Mountain biking has come a long way since the early ’80s. when everyone rode essentially the same bike and suspension was unheard of. Nearly three decades later the sport has split into specialities that makes bike buying a tad confusing. But it needn’t be; all you have to do is ask yourself a few simple questions. 

PICK YOUR POISON 

Which bike you buy depends on the type of riding you do. If it’s racing then a true cross country bike is probably you. They are lighter (typically under 12 kg) and more responsive. They can be hard tailor full suspension, but the suspension travel is usually limited to 100mm.If you do a few events combined with all day recces and adventure rides then consider a trail bike. They are heavier (typically 12-14kg). due mostly to longer suspension travel (up to 150mm). and have a slightly longer wheel base. But they are also more stable on tricky terrain.

If you also prefer challenging your skills and bombing technical trails then an all-terrain bike might be the trick. They are heavier again (typically 13-16kg) with more suspension travel (up to 170mm), longer wheel base, and stronger frame build.For most, the lightest trail bike is probably the best option for fun and effectiveness. If full suspension isn’t for you, then consider a cross country bike with adjustable front suspension.Also consider features such as ‘dampening’, which allows you to adjust the rebound speed, and ‘lock out’, which allows you to make the fork rigid. The latter is especially useful if your rides include a lot of sedate terrain or roads.

FULLY SUSPENSION OR HARD TAIL

This is today’s big question. Recently full suspension has become better and cheaper, and probably. once you go fully you probably won’t go back.Full suspension takes the edge off the trails, great if you have hand, back or bum problems. But it can also increase your skill. Rear suspension takes the kick-back out of the frame. so sideways drifts and skips over roots and rocks are softened. and you get better traction on steep climbs.The big difference, however, is riding drops and steps because the bike moves with the terrain rather than bouncing off it.

The flip side of full suspension is that hard-tails have never been cheaper. For the same full suspension money you tend to get a better spec’d hard-tail. which also requires less maintenance. The main thing to look for with full suspension is ‘sag’ in the rear end of the bike when you sit on it.This is what makes full suspension so effective as it keeps the wheels in contact with the ground more, giving the bike better grip and you a more stable ride.

FRAMES 

What’s the frame made out of? What’s its geometry? If it’s full suspension, what type of setup works best for you and the riding you do?Nowadays frame manufacturing is mostly aluminium and carbon fibre, with traditional steel and titanium mostly in high-end niche choices. Titanium is more expensive and harder to work with than aluminium. Steel is heaviest. but usually offers a more comfortable ride. Carbon fibre has the best combination of weight and rigidity, but is harder to work with and more expensive than aluminium and steel.

The most crucial element of frame choice is size. Mountain bike frames are still measured in inches, with the size supposedly being the length of the seat tube between the centre of the bottom bracket and the centre of the top tube. Frame sizes tend to range from 13 inches (for riders under 150cm) to 24 inches (for those over two metres).

In the last 10 years, however. frame measurement has become more random, with some manufacturers measuring the seat tube length to the top of the top tube or the end of the seat tube, which means two different brands of the same frame size might not be the same size at all. The result has been an increasing shift to a simpler and more universal scale of small, medium, large and extra-large. Some also do extra-small and extra-extra-large and most big brands now do specific female frame designs, which typically have a slightly shorter top tube.

DRIVE CHAIN

A big trend now is a shift from the triple chain ring crankset to a double chain ring. which arguably allows more reliable gear shifting. For most people though there’s not enough gear range for riding at walking pace uphills to commuting to and from work. Double chain rings then are mostly reserved for high end cross country bikes at the moment.

The difference between grip shift gear changing and rapid fire gear changing is more important. Rapid fire is the traditional system of switches set up around your thumb and forefinger on the handlebars. Grip shift is integrated into the handlebar grip and gears are changed by turning the grip. Rapid fire is still more common and easier to maintain, but grip shift is fast gaining favour among hard core cross country racers. Whichever, it’s a personal choice.

The biggest drive train consideration is crank length. Mountain bikes tend to have longer cranks than road bikes to provide a bit more leverage when using small gears on steep hills. Most medium to large mountain bikes will come with 175mm-long crank arms, but if you are shorter than 170cm then you might consider 170mm or 172.5mm cranks.

