Snow on the Raven

We had a totally lush ride up at Brechfa a few weekends back. A snow shower over night left us waking up to a light dusting. Out in the hills the ground and trees were covered with white powder that produced some stunning scenery. The snow was really powdery and light enough to keep the tyres rolling quickly and still gripping in the corners.
The Icing on the cake was a near deserted trail and bright sunshine coming together to form a perfect winter ride.

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Brechfa Raven Trail

Its great having these light evenings, after a day of slacking and flying the kite I met Tam and Oli for an afterwork ride on the new trail up at Brechfa. It was really good other than swarms of pesky midgies and a stupid crash early on in the ride. The crash was a beauty involving some horrendously gnarly northshore skinnies which were nearly a foot wide and prob a foot and a half off the ground, totally full on stuff! Anyway it caught me off gaurd and sent me over the handle bars a few time with my leg wrapped round the bar, no idea what my feet were really doing up there. The crash managed to cause both my brake hoses to unscrew themselves dripping fluid everywhere. This is pretty miraculous I can only assume someone has a grudge on me and took a spanner to the brakes, how I had the dexterity in my feet to perform such an act to both hoses is just totally implausible. A bit of trailside bodging and the BFe was back on the trail and all in all a great ride. I am loving the last section down to the car park the trail has loads of large woops smashing up and down around trees. The mission is to ride it death grip and with no peddaling, it is a great challenge for keeping momentum going.

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Freedom!!

Have finally finnished exams and have managed to dust off the BFe, attach a shiny new pair of Magura Wotans, scrape together my long lost bike skills and hit the hills. The last 3 days have been abslutely mental, Wednesday we hit brechfa, followed by a full day of solid 20mph onshore winds out on the kite, Friday we were back up to the valleys checking out a couple of the secret DH tracks hidden about, I have to say we found some absolute gems. I dont think I can handle much more of this freedom, its left me a full on exhausted wreck!!!

Riders: Jack Malone, Rob (Stink Bomb) Hinds and Me

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Brechfa - Gorlech trail - one word, Mint!

I just had my first experience of a welsh trail centre and can honestly say it was the best days riding I have had in a longtime. If you haven't been to Brechfa it is a bit over half an hour west of Swansea but it feels deep in the heart of wales with its tiny rural villages, plenty of tractors parked up in driveways and deep green valleys, the feeling is far removed from the industrial character of the 'valleys,' where most of the riding happens.

The trail itself has some good climbs and despite being a religious 'non pedaler' I was starting to (well almost!) understand that satisfaction that comes from pedaling to the top of some proper singletrack. It gives it an edge as you have to respect the effort taken to get there and hit the downhills full on. The singletrack is definitely first class and as a downhiller even scary in places when hit it at pace. The last descent is awesome all the guys got to the bottom buzzing, loads of good hearted banter and a few cuts earnt on the way down, but so good that we pushed back up the fireroad to hit it again. Well it would have been rude not to. It was really good to get out in the sun and chill with mates. This kind of riding is so relaxed and built around fun, man-made tracks definitely have their place and are well worth the effort to go check out.

Being as organised as ever I managed to leave my camelback at home with the camera in it so no pics this time, best place to get more info about Brechfa is www.mbwales.com.

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