About bikes, cycling and cycle to work - Tredz Blog

Ride solo; it’s better for the soul

I’d love to tell you city folks that this view is a 3 hour drive from home and an hour out of the car park. Sorry, but my house is just down there on the right (unfortunately not the farm). This loop is usually my last resort of MTBing. You know the sort – everyone has shied off cos of family/work/pub commitments and you can’t be bothered to drive too far to get the miles in.

It’s surprisingly technical in bits, has real stamina-sucking climbs and at least 3 guard dogs that act like they’ve got advanced-staged rabies (and make me wet myself every time). It’s either this or a 10k in trainers. Thing is, I’m always chuffed when I’ve made the effort to pedal solo and this view lifts my spirits every time (ok, perhaps I’m a miserable loner as well).

Extreme cycling - the Dutch way

Think of cycling in the Netherlands and the words 'flat and windy' may spring to mind. Where better to experience this than cycling across the 'Afsluitdijk', the 32km (approx 20 mile) long dam across the top of the IJsselmeer which protects the low lying land from the North Sea following severe flooding in 1916.

Dutch journalist Bram Postumus ponders the "two iron laws of cycling in the Netherlands" while covering this stretch on his bike.

The first law of cycling in the Netherlands: "it's always further than you think" becomes disappointingly clear when he thinks he's sprinted across the whole length in no-time at all (what is all the fuss about?) when the half-way point looms in the distance. Of course, the whole stretch also has to be repeated to get back. Easy to forget.

Having finally reached the other side and ready for his return, he encounters rule two:
"when you change direction, so does the wind".

Posted by Caroline

Ed's Northshore Nirvana

Ed and his mates have been busy over the winter building some really crazy northshore. It's not quite what you'd see in mountain bike DVDs but as the boss said "You've got to admire the engineering genius. I wouldn't bloody ride it though". Would you?

Afan Argoed MTB video

The Afan Forest Park (aka Afan Argoed) and its four trails is constantly referred to as one of the best places to ride your bike in the world. Yep, the world! We thought we'd make a short video for anyone into mountain biking that's still not convinced the singletrack is up to par. Check out 5 mins on one of our local trails, Penhydd (there's 3 others just as good).

Act your shoe size, not your age!

The excellent olympic class BMX track at Tredegar has been open now for a few months and it’s bedded in a treat. Unfortunately it’s riding in lousy weather like this that’s needed to improve continuously week on week. Besides, you can’t stay in the house when it’s raining in south Wales or you’d soon go stir crazy.

Get out, get wet and practise a skill you know you’re lacking in: trackstands, bunny hops or wheelies. They can all be practiced in the local park, driveway, car park, anywhere. You just know it’ll pay dividends come summer. Better still, get some mates together and hang about in a car park. It’s good enough for kids and we all know how annoying it is being overtaken by a wheeling 8 year old. Well if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em. That said, even if you spend the winter doing endless road miles and gym work it’ll make a change, and an hours worth of bunny hop practice is bleedin hard work and by no stretch of the imagination a waste of time.
Posted by Chris and Ed

Cwmcarn downhill trail review

Downhilling - great fun, but strangely hard work. Why is pushing uphill so much harder than riding? Not something that keeps me awake at night but an issue none the less. However, it’s not an issue at Cwm Carn, arguably Wales’ premier permanent downhill course (there is an excellent XC course there but I can’t bring myself to go there and not take a downhill bike!) opened in August 2005 and is served by the Cwmdown uplift service.

One prebooking (essential) and £22 later provided unlimited uplifts for a day. Bike-wise I took my Specialized Big Hit which performed as faultlessly as ever. The course is steep and technical enough to warrant a full downhill rig, tyre-wise (the most important consideration after shocks says me). I was expecting mud, so took along a pair of Swampthings, however I was selling short the quality of the track surface which was as solid as ever. I ended up keeping a pair of Minions on (always super tacky). Interestingly, I spent the day with several riders on Specialized SX Trails, a ‘do it all’ bike that seemed more than capable. The SX is an excellent choice if you’re not as obsessed as myself and don’t own a different bike for every day of the week!

Our local downhill course

Tredz downhill rider Jules pretty much lives on his local run at Kilvey, Swansea. We thought we'd show you it...

New Brechfa Forest Trail

We went riding at the new trail at Brechfa, Carmarthenshire on the weekend. We mustered 8 riders to find our way there which wasn’t as complex as it first appeared. Find your way to Llandilo, take the A40 west towards Carmarthen and Brechfa itself is signposted; they're small roads but trust your direction finding, it is there!

Although having no facilities beyond a car park (free!) there is an excellent pub on the doorstep for post ride food and perhaps more importantly, beer. The trail itself is quite an eye opener; the climbs, of which there are 3 main ones, are all on fire road which may be dull but do gain altitude quickly and efficiently. Where this trail really comes into its own are the descents which resemble a downhill, 3 foot wide BMX track, consisting entirely of perfectly sculpted berms, doubles and tabletops all the way. Its all been designed well enough to be doable by most abilities, retaining a sense of fun at low speeds (definitely recommended first time round). It adds an injection of speed which results in a remarkable amount of air time for what is essentially an XC course.

The quality of construction has to be seen to be believed as we're talking about 12 to 13 km (19km. overall) of entirely hand built BMX/four cross track with what appears to be near perfect drainage. The progression in technicality of the downhill sections is excellent - they get better and better until the final section which is a quality downhill course in its own right. With that in mind they have handily put in a shortcut walk (20 mins) to the top of the final section which was being made full use of by a number of riders on big bounce downhill/freeride set ups, all of whom had beaming grins behind their (full face) helmets.

To sum up: this is cracking little venue for taking the XC bike for a smooth, clean technical spin but equally good for taking the freeride/dh bike to session the final section. It is a VERY manmade feeling course that wont satisfy the wilderness riders and don’t expect root strewn singletrack riding - as someone described it on the weekend "a cross country BMX track". If this tickles your fancy it comes highly recommended and even if this isn’t your kind of thing, its worth making the effort to see for yourself the construction and style of this course (it is only 20k after all).
Posted by Chris