New guide from Reframing MTB offers practical solutions to remove barriers within the mountain biking scene.
A report called “Why Aren’t You Mountain Biking?”, released today, primarily urging trail associations and community groups – but also relevant to individuals – to take steps towards making mountain biking more open and inclusive.
Funded by PayDirt and produced by Ride Sheffield and Mòr Diversity, this guide hopes to offer practical solutions to remove barriers within the mountain biking scene.
The report asks, “Why aren’t you mountain biking?” not as a challenge, but as more of a call to action.
Aneela McKenna from Mòr Diversity: “We believe mountain biking has the power to bring people together, improve mental and physical well-being, and foster a deep connection with nature. However, our research confirms that not everyone feels welcome. Our findings show that 38.4% of all respondents believe mountain biking culture is inclusive. This drops significantly among underrepresented communities: just 22.7% of people of colour individuals, 22.5% of LGBTQ+ individuals, and 19.33% of disabled individuals perceive the culture as inclusive.”
Some key findings
Affordability and knowledge: for those starting out, affordability (22%), access to kit (15%), and knowledge about trails (21%) are significant factors.
Perception of risk: non-riders often view the sport as dangerous and risky, influenced by media portrayals focusing on “thrills and risk”.
79% of respondents discovered mountain biking through friends, family, or partners, underscoring a reliance on personal connections rather than more formal entry points like schools or cycling clubs.
Homogenous representation: the media often shows mountain biking as male-dominated, with a perceived lack of racial diversity. This contributes to feelings of being an outsider for many.
Henry Norman from Ride Sheffield: “This toolkit provides actionable steps, complete with checklists and inspiring case studies from groups like Rider Resilience, Bristol Shredders, and The Adaptive Riders Collective. It’s a testament to what can be achieved when we shift our focus to people, ensuring mountain biking is truly for everyone.”
The “Why Aren’t You Mountain Biking?” report and toolkit are available for download on the Reframing Mountain Biking website – reframingmtb.com
I’d say the vast majority are not even aware MTBing even exists…. Why would you know if you live in an inner city for example ? Or someone who’s just grown up in a town and works as a mechanic and a hairdresser.
There are not ‘barriers’ to MTBing… just a lack of complete awareness of it.
They are barriers – it’s a really interesting topic. A complete lack of awareness is a barrier, then I don’t look like them is the next.Â
I guess the ‘mountain’ bit could put some folks off though MTBs are well suited to urban terrain!
This. Especially when outward bound centres have been slashed. A massive loss.
Also its expensive.Â
@matt_outandabout will explain it better i imagine.
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mmm… well-meaning I’m sure; but the major answers are:
– I don’t want to. Fundamentally an awful lot of people don’t want to go out in the forest/ moors/ mud/ wind/ cold/ rain – which is understandable and their choice.Â
– I don’t know why I’d want to
– I don’t know how to (riding trails, but also the logistics of where to go, what to take, what kind of bike to use and so on)
Then we get into the barriers: I want to but I can’t. A large part of this is perceived cost; but lifestyle factors account for a major aspect – things like “I don’t have 5 hours to ditch the kids at the weekend" and so on. Â
Beyond *all* of those, we then get to “I’d like to try but I don’t think I’d be welcome/ can’t do it very well/ it’s not people like me".Â
A more obvious barrier is location.
Using trail centers as a way to regenerate or gentrify rural areas by bringing in mountain bikers is all well and good. But it then means that mountain bikers are just cyclists with cars. The current funding model for trails that puts them in places like Peebles, Coed-y-Brenin or Afan works to grow the economy in those areas, but it doesn’t grow ‘mountainbiking’, the most it can do is attract existing mountainbikers to drive around the country. Â
If you want more “mountain bikers", then a better place to focus would be on where can they come from. Build BMX tracks, pump tracks, skate parks, it’s not a coincidence that the MTB boom in the 90’s followed the BMX boom of the 80’s. Even just growing cycling in general would be a good thing. Someone who rides to work every day in Manchester is far more likely to think “I wonder if I could ride in the Peak District" and then jump on a train to Edale than someone who doesn’t normally ride at all.
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I honestly don’t know how anyone starts mountain biking. Any time I’ve been off the bike for a while and go out on my first ride back it’s hard, uncomfortable, and the parts you enjoy only seem to last about three minutes out of every hour you’re out there.
For me mountain biking was just an extension of playing on bikes with my friends. We put planks on bricks in the street to make ramps (no landings, obviously) and went into the woods to play and rode our bikes to get there. I started out just having fun on a bike and sort of got into ‘proper’ mountain biking when I was about 16 when I started going to the local mountain biking club (because none of my friends were interested in bikes anymore).
Kids just don’t have that freedom to go out and play anymore which is a major loss. So now we’re left with people taking up the ‘sport’ of mountain biking rather than it just being an extension of their childhood.
And like I said, starting out in mountain biking must be **** horrible. If you have a group where you feel welcomed that must make it 100 times easier. If you don’t have a group that makes you feel welcome then I really don’t see how anyone would be interested in the slightest.
Obviously ebikes make things easier but then that really puts up a major barrier to entry, where the introduction to the sport is on the most expensive equipment available.
