[Closed] Has the bike events bubble burst?

Seems to be lots of events now but a majority seem to run ok.

Population ecology in action.

It can be an expensive weekend and if cash is tight I would imagine it would one of the first things on the list to get dropped from a household list of things to do.

expense, never thought i would be put off something cos of the price, but they are very very expensive.
there is a 3 day event in wales coming soon, £200. that is very steep, imho.

Could it be that Mountain Biking is losing popularity? How many other LBS's as well as mine have relegated the Mountain Bikes to a small collection of maybe ten or twelve at the back of the store and the rest of the floor space is covered with slim, sleek minxes designed for riding the darkside?

They even took over the shop next door to have a COMPLETE SECTION given over to triathlon equipment! 😯

The upside is that the weekend traffic on your favourite trails might decrease (especially if you like trail centres or bike in the Southeast)... 😀

Although if trailcentre riding falls off, so might money spent on trail maintenance.

I see a future where the sport returns to where it started - open country riding by self-sufficient people with a map and compass (or GPS, I suppose).

Triathlon is definitely big, but MTBs still outsell road bikes hand over fist, surprised at any shops (unless they're very road biased) giving over too much space to road at the expense of MTB.

I think there's just too many events out there now, it's only logical that something's gonna have to give!

I see a future where the sport returns to where it started - open country riding by self-sufficient people with a map and compass (or GPS, I suppose).

i agree, people have tried trail centers, they are fun, but they do not have the right feeling about them.
whenever i ride a trail center, i never feel satisfied at the end of the day.

Are people moving to new / different events - polaris number have gone down to the point where the organisers were talking about 1 event a year. My theory is a lot of the people who may have done polaris now do CRC marathon type rides.

nearly 1000 started rough ride last week......... seems to be as popular as ever

Well around here mtb is more popular than ever. As for trail centres, I ride them once in a blue moon for a social get together. They're still very very popular the people that go to these every weekend will hard to change over to less pampered trails v

XC racing seems more popular than a few years ago too. I think the fields have just got 'diluted', it used to be XC racing, Mayhem/SITS and the Meridas. Now there's all manner of 6/8/10/12/24 hour events, solo, team, pair, competitive, just for fun, 50/75/100k enduros, multi-day stage races etc.

i think people who have mountainbiked for a long time have gone the full circle.
i started in the mid 80's with lakeland and dales full day type rides, then the polaris was ridden for 8 years, merida's, marin rough rides and various other events, even the odd race.... 😆
nowaday's i just want to go out on my bike for the day with my mates to relax.

and the prices of the events creeping up is a bit of a contributing factor i suppose.

If there was a decent event in the Lincs Wolds area (plenty of scope for it and some nice routes), id be in like flynn, but living here, there isn't any even reasonably close.
(and i know theres a one off 40k thing near ravendale, but that doesnt cut it, i want a 24/12hr or multiday thing like the ST weekender)

I like the idea of the Black Mountains one but prob wont have the fitness in time and factoring in travel etc it'll be around the £300-£350 mark. Its a no go for me, already spend around £150-£200 a year on events summer and winter local league and one or two nationals. £300+ is a weeks holiday. Its not a comment on the events value for money just cost. For this type of event are the main people who'd do it already signed up to transwales. If it was a 3 day Northern England or Scotland ride would it get more people. With hit the north is it loosing to the newer STW weekender.

Mtb's future is assured for the next ten years because the natural progression is a) bmx as a kid b) move to mtb in late teens. There's loads of kids bmx'ing at the moment, more than since the 70s and early 80s.

/waves at badnewz/

The price of diesel f*cked it for me. I agree with what has been said above, when money gets tight things such as events get dropped.

I'm riding more than ever, but on trails local or fairly local to me. I moved from Herts to the N Downs specifically to be closer to good riding without driving/too much driving (and so I would have a hillier ride to work).

I do love events though, it's brilliant to socialise so, provided my knee lasts until October (and no other health issues), I'm doing Big Dog, Kielder, D2D.

Brownbacks is only a tender

I meant tenner

[b]Swift[/b], the Bicyclemania 7 challenge might be in a different format, possibly a 7 hr event for teams/pairs/solo riders doing laps rather than the full 40 miler

I did the 40 miler Bicyclemania 6 challenge last weekend, pretty good turnout for a local ride 180ish starters.

