Looking for a good area for riding in Wales over Christmas week . Will be staying over for one night and wondered if the Machynlleth area would be worth a trip . Done all the popular trail centres and this area looks to have some good routes . Any thoughts regarding routes and accommodation be much appreciated .

Steve

Really like Machy as a place due to the friendliness of the locals. There’s a good bunkhouse I think called Reditreks run by one of the guys who works in the bike shop there. Just north of the town is the ClimachX trail with what I think is a great final descent and to the south there are the Mach routes which aren’t massively technical but good routes in the hills and if you want a big day out you can ride down to Nant-y-Arian….

Sorry it’s a bit random….

Alex

Yes it’s ace.

Lots of hills, lots of riding, ride way marked trails, long downhills, go off piste and CyB & Nant’s both close.

Take a sleeping bag and bothy for a night.

It’s as good as you make it

I think the Mach routes are being re-signed & re-routed at the mo, so may not be “operational”. Nant-y gets my vote every time for nice XC-ness and couldn’t enjoy the descent of the Climachx more – which reminds me, it’s been a while…

Edit: New Mach routes are available here: http://www.dyfimountainbiking.org.uk/Dyfi_MTB/Welcome.html
I’d contact http://www.theholeytrail.co.uk/ to check.

Some brilliant off the marked trails stuff to ride, both in the Dyfi forest and out of Mach towards Aberwristwatch http://www.dyfimountainbiking.org.uk/Dyfi_MTB/GPS_Routes.html

see if you can get in the bothy at http://www.forestfreeride.co.uk

Depends when but I’ll be about over Xmas family duties permiting….

i hear good things about the climatix or whatever ist called. must pop along there soon 🙂

The bunkhouse is fantastic and the final section of Climax is brilliant fun.

Climachx is fun ,mach 1,2 and 3 have been rerouted,maps on sale at the holey trail bike shop.nant yr arian is a great x country ride.Reditreks bunkhouse is excellent.don’t know if the wynstay pizza bar is open over the hols but worth a visit if it is.all the best.

Yeah really good off piste trails there. Didnt think much of the original way marked routes but the new ones may be better. Doing the dyfi made me realise how good that place is though. A nice little town too with good shops and decent pubs and nant down the road is immense too. If I was you I would try to get the dyfi route off somebody. It must have been gps’d.

I have many routes in the Dyfi including the enduro route if you like me to send you one or more.

Two hostels in Corris just up the road:

http://www.braichgoch.co.uk/

http://www.corrishostel.co.uk/

Nant yr Arian, Syfydrin trail is awesome! Best of the bunch IMO (CDB, Mach, Nant).

The ClimachX? is one of the best trail centre descents in the UK. Last time I was there the forest road was open so we shuttled 2 cars and sessioned it. A guilty pleasure

reditreks bunkhouse is great

i love cli-machx too, loads of local potential as well

my other half’s brother and family moved to the coast near there this summer. Heading there for Boxing Day onwards, and taking the bikes. Looking forward to it!

Not looking forward to a 7am start from Guildford to get there for lunch!

Two hostels in Corris just up the road:

http://www.braichgoch.co.uk/

http://www.corrishostel.co.uk/

If they can’t make it out of slate though then they don’t use it, prepare sleep on a slate bed, watch a slate telly, sit in a slate chair etc…

Mach3 last year was one of the biggest wastes of time on a bike ever. Miles of fireroad and boggy field edges. One nice descent. Poorly signed (and badly faded signs at that). Great views, tho.

Climachx was nice.

Go to Nant yr Arian instead.

IMO.

rode ClimachX when it was covered in a thin layer of fresh crispy snow. Really memorable winter ride. Mostly for the fact my mate chundered up a massive sausage and mushroom family pie scoffed the night before. The last bit is ace with some tricky rocky bits (for me at least) and you can push back up and session it if you’re that way inclined (dude).

There’s loads of riding in the area, some marked, some on the OS map.

Try find a dyfi enduro map and add in a few bits off that if you do the climach-x too (don’t go over the field at the top though).

I didn’t think much of the mach 3 either although we got very lost (signs were all away for rerouting) and did an ace descent down past the golf course that I don’t think we should have been on! If you feel like a big jaunt then it’s fairly easy to link the mach 3 into the Syfydrin loop at nant too, just use an OS map to make the link.

I believe that they’re talking about making a mach 4 that’ll drop down the nant-y-moch reservoir anyways!

Mac is cool, Tegged’s bunkhouse, Reditreks, is a great place to stay. He’ll advise you on routes as he runs the local bike shop. Haven’t been for a while, assuming business is still good!? He’ll also probably ask if you want to ride with the posse from the shop too, lovely people.

Cli-max is good but short, for a mixed all day ride go to Nanty Aryan and do the continental loop. (jealous)!

Which way marked track is the world cup downhill section on?

Did it during the dyfi last year and it was ace!! 🙂

Thanks for all the advice , booked with Forest Freeride . Really looking forward to it .

Cheers

Watch out for the 90 degree left on final descent of climach-x!

Will do , guessing it caught you out ?

Not quite. Spotted the big wooden arrow last minute and managed to slide it round with a dab of the rocks at waist height on my left (outside of corner = big drop). Felt great…but was probably actually a panicked mess!

Aside from the trail centre routes there is some fantastic riding out of Mach. Many happy memories of great rides round there.