Family Mountain Biking at Llandegla: Our First Time Riding the Black Trail with Kids

Saturday 18th October 2025: Today we found ourselves back at Llandegla – this time armed with two new tow ropes and a shiny (heavily discounted!) new-to-me e-MTB thanks to a 48-month interest-free deal! With our new set-up, the plan was simple: breeze up the 3-mile climb and finally tackle the full red route. It would be C’s and my first go, and Dad and S’s second.

The e-MTB purchase came after a lot of back-and-forth. The boys burn through their energy far quicker than we do on the climbs, and sometimes the tiredness takes the fun out of the ride. Naturally, e-MTBs for them seemed like the perfect solution – they can go further and have more fun if they aren’t tired… except for three problems:
1. Finding them in children’s sizes is almost impossible
2. The ones that do exist are ridiculously expensive and unbelievably heavy
3. They’d outgrow them in no time – an expensive waste!
While debating this dilemma with a friend, he offered a brilliantly simple idea:
Buy the adults e-MTBs and use tow ropes for the boys.
Cheaper, practical, we’re strong enough to handle the extra weight – and best of all, we won’t grow out of our bikes!

Today I also came prepared with the DJI camera, ready to film a video about whether the red route is suitable for families who mountain bike with children.

But… things didn’t quite go to plan.

At Snowdon View, only a short distance into the Red, I gathered the family for the rarest of things – a family photo on the bikes – when two lovely gentlemen stopped beside us and offered to take the photo for us. A WHOLE family photo! Unheard of!

We thanked them a million times (a full MTB family photo is rarer than a nearly-all-of-us photo!) and got chatting. They asked the boys whether they were riding the red or black route. The boys proudly said “red.” One of the men smiled and replied, “Fancy trying the black? There’s nothing on there that isn’t rollable. If I can do it, anyone can!”

The boys agreed instantly. Of course they did.

And just like that, we found ourselves riding our very first black trail as a family. The boys were buzzing. I, meanwhile, was at the back absolutely bricking it.

But the chaps were right – everything was rollable. And actually… it was really good fun. My favourite section was “Dave the Fox,” a gorgeous sweeping run of berms and rollers that made me feel like I actually knew what I was doing. The boys’ favourite was “B Line,” full of big table tops and jumps. That’s also where I managed to come off – completely blaming the new pedals with zero grip, because both feet flew off mid-jump and honestly, what else was I supposed to do? 😅

Eventually the black trail rejoined the red. The boys were flagging after so many demanding features , so we dipped onto a blue section we’d never tried before and cruised back to the car park.

Back at the bottom, we bumped into the same two gentlemen again. They chatted away with Dad while I dished out food and drinks. They said how brilliant it was to see a whole family out shredding trails together. And honestly – I’m so grateful we crossed paths. Without their encouragement, I doubt I’d ever have had the courage to take myself (never mind the boys!) down a black trail.

So – I can’t yet offer you the polished, red-route-review video I originally planned. But if you’d like to see what a day at Llandegla looks like for an ordinary family tackling everything from blue to black trails, I hope you enjoy this video. The boys (and Dad!) had a lot of fun helping pick the clips and choose the music.