The bicycle industry has been through turbulent times. At first, sales went through the roof during Covid and the warehouses were empty. Only a short time later, the warehouses were overflowing and the tills were empty. Calm is slowly returning and it is becoming clear who is to blame for the misery: greed.

Should routes closed to mountain bikers be published? This is a question that Ride MTB has been asking for twenty years. The delete button has no effect in the age of the internet, says Thomas Giger in his blog. Transparent communication of the ban is much more effective. That's why illegal routes remain online at Ride.

The mountain bike industry is in crisis. Not just because of the overcrowded camps. It has lost its way and lost its compass, according to guest commentator Marco Toniolo.

Graubünden was once the high-flyer and pioneer in mountain biking. "Carbon instead of fitness" and then from 2009 the big hit with graubündenBike. But now this MTB draught horse is lame: there is a lack of direction because people have been patting themselves on the back for too long and too often.

Gravel sport is a mystery to many mountain bikers - gravel paths instead of epic trails, uniformity instead of individuality. In his blog post, Thomas Giger takes the new sport apart, recognizing in it what the MTB sport is increasingly losing: the joy of life.

Why are there always lots of jumps in all new trails? The majority of mountain bikers stay on the ground and don't manage a flight phase of more than twenty centimetres. In his blog post, Thomas Giger calls for a little more flying shame from trail builders.

In a blog post in February, Thomas Giger didn't leave a good mark on the Fairtrail campaign. But the measures have more substance, says Michael Christ. As a representative of the canton of Graubünden, he is to a certain extent the client behind the approach.

Behavioral campaigns such as Fairtrail cannot be overlooked in mountain biking. They are well-intentioned, but come across as doctrinaire self-evident. Such campaigns cost millions, but their impact is questionable. An analysis by Thomas Giger.

Vanlife is little more than pure illusion. The dream of freedom, but it has little to do with reality. Thomas Giger writes about his memorable experiences as a neo-camper in his blog.

Dealing with bike bans is a crux: should you submissively accept them or rebelliously ignore them? It's complicated, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. However, unthinking compliance with the law is a dangerous boomerang.

With the publication of routes, is Ride to blame if trails are damaged by mountain bikers? "Yes and no" says Ride editor Thomas Giger in his blog. Far more problematic, however, is the underlying thought pattern of always naming someone to blame for everything - with the exception of yourself, of course.

As the saying goes: predictions are difficult, especially when they concern the future. This also applies to mountain biking. There are currently controversial positions on where the sport is heading.

The trail builders' excavators ride out in spring. Then they start digging new bike trails again. It is not uncommon for the order to be: one route for all! Interchangeable boring routes are created while the riding technique of mountain bikers continues to improve. An absurd situation, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

The winter season is coming to an end these days, ski resorts are closing their doors - sometimes for good. One reason for the misery: Many mountain railroads only have eyes for the winter, they are still not interested in the summer business. An analysis of the situation in the mountains.

What applies to world politics is no different in mountain biking: History repeats itself. A look back at the last 30 years shows that all mountain bike regions always develop according to the same pattern. A list of the nine phases that all regions actually go through.

The discussion about flow trails is embarrassing and damaging to the sport, says Allegra co-owner Claude Balsiger in a blog post. Critics are purists who are concerned with personal profiling. Here is Thomas Giger's response.

Ride is positioning itself in a technically demanding environment. This is no coincidence, as this is where the future lies. The definition of "normal" mountain bike routes will change significantly, explains Thomas Giger in his blog post.

Mountain bikers continue to shovel and finance their trails themselves, even though this is actually a task for the authorities and municipalities. In his blog, Thomas Giger shows the madness behind today's trail funding and puts a big question mark behind the much-vaunted volunteer work.

It's a discipline that mountain bikers are particularly good at: disciplining each other. Mountain bikers like to blame their fellow athletes for the suffering on the trail. Tourists, journalists and trail builders are now acting like nature police officers, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

The year 2022 will go down in history in many respects. In Switzerland, among other things, because of the introduction of probably the most moronic piece of legislation in recent decades: the "mandatory daytime running lights" for e-bikes. Since this year, everyone who rides a motorized bike on single trails must do so with their lights on. All day long! In his blog, Thomas Giger therefore names the paragraph the bad word of the year 2022 and shows just how bad things are for the MTB lobby.

In the canton of Thurgau, the focus is shifting to mountain bikers and the cantonal government has commissioned a corresponding concept. However, the situation is now mercilessly revealing just how backward the canton of Eastern Switzerland is in this regard.

Whenever a new bike trail is opened somewhere, you can be almost certain that it's one of those same old flow trails. But we are literally on the wrong track, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. We need more varied single trails and fewer interchangeable marble runs. More mountain experience and less slope consumption.

