Reviews for Gwydir Mawr Mountain Bike Trail

Summary:
Awesome!

Review:
Yes, there's a lot of climbs, but it is a mountain bike route, not your front lawn, you should be expecting that. there's a hell of a lot of fun to be had on this route, especially on Dragon's Tail and some of the stuff like that. the downhill sections are separated out by climbs on fireroads, but you get cracking views on your climbs and mostly they give you a chance to chat to your mate about the downhill you just did. my freind broke his helmet on one of the last DH sections yesterday. that's how ace this trail is.

Summary:
Great fun but tiring!

Review:
Rode this trail over the May bank holiday weekend - weather was stunning. Having not ridden off-road in a few years this course was probably not the best choice for my first time out but was certainly fun anyway. We entered the forest from Betws y Coed which I would not recommend as the climb up to the trail is pretty hard going (my flatmate who’s not ridden a bike in years was really struggling). Going this way also means you do the final descent early on which is a waste (as you have to climb ~700ft back up to the trail!). As some of the other reviewers say, there are a lot of uphill sections (mainly on fire roads) and you don’t always feel you get rewarded for your efforts but when you do get to a downhill section they’re pretty damned good and the views up there are stunning!

Summary:
nice route

Review:
I have rode this trail before and decided i'd gove the nippers ago even though rated as difficult.
My lads are aged 7 and 9 (26/04/09), they managed very well it took 4 hours in total which isnt bad considering there age and size, considering some of the climbs. The downhill sections are not too technical so we would highly recommend this ride to youngsters wanting to venture into this kind of ride.

Summary:
Like a fine wine, gettting better with age

Review:
I rode this 3 years back and threw my guts up after the first climb (I had a skinful of cider the night before) and really didn't enjoy it however the least I could do was go again and try to do the place some justice.
So little did I know when we first went there, there were a load of diversions due too trailworks on it so I hated it, going again now (twice in two fine weeks) the track is awesome, just when your finding your feet on a fireroad uphill the albeit short singletrack decents will twist and turn and flow their way nicely to the valley floor on rock and root which is now a little worse for wear so it gives you a wickedly fast, ass kicking old school mountain bike ride. Carries on all the way round in a similar way and at 25 km distance is spot on. Look out for the Dragons Back section and as everyone else says the humdinger of a final decent to the car park. To all the haters, give it another go like I did and make sure you leave your excuses at home this time, end of the day what comes down must go up in one way or another.

Summary:
90% of boring uphill

Review:
Overall i personally found this is a real ball ache of a trail, on my specialize enduro. To be fair its a well presented and maintained trail and in good condition. The many and long firetrail up hills in a funny sort of way helped my through this tiering ride as they didnt challenge my energies further like a tricky single track may have done over the same distance. The down hills (all but the last) just didnt seem to out way the effort to get there.

I WOULD DEFINATELY RECOMMEND THE LAST DOWN HILL, just shame i didnt have much energy left to fully enjoy it. I suggest riding from the carpark up to the cross over and hang a right back towards the finish, blinding decent, and would revisit just to do this a few times more times, credit to the trail bulders and the local forstry commision.