MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Got a weekend of riding coming up in South Wales. Planning Brechfa on the Saturday, Afan on the Sunday, but would like to do a natural ride on the Friday. Currently looking at either the Crickhowell Killer Loop (the MBR / Tom Hutton one) or The Gap.
Initially drawn the the killer loop but slightly concerned it might be a bit much for a first day (25 miles, 1750m of climbing) and leave us a bit broken for the rest of the trip! Any thoughts on how challenging it is? We're all reasonably fit and experienced.
Also we'll be starting at about 2pm so not sure if that will leave enough time to get round then to Trecastle where we're camping for the night. Would the Gap be an easier / more sensible option?
The Gap's a nice enough ride. Nice scenery but fairly dull riding IMO. Not done the other one.
There is much better riding in the Beacons and Black Mountains, especially if you're prepared to go cheeky. Just look at a map and see what looks interesting. You might want to consider the Hay Bluff / Twmpa area.
Both are 'big' rides but neither is particularly technical. On the Black Mountain loop the upper part of the biggest ascent is a hike-a-bike, the ascents on The Gap ride are more rideable. I prefer the Black Mountain loop because overall I think it is a more involving ride 8)
Cheers - how bad / long is the hike a bike up Y Das?
Depends how far you get before you're off and walking! Probably no more than half an hour. It's followed by a track across the tops and a long fast descent before a big fire road climb followed by a much better but equally fast descent. Overall time will depend on your fitness; for me it's a 4 hour plus ride.
If you're camping at Trecastle and you're looking for a couple of hours fun you could try Cwm Rhaeadr trail near Llandovery. It's worth a visit IMO.
I would have thought the Gap route would be perfect for a 2pm start. It's a fairly relaxed 3 hour ride if you start at talybont on usk. Easy enough to follow as well. It's basically 2 climbs 2 descents. The black mountains route is harder in my opinion. One more big climb and descent. And takes (me) longer to ride. I really like both and good addition to afan.
Gap if its wet and Black Mountains (killer or your own loop) if it's dry, the blacks get very boggy but the gap is more rocky, both are quite exposed though
A shorter ride 2-3 hrs is a loop of Llangors lake via Allt and Mynydd Llangors with some road between the two
If you are camping at Trecastle I would seriously recomend Mynydd Mallaen and you can then finish by the decent at Cwm Rhaeadr 3/4 hours.
Y Das has had some 'improvements' by the NP. It does make it much more rideable as a climb and easier as a push! Rhiw Trumau is well worth doing, can be worked into ride over on Mynydd Troed and Mynydd Llangorse loop too.
Cheers all, very helpful. Will probably give the crickhowell loop a go if the weather is kind, but will sort out a couple of fallback routes. Cwm Rhaeadr looks good so may try and squeeze into the weekend.
The standard Gap route is a mellow affair but with nice scenery. You can spice it up with some cheeky just examine the OS. Both routes are in high open country and very exposed in poor weather so have a more sheltered backup in mind. I particularly liked the final descent of the the black route, into llanbedr.
Just did the 'classic' today in a lot of rain. We somehow ended up on a different climb to Y Das which caused mildly amusing map reading with horizontal rain at about 40 MPH 😉 I love this route Rhiw Trimau is great as are the other two descents. All a bit different. Saw one person today so had mountains to ourselves.
Gap leaves me a bit cold.