Until recently, fears were rife in Germany that the revised Federal Forest Act could become a free pass for large-scale bans on single trails. These fears have since dissipated. Nevertheless, the conditions for mountain bikers in many federal states and districts could be better. 

This is why the German Mountain Bike Initiative DIMB has been working for years to represent the now 16 million mountain bikers in Germany at all political levels. Its expert Sonja Schreiter recently had the opportunity to present the tourism potential of mountain biking to the Bundestag's Committee on Tourism. And also what conditions would have to be met for the sport of biking to develop this potential.

Window above: Video recording of the public hearing on "Potentials of nature-based tourism for the development of rural and structurally weak regions (for example bicycle tourism, water tourism, geoparks)" from October 9, 2024.

The DIMB's positions on this issue are well known. The public hearing, in which the representatives of the parliamentary groups on the committee put questions to the experts present, revealed hardly anything new in this regard. The full-length video of the session made available by the Bundestag shows what the politicians, who are not quite so familiar with the subject, need in the way of explanations. And, incidentally, what mountain bike lobbying sounds like in officialese. 

As a successful example of MTB infrastructure, Schreiter cites the trail network in Eberbach, which Ride paid extensive tribute to last year. The trail network is so attractive and successful that it not only hardly needs any advertising, but also regularly fills the accommodation in the small town of Eberbach and has even attracted a mountain bike manufacturer to the region. This is the brand Grin Bikes, whose founder claims to have grown up on the trails around Eberbach.

Towards the end of the hearing, the man from the AfD asks two more questions, the second of which is somewhat surprising.