Even though it's the season for road bikes we're selling more MTB's than ever before

I think that MTB events maybe reaching saturation point for the larger ones, maybe too many big events & not enough riders with the spare cash? The local/smaller/cheaper events should probably fare better

Swift / Orangista,

I should think there are not many events round here on the wolds due to the terrain not really lending itself to it. The bicyclemania event seems to be the logical kind of thing, but a lot of the bridleways really couldnt cope with much traffic. It would be fine if they were dry and baked like at the minute.

Orangista - How would a 7 hour enduro work up there? Would this not wander into 'racing' on bridleways? I am all for events, but 7 hours of people doing loops on the bridleways could cause a lot of damage. Would be interested to hear about it.

There are absolutely loads of events which may be the problem. If you factor in petrol entry fee and a few other bits and bobs per event then I can cost. Maybe there's just saturation in terms of events. There's only so many endurance races I want to do, sometimes I like to just ride for free.

If you look at the road sportive calender and typical mtb events you can guarantee that there are at least three to pick from on any given weekend during June, July and August.

[b]Orangista[/b]Im guessing you have/work in a shop, which/where?
I always seem to fall offshore for the local events, even GYPO jam.

Where in lincs are we talking? Could always look into this Bicycle-mania 7. We ride out of Grimsby/Rasen area.

There does seem to be an ever increasing number of events competing for your money.
Any new events need to having something different take the [url= http://www.bigbikebash.co.uk/ ]Big Bike Bash[/url] for instance, they have events for the whole family, so if you have a partner and kids they can still have a good time, a relaxed and informal atmosphere appeals to people looking to enter there first event, and a number of good bands and local beer in the beer tent adds to the appeal when not riding. The varied events also help from xc to lake jumps, track stands to tyre drags, like a bikes to tag alongs.

Swift - have a look at www.louthnet.com/LAMB - whilst we don't yet have a 7+hour enduro race, there is no reason why a decent enough group of local riders couoldn't sort one. I would have thought Chiefy from bicyclemania might be interested if there were enough people looking for a longer (time wise) ride around Louth/Market Rasen etc.

Losts of events cost £30+ that buys a lot of diesel if you fancy a weekend in the hills with some mates. Split four ways you could ride Saturday and Sunday with an overnight in a yha place for the cost of an event.

Lost it for me. The thing I find is that the money you're paying goes into the 'stuff' other than the riding. And unless your a contender you're just out there to complete the ride. And forgetting stuff like music and fireworks you soon realize that you could have been riding something and somewhere far nicer than some Country house grounds.
I did load of 'big' events, but now I get my competition kicks from XC CX and road where I pay my money race and leave. And if I want an epic weekend I'll sort my own out.

I dunno really. There are some many more events these days, and all the ones i go to seem to be almost full or full, plus the trail centres are so busy that I don't ride them at the weekends anymore. So I'd say that the broad church that is mountain biking is pretty healthy right now. It's not just events either, so many different types of mtbing these days too. The sport has exploded over the last 10year surely? Plus there's a pretty big selection of euro based summer bike holiday providers now, which is totally different to a few years ago. Trail centres have made it much more accessible.

[btw I sit here preaching about mtbing after a hard 4.5hr raod ride this morning]

Was mayhem busy this weekend?

just got back from mayhem and there was plenty of folks there, trade area didnt seem quite so busy or quite so much on offer.

but lots of riders and the best weather for years

event economics are complex

we are very cheap (£9 a race on series pre-entry) but rely on volunters, goodwill and very good sponsors

for that you get a mornings racing, one of the best prize lists around (£200 pot for main categories/ race) prize parity for the sexes and a great series competition

still not sold out yet though

www.brownbacksracing.co.uk next race 27th June

Anyone else here who really couldnt care less about entering a mountain bike race? It just doesn't do it for me. I've never watched a UCI pro race (its definitely in the to-do-list soon) however I ride to get out there with nature, be in the middle of nowhere etc etc.

Being surrounded by people who might elbow me, tense-atmosphere/people taking themselves too seriously/someone who might get really offended if I 'block his progress' , the crowded feeling, outside catering food etc etc- its just my idea of a nightmare.

No thanks. Its nature/'out there' for me.

