Bike Park Wales has announced the start of its three-year development plans that should bring more trails and capacity for riders.
With 40 trails on the hill already, the park has announced its first green trail that will run from the uplift down to the centre. Bike Park Wales already has a green XC loop but this will be the first time novice riders can take the uplift and enjoy a mellow trail down to the bottom, plus it will probably be a great warm-up for more experienced riders. We've been told to expect a "flowing singletrack descent that gives a genuine mountain bike trail experience and is an easier version of our blue flow trails with lower speeds and less gradient."
In addition to this, a new visitor and bike hire centre will apparently increase the speed that riders can get signed on and up on the hill.
The full details can be found in the press release below.
Press Release: Bike Park Wales
BikePark Wales is set to build the one of the UK’s first uplifted green trails along with a new visitor welcome and bike hire centre, landscaping improvements and much more.
In the 6 years since we first opened our doors we have enjoyed sharing trails with riders from all over the world. We opened with 23 trails back in 2013 and we’ve worked hard to keep expanding our network of trails. We now have over 40 amazing trails to enjoy! Over the next 3 years we will continue to create more exciting trail developments, but in addition we plan to add some new dimensions to the park too.
In addition to more trails in the blue to black spectrum we will be adding a top to bottom green trail that can be accessed from the uplift, a new visitor welcome and bike hire centre to make signing in and getting on the hill faster than ever, and landscaping improvements that will double the size of our patio and make it a more enjoyable place than ever to enjoy a drink or a bite to eat post ride. All of this is planned for completion by Spring 2020 and then a second phase of development will follow in late 2020 that will bring more car parking, a shower and toilet block and further landscaping improvements. We are going to be very busy!
Speaking of the new Green trail, BikePark Wales co-founder Rowan Sorrell commented: “We are really excited to finally be adding a full-blown green trail from the top to the bottom of the hill to our trail network, it’s been crying out for it and will open up the hill to more riders of all ages. Riders can expect a flowing singletrack descent that gives a genuine mountain bike trail experience and is an easier version of our blue flow trails with lower speeds and less gradient. A smooth and undulating descent take riders through a mixture of open and wooded terrain with great views and features along the way.”
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Then, after lunch when everybody is done in, injured and bust bike parts, jump on uplift.
It’s sunny as well (because yeow choose ya day to ride!)
Less runs (butt..), less planning, less cost, more fitness, more convenience.
Sadly the place has lost that feel it had of being a rider-driven place and now feels far too corporate.
Our record is 13 runs but it was flat out, non stop.
I actually prefer to do less runs. Have fun on the way down and chat about the trail when you regroup.
I take it as £40 for a good day out with your mates.
Don't get me wrong the trails themselves are great. I hadn't been to BPW for months but visited a couple of weeks ago as they run well during winter, but the que for the uplift was ridiculous. They have invested in a large fleet of uplift vehicles to keep the uplift running "efficient" but at the same time they've also increased the amount of riders that can book on each day, so they haven't actually resolved the problem. More buses = more people = more money it seems.
If you're still going to book an uplift I'd suggest booking midweek as it'll be cheaper (still as expensive as a weekend pass at other uplift venues) and slightly less people to fight for uplift space.
But, if you want a more value for money, more uplifts, more time riding rather than queuing, you're better off going to Revs, BMCC, Antur Stiniog or Dyfi.
"It costs money" ...so do the vans and the fuel and the wages of the drivers...
Just go there and have fun.
If you don't want to spend money, go ride somewhere for free.
You can't even get a Latte for £3, you can't go to the cinema for £3, you can pretty much do absolutely nothing for £3.... but you can do a run at BPW
Most hobbies are insanely expensive. My other one is motorbike trackdays.... £250 a day at Silverstone without fuel etc... So call it £300.... That's almost 10 days at BPW for the same cost... or 5 full uplift days for me and my 11 year old.
BPW is an absolute bargain.
Even at £5.13 for a run, i'm still seeing a LOT of value in it... when you consider going to the Cinema for example compared to BPW, well it's not even a discussion is it.
£41 for a days fun.... I'm not sure what else that's an activity that's as cheap as that.
Its great to see an expansion of the facilities (who thought one toilet and two urinals would be enough first time round), it certainly needs more undercover at lunchtime for the rain.
The uplifts are a bone of contention and while the runs are longer, 41 quid for 8 runs isnt competitive with similar South Wales venues. The large truck is a bad investment, takes ages to load and in the summer it is unbearably hot as the windows dont open. The seats are ridiculously uncomfortable too. It is a truly unpleasant experience. Please invest in some different windows if you are going to use it in summer. The guy who drives the truck could be a bit more helpful and less sarcastic too. Riders (including myself) pass on an uplift if its this one and wait for the minibuses.
