Dyfi Bike Park in Wales, United Kingdom, is the result of the incredibly hard work of Dan Atherton and the Dyfi crew. The park uses a shuttle to transport riders a few miles and over 1,000 feet above the entrance to the upper mountain, where they can choose from several black and double-black descents back down.
But “upper mountain” wasn’t truly the top. Dyfi recently added new trails and another 700-plus feet of elevation, reaching the actual summit of the mountain it is built on. The key to unlocking additional descending options? E-bikes.
Atherton wanted to leave the new trails as natural as possible, which means they’re rated advanced
In a YouTube video about the new trails, Atherton mentions that the first time the public really saw anything of the mountain above Dyfi Bike Park was in Gee Atherton’s Ridgeline edit. The bike park opened in 2019, with the Ridgeline video released the following year. While I imagine some would love to ride the same trail Gee does in Ridgeline, it isn’t a part of the newly opened trails coming down from the summit.
But that doesn’t mean that the new trails aren’t for advanced-level riders. In fact, everything at Dyfi sits in one of three trail-rating categories: black, double-black, or pro line. And, on Dyfi’s and The Athertons’ social media accounts and websites, the new trails will follow suit.
According to Dyfi’s website, there are two new trails — for now.
Atherton says they aimed to keep the new trails as natural as possible, taking a low-impact approach on the upper mountain terrain. While the new trails incorporate features such as berms, no machinery was involved. Rather than manufacturing a trail by moving massive amounts of dirt to create trail features, Atherton spent years exploring above the park, looking for lines that used the natural contours of the terrain.
E-bikes were the key to opening this new upper section, and Dyfi is pushing forward with more eMTB-specific trails
Atherton says the growing popularity of e-bikes largely drove the new upper mountain trails at Dyfi. While they still use the shuttle to transport riders to the top drop-off point, riders will then self-shuttle the final stretch via e-bike.
But it doesn’t just stop there. The next phase of creating trails at Dyfi will add more climbs to link other trails in the park. This lets riders ride multiple sections and areas of the park rather than choosing a trail to descend all the way to where the uplift starts.
Pushing even further into eMTB-specific trails, Atherton goes on to say that the third phase will be building “specific e-bike trails” at Dyfi. He says these will still be a “top-to-bottom” experience, but they will also incorporate climbs, with the goal of making them exciting as well.
While most “bike parks” focus on new trail development for downhill riding, Dyfi might be one of the first to build trails specifically for e-bikes. Yes, shuttle bike parks like Ride Kanuga allow e-bikes and may even offer a cheaper option for riders pedaling up, but none (that we know of) are building trails specifically for e-bikes.
It’s no coincidence that the Atherton bike brand just released an e-bike
The update to Dyfi comes on the heels of Atherton Bikes releasing its e-bike, the S.170E. The bonded aluminum frame features the new Avinox M2S motor, 170mm of travel, and a DW4 suspension platform. Dyfi had the new Atherton e-bike to demo on the opening day of the new trails just a few weeks ago.
They also acknowledge a shifting industry and that the way bike parks are run is changing. While Atherton says there will always be a place and need for an uplift, more people are choosing the self-shuttle method of e-bikes — often as their only bike.
Singletracks recently covered similar issues at Deer Valley Bike Park, where the resort added a “pedal up” fee to its trail system. The issue there was riders illegally cutting over onto the DH trails in the bike park, with e-bikes making that uphill access even easier.
This begs the question: With the ever-growing popularity of e-bikes, are “pedal-up” options and eMTB-specific trails the future of bike parks?
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