We’re Not Trail Centre Fans but This Was Different! | Cwmcarn & Risca

We’re usually not big fans of trail centres as we prefer more natural riding. Sometimes they can feel too polished and predictable. But Cwmcarn trails and Risca Bike Park surprised us with some fantastic off piste and very natural trails!

We found fast, flowy descents mixed with rocky technical sections, small drops and chutes. Cwmcarn has some proper elevation, good views, and trails that feel like they’re part of the landscape, which can be hard to find in the UK trail centre scene. The Risca bike park side had a whole host of good black natural trails which were a good length too.

As we’re not local here, we don’t know too much about the scene but understand many trails here are maintained by Risca Riders. Many thanks to them for the awesome tracks!
Check out their page here: https://www.instagram.com/theriscariders/?hl=en

In this video, we ride a selection of the trails, show you some of the climbs and it even has a cafe! This ride follows on from our previous day at BikePark Wales where we spent the time progressing on jumps.

Checkout our BikePark Wales vlog here: https://youtu.be/nsiY38pB0-E?si=Z-9j9B0I6g6OEjzM

Some of the trails we rode:
– The Pedalhounds Downhill track which has hosted downhill races. Some big features that we were too tired to session and try do any justice by the end of the day!
– Busy Lizzie black trail
– a few trail bits of trail centre red (but not in the vid as we rode too much to include!)
– a handful of the off piste Risca tracks (Wacko Jacko, Mayhem, Ronduro etc)

📍 Location: Cwmcarn Forest, South Wales
📹 Filmed with: DJI Osmo Action 4

#mtb #walesmtbtrails #cwmcarn #mountainbiking #mtbtrailcentre

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Excellent. Oh my god. Oh yeah, now we’re talking. This is fun. Hey, and welcome back. So, we are on part two of our Welsh road trip. Now, uh if you want to see part one, check out our vlog from Bike Park Wales, hitting some of the the jump points. It was amazing. Today we are on our NS findiness. Looking fine. And we’re at a place called Quim Karn. Probably not pronouncing it right at Riska. And we’re going to be hitting a few different trails. See what’s what. First time here riding with Paul who has been here before. So, yep. He’s told us it’s awesome. He’s a guide and we’re looking forward to it. Let’s go. Lovely. Oh, Ronuro. It splits into the Ronuro and the quarry line. So we’ll do what is it called? Ronuro. Ronuro. Ronuro. Oh yeah, dirt is good. Not too wide here, is it? Excellent. First trail of the day. Just get a feel for the place. Can’t see I hate summer is always tricky. There’s a whole load of stuff in this hill. Some pretty steep techy stuff and then some just fast flowy stuff. Good mixture. See what we hit today. Oh my god. You’re just having to take kind of what comes behind each corner cuz Yeah, the ferns are so high. Oh my god. What the Oh, it slid. It slid from like here. Ow. Be careful. Look ahead. I stopped here. No, you didn’t. I did it. Look. Oh my god. I thought that was a drop last minute and I scrubbed the speed. Thought I was going to die. Oh, Tom Jinx. He just said it was too flowy. Now look at it. All the wet roots. It that was cool. Ronduro even now goes through there and that’s like all across um cable we’ll follow Tom’s line. Woo! So many roots. It’s pretty tight and twisty in here. There we go. Yeah, I just came off in the bushes. Have to come off there. This is like really sketchy. Doesn’t really slow down on them. No, that was when you go Happy day. Try not fall in any bushes this time, right? Sounds like a plan. All right, Jacko. That looks good. Wet. Oh no. Is this red? Okay, so this is red. This is fun. Little drops on the top. It’s definitely the dirt is perfect. Oh, this is really good, man. Wait, I had a hole in it. Like I went off a drop and I just heard two clinks and I pushed back up in my laundry. Well, well spotted. I’m good. Let’s hope we can keep them in now. I was a bit worried it was a bite. Let’s go. Laundry tokens been retrieved. This is fun, especially on a heap. Straight out. This looks good. Straight out. Yeah, we need to do that again. It’s the high line. High line. Ah. This is brilliant. It got bit more channeling now. Rock. Jesus. Need to look more ahead. Another deadly exit on the road. No, it’s okay. That was really good. That was really good. Johno John. And the first one was what? Craig Jurro. Bonjurro as well. Hey, come on. This doesn’t seems to be that either. Yeah, this is more this is the early vibes. Doesn’t seems to be that this. Oh yeah, this is steep. Heat. Heat. That was really gnarly top. Now we’re back in uh I reckon trail center wipes. Oh, overgrown trail center wipes. But I reckon it probably is easier on the battery. Oh, it’s lovely. It’s just like Yeah. cruising down here and then up the road. We coffee break and then heading up for a few more of the the blacks. Always like when you can stop for a coffee in the middle of the ride. It’s good. Tom’s ebike looking good over there. Hey, that’s prototype. So, time for Okay, messenger. Busy Lizzy. What? What do you see? I see trails. He sees trails. That’s a good start. All right. Basil, is it? Oh no. Do that. Now I’m not clipped in. Oh jeez. Busy Lizzy. It’s pretty good. Trimmed. Freshly cut. Nice fly. That was a chunky one. Juicy one. O. That’s my protein for ebikes for the vin. There’s a little climb here. overgrown. That seems to be the theme here. Oh, what’s that? Wow. Gravel. More flies overgrown. Oh god, that’s running not good. It’s all overgrown, man. Everything’s overgrown. That’s not overgrown. That’s fine. If you’re getting smashed the whole way through, go on. Yeah. Oh yeah, now we’re talking. Keep the foot on the pedals. That was good. One of these front wheels trying to left heading up a steep hill. That was okay. Actually got me out of breath. I see lots of ferns into the next. I just heard Tom getting Yeah, that actually did scratch. There’s quite a lot of like thorny branches places. Just slow it down a bit. Oh my god. Woo. Woo! Good stuff. This is like my third ride on the ebike, so still got a bit of setting up to do. Get everything feeling good. Wheels is a good place for it. Oh, missed that jump. There’s a split there. Guess we go straight. Yeah. Running really well. Flies. Woo! Tom slipped in the same fantastic. That’s actually a cracking descent. Zero overgrownness. That was really good. Knee overgrown. Apart from that, apart from that set of ferns, it did scratch me. Yes, it hit me as well this morning straight away. Oh no, that was really fun. So now we are off to a downhill track. cruise up the road and uh yeah, see what the red hill’s got in store. All right, downhill. Rail center downhill starts fast. Woo, that’s a jump already. Oh, that’s a big jumps to land. Oh god. on. Why? I know. What’s going on? I don’t know. It’s quite slick. Can’t do that. No, definitely not. Bloody hell. Yeah, don’t do it. It’s really It’s really hard. No, you need to pull. That’s a huge one. Like that’s a mile away. You need to land past them blocks, not passing. That’s insane. There’s a downhill track, so it should be rough. Oh, wow. Oh, Ter, what what’s going on here? Splits. Jesus, this must be fast racing this on a downhill. If you know how to race downhill, this must be insane. Heat. Heat. Man, I was so sure. Are you going over that BM? Ah. How’s that for a finish in the pub? Not bad.