off sick, and a broken down van for the queues to be massive.

Glad to see melted welly back open, if you’re not keen on Vicious valley it pretty much cut half the park out for you.

I’m being left behind by BPW in a lot of ways, some of the older reds are great, but insufficient funds, A470, Bonneyville (pointlessly massive qualifier) and even Locomotion have been upgraded / changed to the point where I don’t fancy them anymore, I don’t know why, I was riding red graded stuff quite a bit in the Alps, but the stuff at BPW doesn’t appeal as much, I think a lot more of it is blind and with a lot less mountain to play with, they cram a lot more into their shorter trails, there’s little room to cruise.

That’s to be expected when you rock up well after everything has kicked off

Hah it’s only half an hour after the first uplift! Doesn’t make much of a difference to me, I’m there to have a fun time and take it easy, not to get pissed off that I had to wait an extra few minutes for another bus.

Still never been.. my birthday’s coming up though.

Still never been.. my birthday’s coming up though.

i find it a bit…  meh..  i go cos its a good crack and a weekend away biking but there are better places to ride i recon. and i like a few jumps/ drops/ gnar.

molgrips

Still never been.. my birthday’s coming up though.

Go, it’s frickin awesome 🙂

I actually forgot how good. We went to FoD on the way and enjoyed that (the uplift goes on the road!!)

But BPW is another level of fun.

i find it a bit…  meh..  i go cos its a good crack and a weekend away biking but there are better places to ride i recon. and i like a few jumps/ drops/ gnar.

Where would you recommend instead? I’ve done Antur, but found there wasn’t quite the variety of trails there & they weren’t quite as flowy.

I like the look of Black Mountains Cycle centre

Don’t particularly understand the ‘surly’ comment.

This used to mentioned about the other popular Welsh trail centres, as well. Maybe a slight culture clash between the stereotypical well-off MTBer and a minimum wage local working a till? 😁

I’m properly over bpw, too much riding uphill to get back to the bus depending on what trail you choose.

Wouldnt dream of going on a weekend or without a booking. Its always been fine during the week though.

Cafe – Used it once. I like a massive feast but not at lunchtime & they dont serve at the end of the day when I actually would like to eat.

I always have a much much better day at fod or bmcc, so laid back & chilled in comparison with efficient uplifts.

Black Mountain Cycle Centre is awesome! Went there a few weekends ago and loved it. It was bone dry / dusty when we went and so fast. Most of their trails were flow trails with big tabletops and berms all over them (blues and reds). There were a couple of blacks that had a few rocky / rooty sections – but most of the blacks were graded that colour due to gap jumps / big drops as far as I could see.

For a dry weather venue I preferred it to all the other uplift places I’ve been so far.

Amusing tractor pulled uplift trailer too – sometimes driven by a cute welsh girl. So much win.

This used to mentioned about the other popular Welsh trail centres, as well. Maybe a slight culture clash between the stereotypical well-off MTBer and a minimum wage local working a till?

yeah its not limited to BPW, the staff at the antur stiniog cafe are just as surly.

I did wonder the same (ie whether it was “Maybe a slight culture clash between the stereotypical well-off MTBer and a minimum wage local working a till?”), but then I thought that round where I live there are plenty of ‘minimum wage locals’ manning the tills, and they’re usually cheery and generally pleasant.

I dont want false american style hospitality, but a smile and a ‘how can I help’ attitude would be nice, rather than acting like theyre being forced to work there, and by asking for a burger and chips you’re getting in the way of something more important.

I was there on Friday, once at about 12:30 I saw there was a queue for the bus and decided I’d just go back for Lunch instead.  Next at about 1:30-2 while they were still getting back up to speed after lunch.

Apart from that I waited a maximum of about 5-10 minutes as a non-priority rider.

I loved the blend trails, especially AC\DC a mix of almost everything, tech, flow, jumps, roots, rocks the lot.

Admittedly I also pedalled all the way up twice, just because I like the variety.

too much riding uphill to get back to the bus depending on what trail you choose.

OMG, riding your bike uphill to the bus! Surely they could’ve designed every trail to end at the uplift queue! Oh, and turned that around so it’s not uphill queueing too 😀

I thought the staff at BPW were lovely last week. The shop bloke (without prompting) recommended I go see the “till worker” girl to arrange to see the medic chap and they were all blimmin lovely. And the café fella was genuinely freindly (I spoke to him about the trails when he was collecting plates too). Must be you, julians 😉

I prefer both FoD and BMCC to BPW, but they’re all good. I’ve only done any of them in early July so I haven’t experienced full on August weekend queues. I’m not sure the BMCC uplift would be much fun on a wet day, either.

BMCC would be hard going in either wet / really cold and wet conditions I’m sure. The trails looked like red clay stuff so imagine it could get a bit claggy.

Bonneyville (pointlessly massive qualifier)

Really? I think it’s always been there and it’s hardly massive

BMCC is grim in the wet.

Is bonnyville the one halfway down that’s red graded  and has a drop in off a big boulder / rock? If so I think it looks intimidating as you come up to it and is bigger than anything else on the trail, but isn’t as bad as it looks.

Service in the cafe and the ticket desk was surly as usual, as if they don’t actually value your custom in the slightest.

been loads & never experienced this