Afan - isn't it great?

[GHW]

SWMBO was away on Saturday, so I went for a cheeky afternoon ride around the Wall trail. It was quite honestly one of the best rides I've had for ages - I can't believe that I've lived just under an hour from this place for 3 years and never bothered to visit till now!!

I'm now quite tempted to go back next weekend for a go at White's Level, if the weather's not too crappy...

[mk1fan]

I like the descent on the Wall but the climb is too much of a ball ache for me. It's too boring. White's, however, is at least four times as good.

[mr pg]

You need to try the Skyline. Grat day ride.

[anonymous-user]

i like climbing so enjoy the wall. in reality though it seems like an eternity, there is probably only 15 minutes real climbing. its the long section at the start that bores the nuts off me but its a good time to have a chat.

[langy]

I was at Afan ver the spring bank holiday. Rode the Skyline on the Saturday (29 miles) and it rained for 28.5 miles of it then on the Sunday I rode the Wall.

The Skyline had interesting bits of single rack linked with long boring section of fire road, I'm sure the views would be spectacular, but in all honesty, I was having difficulty seeing 20m in front of me

The Wall was superb, OK the first couple of miles is a steady climb and relatively boring..... but the single track is superb

[Gooby]

Does anyone know how high Afan is (Top to bottom) and and average amount of climb if you do W2?

[Camoradi]

Gooby said:

Does anyone know how high Afan is (Top to bottom) and and average amount of climb if you do W2?

Rode W2 recently (with a couple of extra bits) and if I recall we clocked about 4500 ft climb

[ysnnim]

Info on Wall here http://mbwales.com/en/content/cms/Centres/Afan_For...

[alfa145uk]

langy said:

I was at Afan ver the spring bank holiday. Rode the Skyline on the Saturday (29 miles) and it rained for 28.5 miles of it then on the Sunday I rode the Wall.

The Skyline had interesting bits of single rack linked with long boring section of fire road, I'm sure the views would be spectacular, but in all honesty, I was having difficulty seeing 20m in front of me

The Wall was superb, OK the first couple of miles is a steady climb and relatively boring..... but the single track is superb

Sounds like our version of the Skyline when we rode it in Wales - started raining at the start of the climb - and rained for the following 6.5 hours it took us to get round it. Challenging, but boring with the fire roads and lack of views.

Wall is good fun, as is Whytes.

[mackie1]

I'm probably going to Afan the first week of July. I think the plan is to do W^2. It's rated as severe but are there any features that aren't present on White's Level or The Wall? I ask because I'm a clumsy noob and don't want to bite off more than I can chew!

[P-Jay]

mackie1 said:

I'm probably going to Afan the first week of July. I think the plan is to do W^2. It's rated as severe but are there any features that aren't present on White's Level or The Wall? I ask because I'm a clumsy noob and don't want to bite off more than I can chew!

Nah, it's 'just' White's and The Wall in one go, with some fireroad to link them up, the severity comes from the length of it.

[Gooby]

We GPS mapped 8 hours riding (over 2 days) at Afan this weekend. In that time we climbed about half the height of Kilimanjaro!!

May not be that impressive untill you realise the amount we had to drink on saturday night!

[mackie1]

Thanks, that's what I thought.

[gradeAfailure]

I did the Technical category in the Kona Mash Up at Afan at the weekend - on a fully rigid 92 Marin! The black run was.. interesting.

Rode Cwmcarn on the Sunday, much more my thing - the singletrack on Twrch is superb, especially the final descent.

[madbadger]

I used to live 20 minutes ride from the trails.

All the trails got shut due to foot and mouth then once they had reopened I rode them twice before moving away with work.

[Chris71]

My favourite there is probably the Penhydd - short but sweet, particularly if you cut out the boggy bit off the fire road. It's not epic like the others, but you have that strange thing - after the initial climb - of seeming to be going downhill permanently and very rarely up! Done Whytes Level and The Wall (a little dissapointed by the latter in its original configuration, haven't ridden it recently) but not tried The Skyline.