Mountain Bikers: What's Our Image?

As mountain bikers, we are aware that as a user group we are sometimes looked at differently than other user groups. This is largely because of a negative public perception that is spread through mountain bike horror stories and negative media images depicting mountain bikers as goofy youngsters who slam cans of Mountain Dew and chase cheetahs. Nothing could be more insulting or further from the truth. With this article, we aim to bring some of the common anti-mountain bike comments out in the open and respond to them.

What do people say about us?

"Mountain bikers love to ride illegal trails"

We hear people say this, but it's never made much sense to us. Mountain bikers don't want to ride illegally, but at times some people feel forced to ride illegally due to the lack of legal trails. To illustrate this point, let's look at the amount of trail access mountain bikers have and compare that to a respected and established group: equestrians.

Let's imagine that horsemen were facing the same trail access problems that mountain bikers face today. Roughly speaking, horsemen as a user group are about o­ne-half the size of mountain bikers and have around 100 miles of trail in Cuyahoga County and the surrounding counties. Now imagine that all these trails are closed - but the equestrians are still out there.

The result of closing miles of trail to a user group would lead to a certain amount of illegal trail riding. Responsible equestrians would take their horses elsewhere, but a small group of riders would remain and continue to ride against the park's policies. Many of these people would complain to the parks that the reason they ride illegally is that they are unwilling or unable to drive the 45 minutes or longer that it would take to get to trails in neighboring counties. During this time the park systems would try their best to control illegal riding, but they would never be able to stop it completely. What would be left o­n the trails would be what many people would consider the "bad apples". As time went by, the bad apples would become what people would consider a typical equestrian since responsible riders would have left the area.

Sound familiar? Given the scenario just described, much of the reputation mountain bikers have starts to have a logical explanation.

Note: you can view CAMBA's position, responsibility, and perspective o­n illegal riding by clicking here.

"We're OK with CAMBA members, it's those other guys we have a problem with!"

Another comment CAMBA frequently hears is: "If we knew that all mountain bikers were CAMBA members and mountain bike enthusiasts, we'd be fine with it. What we are worried about is the guy o­n the Wal-Mart bike."

Based o­n our observations over the years, the person riding the Wal-Mart bike is probably a new rider who does not know the rules of the trail or doesn't understand proper trail etiquette. When we see Wal-Mart bikes at places like West Branch, Quail Hollow, and Atchinson, we often see their riders without gloves, helmets, and failing to bring any water. When they are seen in places like the Cuyahoga Valley or the Cleveland Metroparks, they are often riding illegally. There are no rules of the trail posted and many trails are not specifically labeled as closed to bicycles, so they can be found riding o­n closed trails.

In the vast majority of cases, these people are not intentionally breaking the rulesï or riding irresponsibly. Instead they are usually new to the sport and are not aware what it means to ride responsibly. Given some time, they will learn. In fact, they would learn much faster if they had responsible, experienced riders to observe and emulate. However, responsible and experienced riders do not typically ride illegal trails.

"You guys are so rude!"

People love to tell us the story about when they were o­n the trail and "some mountain biker blew past me" or "some mountain biker was nasty to me". We could reply with stories of our own about all sorts of situations o­n and off trails where people have been rude, but what's the point? The truth is that some people are just rude. It has nothing to do with them riding mountain bikes.

There is no doubt that rude confrontations have occurred, but we would speculate that at times both parties involved may have contributed to the situation. Such is the case when there is a perceived competition for the same resource; it's a basic law of nature. When the hiker yells "get off the trail, you're not supposed to be here" to a mountain biker, it should come as no surprise to the hiker that the mountain biker responds with a similar tone of voice and lack of kindness.

The sad part is there are plenty of resources to go around. Much of the problem derives from a feeling that a person has ownership of something and "their" trail is being misused. This can be minimized by simply posting that a resource is shared. This would eliminate the feeling of competition by informing users that sharing is the norm. This system works o­n the towpath and the paved trails. It will work in the woods too.

"You have some bad apples."

Mountain bikers are no different than any other user group. All types of recreation have issues with people not abiding by the rules. Downhill skiers ski out of bounds, fishermen take more than their limit, hikers hike off-trail, horsemen ride when trails are muddy, and so o­n. While everyone knows this, nobody calls for the ski area to be closed, fishing to be banned, and the hikers and equestrians to be removed. For some reason, people seem to react differently when the issue is mountain biking. o­ne common reaction is that because there is a problem with illegal mountain biking in o­ne area of a given park system, the entire park system should be closed to mountain biking and mountain bikers should never be allowed o­n the trails. CAMBA believes that punishing all trail users for actions of a few rogue users is not an effective land management practice and will o­nly make the problem worse.

When a park user breaks the rules, CAMBA recognizes that parks have a responsibility to respond. Users can be hikers, equestrians, cyclists, or frisbee players. If someone is caught abusing their rights, they should be held accountable. We fully understand and support this enforcement practice since it is targeted towards the individuals that break the rules.

Rather than closing a park system to mountain biking, we challenge land managers to look for innovative and forward-thinking ways to handle the issue. This might include working with CAMBA, expanding a park system's trail network if the need is there (and it probably is), and issuing warnings and tickets where appropriate.

A legitmate and unmet recreational demand

Mountain biking is a legitimate and appropriate way for visitors to experience and enjoy the outdoors. It is a low-impact, non-polluting, muscle-powered activity that helps combat obesity and promotes healthy lifestyles in our society. Further, the introduction of mountain biking in the Cleveland area can be a factor in attracting and retaining a vibrant segment of the population while rallying support for parks.

The demand for legal, singletrack mountain bike trails in Northeast Ohio is considerable and this demand simply is not being met. In Northeast Ohio there are roughly twice as many mountain bikers as horse riders and twice as many hikers as mountain bikers. Yet mountain bikers have absolutely no legal singletrack trails in Cuyahoga County. In fact, things are so bad that the International Mountain Bicycling Association actually ranks Cleveland as the urban area with the least amount of legal singletrack trails for mountain bikers to ride - worst in the nation! To put it mildly, riders are frustrated that there is a lack of singletrack access and quality trails for them to ride.

Final thoughts

If you take a legitimate and popular sport, keep all trails closed to them, mix in a healthy amount of beginners and the usual bad apples, guess what you get? What you get is the current state of mountain biking in Cleveland. Rather than banning them all and giving up, CAMBA suggests that the community partner with us to find a way to make it work.