WHEELS 

The choice are: 1) Tubeless or traditional, and 2) 26 inch or 29 inch? Bigger wheels roll better, so on open riding and more gradual hills 29 inch bikes are a bit faster. Bigger wheels also take the edge of the trail a bit better, so a hardtail 29′er might be a smoother ride. But bigger wheels accelerate slower, so on terrain with lots of changes in gradient and cornering and super-steep pitches, the smaller wheels get back up to speed faster.A bigger wheel also creates bigger gear ratios, so on steep hills you’re more likely to run out of gears on a 29′er.

More important is tubeless or traditional? Tubeless is faster because without an inner tube there is less weight and less friction. Tubeless can be better because with less risk of pinch punctures you can run lower tyre pressures, allowing better grip virtually everywhere.

Typically tubeless run with an internal sealant fluid so if you puncture the sealant fills the hole and you can hopefully continue. If the tyre gets trashed you can throw in a tube and you’re no worse off than the old days. The only down side is replacing the sealant after punctures and every three to six months even if you don’t get a puncture.

CONTACT POINTS

Saddle, pedals, handlebars and to a lesser extent, brakes. These elements must be comfortable and functional.Pedals are tricky. The pedal industry is so big and people’s preferences so wide that some bikes don’t come with pedals. Finding your favourite comes down to trial and error, so even if the bike you buy does have pedals, chances are you’ll want to change them. Serious riders go for clip-in pedals, but there are still plenty of folk on platforms and toe clips. With clip-in simple is best – the less mechanical parts, the less chance mud will clog them up.

Finding a saddle to fit your butt is also pretty much trial and error. Start with a longish saddle that’s not too narrow in the nose and has a slight lift at the back. Longish because you’ll tend to sit up front on uphills and on the back on downhills. A slight lift at the rear will also stop you sliding back on really steep uphills.Handlebar width is important. To be stable on the bike your bars need to be at least 10cm wider than your shoulders, but it also depends on the riding you do. Wider offers more control and takes the edge off trail shock, but narrower is more aerodynamic and less likely to catch on the undergrowth.

Raised bars have some degree of upsweeping, which dampens trail shock and can add a bit of adjustment to handlebar height if your fork steerer has been cut low. Straight bars are lighter but give a harder ride, but also a more direct feel for the trail, which in technical terrain can be a crash saver.

BRAKES

The best money you can spend on a mountain bike is the difference between disc brakes and rim brakes. Disc brakes make you a better rider. They’re smoother and work better when wet and a quality set requires less maintenance than rim brakes. Just get them.

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK

The final element is how much you’re willing to spend, and how to make the best use of that spend. Most brands have half a dozen ranges, with three or four models in each range. Each range tends to revolve around the same frame. with price variance depending on the level of componentry. Price will probably be a decider in which model you buy but always look at the detail.

In mid-priced mountain bikes a tubeless wheel set is a good decision breaker. What about the groupset? Is it a complete set or a mix of good stuff and not so good stuff? Things like stems. seat posts, saddles. bottom bracket, wheel sets and chains can vary between different brands at the same price. Look for the bike with the best quality througnout because better componentry is usually lighter and lasts longer

Every cyclist knows that being lean and light is beneficial for racing performance. Unfortunately, however, it is not possible to maximize weight loss and fitness gain simultaneously. Maximizing weight loss requires a level of calorie restriction that will sabotage training performance and recovery. Therefore it’s important for cyclists to keep their weight-loss focus periods separate from periods of race-focused training.

The ideal time to make weight loss your top priority is during the several weeks immediately preceding the start of a race-focused training cycle. I refer to such periods as “quick starts.” Your quick starts should not look like the weight-loss diets that most non-athletes follow. As a cyclist you need to approach weight loss in a way that keeps your ultimate perfor¬mance goals in sight, even when maximizing race fitness is not your immediate priority.

There are five key dietary and training com-ponents of a quick start.

1. MODERATE CALORIE DEFICIT

To lose weight you must consume fewer calories than your body burns each day. In a quick start, your daily calorie deficit needs to be large enough to promote fairly rapid loss of excess body fat, yet not so large that you lack sufficient energy to perform well in your workouts. The calorie deficit “sweet spot” is 300 to 500 calories per day.