The two-meter regulation hangs over the Black Forest like a sword of Damocles. The region does not appear to be a good place for mountain bikers. The reality is different: There is a good understanding on all sides, no trace of density stress. This unrealistic regulation should finally be abolished, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

The Mathias Flückiger case has given rise to those naysayers who brand the entire sport of cycling, including mountain bikers, as a doping-infested subculture. This should not be allowed to stand unchallenged, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

For decades, the city of Zurich claimed that mountain biking on single trails was illegal. Two private individuals took legal action against this and were proven right in court. This raises the question: should we mountain bikers go to court more often or should we continue to just sit at the negotiating table? Thoughts on this from Ride editor Thomas Giger.

People need rating systems. Everything is rated, from hotels to lawnmowers. Mountain biking is not spared either. These days, trails and routes have to be precisely standardized according to their difficulty to avoid any surprises. In his blog, Thomas Giger reflects on why this actually contradicts the basic idea behind the sport of biking. The appeal of the sport lies precisely in the fact that not everything can be planned and predicted.

There are mountain bikers who deliberately disregard rules and norms, they live civil disobedience on the bike trail. For many, they're the ones who are the ones to blame for bike bans. That's not true, because it is precisely these rebels who have significantly advanced the sport of mountain biking. A plea from Thomas Giger for more trail rebels.

Ride author Stefan Michel expresses concern in a blog post that trails could be damaged by publication. Thomas Giger responds in a reply and explains the opposite: more mountain bikers result in better infrastructure. For him, the explicit concealment of routes is arrogant.

Many mountain bikers often babble away blithely without realizing the meaning of their words. That's why blog author Thomas Giger chooses his unword of the year every year. For 2021, it's "favorite tour". A term that shouldn't really exist because the appeal of mountain biking lies precisely in its diversity. Rankings are the pure opposite of this.

The sport of mountain biking is finished! More mountain biking is not possible, whether on the cable car, in the hotel, on the train or in the bike store. The end of the line has been reached, says Thomas Giger in his blog analysis. New concepts and strategies are urgently needed, otherwise the sport will fail due to its own success.

As a mountain biker, you occasionally come across people who would rather be among their own kind. A hiking trail belongs to hikers, mountain bikers should make do with the cycle paths. In his blog post, Thomas Giger reveals just how absurd this idea is if you think it through to the end.

The outrage is always great when mountain bikers shovel new routes into the forest without being asked, i.e. illegally. Scandalous, it sounds from both sides. But it's actually quite different, explains Thomas Giger in his blog post. Conservationists, foresters, hunters and youth welfare offices should be happy for anyone who picks up a shovel.

Because they don't know what they're doing! The sport of mountain biking is not really a closed book - and yet tour operators keep falling into the same traps. Here is the blog post with the five biggest mistakes that mountain bikers have been making for years.

Ten years ago, the Mountain Bike World Championships took place in Champéry. What happened afterwards is easy to recount: from hero to zero. There is no other region today with so many biking bans. The mountain bike offer is so lousy that Champéry has joined the ranks of the worst bike regions in Switzerland. A symbol of how not to do it.

Ride editor Thomas Giger drives many people up the wall with his blogs and gets on some people's nerves. You might think he enjoys the pure provocation. But he is actually concerned with something else, as he explains in his latest blog post. He wants us mountain bikers to think about ourselves. And that usually doesn't work without a good shot across the bow.

E-mountainbikes are the high-flyers of the moment, the future belongs to them. So they say. Nonsense, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. These things will only really take off when they are much lighter. Because today's 26-kilogram chunks still don't have much in common with the soul of mountain biking.

The year 2020 will go down in the history of Swiss mountain bike tourism. In summer, the destinations shot through the roof with biking guests, and now the "Bike Kingdom" project has won the Milestone, Switzerland's most important tourism award. But the award has a greater impact than simply paying homage to the work in Lenzerheide, explains Thomas Giger in his analysis.

Wearing knee and elbow pads is now considered good form on bike tours. Doing without protectors, on the other hand, is considered sacrilege. One of those who refuses to wear protectors is Thomas Giger. Wearing protectors has parallels with society: we no longer want to take individual responsibility. Giger explains what this has to do with the Covid pandemic in his blog post.

We humans are always parroting empty phrases without realizing the nonsense behind them. It's no different in mountain biking. That's why we regularly select the bad word of the year here. This year: "the unbundling". In other words, the absurd strategy of keeping mountain bikers and hikers apart. "Disentanglement" is based on opposition, but the future lies in cooperation, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

Mountain bike tourism went through the roof this summer. Specialist retailers have run out of stock, hotels have filled their beds and mountain railroads have reached the limits of their capacity. And yet: there is still no serious interest in us mountain bikers, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. This phenomenon can be clearly seen in the list of participants at the Ride Congress.

