Afan Bike Park - First Ride
Yesterday MoreDirt were lucky enough to take the trip out to Afan near Port Talbot in South Wales for a first look and test ride of the new bike park that is situated near Bryn Bettws Lodge, Gyfylchi.
The brand new bike park is located on a relatively short and compact piece of hillside but packs in an unbelievable amount of riding into a small area with three main lines from the top of the hill that branch off into many more sections before all joining at the bottom for the return climb to to the top.
When we arrived at Bryn Bettws Lodge we didn't really know quite what to expect. We stepped out of the van and went for a short foot inspection of what was lay in-store for us for the rest of the day. We were greeted by a ton of pristine, smooth and compact trails that seemed to just go on forever and ever!
A seemingly endless string of rock hard trails amidst thousands of golden autumn leaves gave the place a certain dream like feel.
There are two pump track style routes that descend and weave their way down the hill and more of an traditional single track based line that all set off from one central point up at the top of the hill.
The first track is technically simple enough to be enjoyed by beginner with fast, flowy berms and rollers all the way from top to bottom. But don't be fooled into thinking this is a beginners only line... If you start to really attack the trail you will begin to find your own gaps and jumps into the turns and it really steps up a notch. A sign of great trail building.
The second track is much like the beginners track except it's been juiced up on steroids. The speed is higher, the berms are taller and theres some pretty sizeable jumps to keep you entertained along with multiple line choices and track splits.
One of the more ballsy options off a right hand fork on this trail took you over multiple rollers until you were traveling flat out into two sizable step downs and then into a huge 180 degree left hand turn that offers so much support you won't even need to touch the brakes before getting fired into another berm in the opposite direction. It's about the closest you can come to riding a roller coaster on your bike.
Finally the third track is more of a single-track affair which makes full use of a gully that weaves down the hill with a small brook flowing through the middle in designated drainage ditches.
Great use of the lay of the land and sufficient drainage means that the bike park will still be flowing just as well for years to come.
The track builders have cut into the banks of the gully to make steep natural berms that lead out into a clearing with a set of four monster jumps that are big and wide enough to be something you would be more familiar seeing on a 4X track followed by a step down into yet more massive berms.
There's a lot of intimidating looking features in the park but the overwhelming feeling we got from the place is that it's progressive... You could spend an entire day here with very little experience of riding berms and jumps but progress at your own rate on the variety of tracks and still be catered for when your looking to hit the motorway like jump line at the very bottom of the hill with its four 20+ foot jumps.
And most importantly if your not so keen for getting airborne, you could probably roll over everything in the park with a bit of care.
For even more pictures of our day tip to Afan you can check out the full gallery here...
A massive thanks to Cognation for letting us test out the new trails. The trails are Not yet open to the public but will be in the very near future so keep yours eye peeled to MoreDirt and check out the Cognation website and Facebook page for the latest news on all the projects that Cognation are undertaking to improve and maintain South Wales as the amazing mountain bike destination that it already is.
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