so, now back in good ol' germany after having survived a week of variable welsh weather ...
the 'wilds' and 'wall' trails in afan forest park were great, even when wet. skyline is still open but we again heard mixed comments in terms of maintenance and future (we didn't ride it).
cli-machX was not quite as much fun until the final descent (which is *not* the longest descent of it's type as touted on the web page). it is also rideable when wet, but then it is laced with many more standing puddles that just get to be annoying - thus, only recommended when dry(-ish).
coed-y-brennin was great - many varied trails, suitable for all levels (except full-on freeride or downhill) and weathers, with ok showers, a bike wash and reasonable coffee. we rode the 'beast' twice (formerly the karrimor trail), as it had much the same character as the wall in afan but was longer and tougher.
we also took in the marin trail in betws-y-coed - there appeared to be some sort of vertical distortion field going on here, as we seemed to be forever riding upward, even on single trail, with very little descent to compensate. luckily, the final descent makes up for the lack of fun beforehand. notably, as the outbound trail crosses the inbound just before the descent, lots of people just ride up to the intersection and down the descent, leaving out the bulk of the trail. btw, betws-y-coed is much more of a general outdoor pursuits center, so expect more competition for accommodation on sunny weekends.
I would describe all of these trails as more or less 'make it as hard as you like flow country spiked with occasional (not always AM-friendly) enduro sections'. drops were never too big (although they got bigger the faster one rode), technical sections never too hairy, there was not much exposure and very little real northshore - but the trails were a great deal of fun, making maximum use of the limited amount of real altitude gain available, in particular the beast in coed-y-brenin and the wall in afan.
we mostly saw hardtails and 120mm AM cross country bikes on these trails, closely followed by the 140mm and occasionally something from the 160mm category - we saw very little above this and when, then they were only riding specific sections. 140-160mm is about the sweet spot as there is a fair amount of sometimes (very) steep ascent (beast total 990hm) laced together with descents that are more fun with more travel. we took and wore arm and full leg protection - we didn't need it, but it would have been very helpful had we crashed on some of the more hairy and/or high speed descents as the majority of these are constructed from natural stone.
we went b&b all the way - VFM and often catering well to biker needs. take plenty of grease & fluids to keep the bike rolling along in the british clime, and watch out for the midges (small flies that actually bite chunks out of you rather than poke you like a mosquito) ...
ragetty