Im looking to do a trip to N Wales in the next few weeks and have a couple of ?'s about where would be best to ride. We are looking at the trail centre options to keep it simple. Now everyone's idea of good trail differs but mine would be as little as possible fire road as thats just dull, and as much knarly steep singletrack as is possible. Flowwy up and full on down would be ideal. Whites level would be the best one which comes close to this in the few that I have ridden in S Wales 🙂

What are good options for this kinda riding in N Wales – Any help appreciated

Everyones ideas are going to differ but if you're looking at mid rather than north Wales then I'd take a look at Nany yr Arian, then over to the ClimachX for an afternoon (The final descent certainly fits with, knarly, steep singletrack). Follow those with a 40 min *drive over to CYB for a big helping of rock. There's going to be a certain amount of fire road … it can't be helped.

*Or ride over from Mach'. Infact all 3 trails/centres can be ridden between 'tis very nice.

Stuart

Having completed two weekends in the area in the last few months i'd certainly agree that Cli-Machx is worth a visit if you want a decent DH. Its possible to ride straight up the fireroad to the top of the final 3km DH too if you wanted, just have a look at the trail map first. There also appears to be a second unmarked "DH" trail joins the main Cli-Machx route half way down the final section but we never made the effort to investigate it while we were there.

In my opinion Coed Y Brenin has too much fireroad up and down for the amount of singletrack you get but there are some lovely pieces of singletrack.

Bit more out of the way is Coed Llandegla uptowards Wrexham, its a gentle fireroad climb out from the car park to the far end of the forest but then theres plenty of good black graded singletrack on the way back. Definitely worth a look if you're in the area.

I agree with the above (mainly because I was with Thomsonru84 for one of the weekends).

Cli-Machx is worth a trip for the dh alone. There is a large fireroad climb at the start, but the singletrack is nice and flowy (my preference) and the dh is a monster!

Coed-y-Brenin wasn't so much my cup of tea. Seemed like lots of fire road for not a lot of singletrack and even some of that wasn't the best.

Llangdela was my favourite, but then I like smooth flowing singletrack over slow techy rocky stuff. I'm also fairly lazy, so the long but fairly shallow fireroad climb out to the back of the woods suited me fine. Then you ride back mainly on singletrack (which is great).

But as above, trail centres vary vastly and are a personal preference (although Whites Level is maybe my favourite of the ones i've ridden if you want to read anything in to that).

I went to North wales on a mtb trip for a week recently. We did llandegla on the first day, this was great fun, well built and very flowy, it's graded black but it's more like a red! Still fun none the less!
We then went onto the marin trail which in my opinion was a waste of time, so much uphill the majority of which is fire roads and very little in the way of downhill flowy singletrack.
We then went on to Coed y Brenin which i found fantastic, the mbr trail is the closest route i have found to a true black run, the climbs are not too bad and the descents are worth it, you get a real mix too from rough rocky singletrack with 2-3ft drops to smooth flowing singletrack.
We also road the "beast" trail which is the mbr trail but extends and does part of another red trail and some really good singletrack of it's own, again this is a black run and around 40km i believe so a good day out.

It's a shame to go to Wales just to go to trail centres imho. Central Wales has some awesome natural stuff that as well as good trails give you much greater exposure to the stunning landscape and a feel of the heritage as well. Stuff like Pont Scethin are a case in point – less than 20 miles away from CyB as the crow flies but chalk and cheese.
Don't get me wrong – I like trail centres, but lets face it one pine tree looks pretty much the same as the next!

PS Is this Karve as in Nicolai Karve??

PS Is this Karve as in Nicolai Karve??

Sure is mate – im all for going "au natural" as far as the trails go – its just that when you dotn know where you are going and have limited time its the only option 🙂

Get the bike-fax guide – some good stuff in there.

PS I was the guy on the Titus Exogrid on the Surrey Hills ride!
PSS When are you headed down there? Am there myself at the end of the month.

Cheers heihei – yea I remember you – we will have to get another one going some time soon – havent ridden down there in a while – all the work on the M25 has put me off tbh! – Due a trip soon however 🙂