I suspect there’s a lot of “I tried it but it’s too hard and I didn’t like it".Â
You need to be reasonably fit before it’s enjoyable and even then a lot of people don’t like working hard and getting muddy.Â
But other people will be saying “why don’t people go clubbing / go to the pub / go to the opera / go to football matches / go to escape rooms". Resources are limited and different things appeal to different peopleÂ
Same as me. I’ve always ridden bikes but back in the pre-internet days with 4 channels on the telly it was the only way to get out and see your mates and go off and do stuff. Now there’s a blizzard of bullshit competing for everyone’s attention 24/7.
I bought a copy of MBUK in 1996 because I wanted to plaster the free stickers all over my Raleigh Activator. That was my first look at mountain biking as a ‘sport’ that was participated in by grown ups. I was just getting into it as everyone else was aging out. When people got driving licences it was game over and my only riding mates then were ‘enthusiasts’ like myself.
I’d say general lack of awareness is a big barrier. MTB has almost zero mainstream visibility. People have no idea what it is. People in my family think I’m a cyclist and I just go out pedalling around. I work in a company with a much higher than average population of “underrepresented communities" and none of them give a shit about playing on bikes for fun. Why would they? There’s plenty of other stuff to do.
As far as getting children into it I wouldn’t know where to start. The wife is a teacher in a primary school where most of the kids have never left Sheffield.
Now that I’m a parent in a middle class burb I don’t see kids playing in the street on bikes. I see them piling into SUV’s, going to some scheduled activity at a certain premises then ferried home again and hidden away. When I do visit a skatepark or pump track the children are usually outnumbered by silver foxes like myself trying to stay rad.
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The 3 main factors cited (affordability, access to trails and knowledge) are all cited by less than a quarter of respondents.
I wonder how these stats compare to other similar outdoor pursuits- I’m sure they are a lot higher than for (say) running or playing football or tennis but I’d be curious to know what they look like against comparator activities like canoeing, rock climbing or windsurfing or whatever.Â
Any activity that requires you to go into the hills to do it (even if they’re relatively local) is going to immediately exclude a significant demographic of people on the basis its a big time-drain.Â
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Perhaps the perception that you need to go into the hills to do it is a major non-starter for folks, this is why I’ve gravitated to road and gravel as both make more sense from the front door, but the reality is there’s plenty of good trails I could be MTBing from the front door also, I’ve just got a mental blocker of having to cover bits of tarmac to get to them which is probably more of a chore on an enduro bike than it is on my Superfly with Mezcals.Perhaps MTB has backed itself too far into a corner with the gnarly stuff?
On the flip side, pump-tracks seem like the gateway drug into MTB for some, we’ve got a new one in Auchterarder which seems like a huge success, really busy. I’ve since noticed a few wee dirt jumps and scratchy little trails appearing in the woods around the village which might be an extension of this?
Haters gonna hate, but “peak MTB" was while bikes were (mostly) divided into skinny-tyred road bikes or “Mountain Bikes". The more that folk have come to realise that gravel/hybrid bikes are more than adequate for their off-road thrills, the more of a niche MTBs have become. That these bikes can also be used to commute, to get back and forth between home and the countryside, that apparently don’t demand the same skill level and are basically less expensive to buy and maintain are all bonuses. What’s more, this is true across all demographics and doesn’t need one to go looking for underrepresented groups.Â
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I think that some of the success of Glentress might come from how someone who lives in/near Edinburgh could drive there, do a lap of the red and drive home in time for lunch at the weekend, which might be much a much easier sell to their partner than having to disappear for a day trip and a long ride.
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I often wonder this when I pass roadies whilst on my way to some fabulous local trails
Personally I dislike all the cleaning but that could just be me
A huge barrier probably is that our public transport basically does not take bikes. 1 or 2 bikes per 1000 people is not acceptable or really useful. I used to live in inner city, there was no need for me to have a car in town as everything was walk-able cycle-able from my door. But anything “interesting" to MTB is normally out of town!
I’ve been sitting (in my home office) watching teenagers riding (often just on the back wheel) up and down the street, to the local woods, all week now the schools have broken up.
This is a northern, working class area and kids very much still can and do go and play out.
Totally agree.Â
My sense is that total number of partcipants has grown, with gravel and eebs the fastest growing parts of the off-road cycling mix. Not convinced non-motorised MTB has shrunk, but perhaps eebs have taken a little chunk out of it in very recent years.
Happy to be corrected if there are reliable stats though.
Leeds urban bike park is a great model. It has the jumps and pump track but also a short, fun, xc route. Kids can try a bit of everything in the same location. It’s one of the only places I’ve seen kids outnumber adults.
I had a short spell as a teacher and suggestions of MTB clubs were often met with panicked faces from head teachers and talk of insurance. Hummersnott Academy in Darlington has a road cycling club which seems popular with an ex member in Matty Brennan currently making waves in the world tour. They can ride straight from the school so it’s much easier than organising an MTB club.
I have families coming into my Bradford barbershop and ask me where they can take their kids to ride and the answer is, apart from Leeds Urban Bike Park you are going to need to travel to start with.Â
We do have lots of great off-piste trails everywhere but these are not the places for a family to gain those skills, together to start with.
Its a big commitment to buy bikes, kit, cycle carriers or a van to go off to Sherwood, Dalby, LLandegla, etc.
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Considering I live in a fairly ‘mtb popular’ area and know quite a lot of mtb’ers – I’d estimate 75% of the ones that used to ride normal mtb’s are now on eebs. A lot of them aren’t unfit old biffers like me either