2. STRENGTH TRAINING

During a quick start you should make a greater commitment to strength training than you do within the training cycle. Research has shown that when a calorie deficit is combined with strength training, nearly all of the resulting weight loss is actual fat loss. When a calorie deficit is not combined with strength training, weight loss is equal but body fat loss is less, because muscle mass is lost too.

Building strength before you begin your race-focused training will also give you a solid structural foundation to absorb that training.

3. INCREASED PROTEIN INTAKE

While carbohydrate is king within the training cycle, I recommend that cyclists switch to a high-protein diet – getting as much as 30 percent of their daily calories from protein – during the several weeks of a quick start. Protein is the most filling nutrient, and research has shown that “dieters” experience significantly less hunger when they combine a calorie deficit with increased protein intake. A high-protein diet will also help you get more out of your strength training.

4. FASTING WORKOUTS

A fasting workout is a long, moderate-intensity ride undertaken in a fasting state – that is, without a meal beforehand and without carbohydrate consumption on the bike. When you deprive your muscles of carbohydrate in a long workout they burn a lot more fat. Such work¬outs also boost general fat-burning capacity. I suggest you perform one fasting workout per week during quick starts.

5. POWER INTERVALS

Your training volume is necessarily lower during a quick start than it is during the race-focused training cycle. You can’t maintain maximum training volume year-round, or you’ll burn out. Obviously, the higher your training volume is, the more calories your burn. So when your training volume is lower, as it is in a quick start, you need to burn calories in al¬ternative ways.

Power interval sessions are one such al-ternative. These workouts consist of large numbers of very short intervals performed at maximum intensity, sometimes against high resistance, ideally on a trainer (e.g. 20 x 20 seconds all out). Research has demonstrated that power intervals promote a high rate of fat burning in the hours that follow the session through a phenomenon known as EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption).

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

To complete a successful quick start, you must first determine exactly how many calories your body burns each day, because this provides the basis for setting your calorie deficit. You must then create meal plans that hit your daily calorie target and your 3o-percent protein target simultaneously. You’ll also need to design a sensible training plan that combines strength workouts, fasting workouts, and power intervals, plus the right amount of aerobic filler.

Giant’s Talon range was introduced two years ago, with a UK focus on great spec and quality ride feel. However, last year its lower-specification brother, the Talon 3, flopped in our annual £600 hardtail test. Can the 2011 Talon 2 claw it back for Giant?

Frame

Giant uses its in-house Aluxx aluminium to build this fluid-formed frame, with more traditional round profiles for the seat tube and seatstays. The front end, where the fluid forming is most obvious, looks burly thanks to the long and oversized head tube and the wide, but flat, down tube – it looks terrific. The top tube and down tube also meet before the tubes join the head tube, making for one super-strong front end. The paint job looks slick too, and there are some nice touches, like helicopter tape to protect the frame where the cables rub and a quick release for the seatpost that proved a joy to use.

Suspension

The Talon is at the top end of our budget for this test, but Giant certainly hasn’t invested that in the fork. Once bedded in, the RockShox Dart 2 worked well enough, though. The compression action is plush and comfortable and, while the rebound adjuster feels cheap and plasticky, it does actually work, giving a controlled return with no nasty top-out clunk, either when locked or fully open.

Groupset

Shimano’s three-piece Octalink crank set should go the distance and last a good few winters, but the real highlight is the SLX rear mech, which shifts wonderfully; reliable and crisp – amazing how Giant always seems to deliver great-value parts on its bikes.

Wheels

Kenda’s Nevegal tyres have bags of grip, but we prefer something faster rolling, as they do drag a bit on fireroad climbs and there’s a telltale buzz when riding on the road. The wheels themselves are too heavy, though, weighing almost Skg complete (the heaviest of any bike on test), even with our lighter Maxxis Ardent control tyres fitted. With the Nevegals they’re even more portly, and you can really feel it when accelerating out of corners. We’re not sure if it’s the rims or the hubs that hold things back, but it’s something Giant needs to address.

Components

We really didn’t like the bar and stem combo on the Giant – the stem’s a touch too long, at 90mm, and the bar was a tad narrow at 670mm. The grips were also odd, too fat for our hands (and this tester has XL hands) and the rubber moved under our palms, which wasn’t reassuring. There’s also a conical spacer on the steerer tube that makes the bike look ungainly if you drop the stem right down – we’re nitpicking here as you could always cut the steerer down, but we shouldn’t have to.

