"When did it all start to go down hill for mountain biking?"

[doctor-bond]

Re:

So the consensus seems to be that all is well with fat tires in the shires? Having opened a can of worms, better count them ...

A quick search for stats seems to show that, overall, cycling particiation is pretty steady (although abviously down on the glory days before cheap motoring)



And while cycling habits are mixed, recreational riding as a portion of rides is up; this from cyclinguk:

" ... a separate NTS table on where people said they usually cycled over the last 12 months shows that riding 'mainly off the road in parks, open country or private land' continues to grow in popularity, now up by a huge 72% since 2002."

https://www.cyclinguk.org/news/20170731 ... abits-2016

I know when I go to Dalby Forest, it's packed; but that's virtually all people who drive, ride then drive. Is Peaslake different?

On my local (open access, bridleway, green lane, etc) trails I don't see that many off roaders (have bumped into RB groups though!)

Maybe things are more geographically concentrated now??

 

[xerxes]

Re:

See that slight rise around 1982 to 1985, that was me.

 

[mk one]

You cant gauge reality from a chart! or from the media.

Cycle use contiually grows, weather it is growing in relation to population growth is impossible to say.

 

[Twister]

modern MTBing is a small-scale activity confined to a few pay-as-you-go theme parks.

Utter tosh. Ever been to Peaslake on a weekend? Public land, not a trail centre, and you can't move for hordes of the buggers! Everything from retro iron, Carrera hardtails, mid-range kit, all the way up to sponsored riders and £10k wünderbikes. Everyone out in the woods, arsing about and having fun.

Agree, Surrey Hills is always busy at the weekend. Similarly, Epping forest has a fair few riders most weekends.

Maybe I’m missing the point but if I ride Epping on an retro mtb or my modern genesis or a cx does it really matter? Isn’t it the terrain (whether it’s Xc or dh) that makes it mtb not the marketing mans latest spin on what the latest one bike for all disciplines should look like?

Having acquired my Fortitude Adventure this week I was pondering the circular nature of marketing or product evolution. I remember my colleague buying a Muddy Fox Courier in 1988(?) and how we were told then that the MTB was the perfect bike for all environments.
In more recent years, this has been said of CX Bikes, adventure/bike packing bikes, and now gravel road bikes.
It strikes me that my fortitude is remarkably similar to early mtbs and in a smaller size to my Cannondale H800 (essentially an mtb frame with 700c Wheels. (I’ve also been told ‘that’s not an mtb. Where’s the suspension?’)

There seems to be an irony that the Holy grail of ‘One bike to rule them.’ Is usually espoused by people as an excuse to buy another bike to add to their n+1 stable of rides.

I can’t remember the slogan from MBUK (?), was it ‘just get out and ride’? Though bettered by one on a kids bike ‘Shut up and ride!’

Sorry that was all a bit off-topic and rant over now. As you were.

 

[legrandefromage]

As before, cycling as a business model is terrible as you literally have to keep re-inventing the wheel over and over again to keep generating new interest/ income. Looking back at the magazines from 10 and 20 years ago its the same mantra of part 'X' will transform your ride, 'bike 'X' is soooo much better than last year etc etc and so on.

As the internet/ media wipes away any evidence of cycling without helmets or other safety gear (see the Ford fiesta advert as it goes through ages), it will be seen as a 'dangerous' passtime despite evidence to the contrary. This can only send the average rider off road or to trail centres and sadly via the car.

Locally I really dont see anyone on my 'MTB' rides, I'll often see a tooled up roadie on my regular road ride but even at our local country park there is little in the way of adult age cyclists, just toddlers wobbling around on their first bicycles. And thats despite lots of really pleasant rolling countryside and bridal/ by-ways.

I dont really care what people ride these days as long as the bike is safe and comfortable - I'll still rant at BSO's as they are a really bad introduction to cycling

 

[Joe_Rides]

Re:

Locally I really dont see anyone on my 'MTB' rides, I'll often see a tooled up roadie on my regular road ride but even at our local country park there is little in the way of adult age cyclists, just toddlers wobbling around on their first bicycles. And thats despite lots of really pleasant rolling countryside and bridal/ by-ways

Same for me, but I suppose I often pick out reasonably obscure routes rather than just sticking to the "bike friendly" options local to me. I spent my youth being outside & exploring, so I know every ginnel and cut through in my locality. I sometimes spend a couple of hours of an evening with a map looking for new paths and planning routes.

I don't imagine many of the "nu-skool" riders do this, so perhaps they are not aware that there are some decent trails close-by and choose instead to drive to a trail centre???

