In November 2022, the Outdoor Recreation Network held a webinar entitled 'Current and Future Trends: learnings from the largest study into e-bikes yet'. Essentially, this reported a study funded by cycling bodies and carried out by Edinburgh Napier University researchers. In winter 2021-22, they distributed, via biking networks, Facebook and Twitter, an online survey questionnaire to users of electric mountain bikes (e-MTBs) in Great Britain, as well as conducting two focus groups, one of users and the other of industry personnel, eg manufacturers, trail builders, land owners/managers, shops, and coaches. The samples being non-random, the results cannot be taken as definitive, especially as regards the use of eMTBs in the hills, but the results may be of interest given the rising popularity of these machines: following Covid lockdowns, managers of biking centres reported eMTBs as comprising 40%-60% of their visitors.
Of the 1341 valid questionnaire responses (22% from Scotland), the majority were aged 45-84, 20% were female, 15% reported some type of disability (about the same as the population in general), and 48% had a degree of some kind. Overall, the main motivation to ride an eMTB was to "increase mental health", with the least important being "risk" (presumably a proxy for "excitement") - though "challenge" was cited as "very important" by over half. For female respondents, the social aspect of e MTB riding was the most important reason to ride. Most eMTB owners had hired first, and cited cost as the main barrier to participation.
Most e MTB users said that they did not want to access "troublesome terrain", eg fragile environments, unauthorized trails, or footpaths; indeed, the most used type of trail was purpose-built, at MTB centres, with forest and gravel roads being the most used terrain. However, about 35% said that that was at least "slightly important" to ride "across fragile area/terrain with limited or no trail/path." 11% reported conflict when riding, mostly from non-e MTB users about speed, and 10% had no awareness of the outdoor access code. The conclusions drawn by the researchers from the study included the need to promote education in "responsible" eMTB use, to increase ethnic and gender diversity, and to improve facilities such as dedicated trails and charging points.
The relevance of all this to the use of eMTBs (and indeed bikes in general) amongst and on the mountains of North-East Scotland may be tangential, but clearly increased numbers of eMTBs will have implications for these areas. The Cairngorms have four "Priority" MTB trails, and Aberdeenshire has six "Emerging" ones, though mostly in lower or coastal places. Webinar discussion included the difficulties of defining "fragile terrain" (eg slope angle above 15-17%, surface, substrate, drainage, precipitation, level/type of use) and the high speed of some bikes (especially of illegally "chipped" ones) on multi-user routes (the webinar chat and the "EAPC" GOV.UK website contain useful information). There were some encouraging remarks on how Strava - whose maps might be encouraging "illegal routes" (perhaps on "access land" in England) - might stop the public posting of routes across NNRs.
Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland (dmbins) is "a small team of extremely passionate mountain bikers", funded by government to oversee and partly deliver the Scottish Mountain Bike Strategy for 2019-2025 (dmbins.com/our-work/scottish-mtb-strategy). The Strategy contains some worthwhile sections, e.g.
A recent trend is for riders to venture further afield into upland areas. There are many possible reasons for this, including riders becoming more skillful and therefore more confident, and improvements in bike technology, including e-bikes. This trend does bring some challenges, particularly as more remote paths are often more fragile. There is a need to raise awareness of this issue among the mountain biking community, promote a culture of responsible mountain biking, support landowners and voluntary groups to maintain the path networks, and work with upland path designers and builders to help them create paths - not specifically for bikes, but bearing in mind that bikes may well be used on them too.
However, parts of the dmbins website - apparently with some commercial backing, eg from Decathlon - contrast with such aspirations, and with the relatively limited rider aspirations indicated by the Napier study. Example photos include bikers on a mountain footpath (dmbins.com/blog/planning-for-adventure), a group carrying bikes up rough mountain slope (dmbins.com/do-the-ride-thing/riding-into-the-wild) and even a biker apparently on one of the Ben Avon tors, see below (dmbins.com/our-work)!
Clearly it behoves mountain walkers - many of whom use bikes of all types to reach more remote areas - to keep an eye on eMTB use and "management", lest conflict intensify and landscape degrade.
A YouTube recording of the webinar, the slide deck, and the chat transcript are available at:
Since writing the above, the full research report has become accessible at britishcycling.org.uk/emtbstudy. Amongst its recommendations is "Further investigation of environmental impact of eMTB use", where research so far has been "very limited". While mountain areas are not explicitly mentioned here, it is suggested that study "site locations should have different topographies and soil type to get a firm understanding of erosion levels". Moreover, since "eMTB users are riding further, faster and throughout every season", education is needed to cover trail etiquette, outdoor access codes as they apply to eMTBs, and possibly the need to ask riders "to avoid natural habitats in weather conditions known to degrade paths".
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