The UK Trails Project is a three year DMBinS (Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland) hosted and SRAM funded program to try and work how to create a better trail network in the woods and wild spaces we love to ride in. And if you take a second to let that sink in, that’s the most important thing of all about mountain biking. The cost of your bike, angle of your head tube, how you shift gear, what size wheels you prefer, the clothes you wear, or whether you’re an epic ride fan or a schralpy shredder. None of this means anything if you’ve got nowhere to ride and the importance of doing something about it right now can’t be underestimated either.
That’s because pressure on trails is increasing to the point where the previous level of ‘blind eye’ tolerance from a lot of landowners is being stretched to the limit or often snapped. A lot more new riders have come into the sport off the back of Covid bike sales and e-MTB enablement – with little or no knowledge of how to ride or access the countryside responsibly. At the same time, bike development means experienced riders need steeper, more challenging and faster trails to get our fix. The whole mountain bike zeitgeist has changed too with social media ‘shreddits’ encouraging unsustainable ‘ravage and repeat’ rut trails being gouged into previously beautiful landscapes. Trails that have existed sustainably under the radar for years suddenly being ‘outed’ on Strava and YouTube, then destroyed by the increase in traffic. And if they survive the bigger number of riders, they’re often flattened or fenced off by landowners for fear or liability or other issues such as litter, dangerous parking or community conflicts. In short, we’re often doing a great job of crapping in our own beds right now.
