Skip to main content

UK Trails Project - Update July 2024

Our Dave has been an extremely busy man since taking the role of Project Manager for the UK Trails Project in October 2023. He is currently in the throws of drafting the important first output from the Project, the 'Your Trail' report and we thought we share a short update of the work to date.

Dave Alex and Graeme

Background

The UK Trails Project has been created to support the mountain bike community, governing bodies, and land managers/owners to share knowledge, discuss issues and opportunities for greater collaboration, and improve the sustainability of the mountain bike trail network across the UK. It will also help understand the current position of the trail network in each UK nation and develop a deeper understanding of the opportunities, and challenges, to improve the long-term sustainability and security of the places we love to ride.

This project comes at a time when the sport of mountain biking is maturing to be capable of engaging with land managers and owners to develop a sustainable, exciting, and varied trail network for all levels.

The first step of the project will be to develop a UK wide ‘Your Trail’ report to give riders and land managers the space to tell the stories of their trails.

This unique project is fully funded by SRAM, managed by DMBinS, and supported by a steering group including British Cycling, Cycling Ireland, Welsh Cycling, Forestry and Land Scotland, Forestry England, Natural Resources Wales, Outdoor Recreation Northern Ireland, along with the project funders, SRAM.

Uk Trails

General Update

Our Dave is currently knee deep in data as he is in the drafting process of preparing the 'Your Trail' Report.

To gather the information to start this process he visited 16 venues across the UK and met with almost 400 mountain bikers, trail builders and land managers to establish the key themes to explore.

Then working with Edinburgh Napier University, expanded on these themes by creating three separate online surveys to gain a more detailed insight into the points raised by each stakeholder group with the surveys circulated targeting riders, trail builders, land managers.

Project Manager Dave and Napier Lead Dr. Tom Campbell are currently analysing over 2000 responses to the surveys to create a solid evidence base to guide future work and form the basis of the Report.

Dave is also now conducting many interviews with key stakeholders in the sport from all 4 home nations and these interviews will be analysed to provide further evidence on where future work should be directed.

By listening to all stakeholders and employing an evidence-based approach, the project will be able to bring all stakeholders with them to recommend the actions required to have the biggest impact for each home nation.

Results of the survey and interviews, and details of the work packages for the second phase of the Project will be presented in the “Right Trail, Right Place, Right Time, Right People” report, launched at the Scottish Mountain Bike Conference 2024, taking place on the 7th to 9th November at the Macdonald Cardrona Hotel, in the Tweed Valley.

SRAM HQ Visit

Sram
Dave with Rob Cappucci, the Director of Advocacy and Industry Partnerships SRAM earlier this year. Dave and the Boss were invited to the SRAM HQ in Chicago, whilst in Bentonville, Arkansas for a separate learning journey, curtesy of the Runway Group and North West Arkansas Community College.

The Boss and our Dave had a proper ‘pinch me’ moment earlier this year when they travelled from Bentonville to Chicago to visit SRAM MTB HQ. The invite was extended through the monthly UK Trails Project update calls with Rob Cappucci, who is the SRAM USA Director of Advocacy and Industry Partnerships and Alex Rafferty who is the Global MTB Communications Manager for SRAM.

The Boss was invited to brief them on the work of DMBinS, its set up, core aims and its partners. They were then joined by Clint Weber, VP Sales Operations and New Business Growth, and Dave was able to provide an update in his role as Project Manager for the UKTP, focusing on the current UK wide survey, emerging themes and next steps. The group discussed how the project moves to deliver the 'Your Trail' Report findings to help improve the trail network across the UK.

Dave and the boss
Dave and Sram

We remain extremely grateful for the support, enthusiasm and passion of SRAM as project funders and partners alongside the project steering group. We are really excited to see the impact that the UK Trails Project will have.

Back Cover Credit Simon Scott

Further reading

Support the Scottish Trail Fund

Make a Donation

You may also like

Support the Scottish Trail Fund

Make a Donation