The Swiss television program "Keep on Riding" was a huge opportunity for the sport of mountain biking. We made it onto primetime TV with "normal" trail riding! But after the show aired, the dirty face of us bikers was revealed: the mutual destruction that culminated in an absurd demand for money from "Züritrails". Thomas Giger explains in his blog why the Zurich bikers have laid an egg for the sport of mountain biking.

In the summer of 2020, more mountain bikers than ever before are riding through the Alps. This is due to the limited travel options and the many newcomers. Thanks to corona. But the virus is just one detail. Three other reasons for the growth of the sport are much more important: trail quality, the law and acceptance. They are the reason why Switzerland is ahead when it comes to mountain biking and the surrounding Alpine countries continue to struggle, explains Thomas Giger in his blog post.

More and more people are calling for separate trails for hikers and mountain bikers. Ride editor Thomas Giger explains in his blog post that this is complete nonsense and compares coexistence with marriage: the most expensive thing is separation. If implemented consistently, this would cost mountain bikers around three billion francs.

We mountain bikers were once wild dogs who didn't fit into any norm. The revolutionaries of the bourgeois bike, the rebels of mountain sports. And now, three decades later? Freedom has become standards, Che Guevara has become Max Mustermann. The free spirit of mountain biking has faded and been pigeonholed. In this blog post, Thomas Giger takes a tongue-in-cheek look at homo mountainbikus and breaks it down into its individual parts. You can bet that everyone will recognize themselves in one of the drawers.

Viruses are booming. One called Corona is bringing the whole world to its knees. Another does not flow in the blood, but in the mind. It's the know-it-all virus, and many mountain bikers are infected. In his blog post, Thomas Giger explains why the current #stayathome calls are actually a shot in the arm for us mountain bikers.

There is a simple equation in the discussion about immigration: the fewer foreigners in a region, the greater the fear of them. It's exactly the same with mountain bikers, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. The debate about trail coexistence is essentially about xenophobia. Namely the fear of the other, the stranger.

The tone in mountain biking is becoming increasingly aggressive. It is not the hatred of hikers, hunters or farmers that has been felt by bikers for years. Rather, mountain bikers are practicing self-destruction. How much aggression can the sport of mountain biking take? None, says Thomas Giger in a memorable blog post.

A bell on the handlebars is a must on the single trail these days. But this neutered horn is actually a snotty thing, says Thomas Giger in his blog post. The bell is the imperative that everyone understands and accepts. But rather than snotty, he would rather be friendly - but then again, only a few people understand friendliness. What a shame, really.

In the last few days, Specialized has presented its new "Enduro". It has been forgotten that this model is celebrating its twentieth birthday. Back then, Specialized revolutionized the sport of mountain biking by giving the combination of bike adventure and trail fun a name - "Enduro". In his blog, Thomas Giger explains why Specialized's strategy was groundbreaking for him and how it came about that racing has literally neutered the term in recent years.

What does a singletrack trail have in common with the comment columns on Facebook? No one has a clue, but everyone has an opinion - which is then broadcast to the world without reflection. This is nicely meant by the hiker who warns of the "unrideable" descent - but then becomes a problem when decisions are made in tourism and politics by people who have no idea about mountain biking but do have an opinion.

The mountain bike world has a new buzzword: the "nature trail". Only nature has never built a trail. In his blog, Thomas Giger declares the term to be the bad word of the year because its use could even be detrimental to the sport of mountain biking.

The discussion about the new advertising campaign for mountain biking in Austria has brought a question back to the table: How much deception is there in mountain bike tourism? The editor of Ride wrote a column about this in 2010 - which has obviously lost none of its topicality. In a slightly revised version, it fits in perfectly with current events as a blog post.

The prospect is not unrealistic: soon there will be more mountain bikers than hikers on the single trails. That's why hikers should behave towards mountain bikers today in the same way they want to be treated as a minority in the future: with tolerance and respect. And vice versa too. A look into the future of trails in Thomas Giger's blog

Mountain bikers feel that many destinations don't take them seriously. And rightly so. They are still being taken for fools. This often comes to light when it comes to bike bans. Then mountain bikers once again slip into the role of the "underdog". And rightly so, says Thomas Giger in his blog post.

Mrs. Holle has moved across the country and there is euphoria in the mountains. However, the large amounts of fresh snow belie the fact that winter sports are in a serious crisis. Mountain bikers come at just the right time to fill the gaps left by the lack of skiers. That's nonsense. Instead, we bikers should learn from the mistakes of winter sports. We need class instead of quantity!

