Leo and I are planning on doing Snowdon at the end of October. We haven’t done it for a couple of years and fancy going back now we are a bit more experienced.
We will be riding the mountain on Saturday 24th and probably find somewhere to ride on the Sunday too, be it Muni or natural trials. Im told the old quarry across the vally from Llanberris is very good for trials.
Anyone is welcome to join us, although we are looking at doing a different route to the norm, so it will be very technical. We are getting bored of the Llanberris path. Anyone know of a decent rideable alternative to Llanberris?
There are 3 routes off that are legal. Llanberis, Snowdon Ranger, or Rhyd Ddu. Llanberis you know. Snowdon Ranger is supposed to be pretty technical. Rhyd Ddu is supposed to be very technical, with sections where the penalty for failure is falling down 300 metres and being dead. Some people on bikes have ridden Snowdon Ranger clean (although others say it is about 20% rideable!), I’d try that if I didn’t want to do the Llanberis path.
The bad news about the Ranger / Rhyd Ddu paths, is that they end up in random places at the back of the mountain, meaning you either have to do something complicated with cars, or you have a big old slog to get you back to Llanberis. Details of the routes are here: http://www.flattyresmtbroutes.com/Snowdon.html
The illegal routes are either stupidly impossible on a unicycle (Crib Goch), a mixture of too crowded steps or shale, and pretty boring riding (miner’s track, pyg track, Watkins Path), and would be boring to take a group of unicyclists riding down.
I could very well be tempted but would need to borrow a 24" or a 24" wheelset. I’ve just swapped mine for a 29’er because I wasn’t using it enough because there ain’t much technical terrain around Brighton. Literally just got back in from my first ever 29" MUni ride on said new 29’er… Why did no one tell me 29" MUni’s so much fun?
just butting into the thread, but I’m sure I’ve ridden some quite technical terrain up on the downs near Brighton. I think some of it might have been footpaths or parks or something, but people seem to ride them round there. You should ask some of the mountain bike people about it - tons of mountain bikers in Brighton.
Although I remember the South Downs Way and the stuff around Alfriston / Eastbourne being super on a 29er.
If there is a group going down the Llanberis path, it is quite rocky in parts. It is a good beginner ride in one way, which is that the navigation is very easy, massive path, you just follow it down. It is not all easy riding, if you are a beginner, you will likely have to walk sections. The good thing about it is that it is very long, long enough that you will get better at riding that kind of rocky terrain as you get lower down. There are also easy sections every so often all the way down, so even a rubbish rider will get to ride some. Other than needing to take a good amount of clothes in case of bad weather / fog, and a decent amount of food, the path is way less dangerous than many lower mountain rides.
If people are only going down another path, then it may be hard. If I was leading it, I’d only take people down those paths who I knew and had ridden with (or who someone I know can vouch for the sanity & riding skill of). The back end of Snowdon is pretty steep, and the paths are nowhere near as sheltered as the Llanberis Path. It is a proper mountain and the paths might be a bit more exposed.
There are some DH tracks up the side of one of the parks on the way out of Brighton which are only a ten minute ride from my house and are fun but quite limited. That’s where I went today to test out the 29’er as I only had a few hours of daylight left.
Other than there I’ve tended to head out around the downs on my 36" around the back of Stanmer and on bits of the SDW.
I can see the 29’er would be lovely on the SDW unfortunately I’m moving to Oxford at the weekend so dunno if I’ll get a chance to ride it on the 29.
Simon: It arrived this morning and managed to get out on it for a couple of hours this eve.
It’s a good ride… Fun and fast and a bit less balls out scary than 36" muni descents. I really love climbing on it too, it seems to fly up the hills with less effort compared than a 24 or 36. I’m going to be using it a lot I think.
I’ve been wanting to do Snowdon for ages, although I’m getting married the day before and going on honeymoon the day after. This does mean that it could be physically possible but somehow… no. I better not!
I recommend not unicycling too much around the time of your honeymoon. Especially I recommend not bashing your knee and needing to be taken to a foreign A&E department bang in the middle of your honeymoon!
By the way Mike, I can’t make this Snowdon ride cos I’m going to be in the US. I had a vague idea of doing a full on winter Snowdon ride, maybe if you’re free some point after Christmas drop me an email.
Yep. Hike up or try to ride it - a fair bit is rideable. It is a dead easy hike (2 hours or so).
Personally I think it would suck a bit on a 29er. You’d have to be careful on all the rocks and the technical bits, which are great to just blast down on a 26 or 24. The smooth bits in between would be fun mind.
…just dusted off my Onza 24" that I haven’t ridden since getting the 29"…wow it’s so different.
When you’re learning a new thing it’s easy to ‘progress’ to the next size & lose sight of (or not understand) the different uses. Going to start doing some technical stuff on the little one instead of always fast XC on the big one.
Hmm muni or wedding…