lukesdad
Guest
Lukes footie was cancelled yesterday morning,so as I'd promised him for ages we took the oppurtunity to drive down to Bike Park Wales for the day. The place isn't very well signposted off the main road but we found it easy enough. We arrived just after 9 and the place was packed (not helped by the welsh down hill nationals taking place). We bagged one of the last car park places, donned our wrist bands £5 for me and FOC for luke and off we went. Half a dozen laps of the pump track got us in the mood to the cheers of the gathered downhill mob for luke and groans for me 
. We took to the 'beast of burden' for the first time, now ive heard reports that this would be a major chore, true its steep at the bottom but after the first few hundred meters in turns into twisty single track we enjoyed the whole 4kms to the top and did it 4 times during the day. If you re used to XC forget the uplift its for those lazy downhillers 
FFS Luke is only 8 !
We got to the summit just as the uplift arrived about 40 riders emerged and dissapeared as quickly as they arrived (by the time youve waited loaded the bikes then driven and unloaded I wouldn't think there would be much difference in time for a fit adult on the climb and the uplift huge difference in fun mind
). We decided on the sixtapod, willy waver and Norkle for the first run . At lukes pace and the width of track its a blue run fair enough, any pace and it would be a red. Open at the top it flows downhill into the woods and gets a little narrower we took the divert onto the locomotion before the willy waver. Great run all the waydown twisting and turning perfect for luke.
Second time down it was the wibbly wobbly,rim dinger and innsufficent funds, Luke struggled a bit on these with the loose rocks and stone steps (some may call drop offs) we call 'em stone steps
culminating with a big off, after a few tears and a dust down we made it to the bottom, these 3 trails are quite technical and there were a few raised eyebrows but heh its good for his development 
. So it was off to the cafe for lunch. bacon bap toasted cheese sarnie hot choc and tea came to a tenner and was top notch. a nosey round the shop and a gander at some of the exotic downhill rigs the mob were using( there s some money tied up in those machines I can tell you.) we were on the climb again. This time we did the melted welly bluebelle and bushwacker trails, they were enjoyable but not as good as the first run we did and Luke concurred, at this point i thought he would have had enough but not a bit he wanted to nail the Sixtapod route. So off we went, the speed he came down forget a 29er I'm getting a 20" friggin Islabike 
A couple more loops of the pump track and our day was done.
We left just before 6 and with in 10 mins his nibs was fast a kip and slept all the way home with a grin on his face from ear to ear. At this point I would usually sum up, but im finding it difficult so I ll finnish with just these words. There is nothing and I mean nothing that comes anywhere near to this facility in the UK !
Get yourselves down there pronto !
. We took to the 'beast of burden' for the first time, now ive heard reports that this would be a major chore, true its steep at the bottom but after the first few hundred meters in turns into twisty single track we enjoyed the whole 4kms to the top and did it 4 times during the day. If you re used to XC forget the uplift its for those lazy downhillers FFS Luke is only 8 !We got to the summit just as the uplift arrived about 40 riders emerged and dissapeared as quickly as they arrived (by the time youve waited loaded the bikes then driven and unloaded I wouldn't think there would be much difference in time for a fit adult on the climb and the uplift huge difference in fun mind
). We decided on the sixtapod, willy waver and Norkle for the first run . At lukes pace and the width of track its a blue run fair enough, any pace and it would be a red. Open at the top it flows downhill into the woods and gets a little narrower we took the divert onto the locomotion before the willy waver. Great run all the waydown twisting and turning perfect for luke.Second time down it was the wibbly wobbly,rim dinger and innsufficent funds, Luke struggled a bit on these with the loose rocks and stone steps (some may call drop offs) we call 'em stone steps
culminating with a big off, after a few tears and a dust down we made it to the bottom, these 3 trails are quite technical and there were a few raised eyebrows but heh its good for his development . So it was off to the cafe for lunch. bacon bap toasted cheese sarnie hot choc and tea came to a tenner and was top notch. a nosey round the shop and a gander at some of the exotic downhill rigs the mob were using( there s some money tied up in those machines I can tell you.) we were on the climb again. This time we did the melted welly bluebelle and bushwacker trails, they were enjoyable but not as good as the first run we did and Luke concurred, at this point i thought he would have had enough but not a bit he wanted to nail the Sixtapod route. So off we went, the speed he came down forget a 29er I'm getting a 20" friggin Islabike A couple more loops of the pump track and our day was done.We left just before 6 and with in 10 mins his nibs was fast a kip and slept all the way home with a grin on his face from ear to ear. At this point I would usually sum up, but im finding it difficult so I ll finnish with just these words. There is nothing and I mean nothing that comes anywhere near to this facility in the UK !
Get yourselves down there pronto !
but we re best mates, he's full on and pretty tough with himself, so you are probably right about the pride.
