Coed Llandegla - North wales

We spent most of today in Coed Llandegla, near Wrexham and we did the green family trail and the Blue Beginner trail. The set up at the trail head was fantastic, a brilliant Cafe ( i mean feckin deadly) a bike wash, bike hire, Bike shop and repairs, £4.00 to park for the day.
The Green Family trail was great, very easy and pictuesque and a great intro for Sophie, it was only about 3 miles long and took us about 30 minutes.
But the Blue beginner trail was a different kettle of fish, it climbed up for a fair bit on a reasonable climb, the whole thing was about 7.5k, took us about 1 hour 20 but the guy told us most of the adults take 1hr 30 to do it, the initial climb was a fair slog up a windy wide path through woods and a bit of open mountain.
The descent though was brilliant, real handy but with loads of big berms and humps and wide fast singletrack..
really nice fun trail for complete beginners and kids. Actually at speed it would be a brilliant descent for everybody.
I don't know what the so called Black runs and the red were like, the place was completely over ran with people on top of the range bikes , body armour and 3 litre Camelbacks with gps' and waffling on about the Black runs.
I really enjoyed it with Sophie, she thought it was great, there were a few hairy moments when I thought she was going to go splat as there were some huge berms with unbelievable braking bumps in them..
Lycra and flat pedals were everywhere were also a big thing..and we were the only people on hardtails, well apart from the complete noobs with their basic Giants and treks.
I would recommend it as an experience, especially if you have complete beginners or kids.
Some of the sections on the beginner trail if taken at speed would be absolutely brilliant..
I think if you are an improver or only getting started then a weekend away blitzing these and the other trails in North Wales would be well worth it. The Cafe and trailhead set ups are magnificent..
Coillte..get your feckin finger out..



http://www.mbwales.com/en/content/cm...Llandegla.aspx

Heres some photos..

http://picasaweb.google.com/richie.b...eat=directlink

they were also putting the finishing touches to a massive pumptrack and a skills loop..both of which would easily fit in to the Car Park area in Ticknock. The place was also shared with Walkers, of which there were hordes of them armed to the teeth with walking poles and body bags !!

Yeah i've just been reading that by september there will be another 10.5kms of single track and four new trail areas up and running.
Brilliant.

Just spotted this too, this is how it reads...

Meanwhile, plans are afoot to develop a trail network around Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd.
Antur 'Stiniog have already earmarked 9km of DH specific routes, a series of XC trails, an uplift route and an area suitable for a 4x track - with the aim of starting construction next summer.
The group has just been given £30,000 by Energy Solutions which manages the uk's Magnox neuclear reactor sites, including near by Wylfa power station.

With a total buidcost of £2.2million the scheme still needs a lot more money behind it, but this first chunk of cash should help kick start the planning process.
Antur 'stiniog chairman, Cerri Cunnington said "the trails we have identified will sit perfectly between the classic XC routes that we already have close by at Coed-y-Brenin, Penmachno or Llandegla and the more full on Downhill courses"

That will be some trail don't you think, 2.2million jeeez.
Good old Balinastoe eh...........

Was there yesterday and had a quick blast around the red/black trail, 21 km of good man made single track with lots of table tops and roll-able small drops but hit at speed.. Happy days. Plenty of climbing also to keep every one happy, the Black runs all link off the red route and comprise of bigger table top's, doubles etc again well built so if your styling it you will get good air, but can be hit at any speed so good working on jumping skills etc. The new skills area looks the business and is nearly finished.. It's only about an hour an half from the ferry so well worth a weekend trip. The trail head shop and Cafe are as Richie says are class. It seams that Wales is starting to head in the Scottish direction with its Trail centers, which IMHO is only a good thing :)

Wales sounds great must head over some time.

I'm sure most of you have also heard about the plans in Larne, which also sounds good & is only up the road.

http://www.irishdh.com/index.php/new...nment-minister

how much would a weekends biking there cost?
Was thinkin of heading over there next year instead of going to Andorra.<--2 expensive

I don't know Daire, I have free accomadation but its cheap I think. Eatings real cheap...so is drinking !
i doubt very much that that Larne project will ever happen..

I rode their a few years ago and thought it was brilliant. It's a private trail centre not forrestry commision. A paper company had the land but recycled paper dropped the price for paper so they looked for an alternative revenue source. Thats why the cafe is so good. The two guys that lease it are dead on and real bikers. Thought the trails were neat and the plans are good too. I met guys from London who considered it their local trail centre. Thats several hours each way! They had three over-flow carparks for weekends when I was there and were building another one. Helps that they are less than an hour from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham though...

Was over in Wales last April for a week with the brother, I only got in two days of riding including Coed Y Brenin (The beast), the Climachx trail in Machenylleth (How the frig do you spell that anyway) and Nant Yr Arian

Coed Y brenin is a traditional trail centre, lots of climbing and lots of deadly descents. None of it is really technical, but some of it is visually off putting to new comers I think, but if you push them over the edge of the trail they will sink or swim, and i'd be disappointed if they sank tbh!

Nant Yr Arian was deadly I thought, A couple of miles of superb narrow singletrack at the start and end, really really class stuff, with a big long ride out into the wilderness on old landrover tracks and mountain passes and stuff. I really loved it, proper out in the hills stuff

Climachx was a short wee loop, mostly climbing with nice bits to keep you interested before the big long descent. I ride a Meta 5 and still had arm pump at the end of it. Not many trail centres can give you that.


Brother stayed on and did the Marin trail at Betws y Coed and Coed llandegla, he said Llandegla was flipping class. He did the black run. Said it was easy if taken at a normal speed. he is a wheels on the ground kind of guy but still liked it. Said if you went fast you would get big air no problem.

He was so buzzing from it, he rode Ballinastoe on his way home from the ferry.
nutter.




We sailed Dublin - Liverpool on Norfolk line ferries. Was a special offer on, car + as many as 4 passengers for £50 return on day time ferries, or £100 return on night time ferries. So we went overnight, got a feed, a sleep, and our breakfast and away on to the trails off the boat. Was the best trip i ever had. All of it was a pretty much a fluke as we planned hardly anything. Welsh trail centres have more variety than the scottish ones, but i cant see any of them ever beating Innerleithen or Glentress black.

Go and do them

yeah...sounds great. The variety and overall fun factor in the newer trails is brilliant. I've been bringing out beginners for years and years and most "beginner" trails are just too hard. The start in Ballinastoe just beats the living daylights out of the not so fit and some of the sections are jut a bit too twisty . As you can see by the short cuts that are been taken up there.
It was great to see new stuff being built over there, things have ground to a halt here. And not having a proper trail centre with all the facilities is just a joke.
Theres money to be made out of this, especially locally. You could earn a weeks wages just making beans on toast up there for riders!!

Coiltte need to tap into the northern market with a few trails in Ravensdale/Carlingford.
The whole of the north would be there every weekend pumping money back into their pockets.
And you lads can stop for a spin on your way back from spending all your cash in newry