Demand Subsidised Coffee: Taking Trail Centres for Granted
A dispatch from the UK Office from new correspondent Malc Dines.
Coed-y-Brenin is the OG of trail centres in the United Kingdom; the first trail was built in the mid-’90s. While it was several years before any more centres were built, Coed-y-Brenin pioneered a way of mountain biking that made Cymru (Wales) one of the premier destinations for mountain bikers for the first decade or so of the millennium. The development of trail centres was in part a move by the Welsh Government to generate tourism in areas of Cymru struggling financially following the closure of the coal mines in the early ’90s (both Afan Argoed and Cwmcarn trail centres are located on the site of former collieries) and the devasting Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak that swept across rural United Kingdom in 2001.
During a recent text exchange, and without giving it any thought, I said that I probably took trail centres for granted. This caught me by surprise and the thought stuck in my head for a few days. Did I really take trail centres for granted? They have been central to my mountain biking experience and the experiences of my kids.
I’m fortunate to live within a one-hour drive of two of the free-to-ride trail centres in Cymru: Coed-y-Brenin and Nant-yr-Arian. The latter is close enough to ride to. When I raced I used sections within the trails to lap for training sessions. When I worked in an office I incorporated part of the trail for an extended commute home. My almost adult children have ridden at both centres since the day dot. Not to put too fine a point on it, we have used them a lot.
Here is a brief history. Afan Argoed opened first, a single trail created at a forest recreation site that had an existing cafe, forest walks and a car park. A second longer, harder trail was created on the opposite side of the valley and opened a year or two later. When Afan Argoed opened I was living in Cardiff, a 45-minute drive to the east. We would pile bikes in cars and head down the M4 on, what memory tells me (likely incorrectly), a weekly basis, whatever the weather. The trail at Cwmcarn opened at the end of 2002 and like Afan Argoed, was a single trail created at an existing forest recreation site. By 2003 there was another trail centre open a few miles up the valley from Afan Argoed and, away from South Wales, Nant-yr-Arian and the CliMach-X trails had been developed in Mid Wales along with further trails and centres in North Wales. By the mid 00’s there were 10 trail centres and trailheads in Wales including a new centre at Coed-y-Brenin with more trails and a bike shop.
Unlike the off-piste trails in Wales, the trail centres provided a consistency of both riding and time-management. You knew what the riding would be like, which meant you knew what the rewards would be and you knew the sections that would push your ability. You also knew that, excepting the possibility of punctures, how long it would take to ride, thus making the complex job of fitting the ride around the requirments of the group much easier. Cafes meant that if you had a long drive home or had ridden in the depths of winter, or fallen in the river, you could get food and warmth. Trail centres at Afan Argoed and Cwmcarn became places to meet both old and new friends.
The certainty of riding, and the Cwmdown uplift service (MTB shuttle), drew riders from all over the South of England. There were few trails in those areas suited to the increasingly technical riding modern bikes were enabling and, the best spots were becoming over-populated.
The trail centre car parks were always full.
When I first got a mountain bike in the mid-90s, I would ride from the centre of Cardiff to trails located around the edge of the city and in time, friends moved to these areas just so they could ride the trails from their door. For a few years I lived in the next valley to Afan Argoed, but to ride there I had to climb for the best part of an hour over a mountain. Even by car it was 45 minutes each way. So, the longer I lived there the more I was looking for new places to ride and crucially, new trails, closer to home. People are fickle and want new stuff to ride and, as bikes and riding standards improve, they want the trails they ride to progress as well. Riding moves on, Enduro emerged and, in Wales especially, riders found a terrain to match their bike’s ability. Enduro also allowed riders that social aspect of riding between stages and that was remarkably similar to how people would ride at trail centres.
The trail centres stood still.
Enduro happened at a time when budgets for the management of trail centres were getting smaller and smaller. The financial crash of 2008 and the subsequent decade of austerity meant that for these publicly-owned centres, maintenance was on an “as needed” basis and development of the trails was minimal. While it’s understandable that public bodies wouldn’t want the liability of trails with drops and gaps, there was never work undertaken to cater for beginners. Where new “blue” (beginner) trails were built, they still had steep or long climbs, or had all the fun sections packed into the first half. For those new to the sport, or children, they must have been soul-destroying. Trail centres remained popular, but it was only because there wasn’t really any alternative.
These days Bike Parks, and I am intentionally not classing them as trail centres, are replicating the success that trail centres had 20 years ago. They cater for ever more capable bikes and an aspirational style of riding that dominates the MTB media. Whereas 20 years ago rides would be arranged for days or weekends at the must-ride trail centres, they are now arranged for trips to the Bike Park. Places are booked weeks in advance, happy to pay £50 for the privilege of joining the queue for the uplift.
Over the past 18 months, mountain bikers and the UK mountain bike media have been having an existential crisis over the closure of Coed-y-Brenin and Nant-yr-Arian. Letters have been written, petitions organised and articles have appeared in the press because, in spring 2024, Natural Resources Wales (Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru in Cymraeg), the government body responsible for managing the forests and running the centres, announced that due to budget cuts, they could no longer afford to staff and run the centres. The trails however, would not be affected.
I was indifferent to this announcement.
How these trail centres that were once so popular have been allowed to decline is a whole other conversation. Coed-y-Brenin and the other trail centres in Cymru are no longer new and shiny and the riding the trails at these centres offer is no longer new and shiny. They are no longer a novelty and crucially, they haven’t evolved with the sport. To mountain bikers in the UK, these trail centres have lost their magic and joy. The majority of mountain bikers no longer want to ride in one big loop, they’d rather winch-up and plummet down. The Coed-y-Brenin “experience” used to be worthy of a weekend away, but there are now many alternative trail centres across the UK providing riding as good, or better, or just different. Perhaps actually what a lot of us want is novelty and progressive riding that is closer to home.
It was only when Coed-y-Brenin and Nant-yr-Arian were closed did the UK MTB community play the activist. Supporting something that a lot no longer used, and which mostly only now existed as a nostalgic collective memory, all the while conveniently ignoring the fact that the trails will still be there to be ridden. While they railed against “the man” for taking away these sacred facilities in the name of “cost-saving”, it was very common to see £80k camper vans, with bike carriers full of £8k bikes, parked in the lanes and lay-bys near to the trail centres just to avoid paying the £3 car park fee.
I understand the frustration, especially here in Mid Wales, because there has been an impact on the local community wider than just mountain biking. These were places local families used for enjoyment, nature and to be outdoors. The biggest loss to mountain biking is the bribe of a sanctuary with hot chocolate and a slice of cake, to convince the child to keep going to the end of the trail and to encourage them back. But the manufactured outrage is, quite frankly, an embarrassment. Middle-class privilege bemoaning the loss of its post-ride, flat white.
Go ride the trails, they still exist, coffee shop or not. Trail centres are places of magic and joy.
