Reviews for Black Trail - Coed Llandegla Forest

Summary:
Glentress's younger welsh cousin

Review:
The combined black/red route is a quality little moutain bike trail.
The black stuff is pretty tame but it is good fun non the less.
A lot of the black graded sections are very decent, fast flowing single track trails with plenty of jumps and the odd drop off to keep you interested. Some of them reminded me of certain sections of Glentress which defintely is not a bad thing.
The only downside was that the gates didn't open until 9am, its nice to be able to access trails early if you can drag yourself out of bed but to be faced with locked gates and little other parking options it was a bit of a shame but not the end of the world.
If you are in the area of north wales I'd go for this and Penmachno red route over Coed y Brenin if you like sweet, long and flowing single track.

Summary:
great day out

Review:
Great for families. Groups of lads lasses. fantastic cafe and shop .
But these black runs are a bit tame, I've ridden these then gone to other black runs at other places and been out of my depth, these black aren't hard, some steep climbs after fast smooth down hills some table top jumps.

Summary:
Not black at all, over-rated

Review:
I'm mainly a downhill/freerider and love berms, drops, northshore and jumps or tight technical downhill. These 'black trails' are really disapointing, I seriously regretted taking a full face helmet and pads. The black bits are hard packed and quite smooth, you could get down them on a road bike. each straight is fast and flowy but just as you start to really enjoy it the track turns up hill, you have to pedal a little before switching back and doing exactly the same before it turns up hill again. Whoever built it definatly was not a downhill rider, pretty poor.
If your a XC rider its probably a great diversion half way round and a bit of fun.
The skills area is also pretty lame, ideal if you have a young kid who wants to learn biking but there is nothing challenging or even fun to play on, it feels like a council built it without consulting any one who rides or owns a bike.
There is a new huge four cross that is not finsihed yet but should be sick when finished.
I rate it for facilities as 9, xc as 8 and for downhill 1.

Summary:
fantastic

Review:
me and a few mates went yesterday on only our second proper trail ride and loved it did the blacks which were great enjoyed it thouroughly

Summary:
Fast and fun

Review:
Its official I still love Llandegla.

I probably had not ridden here for a good 6 months because snow, life and kids got in the way, so I decided to treat my self to an outing and went on Feb 13th. For one thing I wanted to check out the new skills area.

Being a weekend it was of course massively busy but that does not bother me too much as popularity is often a fair indication of how good it is and it is amazing how many people the various trails can cope with. Obviously though Llandegla is not one of those places at which you will only see 2 other people all day but I find it fine to ride at. If there is a cluster of people at the beginning of a descent just give them a bit of room before going down yourself.

I always ride Black but I think in a lot of other places it would be classified a red. This is not to say that the trail is without its challenges but there is nothing massively technical on the route. Basically there is nothing you cannot roll or avoid but there is a steep wooden roll in and there are an increasing number of deep braking bumps on a lot of the steeper sections. The two descents on Black are excellent, intense because they are so fast and flowing and definitely amongst the most flowy trails I have ridden.

The downer is however as you climb the switchbacks of Badgers Rise you are aware that the best is behind you as you rejoin the red route proper. Sure there are other fun bits on the trail. A nice flowy section just before JJ’s Jumps, JJ’s Jumps themselves are fun albeit there is a huge potential to overcook a jump. There is a good section around the tin hut with a choice of a steep roll in or a bermy alternative then a moderately testing log shore feature. After that it is a fairly thrill less hack back to the hub. Even the last red section which I liked as it was moderately technical is currently fenced off as something else is being built.

The new skills area is ok for a quick half hour of so messing about in. You have a number of options that you could session including berms and corners, drop offs, and jumps. The loops are all very short and if you take the skills area alone it would probably score a 6.

That said Llandegla Black is still a 9 from me simply for the glorious blast that is the first two descents.