http://www.petitions24.com/give_offroad_cycling_the_exposure_it_deserves

Amazing to see the crowds in yorkshire….let’s build on that and stop mtbing being ignored in the mainstream

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwXE6lANMQ0[/video]
Some going on
http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/mountain-bike (National Broadcaster)

Stuff that!
Have you noticed how busy the roads are now everyone thinks they’re roadie material?
Let’s let mountain biking slip under the radar so we can keep on enjoying empty trails :-).

Why?

Too many grammatical errors in that petition for the STW audience…. 😉

However, I can’t see a problem with showing the Downhill world champs on ITV4, for example.

However, I can’t see a problem with showing the Downhill world champs on ITV4, for example.

It was on normal TV over here in Oz for the Cairns round. Due to the ads I went back to the RedBull coverage.

all good points…..but it does do my head in.

Let’s be honest it could be a far superior spectacle to a load of blokes in lycra just pedalling.

Downhill on the BBC…it could be the new Kickstart!

Considering we have a current women’s World Champ, downhill probably does deserve a bit more coverage, but XC is not the most exciting thing to watch, and is hard to cover for TV.

In principle I’m in favour, if a little weary of every oddball tinpot idea becoming a government petition.

On a practical level, not sure I’d want to be the camera man balanced on the back of a trail bike to give TdF style coverage!

Let’s be honest it could be a far superior spectacle to a load of blokes in lycra just pedalling.

Which part of moutainbiking should be covered? Enduro and XC are shit spectator sports (including compared to road races) and DH isn’t all that much better (especially or the general public who’ve never experienced it)

Honestly?
DH is great to watch covered well, enduro has been round for 5mins and needs time. XC can work with the right setup. If F1 is a spectator sport then mtb can be.

They should have some sort of long distance XC to start with …

mikewsmith – Member
Honestly?
DH is great to watch covered well, enduro has been round for 5mins and needs time. XC can work with the right setup. If F1 is a spectator sport then mtb can be.

Absolutely. To a normal punter a lot of DH tracks look rubbish, some of them even look rubbish to enthusiasts! Steepness never comes across so all you can do is tell people how steep something is, never mind explaining why the fastest people are avoiding the big jumps.

Enduro is tame, long DH. Even more difficult to cover, slower, less extreme – not good mainstream fodder.

XC is like road racing with none of the drama or spectacle.

F1 has incredible speed, glamour, (had) noise and there’s still an element of danger

Offroad cycling already gets the exposure it deserves imo.

Have you noticed how busy the roads are now everyone thinks they’re roadie material?
Let’s let mountain biking slip under the radar so we can keep on enjoying empty trails :-).

+1 trails are crowded enough already

Let’s let mountain biking slip under the radar so we can keep on enjoying empty trails :-).

This +1

Yes have to agree with the keep the roadies happy tribe & I was once one of them in the 80’s.

Our Wednesday evening rides have been great in the last 2 years with very few out on the slightly cheeky tracks so cutting down on the NIMBY moans 😀

oxym0r0n
Let’s let mountain biking slip under the radar so we can keep on enjoying empty trails :-).
This +1

+2

The problem is that many if the things inherent in road cycling that make it so popular I.e organisation clubs structure are not well liked by the mtb community. This willingness to belong helps make it popular and easy to be picked up by press and tv.

oxym0r0n
Let’s let mountain biking slip under the radar so we can keep on enjoying empty trails :-).
This +1

+2

+3

Are you mad? It’s bloody crowded enough as it is. Bugger off.

I heard ITV4’s, The Cycle Show is going to cover Tweedlove and the EWS, I believe they were filming for about three days. Knowing the show they probably won’t make the best job of it.

My next TV is going to be enduro specific.

Well I at least shall watch in hope….sounds like most here would rather that be banned in case it encouraged anyone to enjoy mountain biking :/

The strange world of singletrack.

It may be selfish and narrow minded but I don’t want mountain biking to become the universally popular, overcrowded, over marketed, endless fighting for space sort of past time that road cycling has become.

Sometimes just making things bigger and more popular doesn’t mean better. Usually the opposite in fact.

I used to love watching the UCI Downhill champs and 4X on Eurosport, was even better when they scheduled a round of the Trials cup at the same venue!

Weird petition that! Give it “exposure” is all it says. Not how, who or where. Who’s the “petition” for? Reads more like a plea on someone’s Facebook page.
Are we somehow jealous of a long established sporting event getting TV coverage? I, personally, don’t understand the appeal of road cycling on TV, but getting mtb the same coverage isn’t going to happen, petition or not!

It’s just sad that to most of the public, “cycling” = “road cycling”

I don’t know who the petition’s for either but I agree with it

Please don’t get me wrong OP,but have you done anything to help make it more popular? I’m thinking, organising open days, races,sportives, beginers days, coaching, marshalling, trips for total strangers. All of which are meat and bone of road cycling in their aim of keeping the club and scene growing.

you missed the memo MTB IS EFFING DULL TO WATCH its so effing dull to take part in also MAMILS take up road biking Dont get me wrong i was an MTBer through to the core but now , sorry no ones interested road cycling is where the market is

It already is too ‘popular’…look at all the standards that are now with us? Why? Because they help sell mtb to the masses…and they are lapping them up.
Go to a trail centre and look at all the stormtroopers on their big bounce bikes riding the same trails as a lycra-clad hardball rider…also listen to discussions being had, they all believe what they do is proper mtbing…so no, I don’t think it needs to be more popular, just needs the marketing boys to be stopped for a while so we don’t get a load of new hype to try to digest!
More people on bikes is always a good thing, but with exposure comes a certain portrayal and that can lead to too many issues (like over use of travel and body armour – in the sense of that is what is seen so must be bought for that cycle lane commute to work – if it is needed then best get it, but if the most extreme measure is a kerb, then it isn’t needed and has been exposure/perception that has caused the purchase)

So how are you going to film an off road epic,and make it intresting to all, a few people with bike mouted cameras, boucing a long a dirt track followed by another cameraman in a 4 x4 .

There is a televised motb series due on tv in August over a week at National Trust properties.

4X is the obvious TV friendly aspect of MTB (look how relatively popular and easy to cover boarder cross and ski cross were at the Winter Olympics).

Of course, with the UCI not liking it…

That’s not really a petition more a dickhead ranting TBH.

MTBing, whatever sub-niche you are into, doesn’t really need the TV coverage the grand tours get, it doesn’t really require the sort of sponsorship and big budgets that lots of other sports seem to live pr doe by, and TBH I think I prefer it as it is, largely “self organising with a lighter touch from governing bodies below national level.

The best promotional tool We’ve got is the internet, those who want to find out about the sport all the clubs, events, courses, kit, etc can dig it out. I don’t really want a load of fad-chasers who “saw it on TV” clogging the trails until they find their next big thing. I’m all for people taking it up but I would rather it be pro-active individuals who can research and try stuff for themselves than people who need to be lead by the hand into everything…

What makes MTBing anymore deserving of coverage and “mainstream media” awareness than any one of a hundred other sports?

I frankly don’t give a toss if Sun readers or viewers of ‘the one show’ know or care about mountain biking…

TBH if the great British unwashed never quite got BMX en-masse, what makes you think they’ll grasp the subtitles of the Mountain bike and it’s various uses?