bog trotters:
nurses & physios
bus driver
school kids
vet
doctors
teachers
managers
builders
computer and IT professionals
managers
engineers
electrican
students
accountants
solicitor
bank manager
etc
so, a mixed bag. My current bike is worth about £300 ie a fifth of the cost of my camera...
Hilldodger, Do you not think that people who are as you call it 'bike chic' unable to ride the beejoolas out of their bikes and have a pint afterwards?
A bit of generalisation there mate.
Not really, but they sure can't form grammatically correct sentances innit 
In answer to the original question: Nah.
Because the poor and dishonest can buy great nicked bikes cheaply, and loads get nicked.
trail centres car parks seem to be split 50:50 between trades vans and bm's/audis/ rep mobiles.
hilldodger - MemberNot really, but they sure can't form grammatically correct sentances innit [:wink:]
But bad spelling is ok??
My tuppence:
I think alot sports can be expensive. €150.00 for a pair of running shoes. FFS!
€400.00 as a starting price for a canoe, without paddle, lifejacket etc.
Clmbing rope, harnesses, climbing shoes etc.
Even football with replica shirts at €100.00 or so.
Also as said before, other pastimes are equally expensive.
Snobbery in MTBing is another thing though, look at me, not my friggin' bike, before deciding to talk to me...
I'm pretty much homeless, jobless and live out of a bin bag.
So i welcome all the to my minority.
if its got wheels or t*ts its going to cost you in the long run....
Even the cost of the bike is not ridiculous with some credit - bearing in mind that people are happy to load up all sorts of stuff like TV's, gold clubs etc on credit.
Taking maintenance and breakages out, a £1000 bike will still be worth say £400 after a couple of years, if looked after. Therefore cost is £300 per year or about £25 per month.
It doesn't have to be expensive I ride a GT avalanche 2.0 2005 model. The only changes I've made to this since 2006 are the inner tubes.
I've got the usual basic gear.
You could probably buy it all for under £300.
Doesn't matter, just get out, have fun and whether it be a £50 bike or a £5000 bike, more people cycling is a good thing (isn't it?).
COnks
he majority of people who I ride with meet on the trails are well educated, comfortable professional people
As well as being an avid MTB'er of 2 decades, I also play squash, and have done for probably the same period of time.
Squash = £50 for a good raquet, @£7 for a court each week. Over a period of 20 years... do the math!
Teacher,Lecturer,Cad Designer,Plasterer,Farmer,Builders,Paramedic,Sales Rep,Engineer - no one gives a fk about what you are riding as long as theres some banter to be had.Most of the lads are just glad to be out of the house !
trail centres car parks seem to be split 50:50 between trades vans and bm's/audis/ rep mobiles.
And a lot of the fancy motors at trail centres are probably on credit, just like the bikes.
pardon? am I to believe that some of you are from the poor?
oh how unfortunate. cake?
can be cheep, or expensive, personaly depspite starting a new job ive still not got any bikes worth more than about £800 (2 hardtails worth about the same). Tempted to buy a prophet, but seems pointless as ive moved down south.
Ah, the British obsession with class and social standing. The Frost Report, anyone?
thomthumb - Membertrail centres car parks seem to be split 50:50 between trades vans and bm's/audis/ rep mobiles.
a lot of cars i see in the trail centres are worth less than their bikes,
mine included, i have a really rubbish car though, i double the value of it when i load my bike into it. 
it's all about what you wish to spend your money on,
it can be as expensive as you like, or as cheap as you like.
bought a second hand bike off here for a friend for £200 ish,
an older specialised hardrock with everything upgraded, sids lx/xt.
just look at this for an example,
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/forum/classifieds
generally (as a rule of thumb), your less likely to find footballers and other "pitch" sport players on the trails.
its not a class thing, its a difference between running around in a box chasing a ball, or going somewhere, sometimes in a competative manner, in a linear styleee (be it walking, running, climbing, cycling, kayaking, rowing.....)
and imo its a good thing, its bad enough having to put up with the yobs shouting at the telly in the pub :p
not a lower class, a lower end of the species IMO :p
ce:I think alot sports can be expensive. €150.00 for a pair of running shoes. FFS!
Ain't no running shoes cost that much, apart from Asics Kinsei. And they're for fatties anyway.
There are lots of kinds of mountain biker. There are a lot of people who splash out on flash kit because they can, and do it for a few years then get bored and move onto the next trendy "adrenaline sport" - kite surfing anyone? Wake boarding? However there are also people who buy a cheap bike and rag it around their local woods.
Takes all sorts.
I have an obscenely large income, own my own morning suit and have monogrammed cufflinks. I've got no car, a secondhand 5 year old TV and a geriatric stereo. The most I've ever spent on a bike is £1,100.
I am rich, and a posh tosser. But it's unclear that either of those things are necessary for the riding that I do.
With regards to the comments that MTBing is not expensive, here's the contradictory view.
Even £300 is a lot of money to spend in one go for some people. And especially when it's "Just a pushbike" as seems to be the most often comment.
I think the "working class rule of thumb" shall we call it is if it costs more than £50 it's too expensive, but anything under £50 (including a night on the beers) is an acceptable expense for a hobby. Yup, fags at £5 or more a pack and beer at £2.50 per pint ain't cheap, but for many they're addicted, and they don't see the cost! Also, they justify it by saying that "it's only a fiver or a tenner here and there, you never notice that really do you, but I can't afford £300 in one go on anything!"
