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Love riding...thought it would be good to combine a love with trying to help/teach people.....here's some background for me to let you know my background/quals
Spent 2 yrs teaching skiing
Mbl and tcl night module qualified
3 months worth of bike guiding experience
Disclosure/kids protection course done
Outdoor first aider
very good with people having spent most of my life in sales/customer roles
Ran a business for 10 yrs
Lots of bike trade experience
Ridden extensively abroad
Got a bike
I'd look to start part time to start to fit round the day job and see where it went...got 3 trail centres within 25 miles and the rest of Scotland North to play/work in.
Any tips or fab ideas I can pinch gratefully received....even cynical comments taken on board! .....
Having worked in the bike industry before, you'll know not to think you can make a living from it I assume.
To start with I'd not look at making a living from it no....unless it fakes off.part of the reason for starting pt too.
I'd be looking to keep my initial first year overheads very low...
What the dog said.
Get a second string to your bow / income, as that won't pay enought.
I think the the only folk making a living from guiding quals are the people teaching them.
I'm guessing the guiding would not be the main bit....I'm expecting corporate days/coaching will be the main thing.ive got a full time Monday to Friday atm
A few thoughts in general...
Who's your market? The next Josh Bryceland/Family Skills/XC racers/middle aged IT consultant(Strava God 😉 )
If it's racers look for a couple of local projects to work with and get a reputation that way.
If it's families then marketing in the right places would be the key.
Do you have the right permissions to teach in the forrest?
If your good at guiding then offering guided rides out of the Trail Centres is probably more appealing, the number of people not comfirtable when there are no signs is increasing. Exploit it.
If your looking to keep costs low then I assume you already have a bike? After that it's insurance and the guide kit of spares etc that the MBL will have suggested. Check in some cake 🙂
Sounds like your background makes you perfectly-placed to take the plunge, although I think you'd need to be a really gifted teacher to make a success of it. Look at the praise jedi gets on here - stuff like '[i]I was initially hesitant at rolling down a 2 ft drop - by the end of the day I was hitting a 20 ft gap jump at pace[/i]' That's the sort of feedback you need for people to make a pilgrimage to your learn at your feet.
I say perfectly placed, but are you in N Scotland or do you mean the central belt? Be easier opening a MTB skills course in Trafalgar square than N Scotland.
I'm central Scotland so Inners/tress very accessible.keep em coming! Some great ideas....
Seems to me like there should be a market for offpistey guiding in the tweed valley- sure, none of the "secrets" are very secret any more but it still takes serious time to explore them (and time wasted on less good ones, getting lost, etc). Word's out about the quality of riding but it's still not that easy to get into it.
Tip: If you decide to work in th French alps, make sure oyu gain the necessary qualificationsto oprate legally as a guide. 😉
Some great tips here....lots to go at.id also thought that an events side would be a good marketing/advertising idea....mite be bigger than I can handle.ive asked some pals to have a think about joining
Yep I looked into this a few years ago and decided I'd have to offer accommodation, campsite, transport or something as well.
Could you get on the books at mtbflo.com or canyou experience and try it? The reality of bookings are 20 kids along a low level path. The adventurous bikers will do it themselves.
There was another mountain bike bus and guiding service in scotland but it didn't last long.
Yup I'd be concentrating on the skills/coaching side ...the guiding would be a bolt on.i think there would be more demand for coaching..I've been involved in a few events so I thought I'd maybe get into a bit of that too..
cbike - MemberThere was another mountain bike bus and guiding service in scotland but it didn't last long.
Gowhere are still running
The problem with the Man & Bus option is if your going to guide you need another person to drive the bus. If you can get someone to do it (who picks up muddy bikers) then it's a great idea.
The adventurous bikers will do it themselves.
From reading in here and what I've seen there is an untapped market for those who are adventurous but not competent in the hills. Just need to persuade them to get somewhere different, working with some local accommodation providers transport links to offer a long weekend borders out there weekend for some rich city types.
I think theres something in that - if you take a look at Moab, the successful companies that have stayed the distance like Western Spirit have offered multi day supported touring, given where the money is in cycling at the moment I can see a niche in supported road tour 'outfitting' inclusive of catering and service course style support, bike fettling etc. - perhaps highland or coastal tours, staying in picturesque camping barns?
I don't think that you would necessarily have to 'guide' in the traditional way, providing route cards (or gps) and hooking up at several points during the day by going ahead in the van might be better for MTB support, while road tour support would be a closer link