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
@scotroutes
I had actually typed “other than to sell more bikes”, but removed it before pressing post.
Take them for a ride somewhere like Scotroutes’ pic above! A great day out, easily rideable on basically any bike, nice scenery, throw in a cake stop. No need to risk life and limb, no injuries, no competition. No major adrenaline, but i can’t imagine anyone (who, as you say, is reasonably sporty and doesn’t mind getting muddy) not enjoying it. It’s a nice route in.
MTB was cool when I started riding. It isn’t now.
If that was the case, football and rugby would be amongst the least popular sports – clearly not the case.
There are loads of kids around here who ride MTB – from racing to digging/building in the local woods. The local MTB groups are also oversubscribed and the school bike clubs have healthy numbers – so I don’t think it’s about being cool either. I asked my eldest (12 yo, end yr 7) if he thought mountain biking was cool and he said “yes, everyone at school thinks I’m cool". But these are for the most part children from wealthy enough backgrounds to afford not only the initial cost of a mountain bike, but also the cost of maintaining it, buying suitable gear, travelling to and from places to ride etc. I asked him why he thought more people in his school didn’t ride themselves and the first thing he said was “cost".
I would bet that many on here are either from backgrounds that could afford a top-spec bike in their formative years, or were able to cobble something together from the parts available, combined with fewer standards that made everything much cheaper and a bit more accessible than it is now. I fall into the latter, but I’m glad I’ll never have to faff with a cotter pin again in my life. 🙂 I was also fortunate to live somewhere (Dales) with interesting riding on the doorstep.
Why does it need reframing, whatever that’s meant to mean. If people want to find out about the sport and get into o then great. If they won’t find it without it being spoon fed to them then why does it matter if they do or don’t get into the sport
I thought it was already reframed 6 months ago, its getting hard to keep up.
Cant have too many talking talking shops rather than doing it
As above – there’s money to be made. More seriously too though – I’ve had some fantastic experiences around biking. It’s not unreasonable to think that others might enjoy those experiences too, if they were given the opportunity, and there’s nothing wrong with trying to spread a little joy.
It was easy 37 years ago, when hardly anyone knew what a mountain bike was – they went to a bike shop, bought one that was in their budget, looked at a map for byways and bridleways, then went out and rode them – in the process, discovering large chunks of the local countryside that they didn’t know existed.
That’s what I did, and I got there via reading a few mountain bike magazines. My first bike was a Specialized Stumpjumper.
This whole thread honestly sounds like it’s come directly from the 1980’s!After ten years of not riding, it’s certainly hard work, and uncomfortable at times, especially the day after, but I’m looking forward to getting out and re-exploring my local countryside, and getting a bike carrier for the car and going further afield.
I’m struggling to see what’s difficult about this…
Why are you bothered if other people care about social inclusion?
No skin off your nose, is it?
If you live in a MTB hot-spot – Hebden Bridge, Surrey Hills, Peebles, Edge of the Chilterns etc etc it’s pretty common to go ride in the woods. Living in Heb I saw loads of kids all over the trails like a rash. I started during the big rush in the 90’s with some friends as we were looking to do something that got us outside and kept us fit. I still see people doing that now. But there’s barriers like every other sport, culturally, financially, ability, fitness access. Plus: define mountain biking…Back in the 90 for me that was a big circle in the woods/over the fells. Nowadays for people entering the sport? Not so much. Is it XC? DH? double crown? Gravel? Cycling’s always been a minority pastime in the UK despite in the increase in it’s popularity recently, MTB is a niche within a niche.
CZ, I think what you’ve posted there is ‘cycling’ rather than MTB and I’d agree it looks like a thoroughly pleasant day out.
But MTB likes to present itself more like this – and you can see why people might find it daunting and unapproachable. If I was 16 again I would think that this was super cool. But now as an arthritic middle aged man I just can’t be arsed. My hand hurts just looking at it. And MrsDoris would never have been remotely interested in this kind of thing – although she would probably enjoy CZ’s trip above.
The answer here is you don’t, because they don’t want to do it. I fall into the exact demographic you describe above- I love being outdoors and I also love beasting myself with V02 max intervals, hard runs and fast road rides and all the rest of it. But, I switched from mountain biking to road riding/Triathlon years ago and have never once really missed mountain biking.
For me, all the kit required and the cleaning and maintaining seemed nuts when I could just put a pair of trail shoes on and go for a run in the hills or do a road ride straight from my door. Especially in the winter when (to me) the extra layers and kit and cleaning/maintaining seems even more bonkers.
The above isn’t an objective criticism of mountain biking- I’m aware its just a personality thing. But, not everyone is interested in the kit and endless technical iterations of a thousand components that all seem to have different standards.
I think a lot of people who like mountain biking enjoy it because of that, which is cool, but there’s always going to be a significant demographic who are turned off by it. I just have zero interest in learning how to bleed brakes or service a dropper post when I could have smashed out 40 road miles and gone to the cafe or pub afterwards in the same amount of time.
In summary: Mountain biking is really only for people who like fixing and maintaining things and obsessing over technical details, prove me wrong.
This.
But also make them free to kids.
The one nearer us is £5 per hour per person. Plus bike hire, plus helmet hire.
It’s mostly empty, or sometimes has families rolling round.
The one near my mum’s is free, is rammed with kids playing out learning to manual and jump from each other.
😂
I’ve realized this year (the last of my 30’s 😬 ) just how quickly I could build fitness in my teens / 20’s. Riding to work for a few weeks was enough to have me averaging 20mph and I’d lose fat so quick I had to eat bowls of pasta after a main meal to compensate! I made a concerted effort last winter to get off my ass, get fit and lose weight, 6 months and ~3000miles later I can just about average 16mph and have lost no weight 😂.
So by that analysis, half the problem is going to be retaining people. They either need to keep up that fitness or get e-bikes.
Or people that realise it’s massively more fun than either running or riding a road bike.
Methinks you were doing it wrong
I don’t like maintenance but road biking is so boring and trail runners smell bad. Convince me otherwise.
Out riding with group last night, kids in the woods building jumps as usual, click baity post.
Well it’s horses for courses, which is my entire point above.
But, I don’t see many posts hand-wringing about why more people aren’t running or road riding whereas I see tonnes on here asking why more people aren’t mountain biking on what seems like a fortnightly basis. This OP in fact being one of them. So, it seems lots of people consider the alternatives as “doing it right".
mountain biking is a spectrum – or perhaps even more its on one of those 2 axis plots where one axis is “gnar/skill" and the other “aerobic effort".
everyone commenting above is equally valid in enjoying their passtime doing “mountain biking" even if one corner of that graph might be more suited to a bike that these days is labeled “gravel", and people can certainly enjoy doing multiple different aspects of it and also have aspects of it that they are not interested in at all.
but to focus on the bit you like and then either say “nobody is doing it anymore" or “its a totally healthy popular scene" is going to be wrong when considering the broader reach of the statement.