4 day wales baiku, non retro ride though, i'll get my coat.

[jonnyboy666]

to start this, my boss was being a knob about still oweing me a week from last years holiday even though he said "it's not the right time" every time i suggested a week off, typical boss it's never the right time because it means he has to do more! this will be my first week off since JULY!

anyway, he phones me late on sunday night and says you can have the week off! why couldn't he tell me that on saturday at work! :x co*k! telling me on sunday means i've wasted a day that i could have been going somewhere! and means i then need to get things organised and booked at short notice on monday! :x :x :x
decide wales is the way forward, pick up new frame, get building, sorry it's not retro but afan, and coed y brenin on hardtail retro beast? yes they can do it but lets face it, it'll be more fun on modern (i'll get my coat and book the taxi!)
so jump in the car and head from southampton (flatest part of england) to afan, decide whites level trail for today, (takes a while to get there from southampton) plus a bit of mucking about, meet steve in skyline cycles, top bloke, have a bit of a chat coz it turns out we know alot of the same people (everyone knows everyone in the trade!) and i sent him a few good customers for ex demo kona's. trails were painful after being sat in the car for 3 and a bit hours but always fun, first climb is a sod! start catching some guys on a descent, i'm not a downhiller but i have to "hav'em". take that, new bike rides "right".

back to the car, then to accomodation, little b+b called llynfi, someones house with a few extra rooms, barry and sonia, absolute diamonds!

more to come . . .

 

[jonnyboy666]

day 2

get up, it's very misty, foggy, damp etc. sonia has done a fantastic breakfast, struggle to get it down coz there is so much of it!

decide to go to coed y brenin today as weather is better north thinking i'll come back here on the way back.

god, what an awful drive, no motorway, no dual carriage way, stuck behind lorries for hours! :x

get to coed y brenin at 3.30 ish, god that drive was soul destroying! sort bike, get changed launch myself at the mbr trail, it's changed alot since i last did it 2ish years ago, but the climbs are just as painful but as a whole the trail flows really well, the single track downhill sections are amazing, sections where you simply don't need to pedal, you just need to "pump" the bike and you roll over everything.

loving the start of the trails, the massive pair of rockshox! that's the start line and then the various trails split off from there.

more to come . . .

 

[Pickle]

 

[jonnyboy666]

day 3,

the big 1! the beast!

apparently this is the karrimor trail rebadged, i don't think so, i did the karrimor a few years ago and it was longer and used trails on the opposite mountain aswell but who cares, it's all riding and it's cool to do new stuff. it starts the same as the mbr trail then splits off and goes on more amazing singletrack off camber wet rocky trails! lovely! only bad point was a never ending climb in the middle of the ride on a gravel track! god i was glad when that was over! but the descents are always worth the climbs in wales. started to get tired on what was the last climb although i didn't know that at the time! chomped through 2 power bars and 2 energy gels and drunk a load of water, seemed to do the trick but my legs were dying. haven't done to much riding recently so this is a shock to the system!
drag myself to the top and launch myself at the final descent, that is nice and flowing but quite rough (as you'd expect) but other bits are more forgiving!

roll into the carpark, happily knackerd! wash the bike and head for the showers and a massive mug of tea and a bacon sandwich at the new trail centre! it's all very nice.

back to the pub/b+b hit the munchies massively for dinner, massive portions! little pub called "tan y groes" think that's how you spell it! linda the landlady tells me there are 10 other bikers coming in, sometimes (and this is gonna sound miserable!) i think i'd rather be the only 1 biker in the room, you'll always end up in somekind of argument like sram versus shimano!

day 4 next!

 

[jonnyboy666]

day 4!

weather starts to get crappy in north wales so i think i'll go back south. i start the long drive down after having the obligitory chat with the "10".

god, the lorries that get in the way! :x

get towards afan but it is still raining, decide to carry on to cwmcarn, i've only been there once before on a demo day a year or so ago for the new marin mount vision. get in the carpark, unload the bike think just a short one coz my legs are 3 days knackered now! decide not to bother with any excess kit because i'm only gonna be an hour and the bike has been perfect everyday so far! launch myself towards the red trail with a bunch of guys following me saying "follow this guy he seems to know where he's going!"

even with my tired legs these guys were slow! nice chaps though! decide to speed up a bit but the trails at the start don't flow aswell as coed or afan but are still fun. drag myself towards the top on the mountain where i bumped into a couple of guys (1 from indiana, america and the other a from bristol) top blokes pointed me in the right direction of a couple of good extra trails. when i get to the top of the trail i choose the xc trail as opposed to the freeride, the freeride has wall ride bits in it which aren't my thing with some massive drops aswell. this section is much more flowing but pedally in a good way. carry on the singletrack, it's all nice rolling up and down now till the end, a very worthwile idea stopping here instead of afan, made a nice change as afan has been my prefered (long)daytrip!

sorry no pictures of this one you'll just have to tale my word for it!!

p.s new bike is great, typical full suss on the climbs, doesn't bounce too much but sort of squats down, not neccasserrily a bad thing but it does lift the front end a bit, climbs best with a 100mm fork but on the flat it's great and downhill and technical is fantastic with 130mm(u-turn fork fitted) was really happy with it on all the trails. orange gets it right again.

 

[Russell]

Looks like a great few days... Inspirational in fact.

thanks