Without further a do we arranged to go to Llandegla Forest Trail Centre as it's only an hour and 15 mins or so from Manchester where she lives and has a blue run. We chose to go on Wednesday in the last week of September (as I work for myself and have the luxury of being flexible and she wanted to take advantage of time in-between jobs) and what a scorcher of a day it was to be out there: 26c and not a cloud in the sky - a great day for an intro to mountain biking!
Llandegla is a managed forest located in North Wales not too far from Chester and Wrexham. It is well linked to Liverpool, Manchester and the Wirral which is great for people to access this place, but be warned on a weekend it can get very busy. There are excellent facilities, superb biking routes and skills areas for all abilities and way marked walks through the trees.
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Facilities
Parking: £3.50 one of charge for all day I think. There's plenty of parking mid week but it can be a little hectic at weekends.
Visitor centre / Cafe - Great little cafe here with seating inside and outside (to bask in the sunshine when available!). We were a little peckish before heading off on our trail run so decided to get a bite to eat. I chose a coronation chicken wrap and it was amazing - the best I've ever had. Lovely sauce and big chunks of breast meat. Jenny had the Welsh rarebit and it looked a bit of all right too - although I still don't know exactly what it is. I also had a chocolate brownie which was spot on. Anyhoo lets not turn this into a foodie blog.
Bike shop / bike hire - there's a great shop here (One Planet Adventure) with lots of shiny new bikes to tempt you, a good selection of clothing and parts etc. Bike hire is £22 for half a day and £32 for a full day with a couple of quid for a helmet. Compared to other bike hire options at trail centres this is a little more pricier. As far as I'm aware there is just one option for rental and that is a Kona (apologies not 100% sure of the type of bike) but it's a solid all mountain type of rig - big tyres heavy frame but a good all rounder. We did have some issues with their maintenance of these. I should have checked prior to leaving on our ride but the suspension on Jenny's bike was barely existent (not great for her arms as a first timer) as we discovered a couple of miles in. Also the grips on her handle bars were pretty much non existent and overall the bikes were not cleaned which I would presume would be standard for each time you go out on one. The breaks and gears worked fine though so we still had fun! Jenny also chose to pimp her ride with a 90's purple wrap-around frame bum bag - safe!
Trails
As I was out with a newbie to mountain biking we chose to do the blue run and then have a stint in the skills area.
In terms of trail variation here there is a good selection of: green run for families (5km), blue for beginners (12km - sorry Jenny I told you it was 8km!), red intermediate route (18km) and black runs which is most of the red with black graded runs off it (21km).
There is also a skills section which covers table tops, berms and drops and a few other bits and pieces. We tried this after the blue run and it's brilliant for beginners as well as me who also needs to practice table tops.
There's also a pump track to get your flow and a free ride track (which wasn't open when we were there)
All of the main trails (blue, red and black) start out on what can only be described as a long winded bit of very wide inclined singletrack. This goes on for a few km and the positive aspect of it?...well it warms your legs up.
The long and winding road!
Once this is completed a bit of fun starts. There's a couple of great practice berms that can be taken at speed or leisure before you shoot off down hill on some flowy singletrack. At the bottom of this the trail splits off directing you left to the red section off to the right for the blue.
This time we took the blue section (something I'd never done before - always done red and blacks - see below). For a beginner this is an ideal starter, and a gentle introduction section. Although not as much fun as Coed y Brenin's blue it is still well built and longer. The singletrack is wide enough not to intimidate beginners but also not too wide at the same time as to give a taster of what to expect once you want to progress onto a red trail. There are some nice little tabletop type features and the odd switch back corner to provide some nice flow and bike control practice. Jenny enjoyed the sections and a good summary for it was that she is now keen to step up to try a red section. I would say that she took to the biking like a natural and I'm sure will be a quick learner!
The red trail at Llandegla is good in places but there is a lot of leg spinning in parts for not a lot of return - especially on the way back once all the best sections have been done. Where the blue section splits from the red - if you take the red and head across onto the other side of the forest road where the trees have been cleared, this section offers some really good fun - table tops, drops, berms and fast no braking hill descents. The only thing I would say is that for a beginner the trail gets pretty bumpy in places because it is well worn would leave the arms and hands wanting a rest if you were new to this type of trail.
Once on the red route there come the choice to do the best bits of Llandegla and some of my favourite sections of any trail centre I have done to date - the black runs! These are graded black I would say not because of their technicality but more because of the fitness required to execute them and truly get the best out of them. The black runs are generally flowing and fast (with some big table tops and big swooping berms thrown in for good measure). I find that on a good riding day these sections can be dialed fast to the point where I'm really pushing to my speed limits: skimming passed trees whilst nailing some nice little drops....I love them! They are really well built and will leave a massive grin on your face.
The black runs all lead back onto the red trail which then takes you back to the trail centre starting point and visitor centre via the blue run. Although the blacks are great and the red bits are good in places is does feel like a lot of effort for these sections - if there was a way to get to do them on a loop, without having to do the start and the end then that would be perfect...but we do not live in a perfect world! If you are heading into Wales from the north for a weekend of biking this is great stop off point on your way in and is recommended.
All in all - great facilities, great cafe, great location, lovely scenery, lots of variation of trails for families to experts - thumbs definitely up. Go and see for yourself!
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