Now for the good stuff: the Shimano brakes worked well, with enough power in reserve, and the saddle feels spot on, comfortable and lightweight – definitely a quality piece of kit.

Performance

Those bar and stem issues really don’t help the Talon off-road and, despite getting the bike in a larger size than the Specialized, it actually has a shorter wheelbase, which means it’s less stable downhill. The front end also feels too high, due to the longer head tube, making it harder to push the bike into the turns, giving it something of a ‘sit up and beg’ riding position.

It’s a remarkably comfortable bike to ride, however, with that Aluxx aluminium design doing a superb job of taking the harshness out of the trail- it’s a bike you could ride all day without much discomfort.

Verdict

The Giant Talon 2 is a touch too heavy to really cut it in this foursome – riding it just feels too much like a grind, especially with the Kenda tyres. It’s also not the most confidence inspiring bike – the high front end makes it hard to weight the front tyre and stop it washing out on flat turns. It’s a shame, as the frame quality is excellent and some of the spec and groupset elements are great. However, no amount of bells and whistles (indeed, it comes with a fine bell) make up for poor geometry and sluggish wheels. This is even more of a shame because Giant only introduced the Talon range a few years ago, in response to criticism of its entry-level hardtails being too racy. Now it seem they’ve overshot the mark and produced something too much like a towpath warrior.

British bike brand Genesis has taken the skinny-tubed retro look to heart, but that hasn’t stopped it from producing some excellent bikes.

Frame

Genesis has a certain quirkiness that sees it eschew hydroformed and swoopy tubes in favour of tapered wall thicknesses and ovalised tubes. This gives bikes like the Core 20 its distinctive, old-school clean-lined looks. It’s far from a rejection of modern technology, however – the Core uses 6061 T6 double-butted aluminium to craft a stiff (perhaps a little too stiff, but we’ll come onto this later) frame, where those tube diameters actually increase as you go up a size in the range, to maintain stiffness, strength and the same ride characteristics. The head tube sees some gusseting to add strength where the down tube and top tube meet it, while at the back there are curved chain stays and a great-looking seatstay wishbone, somewhat reminiscent of the old Orange Clockwork. Well, if it ain’t broke …

Suspension

Step up from the bottom of the range Core 10 (one below this Core 20) and the suspension steps up with you, growing 20mm to 120mm, the longest fork travel on test. RockShox’s Tora is a popular choice at this price point but Genesis has managed to squeeze in a lighter ‘K’ model with an aluminium steerer tube. The fork works well too, tracking the ground efficiently and with little fuss – it does sound a bit wheezy however, as the rebound damping stops the fork pinging the front end into your face after a compression. Still, at least you know it’s working. The spring rate was a touch too soft for this 73kg tester however, and no amount of  pre-load twiddling could make it sit higher in its travel.

Wheels

The Genesis rolls very well indeed, thanks to its lightweight wheelset, although the skewers are really nasty and cheap. The stock Mountain King tyres aren’t an mbr favourite, however, thanks to their slightly unpredictable traction, especially in wet conditions.

Groupset

Genesis has hardly gone to town here, fitting a basic mix of Alivio and Deore (albeit with a decent, Octalink cranksetlbottom bracket). The Shima no brakes really worked superbly though, with 160mm rotors more than enough for the kind of riding this bike inspires. There are  better specced bikes out there, mind – for example, this is the only bike on test with Alivio shifters.

Components

We spent a fair amount of time hopping on and off the Core trying to get the saddle tilt right – there’s a sweet spot that takes a bit of finding with the micro-adjust seatpost. Once comfortable though, the controls reveal themselves as almost exemplary. The stem length is just right, the grips feel comfortable and tacky. Granted, the handlebar is a touch too narrow and looks cheap, but it feels solid enough. However, one item that really needs addressing is the quick release seatpost clamp, as part of the bolt sticks out just waiting to catch your leg.

Performance

Make no mistake, this isn’t the plushest ride out there – that back end is very tight and the svelte, stiff saddle probably doesn’t help things. If you can overlook this, however (that is if you’re young and supple or have a good chiropractor), the Genesis Core 20 feels great descending and rarely feels out of its depth, even riding some of the Surrey Hills’ more technical trails. The riding position is neutral so it’s easy to manual or jump, while that stiff rear end makes it great fun to snap round switchbacks and accelerate away when you hammer on the pedals.

