Brecon Beacons 2 day loops

My first mountain biking trip and I am really glad to have completed it. I wouldn't have lasted a third day! I was quite apprehensive before trying to envisage the gradient and cycle routes etc while planning but I ended up doing a bit more than I planned even, as adrenalin took over, you just want to go further. Except that I am aware it was not to be A-to-B cycling and hard climbs must follow fast descents and every journey forward has to be a round trip to get back to the car. The only worry was I felt cramps coming when climbing the second day. I must be beginner cyclist because I used 25 out of the 27 gears and still spent a lot of time standing up for climbs!

View from top of the Gap - (from left) Pen y Fan, Cribyn, Fan y Big

Taff Trail

Things went exactly as planned on both days as far as weather and parking near the starting point are concerned. Having a full warm cooked breakfast each morning isn’t my usual routine but it sustained me for the 5 hour trek on both occasions. I was particularly fortunate to find free car parking right at the start of the Brecon canal towpath.

What I now learned is that most of the trail can be completed on hard tarmac on a road bike. Some of the signposted scenic "forest" trails are not strictly necessary even though they are traqffic free and offer slendid views. The alternative is generally to use the A roads. 

Most of the cycling follows the well signposted Taff Trail starting at Merthyr Tydfil. I first visited the Cyfarthfa Castle which at the time of writing still offer free parking plus children's waterpark for free. I parked fairly close to the Cefn-Coed viaduct to start my journey. 

From there to the Ponsticill Reservoir is hard pack traffic free trail. Follow a short stint on the main roads to and across the southern end of the reservoir and the trail points you north west into the Taf Fechan Forest trail - which I avoided on the way back.

Upper Neuadd Reservoir

Once you reached the Taf Fechan forest car park, instead of heading straight for the Gap, I took a (dead end) detour to check out the imposing looking Upper Neuadd Reservoir tower which was almost dry. The journey to the Gap I'd say was technical mountain biking. You just have to pay full attention to the horrible surface littered with large rocks. This part I'd say is very crowded by comparison as there are 10 times more hikers than bikers.


Waterfalls

One of the attraction of the Brecon Beacons is the many waterfalls in the area. Most of the ones I know seem to concentrate on either side of Torpantau. On first day, it's nice to come across a small one just off the main road opposite the Taf Fechan Forest Car Park after I had given up trying exhausted from climbing the Gap.

And I was determined to get to one after spotting it while climbing on the other side of the valley.

And I'm lucky to have the right bike (read $lightest$) for the trip as I had to carry it most of the way (down) when visiting Blaen y Glyn waterfalls. Hardtail (i.e. only front suspension) is perfect for me because I'm rarely seated on bumpy and downhill parts. Either that or my saddle fits me well coz saddle sore is non-issue compare to other pains:)

Overall the weather was perfect apart of a little strong headwind while climbing Talybont and Torpantau but things do even out when you do loops. On another trip, and if I did not get free accomodation, I would do Merthyr Tydfil to Brecon on the eastern route and come back via the Gap over two days, spending a night in Brecon or Talybond on Usk.

Of memorable view, two stands out. Firstly is the imposing Upper Neuadd Reservoir tower overlooking the almost dry reservoir.

Secondly is the Blaen y Glyn waterfalls which is both visible and audible from the Talybont eastern climb.

I'm testing all this different apps/website and so far Strava impresses me the most for recording while Bikemap is useful on the go and while planning. As you can see, I used them once each in the two days.Or even climbing on the A4059 which is popular with roadies.

But a word of warning, there is no mobile coverage especiallt south of the Gap and Torpantau. In fact I had to cycle to the top of the Gap just to get signals, presumably from the Brecon side.

Bikemap - Day 1 - Merthyr Tydfil to the Gap and back

Bikemap is useful for planning and when riding mainly because of it's heatmap which gives you some idea which path is popular/rideable and map gradient. But once I ended up a bit lost in the woods and trespassed in an unused railway line (now private land with no right of way?).

 

Strava - Day 2 - Brecon to Torpantau Station and back
 
Strava like a facebook + GPS + analysis all in one - basically putting some effort into presenting your log into useful info. Sounds simple but quite enjoyable. Cross referencing people cycling you cross path with in a virtual playback is cool yet disconcerting. 

 

App Comparison

On the iPhone app at least, Bikemap shows gradient lines on the map whereas Strava only seems to show them in the full desktop site. Alas Bikemap app kept reverting to the starting page, losing the displayed map when I wasn't using it for GPS recording which I thought was annoying given the poor to non-existant mobile coverage in the Brecon Beacons. But I find its heatmap very useful in the field.

As a guest I think you can hover your mouse to see the elevation on both. Strava website has extra Analysis section which gives you extra gradient and speed info which Bikemap does not provide. As usual you wish there were one that combines both.