Snowdon!!

Without a doubt one of the most “epic” things i’ve done on a bike! Headed out with sheff uni cycling club and had a fun weekend riding the mbr trail at coed y brenin the day after.

And much better In HD:

http://video.mpora.com/watch/ZBpBXu1jn/hd/

(can’t embed mpora but the HD is so much better, the HD file size was too large for me to upload to vimeo)

That looks great fun.

What route up and down Snowdon did you take?

I plan on doing the CyB/Snowdon weekend thing in March with a few mates.

Excellent video – I really enjoyed that. Bigger tyres and thicker tubes next time?!

i love snowdon rangers, never get sick of it!

we ascending from llanberis and went down rangers, 90% of the punctures were on the hardtails in the group, i think we’ve learnt our lesson about tires and tubes haha

Good vid sir. Bet you’re forearms were a bit pumped at the end. Really tempted to have a play but with only a hard tail think all the punchers would piss me off a wee bit too much.

Dam you I nearly signed up for this trip after getting the message on facebook. (ex SUCCer)

Do you get much grief from walkers?

Jesus, that looked just a bit rocky.

Woop. I’m going up in a couple of weeks 😀

I was going to ask the same, ‘Do you or did you get much grief from walkers?’

We didn’t have one instance of grief from walkers… got a few “you’re mad!” and “don’t kill yourself” comments though. We set off early afternoon from the top, so all the walkers coming up would have probably been going down in the dark and fairly used to things (rather convoluted conclusion)

We did it in August and got no grief at all, in fact all the ones we came across on the way down hopped out the way, cheered us and laughed when we fell off. That was early though, before the ban.

The worst bit was coming off the summit before the Rangers turn off, some other bikers decided it was too gnar and walked so I had to go really slowly. One suggested I should ride on the smooth bit rather than the steps.

Sigh.

day 2… coed y brenin!

How long was the ride/push up? Then ride back down?

I’d say it took dead on 2 and a half hours to get up, with a few breaks etc. Coming down probably took 2 hours 15 minutes, given the number of punctures and mechanicals we had! actual ride time was around the 25 minute mark (at a guess) lots of arm pump so stops are welcomed!

2.17 – lost commuter?

Bottom to top, allow 3 hrs, doable in 2 or less if you get on with it.

Top to bottom, 10 minutes (or less) if you are puncture free and know the trail. if you want to play about or have mechanicals it can go on and on!

still my favourite trail in the uk (though ive not explored scotland yet)

Nice. Got this lined up for the end of November, weather permitting. Should be entertaining… 😀

best Descent in the UK

I did it back in February this year.. Massive grin all the way down 😀

Cool, few of those walkers looked a little ‘undecided’ as to your presence. A big group too.
Did this a few years back, long overdue for another trip.
I had my hardtail then and got two punctures I think, would take the 6″ again.

Times on Snowdon more than any other place depend on the weather, mechanicals and your chosen route.

I did Llanberis up then Rhyd Ddu path down at the beginning of October and did it in just under 4 hrs having been met with gale force winds at the top despite the heat wave at the bottom and a really rough route down.

Two weeks later I went back and did Llanberis up to the summit then Llanberis down to the bottom gate at the top of the tarmac road, then back up the Llanberis to the start of the Rangers just below the summit, then down the Rangers and over Maesgwyn back in to Llanberris itself. All in just under 5hrs but had glorious sunshine all the way, and no mechanicals or puntures (apart from cramp half way down the Rangers and a chunk missing out my jockey wheel that I found when I got home).

As with Slowrider, second try and double climb was one of my favourite routes this year, but the first try on the Rhyd Ddu descent was one of my worse !

…. also never have I had so much fun and banter with walkers. Had a right laugh with some of them, especially a ban of scouse women doing a charity walk…. they were very complimentary of my calfs (but not so much of my face) !!!