Verdict

Geometry is king. Genesis has clearly figured this out, concentrating on building a great frame that’s long at the front with a fairly relaxed head angle. It has also figured out where to spend the money, fitting a good-quality suspension fork and lightweight wheelset at the expense of showroom bling like a fancy rear mech, instead sticking with a cheap but dependable groupset mix. It doesn’t get top marks, however, because it’s a touch too harsh and the tyres and bars could do with swapping out before you get rolling. The sizing’s not ideal either, as the 19in model is a tad small for anyone 6ft tall, but you really need to be 6ft 2in to pilot the 20.5in. These are just minor niggles though, and the Core 20 is a real ripper of a bike and superb value too.

When riding a descent, one of the most common things you’ll hear from passers by is “you must be crazy”, or “you’ll break your neck”. In fact, I remember descending Ben Nevis last summer and almost everyone we passed had something to say about our sanity. But they can have a point. It’s easy to hurt yourself doing any sport and cross training in the off-season can be as likely to cause injury as a mid-summer ride.

In fact, if you’re avoiding the snow by hiding in the gym or you’ve started running in place of your normal ride, you should be extra careful as you may be moving in ways you’re not used to, stressing joints that aren’t conditioned or contracting muscles that have been redundant all summer.

First and foremost, if you do pick up any niggling pain, stop what you’re doing. Injuries will never heal if you’re still aggravating them and rest should be your first port of call. You need to avoid turning anything acute into a chronic injury by avoiding anything that hurts it. An accurate diagnosis is really important, so if you’re not sure what you’ve done to yourself, get the injury checked out. Only when you know what the damage is can you then get on the right path to full rehabilitation.

Mental approach

With the physical aspect of the injury dealt with, it’s time to consider the psychological impact it’s had on you. A lot of skills and your ability to perform them rely heavily on your confidence and mental approach.

Many top riders try and get back on the bike and into a scary situation as soon as possible after a fall. By not allowing their thoughts to linger, it can help them get straight back to where they were. For others, this isn’t so easy and the cause of the injury can haunt you for a long time. If you are a little tense when getting back on the bike, start slowly and build up to what you were doing when you hurt yourself. Make sure you reinforce what you’re doing and don’t let a mate chiding you to “get over it” put you off.

Think about why you crashed and how that could be avoided in the future. If you were out of your depth, make sure one of your goals is to ride more within your limits and progress at a slower rate. If your accident was due to a simple mistake, then accept this and think about what you need to do, not what you shouldn’t do in the future.

Staying positive is pretty hard, but crucial during this time. Aim to achieve little things on every ride and focus your attention on something positive, whether it’s a good bit of the trail ahead or one aspect of a technique you’re working on.

If your injury was picked up elsewhere, look into how it happened and how you could avoid it in the future. Perhaps you didn’t warm up properly in the gym or your running shoes are older and more out of shape than you are! Whatever the injury is, the more you understand it, the better shape you’ll come out in on the other side.

Q&A:BODY

Seeing the light

I’ve only just started riding this year and after a summer of great post-work sessions, I don’t want to have to stop because it’s dark. I’ve seen that night riding is a pretty common deal, but the lights are expensive. I also find the thought of trying to ride trails in the dark terrifying! Do you think night riding is OK for beginners or should I leave it until next winter?

Stevo, email

Riding in the dark can be a pretty scary experience, but that’s what makes it so much fun. Trails you thought you knew inside out suddenly seem totally fresh and your perspective changes altogether.

Being out after most people have resigned themselves to the sofa is also a great feeling. Just pick your routes well and avoid anything that you found really difficult in the daylight. The dark does add an element of difficulty, so start easy and build up. By not taking a break for the winter, you should also keep your skills progression on track and hit next summer on a new high.

And yes, you can spend as much as £500 on a set of lights, but if your budget doesn’t stretch that far, we found Eagletac’s P20A2, at £50, a plausible alternative – based on dual bar/helmet set-up.
Cold pain

I snapped my anterior cruciate ligament skiing about five years ago, and although I had corrective surgery at the time, I find that the winter really makes it hurt. My physio reckons it’s not great, but it’s not too bad to ride. It’s just when I go to stamp on the pedals it really twinges; something that doesn’t happen in the summer. Any tips for some pain-free riding?

