Idiot
..but insurance companies have this little get out clause called 'an act of God'
say they had got the trails open, keeping them open when it is dumping several inches of snow everyday and not rising above freezing is another matter isnt it? What do you expect them to do, invest in snow ploughs, snow cannons and piste bashers? This is North Wales not Morzine!
I understand they did manage to get the access road & car park open for a whole day – from the pics on the website and blog that took best part of a week with a 20tonne excavator
Then it snowed again for the whole next week and they are back to square one (but now with a base layer of ice!)
Bull$hit or not, I call it clever marketing – bet there is now loads of people thinking 'ah Llandegla, never been there must check when its reopened and give it a go'!!

1961
when I go for example I typically could spend £10-£12 easy, that is only a days car parking, a bacon sarnie (or two – they are quite good!), a cup of coffee, a cake and 5 minutes at the bike wash (Part of the reason Im not a big trail centre fan – they can be damned expensive!)
Factor in that the entire cafe, bike rental business and bike shop is closed as well and its not hard to imagine those sort of losses – say they usually sell a couple of high end bikes a week plus all the rest of the takings, the spend per person quickly ramps up.
Like I said its not just bikers but lots of walkers etc, some people I imagine actually go just for the cafe
Plus presumably they still have to pay at least the majority of their staff.
I imagine they have also had to cancel a fair few skills courses that where scheduled and probably refund people for them

Anyone that actually wants to try and ride the trails still can – there is a bridleway through the middle so they can't actually physically close off the entire forest but good luck to them I say cause from what Ive seen it doesnt look like it would be that much fun anyway

ISBI, Now I am definatly presuming you havent been to Llandegla, they have ploughed a hell of a lot of money back into the facilities recently – built an excellent pump track, a jumps course and a skills loop etc, re-laid miles of trail, built a few km of new trail, completely refurbished the visitors centre, shop and cafe. Im guessing this didnt come cheap and to end up completely closed for over a month right in holiday season is probably a bit of a financial blow right now
Okay maybe they might 'rake in a bit' I don't know but they also put a hell of a lot back
Regardless of weather you are ever likely to visit or not, there are people out there running these kind of places that are passionate about the sport (and going back to the original reason for this thread, obviously can maintain a sense of humour in difficult times) and put in alot of hard work for not alot (if any) money so maybe think before you start typing your cr@p?

i once came home from work at lunchtime to find a private courier firm delevery man (not royal mail or parcefarce) with his head and upper torso inside the dog's kennel, which is right at the very back of our 50' long garden
When I shouted he jumped and banged his head :) Claimed he was looking for a safe place to leave a parcel but scurried off sharpish, without leaving me anything??

coffeking where in the country are you anyway?
and if you say the south I will laugh cause southerners cant cope with a frigging grey cloud in the sky let alone a snowflake. Weather is only news if it happens in London or the south. Areas of the UK where suffering heavy snowfall weeks before it brought Reading and the M4 to a standstill you know?!
just go on the OPA website and look at the pictures – they have had some serious snowfall over the last month and taken some serious measures to try and open again

Im surrounded by idiots – I could well believe its busier than GT – remember Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham are three of the UK's largest cities and are all within 90 mins from 'degla
Its also very popular with families, walkers, anglers etc not just bikers

Have either of you actually ever been to 'degla, if not and you don't know the situation then please keep the critisism to yourselves

Anyway is this not an MTB community forum?
Should we not be supporting the people that work f*ckin' hard to give us somewhere to ride rather than dissing and putting down their efforts without knowing the full facts
Im not a huge trail centre fan personally but I do understand that these places vastly increase our legal riding opportunities and do a great job of marketing the sport and bringing it to a wider audience so please lets have some respect

coatkid excellent quality
love the snowbiking vid, whats the music on that one?

Here you go Slider, and its now a tenner cheaper! (out of stock though!)
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-1022.aspx

Beware the cheap ebay ones I have read alot of mixed sories and seems pot luck on if you get a good Muvi unbranded copy or a cheaper plastic cased version
and at the tesco price with free action kit (normally about £35) (which you will ideally need for mounting options) its probably a similar price anyway

Check my Cannock vids for the quality and see how it compares to the Vholdr
The muvi is with the stock SD card in it,which is apparently quite a poor performer on recording speeds, a class 4 or 6 card will improve things further, also the vids are uploaded at not a huge file size (my old computer cant handle it too well) and compressed so could easily get better results

contour HD or VHoldr (non HD version) is discontinued so can be picked up cheaper

Veho Muvi Mini for £50 at Tescos with free sports pack is unbeatable in size and quality for the price (but not waterproof)

Films from both (Muvi and VHoldr)are on my pages here – http://vimeo.com/user2099725

Bonj
Same route
Gap I think you mean is here (the one just after I have first big fall off to the right)
http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=419395&y=388387&z=120&sv=419395,388387&st=4&ar=y&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf&dn=887&ax=419395&ay=388387&lm=0

Prob looks different with everything around being white!

