Article Bike Park Wales on an eBike

[TheBikePilot]

Perhaps most mountain bikers idea of the ultimate ‘dirty weekend’ is a trip to Bike Park Wales. Nestled on the side of a hill in Methyr Tydfil this is put simply my favourite Bike Park in the UK. I first visited BPW 5 years ago not long after it had opened on a rather miserable day. There were around 10 trails and most of it scaled the mountainside and hadn’t really matured. The forest hadn’t been used aside from one trail and it felt a little like a JCB had carved into the hill and they dumped and packed some shingle. I didn’t have a great day, I fell off in the wet. Well 6 years later one thing hadn’t changed. I fell off, but BPW had turned into one of the most enjoyable venues for Mountain Biking I’ve ever been to and one of the best days out I’ve had in years. I find myself saying that nearly every weekend on my eBike. Oh, that and I keep falling off….! But that’s progression, not regression..right?



Most of us bought an eBike because we hate pedalling uphill, but love going...

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[Rob Rides EMTB]

Epic day out Jon!

 

[TheBikePilot]

Awesome mate. Can't wait to go back now buddy

 

[Mattwilko92]

It looked mint. Hope the bike wasnt hurt Jonny! Oh and you also

 

[TheBikePilot]

Nothing a bit of cosmetic surgery won’t fix

 

[Stumpy]

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Very enjoyable and informative read - nice one ?? @Jonny2

 

[Paul Mac]

Graet read Jon!

 

[Steve Curran]

Great read Jonny. Fell out of love with my mtb mainly cuz climbs killed me at aged 59.But thanks to Rob's Cube Stereo video(bought one) I'm back and loving it again.

 

[EMikeTB]

Great ride

 

[Couchy]

Done it twice on my ebike with non ebike mates, used the uplift too !. I was surprised there was no negatives with the weight and was the quickest of our group even with riders much more experienced than me. A quick strava showed times amongst the quickest there for the day proving the extra weight was irrelevant. Plan to go again soon as it’s a brilliant day out

 

[Dax]

I found the kenevo felt heavy on flow stuff at bpw compared to an enduro or dh bike.

 

[Eckythump]

As we dropped into the second half of Rim Dinger on Sunday we chatted about not going down hard like Robs mate!!
Hope you have healed up ok.

 

[cjm_wales]

I'm there for the first time tomorrow, as a billy-no-mates.

Hopefully it'll be quiet & I won't hold anyone up

 

[TheBikePilot]

I've done a video review as well for your persual! If I was off tomorrow I would come down with you..You'll have an amazing day

Appreciate your feedback on this vid ?

 

[Max-E]

Awesome report. Makes me want to go.

 

[cjm_wales]

Loved the video. Almost as much as I loved the park!

It was seriously the most fun I've had on two wheels since I last took my Triumph on a trackday. Oddly, it had a trackday feel to it, but without the smell of petrol or the bother of warning up tyres.

A very kind gent named Stewart took me under his wing - I ended up parking next to him purely by accident, and we got chatting about focus bikes (he has a Sam2).

We climbed 'manually' for the first 2 runs, before switching to uplift, which gave a welcome opportunity to chill for 10 minutes.

I remember terry's belly, sixtapod, melted welly, blue belle - I think we did terry's belly twice. And popty ping, which was comedic for me, as I've had very little airtime before today, and almost had some enormous crashes due to inexperience - but I was still laughing like an idiot.

What blew me away was how well the trails flowed. You could get into a rythmn and it felt like I was getting quicker and quicker, turn by turn.

I can't wait to go back. It's addictive stuff. I can't believe it's 20 minutes up the road from me.

 

[Dukeinlondon]

Really good article, nice read. My recollection from going there on a rainy day with colleagues a few years ago as a complete MTB newbie was how incredibly tiring the descent were, how impossible it seemed to ride a full suspension bike all the way up that hill (we used the uplift) and how that planted the seed in my mind that an emtb was the way to go if I was going to do this closer to home in the Surrey Hills.

 

[francisco]

I critisize once Jonny for him to talk about an ebike and just talk not ride it and he answer in a very positive and constructiv way .Something strange in these days.
Now its my time to reply in a positive way.
This and other articles from Jonny are interesting to someone who have or are looking for a ebike.
Ebikes should be tested and take to their limits to us to know witch they are and what we can count from an ebike.
Ride them on all types of courses ,parks ,etc The most important is RIDE and next tell us how did it go .
Cheers

 

[TheBikePilot]

Do you mean in the video or in general?

Glad to redeem myself buddy

 

[Michelle Robertson]

When you say it took 15mins to go up, was that the quickest route (C5)?

 

[cjm_wales]

When you say it took 15mins to go up, was that the quickest route (C5)?

Beast of burden, 15 minutes easily. It's a good warm up / grip check too!

I'm afraid I'm a BPW addict now ?

 

[Michelle Robertson]

me too, however will be first time on an ebike in sept. I have been about 7 times on my norm DH. Cant wait.
Im guessing then C5 short cut will be quicker than via Beast of Burden?

 

[Kiwi in Wales]

C5 is quicker and it is also a more challenging climb as there are a few random off camber roots on some of the uphill switchbacks.

It’s a tough climb on Eco and will definitely get the blood circulating quickly and test your lung capacity out. Turbo is fun on this climb as there are a number of techie bits which will catch you out and force a possible foot dab it you don’t time your pedal strokes carefully especially if it is wet.

Be careful when you are doing the climb as you have to cross one of the trails about 200 metres into the climb (can’t remember which trail it is sorry) it is sign posted just before you cross it but just keep a cautious eye to your left as they come down there fairly fast and it would not be good getting T boned while you were concentrating on the climb

I find I use the same amount of battery doing either C5 and Beast of Burden as C5 is a lot steeper and I always use Turbo going up It because for me, it is a fun climb at speed that tests my riding skills and fitness in the dry and even more so when it is wet