The Mach 1, 2 and 3 trails were the original mountain bike trails in the Dyfi Valley. Providing way-marked routes or differing length and technicality along public rights of ways for the nascent mountain bike world that revolved around exploration and adventure. Reliant on volunteers for their upkeep, over 20 years the Mach trails hadn’t deteriorated per se, but the way-marking had lost it’s way and, like lesser used trails in summer time, the online presence had disappeared in newer growth.

When Beicio Mynydd Dyfi MTB was created, these unmanaged yet well known trails stood almost forgotten in time. Missing signposts and evolving technology had left these trails behind, both literally and figuratively. But time and the passing seasons have given these trails relevance again.

Over the past decade, bikepacking and adventure biking have grown, on the back of ever evolving bike and equipment technology, from a small niche in the bicycle industry to today where all roads lead to gravel and gravel to tracks. Today’s gravel bikes might have curly bars and many look suspiciously like road bikes. But look closer and you’ll see the gearing and the tyres sizes aren’t too different to the mountain bikes being ridden over the Cambrian Mountains 20 years ago.

And so the trails have been refreshed, new maps have been prepared, the signposts replaced and the branding is on-point. It’s time for the Return of the Mach.