All booked for a group of us in Feb – hmm, that’ll be lovely weather up there then!

Anyway – anything worthy of taking the full face and body armour? Watched some vids and the Blacks don’t seem bad tbh.

Never been…..
However if I’m going anywhere that involves getting shuttled to the top of a hill all day then the Armour and FF go in the bag at least.

Assuming you are on the uplift, might as well take the FF lid. I’ve been a couple of times and that is all that is different to a normal ride. So knee pads and at least 1 person with tools/backpack.
Blacks are the best runs IMO, but all the runs are good. Definitely need something in between the huge tables and drops on ETD and the rollers on the blues though. Techiest bits are on half cut, which is a short black off the red/blue on the left of the hill as you stand at the top. Loved that run 🙂

We went last Friday and it was very wet. We killed brake pads! Take spares. Mate went through 3 sets (1 front, 2 rear). I blow 1 almost new set of rears, right through the metal.

Still very grippy in the wet, dont let it put you off! Only 2 showers available (plus 1xladies) so be quick to get them.

waterproofs.

Take spares. Mate went through 3 sets (1 front, 2 rear). I blow 1 almost new set of rears, right through the metal.

As superfli said BPW was not kind to my pads, here are the rear ones (First lot I think) Not checked the Headset or BB yet 😯

IMAG0379 by scottgolfgti, on Flickr

I liked the blacks too! They were great fun. Looking forwards to riding there when its not raining all day but don’t let a rainy day put you off there was loads of grip to be had on most of the trails (Not half cut)

brake less?

brake less?

Good idea I will follow you down the blacks next time.

jam bo, it is very harsh on brakes. To put it in to proportion, my pads generally last about 9months. Not had to change pads over a week in the Alps either. I generally dont get through brake pads like others do!

Bloody hell its not that harsh on brakes, you must be dragging a lot!

If you’re on the uplift you might as well take full face and some pads. You can pick up a lot of speed where an off would be pretty painful 🙂

Regardless of your demon speed or poor braking skillz, 3 sets of pads in one day is bad. There must be something going on with your brakes/pads.

There must be something going on with your brakes/pads. technique.

😉

FWIW, at BPW, I wear knees and elbows and a trail lid.

I generally dont get through brake pads like others do!

+1
To be fair mine only had about 30% left on rear and 60% on the front. I was expecting to get at least a couple of months out of them still. The new set I put in where not bedded in, apart from round the carpark at BPW. We did we 11 uplifts in all in the rain. It was a really good trip and looking forward to going back.

Elbows, knees. Also FF lid, I don’t see a reason not to; you aren’t going to overheat. There’s a cheeky drop on ETD which creeps up on you.

went to BPW with my uni club – we’re all XCers normally so we stuck to riding 100mm hardtails, while wearing the lycra and XC lids – we did get some funny looks, especially when keeping up with guys on full sus enduro rigs and full body armour 😉

*swoons*

I’m sure it’s not bedding them in that killed off the second and third set of pads, Scott.

If you have the protection gear then you might as well wear all of it – there’s an uplift!

Half Cut was the one bit I didn’t ride, the red to its left was fairly challenging with so little grip that day and there were some pretty worried noises coming from my more skilled/braver companions – though one of them cleaned it on the second run.

I’m sure it’s not bedding them in that killed off the second and third set of pads, Scott.

I only replaced the rear once.

It was hard to keep the bike on the ground. I was glad of the armour.

Like all the Welsh trail centres you probably need to think about using sintered rather than organic pads. Organics don’t last well round here! (not sure what yours were though)

Wearing armour depends on the trails you’ll be doing – It’s quite amusing passing fully armoured storm troopers while being on a blue run, lol. Alternatively I wouldn’t be attempting some of the gap jumps without it (actually I wouldn’t attempt them at all!).

If you plan on doing the blacks then enter the dragon, dai hard and pork belly are all fine without but if you come off it’ll hurt a lot and you can really get some speed up too. The pro-lines on (I think) enter the dragon have the huge gap jumps.

Wore my FF for the morning when I did the uplift in September, my Noggin cooked in it and I didn’t really need it, so I just wore the piss pot and some knee pads the rest of the day and didn’t die…

…Watched some vids and the Blacks don’t seem bad tbh…

Well that’s the National Front for you, always trying to make ethnic minorities seem like the “Enemy” I’m glad you’ve decided to give up racism…

Bloody hell its not that harsh on brakes, you must be dragging a lot!

Ridden with both Fitzy and Superfli loads of times and they both fast and do not drag their brakes.

Always amusing when the STW armchair riders come out of the woodwork.

Ridden with both Fitzy and Superfli loads of times and they go too fast for the trail and have to slam on their brakes causing excessive pad wear.

Fixio!

Not sure about the other armchair riders but i was hinting at a pad/brake issue.

A week on Friday till I go 😀

Will be wearing full face and pads because I’m shit and like my teeth/skin/bones exactly where they are at the moment.

Ridden with both Fitzy and Superfli loads of times and they go too fast for the trail and have to slam on their brakes causing excessive pad wear.

Thanks for the heads up, I will let them know that they should slow down and start dragging their brakes to prevent pad wear 😆

I always wear my FF even when cycling up just stash it on the backpack
90% of the accidents to date at BPW have been on the blues, you can get some good speed up with plenty of places to launch into the trees 😉

Oliver, we didn’t venture onto the black runs though! Well most of us didn’t. The old 456 was perfect for that day as well, still mourning that loss 🙁 Back OT, I didn’t feel the need for any extra protection but were all daft students so I’d probably recommend at least some knee protection.