The next gap is at the bottom of that bit of trail – I had opened the gate to let Mark ride straight through so that might be whats confusing you?

The vid starts (the walking bit) looking south from the gate at the top of the hill (at the 'g' of derwent edge on the map)

yep probably passed the same people, think we met them on way up just before Derwent Edge
It was fun, bet its good up there today, never thought skiing would be easier than biking in the Peaks!

How about a video?
http://vimeo.com/8563444
Taken Sunday just gone

was out around ladybower yesterday, descent from Whinstone Lee Tor was the best ever
Pics here http://www.commencalownersclub.com/index.php/topic,5453.0.html

Commencal
Flame VIP Ti
entire bike bought seperately and built up from parts all off ebay or similar
First two pics at top of Whinstone Lee Tor – Ladybower today (3rd Jan)

mixed
as above check its in stock first
have had excellent service and another time had to cancel an order after 6 weeks still waiting

To be fair to them though everywhere was out of stock of whatever it was (I forget) at the time so prob not their fault

Also used them a fair bit through their Ebay shop and never had any problems that way – very cheap for most stuff

I have had worse with Winstaleys – they did eventually admit that my items where actually sat in their warehouse all along after being specially ordered in from Hope but they got confused, took well over a month to resolve and get my brakes!!

but plenty of triathlon girls

In that case changing rooms and CCTV :evil:

coffee machine for customers ;)

haha I was just reading this thread, got to the bottom post and below that what advert was there?

"25 years anniversary sale at Chain Reaction"

Priceless bit of marketing there :lol:

was fine xmas eve don't imagine its got any worse (prob better)
some vids on this thread (half way down)
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cannock-chase-is-it-rideable

the vids above where filmed with a Muvi Mini camera
smaller than a pack of chewing gum
£50 – Tescos direct with free action sports mount pack (normally about £132 for camera and sports pack)

Norfolk – I hope by that you don't mean the bits of phase 2 that are CLOSED??
If so then shame on you for riding them and ruining the hard work of the Chase Trails volunteers

flip – yeah I chickened the narrow boardwalk, it may be frozen on the top but that puddle is still a huge pile of sludge underneath, didnt much fancy picking the new camera out of a foot of frozen mud!

vids from today here –
http://www.vimeo.com/8355441

and here –
http://www.vimeo.com/8354876

Apologies for quality and riding, was trying out the camera and mounts so still experimenting and nervous of it falling off! Footage is totally raw as it came off the camera (not great but for £50 can't complain)

Gives an idea of trail conditions at least

Just back from quick spin this afternoon
All dry, frozen and ground nice and hard (except the cheeky trail up the LHS of the long fireroad climb after section 7 – that is not surfaced and in deep trees so still muddy as hell, but its not part of the official route anyway – but still worth a try)
Only saw about 4 other bikers all afternoon but there was a fair few families with kids walking the wrong way up parts of the bike trail
Warning – the boardwalk bits are okay but the new rock section is slippy as hell at the moment, I went flying off the minute my front wheel hit the first rock
Was testing my new £50 from Tescos Muvi camera so just uploading some vids onto Vimeo as we speak, soon as they are finished will post a link

believe it or not Halfrauds do a good double ender cheaply

another vote for Phil Price
it may not be in fancy cars but you cant beat the old mark 1 and 2 escorts
Real rallying on a proper welsh forest – none of this sliding around at the side of a road racing track
Will learn some proper rally skills as well as how to control a skid
and the high speed runs at the end are awesome, he really does go flat out, nearly took me off the side of the mountain and admitted when we got back that 'that was a little bit closer the edge than I usually get' ;)
Was a good few years since I went but Alistair McRae turned up towards the end of the day, his Hyundai worls rally team were going to be testing there the next day
Still to this day the best thing I have ever done (and that includes the last stage of the 1999 Rally of Great Britain as an 'unofficial' co-driver and going over the finishing ramp – dont ask!)

Commencal Flame VIP Titanium ;)
On One Ti 456
Ragley

worst are the X5's with stickers on the rear window that say
"my other car's an Audi"
that is when its time to really worry!