So end of next week I will be in Machynlleth – woop.

I had already factored in time to ride Cli-Machx, probably last thing, allowing time to do the descent twice before driving home.

However that leaves Friday, All day.

Of the group, one newish rider has heard about CyB so would love to pop up there.
two of the group, rode CyB several (8) years ago and didnt really get on with it finding it too “rocky for rocks sake.” They both rode Cli-machx 18mts ago and loved it……. not sure if its significantly ‘smoother’ than the trails further north or if their skills (and bikes) have come on over the years

None of us have ridden NyA and from the website, the summit/pendam loops look like a nice morn/afternoon ride grabbing a bite to eat at the visitor centre

I however am interested to ride more of the Dyfi, especially with all the talk of the enduro this weekend. Are there any routes, loops that are easy enough to pick up from an OS map, what OS map would i need. Or will one of the Mach (1,2,3) routes provide suitable entertainment, they seem to get patchy reviews

Locals, weekend warriors, “trail centre riding gods” and “just get out there and do it’ers” your advice is welcomed

Has the last descent on Climachx been re-opened yet?
Last time I went it was closed due to tree felling, so the descent was all on fireroad and crappy JCB ruts.
It’s still more entertaining than the Mach 123 routes IMO.
NyA is definitely worth a look, especially if you haven’t been there.

last i read ‘machx is open after they stopped felling when they found magic newts (or something)

It was Dormice and yes the final descent is open, though riding different as sections have been clear-felled giving a totally new feel to the descent. You’ll see some of the enduro routes coming in or going off the fire roads, but as you will not know where you are it will be extremely difficult to navigate your way back to the climachx trail.

Best you can do is hope for a local who wants to ride and is not riding the Enduro on the Sunday.

Continental trail at Nant-yr-arian is great (but I am somewhat biased as I live at the bottom of the hill from it)

hmmm, i was shying away from the continental trail due to its length, it sounds like an all day affair (food, clothes, fitness)

We were over in Machynlleth for the Easter weekend and rode CyB and Nant Y Arian.
Its a great location with a nice variety of riding, if your mates don’t like the rocky stuff at CyB then maybe the Syfydrin trail at NyA may be more to their liking. Its a mix of trail built stuff near the centre and more old school landrover track across the exposed hills. It has a real remote feel to it once you get out into the hills, plenty of climbing and some fantastic scenery. Our groups really enjoyed it and will definetly be back to ride it again.

so with the plans in place for thursday and friday riding, to cover NyA and a mach trail….

now two sections of cli-machx are closed – gutted, new plan for saturday

whats a good two hour trail at CyB?

MBR is good for a few hours, it you make it back quickly you can do the tempter as it’s only short.

Or you can try and ride the massive berms on Minotaur as quickly as you can then link up to dreamtime as that’s one o the bet bits of single track at Brenin – in my opinion of course.

I’d ride Nant and ClimachX (with a quick pre-ride visit to The Holey Trail in Mach for latest route info).

Conti is 3 hours, Summit 1 hour ish, Pendam 40 minutes ish for the average rider. Unless you are planning on getting off and walking up everything that points upwards. I live a couple miles from the Conti trail and do a door to door loop in around 3 hours and I’m a fat singlespeeder. Its a lovely mix of trailcentre crafted trails and bare rock bridleway and double track.

Rode the summit trail at NyA yesterday, the middle bit of singletrack descent is fantastic, the legburner a bit of a grind but i much prefered it to CyB i did the day before, much more natural and “flowy”

How techy/droppy/over-the-bars-y is the conti trail? I notice it gets given black. I’m considering it for a solo trip in a couple of weeks, along with Penmachno/CYB.

if i remember to i will review it on this thread when we get back

having looked at the map, if at NyA the Conti trail is all of the pendam and all of the summit, with some extra distance and scenery thrown in, so plan to do that on friday morning, leaving time for one of the mach loops later in the afternoon

so saturday will be between a version of cli-machx, I will call in the bike shop and see what we can do in terms of diversions, or CyB which is a little out of the way but plenty of options. Its all changed since i was there last. I guess that CyB will be pretty busy on a weekend tho, which is a shame.

How techy/droppy/over-the-bars-y is the conti trail? I notice it gets given black. I’m considering it for a solo trip in a couple of weeks, along with Penmachno/CYB.

It’s not really any of those. I think there’s one drop in the middle of nowhere, otherwise it’s double track and nice scenery extension to the summit trail, so black for the effort required to get round.

Summit is nice mix of man-made singletrack and farm tracks/fire roads.

Cheers – don’t mind distance, just the prospect of lying at the bottom of a rocky chute in the middle of nowhere…so sounds like my cup of tea.

its the

lying at the bottom of a rocky chute in the middle of nowhere

aspect of CyB that put a couple of my mates off……

(ok i realise the stw gods will point out its hardly the middle of nowhere – its just a trail centre)

that said, looking back at the pics, 1.95 tyres, 80mm of front end boing and v-brakes were de rigeur back then. Now its 2.2s, 130s and discs, it might be different – and the trails have changed quite a bit from what i see. Still expecting a lot of wonky patio paving tho.

My view on CYB is that it’s busy enough that there will usually be someone coming along in a minute to arrange your remains to be scooped up and dealt with, whereas the back end of NyA might not be so well-frequented.

martinhutch – Member

How techy/droppy/over-the-bars-y is the conti trail? I notice it gets given black. I’m considering it for a solo trip in a couple of weeks, along with Penmachno/CYB.

IMO, not at all, the black is for the distance more than anything. Syfydrin is all of the ‘trail centre’ routes, pendam and summit, with an extension that is mostly double track, some tarmac. It does a nice job of getting you ‘away from it all’ while allowing you to leave the navigation side of things. there are a few ‘nice/rough’ descents but nothing any more technical that you will find on the two red trails.

five of us, not particularly fit, no mechanicals – riding time just short of 3.5hrs, total time out, more like 4.5hrs, one “im tired, hissy fit” and two “on the brink of collapse, let me at the cake”

great cakes, good coffee, great day