One of the success stories of 2025 is that the fine Solothurn single trails will continue to be available to mountain bikers completely legally. Two years ago, it sounded very different: "The basic permission for cycling is limited to existing forest roads and specially designated paths" was stated in the 2024 consultation draft of the new Forest Act.

In the final version, which was passed by parliament without a dissenting vote, it now states: "Cycling and riding in the forest is prohibited off existing paths and specially designated routes as well as on paths with a signaled ban on riding and riding." All paths shown on the topographical maps may be used, provided that no riding ban is indicated there.

The IG Mountainbike Solothurn was involved wherever it could even before the extremely unfavorable draft law. After it was published, it collected 12,000 signatures within two months from people who opposed the criminalization of trail biking. "The petition was decisive," Roy Studer, Co-President of IG MTB SO, is convinced, "it gave us a strong negotiating position." However, they did not primarily defend themselves with actionism, "but expressed our needs with objective, evidence-based arguments and a solution-oriented approach." As a result, they later encountered many of their own arguments in the revised draft law and the message from the cantonal government, writes Studer at the request of Ride.

Threatened ban a salutary shock

He now sees the impending ban on single trails as a salutary shock that has forced everyone to come to terms with mountain biking as a leisure activity. The result is that it is no longer recognized as a harmful human influence, but as a legitimate form of forest use, as the IG MTB SO writes in a classification of the new forest law that is well worth reading. The result: instead of being banned across the board, mountain biking may only be restricted where it is necessary to protect sensitive habitats, for safety reasons or other public interests. "This means that mountain biking in the canton of Solothurn will no longer lead a legitimate existence in a large grey area, but will finally be a state-recognized and legal leisure activity," explains Roy Studer.

One final threat to trail biking comes in the form of the ordinance in which the cantonal government stipulates how the Forest Act is to be implemented. Moreover, ordinances cannot be challenged or rejected through political channels. However, the co-president of the IG is not very worried: "The government council's room for maneuver is already severely limited by the new Forest Act. Restrictions are only possible in a narrow and defined area."

Thanks to the determined and well-founded efforts of the mountain bikers, the political and especially the legislative process in the canton of Solothurn has led to a result that would be desirable for the whole of Switzerland.

In the meantime, the IG MTB SO has actively helped to remove unauthorized constructions - jumps, berms and the like - from the Chalchgraben forest reserve not far from the outskirts of Solothurn. In this area, the forest is left to its own devices; built trails do not belong there. And, of course, nobody is allowed to change the shape of the ground in other parts of the forest on their own initiative. The fact that not everyone may feel bound by this is another story.