Ali, email

As a knee injury sufferer myself, I feel your pain. The drop in temperature around this time of year does the exact same thing to my knee and the tendonitis I have, which doesn’t bother me too much in the summer, but seems to really flare up in winter. A long, steady warm-up sorts me out and I have to take extra care in making sure my legs are warm before I go doing any hard efforts. Extra thick winter longs help and on some rides I stick on some thin knee pads for extra warmth. So, make sure you never ride in shorts and don’t rush into things. It’s all that works for me.

When you start venturing off the beaten track and into the big mountains of  the North of Scotland, Lake District or North Wales you’ll soon come across patches of loose rock, strewn over the hillsides and littering the trail. In some cases the loose rock is so deep or wide that it becomes the riding surface and it’s at these times things can get really tricky. The sequence we shot was on hillside in the Scottish Borders. The trail itself had been warn into the rock and it made for a very unpredictable ride. Being able to ride these surfaces can have a huge positive impact on the rest of your riding so next time you come across some loose scree, apply some of our tips and challenge yourself to ride the whole section.

1.Approach

The very nature of loose rock will affect your approach. Even if you ride a trail every week, the way the rocks will roll around, how dry the rocks are and how the rider in front of you has ridden the section will all create an ever – changing environment that you can react to. Forward planning isn’t that reliable in these situations so go with it and stay relaxed. Keep the speed low too, approaching at speed will seldom end in success.

2.Preparation

Get your position central and aim to have your torso as stable as possible. Keep your gaze fixed on where you need to end up and don’t let the odd wobble put you off. It’s just like joining the dots really, with each dot a key spot on the trail. Try not to get over – complicated with your line choice and remamber – stay focused on the positive shapes ahead while remaining relaxed.

3.Upper body

How you hold your upper body is crucial if you are to build speed and get better at riding  loose rocky sections.Just like a good skier, you should be aiming to keep your chest pointing in the direction you’re heading without shifting too much side to side. Good posture, balance and core strength are important and all things you can train for off the bike and in the gym, if you need extra help.

4.Lower body

Even the best suspension systems are out – performed by your own shock absorbers – your elbows and knees. As with cornering and cambers, let your hips do the side – to – side movements and support any quick shifts, slips or slides with smooth, effortless arm and leg movements. As previous said, you’ll need to remain alert and reactive to what the bike does. After all, even the best in the world need to go with the flow on the loose, deep scree and rubble – strewn trails.

5.Braking

Although we always promote proactive anticipation of the trails ahead, when it comes to the loosest of loose rock, text book technique sometimes has to be a little bit flexible.Although you need to approach in control and at a low speed, don’t be too worried if your braking is slightly dictated by how the rock reacts to your presence.If it’s steep, bias the back brake and the odd skid is OK. However, too much braking at too low a speed won’t do you any favours. If possible, keep rolling along and let it slide.

Our routes are based around two substantial hills and valleys around them. The Blorenge (561m/1840ft) lies between Abergavennyand Blaenavon. It’s a stack of Devonian sandstone, carboniferous mudstone, fimestone and sandstone and a coarse sandstone topping. These layers tilt down towards the south west and into the South Wales coalfield. The Blorenge’s steep northern face was formed by a glader passing by, carving out the Usk Valley as it did so. Today, the face is an ideal launch spot for hang•gliders – the summit is owned by the SE Wales Hang-Gliding and Paragliding Club. A smaller glacier scoured out the Punchbowl on the eastern face.

Coity Mountain (581m/1906ft), between Blaenavon and Abertillery, is geologically similar and higfler than the Blorenge, but because irs got more of a plateau and sits among other hills it’s not as distinctive. There’s a lot of peat on Coity, and some trails can be heavy going in damp conditions.

With coal, iron ore, limestone and water in abundance, this part of Wales is linked with heavy industry, particularly iron and steel making and coal mining. Blaenavon was made a World Heritage Site in 2000 in recognition of the area’s role in the Industrial Revolution. Its 86m (283ft) deep Big Pit mineshaft was the first deep shaft sunk in the South Wales coalfield, although there had been extensive opencast mining before that. Big Pit closed in 1980 and is now a museum, offering visitors the chance to venture underground for an authentic mining experience.

