News from the world of mountain biking

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.

Gravel is on everyone's lips. And many mountain bikers are surprised to see new faces suddenly appearing on their trails: Hipsters on racing handlebars, usually in a good mood - and just as often pushing. Bike editor Dimitri Lehner has picked up on this trend in a trenchant column.

Just a few weeks after retiring from professional cycling, Linda Indergand is starting a new chapter. The 2021 Olympic bronze medal winner is joining the NEXETIS Women's Team as sporting director. Together with Edi Telser, she will be responsible for the targeted development of the young Swiss women's team from 2026, with a particular focus on mountain biking.

Component giant Shimano has published its results for the first nine months of the 2025 financial year. The Japanese company achieved an increase in turnover of around 5 percent compared to the previous year. However, this came with a big downside: operating profit fell by around 28 percent and net profit by as much as 61 percent. Why?

The gravity scene is currently experiencing a black November of injuries. After Adolf Silva suffered serious back injuries at the Rampage, former world champion Fabien Barel has now also been hit. Diagnosis: several fractured vertebrae, severe head trauma and numerous bruises.

The Meet & Ride symposium, organized by IMBA Switzerland,  Swiss Cycling and Bebike, recently took place in Thun. Ride was there for a day and listened to what organizations and trail builders are struggling with and what kind of trail should be built most often in the near future.

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.

The graubündenBike program has enabled the canton of Graubünden to become the leading MTB region over the last 15 years. The new edition of the program now has a different focus and has met with criticism. Stefan Michel took a look behind the scenes.

In September 2024, the Vorarlberg-based bicycle manufacturer Simplon filed for insolvency. In December, a new investor was presented and a new start at the Austrian site was announced. Now part of the production is moving to Romania and further redundancies are imminent.

The tour database was expanded in October to include numerous new singletrail routes in the Eastern Alps. These include many routes in Friuli and Austria. A total of 48 newly researched tours were added in October 2025.

The Bavarian company Syntace GmbH, which also owns the Liteville bicycle brand, has filed for insolvency. A further step in the process of cutting the cord from the Austrian Pierer Industrie AG, which had acquired a majority stake in 2022 but had itself run into serious turbulence.

As part of the sports series "Champion of Champions", several former top athletes show their personal side. These include Thomas Frischknecht, who looks back in tears on the doping-contaminated era of cycling.

The Woom success story is unique and impressive: within 10 years, Marcus Ihlenfeld and Christian Bezdeka have rolled the children's bike brand towards market leadership. But that is not the end of the story: In the next step, the two entrepreneurs are tackling a new sector - and once again, the focus is on kids.

If a biker falls, the landowner is liable, even if the trail is illegal. Pedestrians, on the other hand, enjoy no protection on downhill trails. Of course, none of this is true. There are myths and legal concepts surrounding liability that do not stand up to the law. Here is a clarification of the most important questions.

The bike world is working on a new wheel size. But hardly anyone has dared to go public with 32-inch wheels. Now Stoll Bikes is entering the arena with its own 32-inch prototype. But how do such large wheels ride, sluggish and boring or perhaps even fast and fun? Ride was given the opportunity to take an exclusive test ride with Thomas Stoll.

The sport of mountain biking is currently being shaken up. And not just the producers, who can't find their way out of the Covid party hangover. The sport is also in turmoil, as Maxi Dickerhoff analyzes in a readable and in-depth blog post.

Luca Bühlmann (30), a Master's graduate from the FHNW School of Engineering and Environment, has fulfilled a dream: an enduro bike built with precision, passion - and a view to the future. Instead of carbon, he uses recyclable materials and the components come from a 3D printer.

At the Lenzerheide World Cup, the sparrows were whistling from the rooftops and on closer inspection it was obvious: Nino Schurter's girlfriend Malene Degn is pregnant.

Over 70 personalities from the bike industry, tourism and the media world came together at the Ride Partner Summit 2025 in Bern on September 18. The event at the "Turbo Lama" in Bern was all about networking and inspiration.

Come what may! The camper vehicles from Motomuzi come from the wettest dreams of the survival scene. The crux: they are design studies. But with plenty of entertainment value!

