BikePark Wales — Attraction in Troed-y-rhiw

Probably been to BPW about 20 times over the years and have been to most other uplift centers in the UK. Sadly what would have been a 5 star review in years gone by is now 3 stars for the following reasons:

1. The sanitisation of the trails. So many of the interesting and technically challenging features on the trails have been made really easy now. I know the answer to this is that they are risk assessing the trails and probably looking at where people are having accidents etc. but this is a dangerous sport and I want to be challenged. I understand particularly bad features but lately this has been everywhere. I feel they should just build easier routes around difficult features rather than removing them altogether. Root Manoeuvres: the drops at the end of the trail have all been made smaller and the gradient of the rock roll before the drops has been completely ruined. ACDC: All the jump options at the top section have been removed, the slippy root drop out of the forest is gone. Not sure if it's just me being better but it feels like it is much easier to make the last drop now, you used to have to absolutely nail the features before the last drop to have the speed for it. Coal not Dole: The double drop at the start is now too easy and rock drop into the berm is gone, this now a red trail as the two features that made it black are now very easy. Hot Stepper: Used to have a really cool root drop just after popty ping (removed a while ago) Surfin Bird: The wall section has been ruined. Quite a bit of this trail has been sanitized, I'd say it was a blue now. Bonneville: The first drop used to be a challenge, now you can just roll over it.

2. The uplift: The uplift is long, when I first started coming I could easily get 12 plus runs in, now you're lucky if you get 8. The problem lies with long queues and a tendency at the end of the day to wait for the buses to fill before leaving when there is no queue and other buses waiting behind. I feel they should either limit the numbers more or just run the uplift for an extra hour to account for this.

3. The food seems to get more expensive and lower quality every time I go, £13 for a chicken burger chips and can of fizz is too much, will just take my own lunch next time.

And one general comment, not something that has necessarily got worse but the layout of the park is fundamentally flawed with the car park being so far from the uplift and the limited runs nowadays meaning you don't want to go back to the trail center anymore than once for lunch. This means you get really dehydrated during the day particularly in summer. It wouldn't be difficult to have a bowser of water and some cups at the uplift for people to drink, it's dangerous to ride whilst dehydrated.

Have seen a couple of comments criticising staff but that has never been my experience they have always been helpful and kind.

Overall I wouldn't say don't go as you will have an amazing time and there are some amazing runs the likes of which you won't find anywhere else and I will be back, I just wish it was as good as I...

The Good stuff: Parking fine, check-in small queue but pleasant male staff.

Uplift always a van there and once full it leaves (you want the seats near window and not rear !) We hired a bike and helmets and knee and elbow protectors all of which were of good quality. (Staff there were really passionate about the product).

Trails are well maintained , we stayed in our comfort zones of green and blues.

Seating is plenty at the food area and bike maintenance areas and a bike wash available all at a cost.

Bad stuff: really peeved that when we booked we accidentally booked pedal passes not realising that with the uplift we didn't need them. Contact them with in a very short time to be told there is a cancellation charge which is a £16+ I think this is blatant money grabbing , as a business owner myself I know costs for staff and card processing and £5 be ample , we don't charge admin ourselves but £5 would be enough if we did, as we were still coming anyway and hiring all the gear on top I felt this was mean spirited and left me feeling robbed before I even got there. Despite raising this I was denied a refund on the "costs of processing" part of the refund.

Uplift: if you are precious about your bike the uplift you will find difficult. I was very glad I rented ,you can see the forks of bikes banging into each other and bike frames on the end position nearest the van end need fine tuning otherwise they will get damaged as they will bang into the trailor frame , there is some padding there but on our one it was frayed. One uplift out of the 5 we did was a good chap and managed to move my boys bike from getting damaged. There was an old boy as a driver as well who frankly should not be there, he struggled to drive the van and could not work his walkie talkie ,when one bike was not secured and his team were bellowing on the walkies for him to stop he could not reply to them stating "I don't know how to work these things".

All of the different drivers secure bikes in a different manner and you are expected to know their preference....maybe pop a sign where we queue for the uplift?

Watch as they pull down with all their might on straps that are on your handlebars.i don't know how else they can do this process but again if you are precious about your bike this is your heads up! Straps damage bike grips as noted by every person we spoke with and all of our bikes

Cafe /food: Naturally expensive which is to be expected,food and drinks your bog standard junk food . My lads had chips (v good) and a hot dog with shredded pork (fine) ladies on the tills should be trained by the same person as the chaps as every lady (food outlet and host desk at the end of our day) were near miserable for some reason , the male staff were all friendly and helpful .Sorry ladies but you all let your side down.

If you are under 18/17/16/15 you are supposed to be with an adult however the website , signs in the park and staff will all tell you a different story.

On the whole for what we paid it was overall just about ok, not something I would pay again...

TL;DR: REALLY fun trails but misleading/lack of signs led us to suffer, bit spenny too.

Sorry i love using commas, brackets, and long sentences lol

!!!Now i should start by saying we might not have fully read the website over or looked at the map long enough to see it all as we were eager to start on the Kermit trail!!! I am a novice at best and have been to a few places similar so was excited to start.

The first thing that confused us was the sign that said all trails this way, which took us to the start of the kermit trail, we had heard how good and long it was so we set off, only to be stopped 1 minute into the trail by the uplift and no signs telling us how to continue the trail, we asked someone by the uplink boarding station where we were to walk up for the Kermit trail and he told us to cross the road back ay the bottom and go up the hill, so we did and it was humiliating being watched walking up by the road where people on the bus could watxh us suffering.

Its a beautiful location and there are some decent views between the trees. Have nothing bad to say about that :) staff at the desk was lovely too.

Checked in easy and payed the already slightly high price to walk up the path to the trails ( 18 quid ) instead of getting the slighty ridiculously priced uphill truck ride thingy ( 50 quid ). I was led to believe by the website that the walk was 20 to 40 minutes depending on speed yet did not reach the top for over 2 hours.. did we go the wrong way? I have no idea because there were signs but they were ALL BLANK and the only signs that were left just said bob and had a number under it ( i think bob meant Beast of Burden, being the intermediate climbing trail, i assume idrk) we walked through first through a trail but cut the grass to just walk up the hill instead (there were no signs on the hill other than no entry signs going down)

Anyway once we reached the top after the misery that was trying to walk on an intermediate climbing trail for the last 20 minutes of the two hour walk covered in rocks and mud, we set off on the kermit trail.

I have no complaints about it i dont think ive ever had so much fun on a trail. I can only assume the other trails are just as good if not better because that was a blast even as someone who isnt great on a bike lol. Fast sections pared with banked corners it was amazing, very long for a singular trail too

Should probably only come here if you are really serious about biking and have a few quid to chuck at the uplift because that would x5 the amount of trails you can do id imagine, would come again with the...