Being surrounded by people who might elbow me, tense-atmosphere/people taking themselves too seriously/someone who might get really offended if I 'block his progress' , the crowded feeling, outside catering food etc etc- its just my idea of a nightmare.

apart from Tim the caterer's dodgy burgers I don't really recognise this desciption capturing one of our races (yes it's a race, a proper one, not a "faux race" event thing with timing and prizes for being the fastest)

97 riders on 5Km + of trail crowded?

spot prizes for jumps, big grins and smiling at the timing team too serious?

ability cats so everyone can "have-a-go"

plenty of "nature" in the quarry and sometimes too much weather always good trails and a family atmosphere

not your thing? how do you know unless you give it a go?

I also get the sense that road riding is having a bit of a resurgence at the moment but I don't think it's poaching people away from MTBing. As for events waning, is that really the case? There sure are a lot of them now so some of them will have to give, and that Black Mountains one on the front page isn't necessarily representative- it's a first-time event by a new outfit, requiring a substantial financial commitment and quite close to another established event of the same type.

So if the events scene as a whole is booming that probably means there'll have to be a few individual casualties.

Edit: That sounds a bit down on the Black Mountains one, but it isn't meant to be- it sounds great and it would be a real shame if it got canned.

Brownbacks- not my thing. My day job leaves me competitive-void come the weekend. If I worked in a admin job/certain parts of the public sector I'd be driven to compete outside work.

Maybe everyone has migrated to Scotland and now has all the free riding they could want 🙂

Just come back from mayhem but we didn't enter a team this year just went for the craic. Ended up taking the road bikes out and doing the 100k sportive route yesterday and the 50k sportive route today. Didn't pay the £22 quid though as for the money I didnt think it was worth it: a tshirt, timing and some feed stations. We just followed the route and spent the money on a nice lunch in a pub. Doesn't seem value for money to me.

Anyone else here who really couldnt care less about entering a mountain bike race? It just doesn't do it for me. I've never watched a UCI pro race (its definitely in the to-do-list soon) however

not my thing. My day job leaves me competitive-void come the weekend. If I worked in a admin job/certain parts of the public sector I'd be driven to compete outside work.

why do you mock the pyramid that gets the competitors for the UCI event?

many events are not there for just the racing, it's more than that.....

we could probably "chug" more money by doing sponsored rides etc but raisng money is only part of the reason for putting on our events. I imagine the same could be said about a lot of other events who push the cash to charity.

There were plenty of riders at the Builth Wells Marathonand Iloved it.The 24 hour thing doesn't appeal anymore.
Llandegla was packed last week end,wouldn't bother me if I never rodethere again.

I think there's just more events,though there's more people participating there's a lot of pressure on finances and, certainly in my case time, I'd love to do more, but hey ho got to work!

I really fancy that Black mountain event, but timing is just plain incompatible.

why do you mock the pyramid that gets the competitors for the UCI event?

I still haven't been to one circa 30yrs after starting to ride a bike.

many events are not there for just the racing, it's more than that.....

we could probably "chug" more money by doing sponsored rides etc but raisng money is only part of the reason for putting on our events. I imagine the same could be said about a lot of other events who push the cash to charity.

Charity is a noble venture. Doesn't mean I'm a bad person if I have no interest active or otherwise.

Just to let you all know that the Black Mountains 3 Day challenge is getting a complete overhaul in terms of price/options. Following comments on ST and BM we have taken note of what everybody thinks of our 'product' and will be making the necessary changes - so if you are interested in doing the event but had any concerns (cost/3 days etc) please keep your eye on our site/blog/twitter (blackmountains3day.co.uk / blog.beardedman.co.uk / beardedmannews) for the changes. Or email us and we will hopefully get you on board.

Just got back from Mayhem and don't want to total up what it's cost me, from van rental through to the brownie points I now owe the g/f for manning the pits for 24 hours !!!! Only do a few events each year - the CRC Enduros are good VFM - £30 for weekend camping, Sunday ride, a meal and a t-shirt. Add a few 6, 12 and one 24 in and that's me done event wise. The rest of the time I'll spend my money and time riding in the hills. That said I'll probably move into some of the multi day events soon.

I think the comments that the market place maybe reaching saturation point are probably right on the mark.

When the Black mountain 3 Day was devised it was done so to fill a gap in the market, we simply dont have alot of multi day events here in the UK but we do have alot of single day marathons and challenges.. so when you have completed a few single day events where do you derive your challenge from next??

Cost/timing etc aside the concept which should be the same for anyone looking to organise an event is to offer the riders something different.

This is a great thread, here we have a good collection of both riders and organisers so i'm interested to see where this goes.