The routes pass by (or through) bits of industrial archaeology, including the coal tips around Big Pit and also Keeper’s Pond (also known as Pen-ffordd-goch) high on the Blorenge, that once provided water to the Garnddyrus iron works. While we’re doing local trivia, Wikipedia also points out that “Blorenge” is one of the small number of words that rhymes with “orange”.

What it’s best for

Stout climbs, nadgery descents, views and industrial heritage.

Best time to go

Some sedions are marshy in wet weather, although when we visited the ground was frozen which made things considerably faster rolling. The best conditions are after a period of dry weather.

Nearest town

The biggest town in the area is Abergavenny. The Classic and short loops start from Abertillery, with the Classic passing through Blaenavon.

Maps required

All routes are near the bottom of OS Landranger 1 :50000 sheet 161: The Black Mountains. If you need more detail, look for OS Explorer sheet OL13: Brecon Beacons National Park.

Accommodation

There’s a cluster of bike•friendly accommodation around the Cwmcarn trail centre. Try Westwood Villa guest house in Crosskeys (01495272650), The Stables in Newbridge (01495243888) or Awen B&B in Abercarn (01495244615, WIVW. awenbandb.com). There are also campsites at CWmcarn itself (01495 272001, www.cwmcarnforest.co.uk) or up the road near Crumlin (Pen y Fan, 01495 226636, www. penyiancaravanpark.co.uk).

Bike shops

The nearest bike shops are PS Cycles in Abercarn (01495 246555, www. pscycles.co.uk) and Martyn Ashfield Cycles in Risca (01633 601040, Iw/W. martynashfieldcycles.co.uk).U’s not technically a bike shop, but a quick mention for Fox suspension sefllice centre Mojo in Risca (01633 615815, www.mojo.co.uk) who let Aimee out to ride for a couple of days.

Getting there

Access to the area by car is pretty straightforward. For the Classic and Easy routes from the South, get to J28 of the M4 and take the A467 to Abertillery.lf you’re coming in from England further north you’ll probably end up in Aberg;wenny on the MO, so take the A465 towards Brynmawr and then the M67 to Abertillery. The Mode rate route around the Blorenge starts at Keeper’s Pond above L1anfoisr – take the excitingly steep B4246 from Abergavenny. To get to Abergavenny from the south take the M042 from J25a of the M4.

Guidebooks

The area is covered by Wales Mountain Biking, £16 (Vertebrate Publishing, www.v-outdoor.co.uk). Or there’s the slightly older. Mountain Bike Guide to the Valleys of South Wales, the Gower Peninsula and Lower Wye Valley, £10 (www.cordee.co.uk).

Local tourist information

There are two nearby Tourist Information Centres, in Blaenavon (01495742333) and Abergavenny (01873 853254).

What to take

These rides have a variety of trail surfaces, from rock to grass to soft peat. Climbs and descents are steep, and rides are harder than distances might suggest, s0 if you’ve got the option don’t go too heavy wirh your bike. It’s the preserve of the classic all-rounder. As this is Wales, a good waterproof should be in your bag.

Other opportunities

Having visited the area looking for riding beyond Cwmcarn’s purpose-built trails, it might seem odd to then point you back at the trail centre. But if you’re in the area you should definitely take a spin around the Twrch trail. Don’t be shy of the Mynydd Mojo DH track at Cwmcarn either – with suitable line choice and speed it’s entirely doable on a regular trail bike, and a lot of fun.

Beyond the centre, there are trails aplenty in the valleys, and you don’t have to go very far north to find yourself in the heart of the Brecon Beacons, which should keep you busy.

Navigation issues

Finding your way around the area is reasonably straightforward. You’d have to try hard to go wrong on the Blorenge circuit. You will have to pay a bit of attention on the moors of Coity Mountain, though- there are more trails up there than the map shows, and some of the ones that are on the maps aren’t shown in quite the rigflt place. S0 don’t be too concerned if your GPS puts you
off a trail that you’re clearly on, but be vigilant to avoid being on the wrong trail. Our font of local knowledge, Mike runs guiding company Cwmride if you want to guarantee not getting lost- see www.cwmride.co.uk.