Mark Miwurdz

Took a trip with some of the guys from the local club to south wales at the weekend. We went to a place called Afan, just north of Port Talbot. What a place! It was a bit of a haul but well worth it. There's some more info here.

Cheers
Kav

r32

Been, the riding is very good but limited with only three good routes (unless they opened more recently). Coed Y Brenin is much closer to Mountain Bike Heaven I would say ...........
STEVE..............

dome

Glentress!!! Woohoo!!!
Although I'm a lazy git and haven't been out since last summer...

Mark Miwurdz

Interesting.......

Whereabouts are Coed Y Brenin and Glentress?

Cheers
Kav

unclebuck

Coed Y Brenin - Snowdonia.

Glentress? - way up in the Borders.

You should check out the Wye Valley and Black Mountains as well. Get up on Offa's Dyke to Hay Bluff. Great riding.

UB

SiPie

Glentress was great before the trails were developed (admittedly very well done, with trebles, berms etc etc) but I've seen Oxford Street quieter on a Saturday afternoon

Supposed to be a peaceful solitary sport and now you've got to queue to get into the car park then queue to get down a trail ... then queue to get something to eat in the hub... err no thanks Much better routes throughout the borders to be had off the beaten track... that are along the lines of the black route in techincal difficulty

unclebuck

So I've heard. Glentress has become a victim of it's own hype. It's a magnet for the incompetent 'weekender' types. As you say it's all about the wide open spaces and escaping from the big gangs of bikers that inhabit to lower slopes.

UB

SiPie

agree 100% UB

Cue MarkO and lots of other local's <cough> to jump to it's defense

All I'll say is that it is good now but much better during the week when the peasants are at work

Mark Miwurdz

Great stuff.

Any more good venues chaps? BTW, I think our club is going to be doing a 'Killer Loop' feature in a future edition of MBR which should make good reading.

Cheers
Kav

MarkO

I'll jump to its defence.

Sure, Glentress is busy at the weekends, but there's plenty of space for everyone. It's perfectly possible to ride the black and not see anyone the whole way round. Having said that, it does get busy on the red/blue, but a lot of that is 'cos people can only get out to ride on the weekend. Give it another 4 weeks, and it'll be getting dark at 8pm, so plenty of people will be able to get out and ride after work - so things might calm down at the weekend.

As you say though, it's not the be-all and end-all of Scottish MTB. There's plenty of other places, even round the corner from Glentress. Innerleithen, Traquair, the Pentlands, etc....

Graz

And if your in the Snowdonia area the Marin Trail in Gwydr Forest, near Betws-y-Coed is ace (except the killer climb near the start )