I of course agree with most people's views on here, the average person having just given up fags and binge drinking could afford a very nice bike within a fairly short space of time if they redirected their money, and you don't need a nice bike to enjoy the sport. You can have most of the fun on a £300 bike for sure. And you don't need to spend money going places to enjoy it either.
FWIW, my main bike cost me less than £1k. It's worth more cos I was shrewd when it came to buying the bits to make it by sourcing them 2nd hand off ebay or from here, or from Chain Reaction for the new parts. Of people I ride with whenever/wherever, my bike is usually worth significantly less than most people's. Who's having the most fun? Well, that's hard to quantify. I think I'd have less fun if I was worried about the depreciation I was subjecting a brand new £4k bike to though personally if I had paid for it out of my own pocket.
Even £300 is a lot of money to spend in one go for some people.
isn't this very condescending ? Particularly when 'fags' and binge drinking are mentioned...
trendy "adrenaline sport" - kite surfing anyone
Tell me about it, I've deserted my local beach because of the number of new-starters clogging the place up. Right pain in the rear. Wish it had never left the stage of "ooh is that a parachute?"
isn't this very condescending ? Particularly when 'fags' and binge drinking are mentioned...
Nope, £300 is a lot to me (despite not smoking or drinking) and I'd not spend it willy or indeed nilly, the statement isnt condescending at all though.
In summing up for the defence then m'lud, the case has been clearly made that mountain biking is not just a sport for the rich, to get back to the point of the thread.
As in just about every other human activity, you can either throw money at it if you have it and want to, or you can do it on the cheap if you want/need to. Either way you will still get huge amounts of enjoyment, buzz and benefit out of it.
Any sport (or at least any I would want to do) needs participants from all walks of life. Any arguement as to relative enjoyment depending on income, cost of the kit you use etc is total tosh. The moral high ground is reserved for those who are bloody good because they have spent a lot of time at it, but at the same time encouraging anyone wanting to learn
isn't this very condescending ? Particularly when 'fags' and binge drinking are mentioned...Nope, £300 is a lot to me (despite not smoking or drinking) and I'd not spend it willy or indeed nilly, the statement isnt condescending at all though.
Thank You Coffee King. I'd never spend £300 willy nilly either, but I can at least usually justify my larger purchases. It was certainly not meant to be condescending, merely a generalistic observation of the way in which most people I have worked with respond to Mountain Biking. Most of these guys think nothing of spending £50 getting hammered, or on going to watch their footy team play. But a few hundred quid on a bike is seen as frivolous spending to them! 
im only 17 and have 5 bikes i quite often get accused of being rich and so on, although my argument is that every bike i have iv earned through working at the LBS for the past 2 years, we might spend £1000 on a bike but would you spend £1000 on a tv?? i defently wouldnt but i know many people who would.
MBOY has made a pretty accurate point.Doing my job I meet loads of people who you could describe as poor.They don't realy have hobbies or pastimes as such.When they get some money its spent in a hand to mouth fashion.Taxi's,fags,beer, drugs are only a few quid a time if the money's in their pocket the spend it.They never accumalate even a few hundred quid.
Members of this forum and less well of mtbers aren't poor they just haven't much money at the moment.
we might spend £1000 on a bike but would you spend £1000 on a tv?? i defently wouldnt but i know many people who would
Good point. I spose it's all about perceived priorities. Many people would consider a telly more important than a nice bike.
I come from a 'poor' background, and can see why mtbing is seen as a 'Middle Class' sport. For many people on lower incomes, bikes are seen merely as a mode of transport, rather than something to have loads of fun on. Plus, MTBing is targeted at people with a fair bit of disposable income; you don't really see ads in the Sun, or on telly, for bikes. 'Cycling' is not seen as a 'cool' activity, sadly. And seeing as how many leisure activities are promoted through competitive sport, cycling is one of the more spensive ones, specially compared to footy.
I dont give a stuff about what type of person is into Mountain Biking, if whoever I,m riding with is good to get along with then fine..if there a big headed showoff knob then I don't pay any attention to them. If you like riding and can have a good banter share your knowledge and skill then great. It doent matter if your bike costs £300 or £3000, its the love of the sport and common intrest thats the important thing.
Besides you can always spot the dicks there the ones who ride by and dont return a hello and think their gods gift to mountain biking. Lke a group of posers who whooped and pushed past on the trail and barged forward at the begining of a section one with his ipod attached to speakers on his camelbac, I laughed as I rode past him as he had just hit a tree. I enquired to the health of the tree.
Judging by some recent posts on this and other threads, this forum - not, I might add, mountain biking in general - seems to be overly populated by social climbers and snobs.
In my experience, no group bleats on about class, wealth and social standing more than the social climbers.
Snigle
:o/
Sounds like your mate is just trying to wind you up or he is some kind of inverted snob!. Its a sport for those who like to ride bikes. Anyone who actually rides would tell you its a sport for all people whatever their income. IME the people who don't do it are usually put of by the mud/fitness/ aspects or not wanting to crash. Its not a sport where u NEED heaps of cash. Very few bikers I have met over the years would I describe as rich in terms of cash (most spend their money on bikes & not in pubs).
Sounds like your friend is trying to see the world in terms of "havs" & "have nots". He wont have much fun doing that, life is far more complicated!
I cant claim to be "working class" but I could never be accused of being posh or god forbid middle class
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