Nino Schurter brought his great career to a brilliant end with the Lenzerheide World Cup. In a personal interview with Ride, the best mountain biker of all time talks about how he is doing, what he is looking forward to and how he sees the future.

In 1987, Sram got started with the Grip Shift twist shifter. To celebrate this starting point, and to show what is going on today in terms of shifting, a really nice shifting group is rolling in. Rose not only has bikes, but also clothes that are worth seeing. And at Trek, the gravel bike is under power.

The time of top athlete Nino Schurter ended with impressive farewell performances in Crans-Montana and Lenzerheide. Now it is becoming clear where his future lies: Together with two heavyweights from the Graubünden construction industry, he has founded the trail construction company GOATtrails AG.

Solutions to minimize pedal kickback are popular and usually mounted on the crank. DT Swiss turns the tables and launches a hub that integrates freedom of movement into the freewheel. The highlight: the system can be retrofitted to newer hubs.

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.

The gondola lift to Monte Tamaro was not in operation for the entire summer of 2025 because it was being completely rebuilt. Construction work is now in its final phase and operations will start on September 15.

Schurter has achieved everything on the race track, he is the "Greatest of all Time" and it will be extremely difficult for future racers to even come close to matching this success. Schurter's current starting position is now exciting, as his last Elite World Cup race is coming up in Lenzerheide in September. What comes next for Schurter after racing?

Sweet and tough? Santa Cruz's latest Bullit, an extremely potent e-mountain bike with a sweet paint job, could probably be described like this. Cross country in Canadian? It's called Revolver and is Norco's latest endurance weapon. German engineering in Italy? That's Rotwild with its own store on Lake Garda - coffee included.

Nino Schurter, the most successful cross-country rider of all time, announces his retirement after 23 years in professional sport. On September 21, 2025, the 39-year-old will compete in his last race at the World Cup in Lenzerheide. A highly symbolic location, as this is where he celebrated some of his most emotional victories, including his eighth world championship title and 34th World Cup win.

The incident is said to have occurred during the 2023 World Cup weekend in Leogang and was reported last year by Spanish enduro rider Ares Masip Ibañez. The accused Edgar Carballo Gonzalez is suspended for one year following an internal UCI investigation. He denies the allegations and his team Mondraker immediately parted ways with him.

Syntace GmbH, to which the Liteville bicycle brand belongs, wants to leave the mother ship of Pierer Industrie AG, which has run into wild turbulence. The Austrian group only acquired a 70% majority stake in the Bavarian bicycle and component manufacturer in 2022.

Insolvencies are not only the order of the day in the bicycle industry, the motorcycle sector is also plagued by them. The motorcycle manufacturer KTM - not to be confused with the bicycle manufacturer KTM - has been particularly hard hit, having to file for insolvency and the situation in the company seems to be getting out of hand.

Pierer Mobility, the parent company of motorcycle manufacturer KTM, has filed for insolvency, which also applies to its e-bike brands Husqvarna, GasGas and Felt. Pierer has given away 11,000 e-bikes to employees in order to reduce excess stocks. KTM Fahrrad GmbH, which produces bicycles and e-bikes under the KTM brand, is not affected by the crisis.

This was the Ride Partner Summit 2024: a great and uncomplicated event with inspiring short presentations is in the books and the event pictures are in the database. Here's a look back at the summit at the Road World Championships in Zurich.

Ride delivers the annual rendezvous of the ride cosmos with its Partner Summit. This year's networking event will take place on September 27 during the World Cycling Championships in Zurich. Information and registration form are now available.

A month ago, a wave of insolvencies swept through the bicycle industry: major players such as Fahrrad.de, Bikester and Chain Reaction were affected, but were able to continue their operations within the insolvency proceedings. However, the Signa group of companies, in which the online bike stores are integrated, is still seething. The first bankruptcy is underway in Benko's core real estate business.

The current insolvency rumble among online stores in the cycling world has its roots in Signa Sports United (SSU), into which the numerous stores are integrated. The man behind it is René Benko, an Austrian self-made billionaire.

Have you ever heard of Signa Sports United? If not, then you've probably heard of Bikester, Fahrad.de or Chain Reaction Cycles, which are under the Signa umbrella. And things are on fire under this umbrella - the direct to consumer business is in a slump.