A challenge for you:

i’m off to north wales at the beginning of december for a biking weekend with my lady friend.

she’s a good beginner, but does get a little spooked if the trail gets steep, and or technical.

can anyone suggest shortcuts we can take at penmachno/coed y brenin/betws y coed/wherever to take out some of the trickier bits?

“stay on the gravel road past ‘death on a stick’ and it’ll take you directly to ‘mellow swoopy happy fun’…”

that sort of thing please!

ta 🙂

(the new blue at coed-y-brenin looks far too easy)

Just walk the harder bits. She can see you heroically clear them and realise there isn’t anything to be spooked about.

Agree with the above, North Wales trail centres are relatively technical for a beginner – I’d recommend South Wales for better acessibility and fun for the missus.

I can only think of one steep section at Penmachno that may spook someone. It’s a rocky chute quite near the end at the start of a section of downward loveliness. Apart from that it’s all fairly swoopy & nothing too demanding, especially if you take it at a steady pace.

I think most of the CyB trail centres have ‘toothy’ sections. Probably the easiest (if you aren’t gonna try the blue) would be the Tarw trail, I think, but there might be sections that require a bit of walking….

Or perhaps do a day at Penmachno and a day at Llandegla and don’t bother with CyB at all?

I’d have said that Marin and Degla are good as is Nant yr Arian.

At Coed-y-Brenin head out on the Blue, go up the road to do Dreamtime, at the end turn left and head up the road to Rhaeder Mawddach follow the trail up the hill to False Teeth, at the end of this go up to Uncle Fester. At the end of Uncle Fester turn left up to Pink Heifer, drop down this to the river crossing and then either go back on the blue or head up the hill and do Glide. Most of those trails are fairly friendly and should give a good intro to the riding in the area.

Marin and by-pass the Dragons Back by staying the forest road and the final decent is all rollable; else penmachno cutting out the final section

My GF did Penmachno as a relative beginner – there’s really very little that’s technical, but a lot of the singletrack is quite tight, and some of it has steep slopes down to one side. She still enjoyed it though. She also really enjoyed Nant Y Arian.

some good stuff here, thankyou!

walking: an option we have explored, the GF will be pleased to see that it’s acceptable.

South Wales: it’s too late to change this trip, but it’s nice to hear about easier options for other adventures.

KonaTC: a quick google suggests that you meant to say “dragon’s tail”…? (if so, ta for the tip!)

Dragons back……….its a trail at coed y brenin..

Llandegla is a good bet. Marin is also ok, mayby one or two sections you may have to push. Penmachno can be quite steep and exposed in places and coed y brenin is relatively rocky and technical. You coul do cyflyn coch at cyb though, that is quite smooth but only around 10k. Tarw is a black grade and has quite a few tough sections for a beginner. Nothing wrong in pushing, we all started somewhere.