Took a trip to Wales on Sunday, to try the trails in the Betws-y-Coed area, Penmachno (not tried this before) and the Marin trail in Gwydyr forest (did this some time ago on my Nicolai
Penmachno was good, cleared it in 1hr 35mins. Lots of puddles on the track so got quite wet, but the singletrack sections were quite long, and the fireroad climbs seemed bearable.
The Marin trail starts with a little singletrack climb, then into a seemingly unending fireroad climb. Then I crashed fairly badly on the first proper descent, slipped on some wet flinty stuff, front wheel hit a log and over I went grrrrr damn hardtail. Clearly I blame the hardtail, as the vp-free would have soaked up the log and railed the wet flint in super tacky tyres. Over I went, landed smack on my helmet (not broken) and shoulder. Anyway, the rest of the ride seemed like short singletrack sections interspersed with LONG fireroad climbs. I think I was pretty drained towards the end, along with shoulder pain - however managed to enjoy the final descent with the little jumps woo! Total for the day : 24miles
Taking this (Cove Hustler) out at the weekend from Bike Shed in Scisset (www.bike-shed.com): 
Looking for a lightweight travel full sus - this weighs 26.5lbs apparently, however my build would include Rockshox Lyriks (20mm through axle security) and a possible coil shock upgrade later (this could be a good megavalanche bike) so will be a bit heavier.
We'll see how it rides, possibly meeting up with Tom for a jaunt in the Dales, other option being a Dalby forest recce....
2 comments:
Alright chap, hows it going?! Reckon the dragon's back section on the Marin's one of the few uk trails that gets close to the rocky sections of the mega... not quite as steep though eh?!
Off to Llandelga tomorrow - will try emailing ya now, so let us know if it doesn't get through
(mega)Nick
Hey Nick,
good to hear from you, not spotted an email yet, which account did you try?
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