 

[cce]

Re: Re:

I don't imagine many of the "nu-skool" riders do this, so perhaps they are not aware that there are some decent trails close-by and choose instead to drive to a trail centre???

"adventure" and "gravel" bikes are bringing this kind of thing back in a big way, mainly because they're a lot less miserable to ride on road bits between trail bits than a mountain bike. It does seem to be mainly people with road backgrounds that are taking it up though

 

[al-onestare]

So, searching for 1988 copies of Mountain Biking magazine (I believe it went on to be quite successful in the UK ...), I came across this 2014 Indy article by Andy Waterman (Privateer):

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 02637.html

The gist of it is that mountain biking isn't popular anymore as it has become too fractured, niche, and techy (all road, cross mountain, 29x26x27.5xfat, up shore, down jump, etc.).

Being old-fashioned, it hadn't occurred to me that there wasn't a horde of folk still buying new fat-tire bikes and ragging them round the countryside. But when you think about it, modern MTBing is a small-scale activity confined to a few pay-as-you-go theme parks. Roadies are everywhere, but when was the last time you saw an MTB in public?

All of which highlights that, as Mr. Waterman suspected, there is a gap in the market:

... for most of us, a mountain-bike ride looks much the same as a road-ride – riding along with friends, talking and enjoying the countryside, but in the woods or on the Dales, away from the constant, dull threat of motorists. And the bike you need to do that really isn't very complicated – a rigid frame with a suspension fork is the most economical entry point, and many will see little point progressing beyond that.

Roll on Real Riding; roll on 1988!

Ends.

First off, the scene evolved. We might not have liked all of the changes - I didn't - but evolution is better than extinction.

My 2 pence is, as soon as mountain biking was announced as an Olympic sport. And then, as a line in the sand, the day the XC race was televised.

To me, that was when racing turned from the fledgling 'happy go lucky' affair, to a more professional approach. When I say professional approach, I mean taking the road cycling blueprint of massive funding, technological advancements, training regimes and everything "else" that comes with that. When that switch happened, it trickled down, some quick, some slow, to us the consumer, whether that was technology, fashion and most of all riding style.

It's been well documented that XC riding is not the most eye-catching sport to watch on TV and yes, there was coverage on Eurosport and other channels before 1996, but it was very minimal and often inaccessible. In 1996 the door opened to a truly worldwide media marketplace; mountain biking was something people wanted to watch live in the flesh or at home. And what better way to grab the audience than to make it eye-catching, exciting and stimulating by accelerating the development of downhill racing, dual slaloms, etc. etc.

 

[T'boo Ted]

Dunno about you guys in the UK, but I'd say over here mtbing has gone bonkers popular.
Locally XC is a big thing. Back in the 90's when I raced a lot, we'd get maybe 30 people to a state round and maybe 50-60 for state champs. Nowdays we have a mid week club race over summer, getting well over 100 every week.
There were 3 bike stores when I used to live here, one was closing down when I left in 1998, move back in 2013, now there are 6 and they all seem to be doing really well...really cycling in general has taken off, huge numbers of roadies, but many of them are mtbers.
They are pouring millions into trail networks which is great (not always my style of trails, but hey, trails are trails) so we've become a big mtb tourism destination and you drive around and there are just cars everywhere with racks of bikes on them.

 

[Titiritero]

Re:

Hard to assess the popularity of each branch of cycling without stats to base it. I guess road cycling is quite popular now in the UK due to the late success of the Sky team and Froome, Wiggins & co. Same happened in US when Lemond started to win Tours. Nobody cared about road cycling before him. Here in Germany, the most popular bike "type" seems to be what they call "trekking" bike, which is a hybrid with mild offroad capabilities but used mostly for commuting, and fully accesorised with lights, mudguards and the likes.

As before, cycling as a business model is terrible as you literally have to keep re-inventing the wheel over and over again to keep generating new interest/ income. Looking back at the magazines from 10 and 20 years ago its the same mantra of part 'X' will transform your ride, 'bike 'X' is soooo much better than last year etc etc and so on.

Totally agreed. In fact, that's why the "most popular" type of cycling seems to change year by year. They need to come up with something new because otherwise last year's bike is PERFECTLY fine.

The problem with mountain bike is that their publicum is more keen on novelties than the road bunch. So they are a perfect target for anything the manufacturers can think of to increase sales. New wheel sizes, BB standards, suspension designs, transmission "improvements", etc. Which leads to a few sales on the higher end. But on the lower end, nobody cares about a 1x if you get 3x for 1/10th of the price. Or square taper BB lets you change your crankset for the price of one chainring in Hollowtech II. And that brings less margin, but infinitely more volume, which is what will feed later the bike shops with money from mechanical jobs, repairs and upgrades.