If you're riding MTB at Bike Park Wales for the first time, or like us you're with a 4 year old... here is what to expect!!! Naturally if you have the little ones you also have the extra challenges of rounding the kids up, getting them ready and feeding them. Very real problems when they're all excited with their friends. BUT when you ride with friends the whole day becomes such a good experience!!! If you get the opportunity to... gather some like minded people to ride with!! Hopefully this video gives an insight to how it goes and below is a quick type up of how our day went!
Starting off the day we arrive around 8am and get booked in as soon as it opens, on a busy day expect to be queuing (out the door). From the carpark its just a short ride up a hill to the main HQ/cafe and shop. The uplift doesn't start until 10am but Harley takes so long to eat that we have to start getting ready so long before!!!
Once booked in we get all the bikes and kit out and decide if the day is gonna be hotter than the sun or monsoon weather - you can have both in one day so pack for it all 🤣 the trails here are still so fun in heavy rain. Just pack waterproofs!
Once ready we ride back up to the cafe area and meet up with Harleys friends. Let them have a play for a bit then we round them up and aim for the sign that says 'All trails this way' (if you stand facing the pump track from outside the cafe the start is to your right)
It's up a hill - be prepared to need to boost kids. Aim for Kermit (the right side) to start if you're with little ones, Norkle (left) if you're a more seasoned rider! At BPW the greens are more like blues... the blues are more like reds compared to trails in England. Couldn't tell you what a black is like as I've never ridden a true black!
Norkle has a small drop off and quite a few table top jumps - its all rollable but Kermit is an easier warm up.
At the end of both Kermit and Norkle you arrive at the bottom of the uplift area - with another bit of a hill to push up (I've tried to include these in the video!)
*If your kid is anything like Harley I pray for you that they don't see the 'monster truck bus' because if they wanna ride it and you just miss it you're waiting a long time for it to come back around 🥴🤣*
At the uplift pick up there can be a long queue... they have a LOT of uplift buses running so don't panic it usually goes down faster than you think it will.
The first runs of the day for us are always Sixtapod and then onto Willy Waiver which takes you striaght back to the uplift bus pick up point.. the start of Sixtapod is a bit of a slog but its so worth it!!! These are blue graded trails where everything is rollable but you can sure build some speed up on them.
The next runs we do are Melted Welly and onto Off Grid and Fforest Bump which are both blue graded tech trails - short and super fun! Just be ready for a heck of a rocky uphill pedal/push on the way back to the fire road... 🥴🤣 this then links nicely onto Roller Disco (just turn left after the uphill) which sees you going through the tunnel. Just after the little tunnel is a rest point... we really enjoy taking Norkle down to the cafe for some lunch or if we're carrying on back to the uplift we jump onto either Kermit or the last part of Norkle and ask Harley which run he'd like to do.
Heads up the cafe is card only - but very yummy!! They serve up the best hot chocs going and even have their own brand of beer and cider!!!
Finally we finish the day (and our forearms) off riding Terrys Belly and Popty Ping which hasn't got the fire road rest areas but instead has some marked out 'rest areas' that cut away from the trail slightly - they were a blessing for me and my arm pump from braking 🥴🤣 the start is a slight climb from the uplift but even with a 4yr old riding off his own steam it only took a few minutes so it wasn't as emotional as I expected!
We may look like we are winging it most days.... and we kinda are. But the days are being 'winged' on a general plan... a plan centred around keeping it fun for Harley and all his buddies there that day. A plan to keep it safe but also to include a few challenges to try.
The only thing we suck at planning is what we're going to film. So the whole day is captured on a GoPro stuck to my helmet and every now and then Harley's daddy will go ahead and get a 'fly past'
Side note: I don't recommend recording a whole day of anything 🥴 going through all that footage has taken me ages! 🤣
#enjoytheride #mtb #bikeparkwales