Has anybody ridden there in the last few days, was planing on going next thursday but I heard that it was actually closed or there is major diversions going on??

Can anybody confirm this?

cheers

Rode there last Sunday and it was fine if a little wet

It should say on their web site. Try the mbwales one.

went there today and it's fine.
The landslide that occurred is completely passable, you can just about see where it was, but the trail is pretty much as normal over it.
There's puddles in the top bit but not even that big ones.
I don't buy what somebody else said about it "not holding water well". We've had one of the wettest novembers on record apparently and there was no mud at all, that is what i would call holding water extremely well.

cool

Just found an interesting web article dated August 2009. Sounds like the local community want to get something moving but don't really know where to start and are looking for suggestions (email link in article). Not sure I want it to become like Llandegla but anything that brings jobs to that part of the world has got to be good.

Penmacho.net

Everything may seem quite up on the Bike Trails, but they remain the “Elephant in the Room”. It was arguments about the trails and in particular car parking for the riders that caused so much bad feeling last year and the resignation of Menter Bro Machno’s previous Directors.
Things have been quieter over the last 9 months, but it doesn’t mean that the problem has gone away. Indeed, if we don’t as a community make some decisions about the best way forward, it will undoubtedly come back to bite us again sometime in the future.
Dafydd, Sion and Jeremy agreed to take over responsibility for Menter Bro Machno on an interim basis to give the community an opportunity to decide how it wants to move forward. Over the last 9 months they have been managing the trails and investigating the various options available to us.
Where are we now?
There are 23 km of bike trails in the forests above the Machno and Glasgwm valleys which were developed with over half a million pounds of public money. They have been constructed to a very high standard and are popular with the riders who use them. However the trails have yet to be formally “opened” or marketed to potential users because the current car park on Forestry land is only temporary and we need to find a suitable alternative that is acceptable to the community.
The trails were developed to help regenerate the community and MBM’s “ownership” of them gives us (the community) some control over how they are used and the potential to generate income for local projects. At the moment however, most people see them as a problem rather than an opportunity and believe that the wider community gets no benefit from them. Indeed the increased traffic flow through the village and the environmental impact of the car park, wherever it is located, mean that they are seen negatively by many people.
What is our strategy?
MBM’s strategy has been based on the assumption that the trails are here to stay and that we need to try and find a way forward that is acceptable to the community as a whole. We also believe that local volunteers will only be prepared to put in the time and effort required to manage the trails if they can see real benefits for the community, so we need to establish whether this is realistic in the long term. As a very minimum we have to be confident that we can generate enough income from the riders to maintain the trails (circa £5/10,000 per year) and we think it is reasonable to expect a similar contribution to local projects (another £5,000 could match other public money to provide up to £25,000 for the local area).
We decided not to try and increase patronage until we had some agreement among the community about the best way forward, so our focus to date has been on the existing users of the bike trails. This has meant carrying out inspections and maintaining the trails, monitoring their use, trying to maximise income from the “Honesty Box” and undertaking some preliminary market research.
At the same time we have started looking at various options for the future, including contentious issues like alternative locations for the trail head and car parking.
What have they achieved so far?
Inspections have been carried out and the first significant maintenance work has been carried out on the trails at the cost of over £3,500,
• We now have detailed figures for trail usage (almost 9,000 riders have used the trails over the last 11 months). We have also been carefully monitoring the income from the honesty box (over £1,600 since we took over in September) and have been able to use all these figures in our business planning.
• We have agreed with the Forestry to improve the signage on the trails. This is a Health and Safety requirement, but it has also given us an opportunity to make the “community ownership” of the trails clearer to the users. Loop 1 is now called Dolen Machno and Loop 2 Dolen Eryri.
• We have been talking to Forestry, the National Park and other stakeholders to see what might be possible into the future. It is clear from our business planning that the trails won’t be viable with the current number of riders. We would need to at least double the number of visitors and significantly increase the amount they each donate to cover the routine maintenance costs and provide a contribution to community projects. Any expansion on this scale would have inevitable consequences for traffic levels, etc., so we have been looking at the possibility of relocating the car park and even the trail head to the other side of the village (i.e. closer to the A5). There is no “magic bullet” that will solve all our problems, but we want to make sure the village can consider all the possible options.
What happens next?
• We need to do some further work on the business plan and options appraisal. This includes further investigations into other potential sites for a car park and possible changes to the trails to improve access and reduce traffic problems.
• We will be using http://www.Penmachno.net to communicate information about the trails to existing users and will be looking to canvas their views and ideas as we move forward with our planning for the future.
• We then will hold another public meeting to seek the views of the community and decide how best to move forward.
• In the meantime we want to try and maximise the income we get from existing users of the trails and we are in discussions with Forestry so we can improve the signage at the trail head and make it clearer how we plan to spend the cash from the Honesty Box.
• We also plan to set up a “Friends of the Bike Trails” group for people in the area who ride the trails or who are interested in doing so – see below for details.
What can you do?
Get involved! Let us have your ideas. You have four ways of doing so:
• Join Menter Bro Machno; it’s free and you get to vote on big decisions and an opportunity to appoint the Directors, or even become one yourself!
• Attend the next public meeting and let us have your views.
• Send us your ideas, suggestions, comments or questions (email us at bikes@penmachno.net or write c/o The Secretary, Menter Bro Machno, Plas Canol, Penmachno, LL24 0UE).
• If you are a keen mountain biker or are thinking of using the trails, why not become a member of the “Friends of the Bike Trails”. Email bikes@penmachno.net or phone Jeremy on 760-463
If you are really keen or have strong views, why not do all four!
Menter Bro Machno