As a follow on to my thread the other day about the carpark at Cwmcarn, I’m only oing to be able to take one bike for a trip there. Plan is a day of uplift, a day doing a few loops of the Trych (?spelling) trail and another day playing, maybe at Afan.
options are full sus or HT – Yeti 575 or Dialled Alpine – anyone got any advice pls – I’ve never been there before so haven’t a clue…!!

Either will do, none if it is too tech for an HT, the FS will be more comfortable over several days as is normally the case….

I wouldn’t bother uplift on the Twyrch though, it takes about 15 mins getting down again – and the “joy” is in the 45 minutes technical up….. 😉

Hmmm, not done the xc loop but done the uplift quite a few times.
The alpine would be a good choice for the DH, its not that technical there, but can’t comment on how good it would be for the xc side of things though…

i tend to do both dh and xc on my cube fritzz so i cant see there being a problem on your alpine.

15mins down from the freeride section i’d like to see that!

Normally I would say a hardtail all day for Cwmcarn, however, I did a couple of laps a few weeks ago with a bunch of mates all riding hardtails and its now so worn that we wished we had taken the full sus’s, the descent especially there’s no dirt on it so your just riding rocks all the way down.

IMO with rumours of the new trails to be built up there its not getting the maintenance it needs.

Riden Cwmcarn on a HT and 4″ FS, so take what ever you feel most comfortable on..

so your just riding rocks all the way down

Sounds good to me..! 😀

Tough choice that one. Either I suppose. Depends on kit tho. Take the one with the biggest brakes and tyres.. it’s a fast blast 🙂

he can only take ONE if you read guys so imo i wouldnt want to rag a nice small travel bike down the dh all day

Not technical on the downs but the climb has a few nice techy bits. For me the make up of the trail means that like Afan, its quite uncomfortable on a HT, so I always use a FS there. You certainly don’t need a FS but for me the tech climb’s better with one and the descent’s more comfortable with one.

You could ride a HT down the DH trail easily enough, but by the 10th run you are likely to be pretty knackered !!!

Either will be fine. I’d take the 575 but I have a creaky back.
I’ve ridden Twrch on a 100mm supernormal racey HT and a 140mm burly Knolly.

rigid one speed 29er seems to be about right, for about two runs… and then it hurts a bit.

I’ve ridden it on a short travel XC race bike, a 5 and a Patriot. The XC bike was brilliant on the climb, the Patriot brilliant on the back half and the 5 somewhere in between 🙂

+1 charlie monger says

Done it on a GT Peace 9r rigid SS, kept up with most on suspension bikes but it did hurt at the end ! 🙄

What’s wrong with rocks? – 1 for groomed smooth trails

Take the 575, i rode there for the first time on tuesday and had a blast on my Pitch, could’ve done it on my Soul but the Pitch was more suited, i did the Twrch trail first and then climbed up the Twrch again and about 2/3 of the way round took the road up to the DH and did a run down that to finish.
The climb up is mostly enjoyable and not your usual trail centre motorway of fireroads although there is a bit towards the top. The final descent on Twrch is well worth the wait, was grinning ear to ear back in the car park after that.

I was at both a couple of weeks ago. Cwmcarn is fine, usual brake bumps on the decents at heavy braking points. Afan is running nicely too, did both The Wall and Whytes. Wall was great fun on the HT as was Cwmcarn – was catching up most of the riders on full bouncers.

Whytes is a different story – I struggled on the climb, with the HT getting knocked all over the place. Coming down was fairly eye rattling too. Would definitely have preferred a full sus on that. Most of the last couple of kilometers were picking lines through a very rocky decent, where a full sus would have floated over most of it.

In short, all do’able on the HT, but I’d probably take a full sus for comfort.

575 it is. Thank you all!