People are most comfortable among their own kind. This seems to be especially true for female mountain bikers. Trail offers for women are all the rage. Mountain bikers can take part in one of the many women's camps almost every weekend. There are plenty of riding technique courses for women. And now there is even a "Womens Bike Summit". But why on earth are women asking the gender question in mountain biking when it would be pleasantly insignificant on the trail? Thoughts on this in Thomas Giger's blog.

It was a kind of crazy idea eight years ago. Put the bike on the hump and then up the Wildstrubel in the Bernese Oberland. The boozy idea turned into a boozy project: to ride all 54 three-thousand-meter bike peaks in the Alps. With the ascent of the Matterhorn and the bike descent from the Hörnlihütte, the project has now reached a brilliant conclusion. An emotional eight years, which can be seen for the first time on September 12 in the run-up to the Ride Congress as the multimedia presentation "Next Level" on a big screen.

You don't ride serpentines, you offset the rear wheel. Just like Meyer, Hermann or Stromberg do in magazines. What looks cool for them doesn't work for us trail normals. This cramped bouncing is not only embarrassing but also dangerous. A pamphlet against the rear wheel offset in the blog of Ride editor Thomas Giger.

In the future, success in mountain biking will not come to those regions that have carved out the most flow trails in the mountains. It will be those who have trail maintenance under control on their entire trail network. In the Alps, we don't need more but better-maintained trails, says Ride editor Thomas Giger in his blog post.

If you believe the media reports that are rehashed at regular intervals, there is a war on the single trails. Mountain bikers ride over hikers, who in turn take revenge with nail boards and taut wires. The reality, however, is different. There are no conflicts between hikers and mountain bikers. Just conflicts between people, just like everywhere else.

Mountain bikers are an unimportant bunch - until they spend money. Then they are suddenly courted by hotels, cable cars and mountain farmers. Anyone who only feeds on power bars on bike tours and never uses a cable car is doing the sport of mountain biking a disservice. Because nobody in the mountains is interested in mountain bikers - unless you can earn money with them.

On Sunday, Greg Minnaar was the first 29er downhiller to top the World Cup podium. Sensation! However, almost every average biker has been aware of the advantages for years, which are apparently only now convincing the downhill pros. This is nothing new: mountain bike pros have always been innovation inhibitors.

The Mountain Bike World Cup kicks off this weekend in Lourdes - and for the first time, 29er bikes will be making a significant appearance in downhill racing. And the heated discussions about wheel sizes are already flaring up again. Opinions are polarizing as if it were a matter of world peace, and one hateful comment follows another. A few thoughts on the lost world of mountain bikers.

The question of what makes an attractive mountain bike route is as trivial as it is complicated. But there are clear ingredients that make a tour a winner. Here is the recipe.

Shortening trails is a taboo, no question about it. But hikers have been taking shortcuts for years - without consequences. If two people do the same thing, it is by no means the same thing.

The topic of e-mountain bikes has been hotly debated for several years. The boom is unstoppable and the first experiences on single trails are now also available. None of the horror scenarios have materialized. In his blog, Ride editor Thomas Giger advocates that opponents should get on an e-bike themselves for once - in order to objectify the controversy and tackle the challenges seriously.

Environmental associations are actually important. But in mountain biking, they are increasingly becoming a farce due to their fundamental rejection. WWF and Pronatura still see mountain bikers as a bunch of harmful environmental hooligans. Ride editor Thomas Giger explains why, as an ecologically-minded person, he distances himself from the increasingly fundamentalist associations.

Harald Philipp is a star and made a guest appearance with his lecture tour at the Viamala Sportwerkstatt in Thusis. Many narcissists are lecture heroes who primarily talk about their great experiences. Harald Philipp is probably one of them. But everything turns out differently than you think. Especially on the joint bike tour through the Rhine Gorge.

What nonsense! That's what anyone who lugged their bike into the high mountains heard years ago. But times have changed. Bike tours at over 3,000 meters above sea level have become socially acceptable, even if they are still met with a lack of understanding, but often also awe and respect. In his blog post, Thomas Giger explains why he regularly shoulders his bike into the high mountains and why he is no longer an exotic biker.

There is hardly a helmet manufacturer left who is not following this trend: Full-face helmets with removable chin guards. The touring version of the downhill helmet, so to speak. They can be seen more and more frequently off-road, and Uvex has even received an innovation award for them. But what may benefit the individual as protection is detrimental to the sport as a whole. Full-face helmets have no place away from bike parks and downhill trails, says Ride editor Thomas Giger in his blog.

Switzerland Tourism's "Holiday Day" is the annual rendezvous for the Swiss tourism industry. All the big names are present - and for the first time, mountain biking is also represented. The umbrella organization is taking the topic more and more seriously and set up its own breakout session. Ride editor Thomas Giger was able to explain his view on why Switzerland is missing out on mountain biking.