The majority of the staff are amazing however. I lost my car keys on trail and they took me up the hill to look for them at the end of the day and went way after their clocking off time. Always polite and friendly.
A bit more focus on the finer details to do with the uplift would make a huge difference to the experience. Oh and a few more jumplines would be awesome!
People saying that it is not rider owned and that they are just a big corporate setup literally do not have a clue about the people involved and the passion that goes into the park.
As for the uplift and queue times, the last time I was there (on a Saturday) I had to queue for 5 minutes, once, all day. I got 10 runs in and that included some bike faff and a coffee/cake stop.
It is easy to compare it to other venues that are cheaper, but so many mountain bikers seem to get 'value' and 'cheap' muddled up. You get about 300m vertical for each uplift here. Apart form the gondola at Fort Bill, I don't know anywhere else that high. When people say "It's cheaper at the FOD and you get more runs blah blah" you are actually getting less value for the amount of vertical uplift you are getting. FOD is a tiny hill - good fun - but tiny compared to BPW. FOD is cheaper, but BPW is better value.
Where else has a full time trail crew maintaining everything?
Where else has this many tracks?
Admittedly - one shitter in the visitor centre is crazy, but nobody is perfect.
i live 25 mins away and have been riding there since the Dragon DH days so know exactly the reason why, who and how the place came to be. The trouble is that is now very hard to find underneath the business side of it all, the trail crews are brilliant but the bus drivers and cafe can make it feel like you're just a number they have to deal with to get their pay at the end of the month.
"Where else has a full time trail crew maintaining everything?"
Revs, 417 and Black Mountain all do.
"Where else has this many tracks?"
They may have more trails than other places but they're running out of ideas. There's only so many trails that you can ride in a day made out of the same style of features: a lot of the jumps are similar and they have fallen into the trap of making a trail harder by just putting in bigger jumps. Contrast that with Revs where the trails are all different and the blacks are a lot more technical rather than just more airtime.
"You get about 300m vertical for each uplift here."
Yes you get around only 150m at other venues but when you get double or more runs in, the staff are actively encouraging you to get back on the bus after every run (Antur is famous for the bus drivers goading you if pass up an uplift ride in my group of mates!) and a more chilled and friendly atmosphere you can understand why people see it as a missed opportunity. BPW has so much more room to improve the current setup by sweating the little details but they seem to be more interested in the big headline stuff like that stupid army truck bus, I've even had a chat with one of the staff about certain improvements they could make back at the beginning of the year. They've implemented two of them (2 buses at the uplift point at 9:50 and leaving promptly at 10 plus a steward to oversee loading), which I take no credit for, but there is so much more that could be done.
And whilst a chairlift seems like a good idea, other resorts that are served by chairlifts close to MTB's over the winter, I for one would not want to be wearing my normal riding kit dangling from a cable in the pissing down freezing rain in Wales any time soon.
However, I think BPW really need to think about a new pricing option to accommodate families like this, especially as they are not likely to want to do a whole day.
With the current pricing scheme bringing the whole family along to do just 3 or so laps is really bad value for money.
I'm returning back from a nasty injury (broken neck in fact) and looking to start riding bike parks again in the new year.
I'm pretty experienced rider but I'm gonna count myself as a beginner almost, what do people recommend for working my way up from the bottom... Revs or BPW? or even dyfi? Ie. which has the best progression?
I've never been to either but I've rode a number of bike parks in Canada.
Also does BPW make their trail builders wear hard hats and hi-vis vests? That's hilarious if so.
BPW for sure! Revo is very good but you can’t really go there and chill, you have to be on it all day otherwise it’s pretty sketchy!
Get to BPW, you won’t be disappointed!
Hope it goes well, cheers
Josh
Dyfi is the closest you can get to whistler in the uk , and not as gnarly as most people think its more about speed control
also Antur Stiniog has a good range of trails and the best uplift service bar none
In drier weather (or now if you don't mind mud) I'd recommend the forest of dean. The runs are naturally slower, shorter and the uplift is quicker. It's great fun there and I find I'm less likely to crash at high speed than at BPWales.
Biggest problem was not having built back my strength/fitness enough to fit more runs in!
Glad to hear your recovery is going well, good luck! Stick to all the exercises, and don’t push it too far too soon!
It is a clichéd "victim of its own success".
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