In 2019, mountain bikers from the Zurich Oberland founded the Trailfriends Kt. Their goal: to represent the bike community and promote access to single trails. The driving force is still Hans-Peter Kienast, who devotes a significant part of his retirement to the association's work. He has been able to persuade some mountain bike clubs in the canton to become members of the umbrella organization, while others have not.

However, the association has now announced that it will be dissolving. At an extraordinary general meeting in the fall, the Trailfriends will seal their end. The reason, according to the Instagram post:   "Since the beginning of April 2025, attempts have been made in the canton of Zurich to form a cantonal IG so that all MTB stakeholders can speak with one voice in future." The Trailfriends association has given itself this role in its statutes. However, a new organization is now being created to play this role.

Züritrails and Trailfriends did not find each other

The Trailfriends have a decisive flaw: Züritrails, the largest mountain bike association in Switzerland, professionally managed and well networked, is not a member of the association that wants to represent the Zurich bike community. This puts the relevance of Trailfriends into perspective. Those involved do not want to talk publicly about the reasons why Züritrails never joined the cantonal organization.

The fact is: Züritrails is driving the development of the new IG Mountainbike, and part of the Trailfriends board is involved. The Trailfriends announcement on the dissolution states that there will be duplication between the new IG and Trailfriends. The existing cantonal bike association is therefore vacating the field and leaving it to the new organization.

The impression that a new organization is taking over the tasks of an old one, thereby making it superfluous, cannot be dismissed out of hand. And supported by the facts. The new IG is to be founded this summer. The Trailfriends will decide on its dissolution at an extraordinary general meeting in the fall.

 

 

 

 

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Züritrails: IG is a further development of the Trailfriends

Luise Rohland, Co-President of Züritrails, sees the new IG Mountainbike as a further development of what the Trailfriends started: "A lot of important groundwork was done within the Trailfriends organization. The IG is continuing this and wants to broaden its support." This refers to other clubs and associations as members or partners that are not part of Trailfriends. "In the future, we will work together in relation to mountain biking in the canton of Zurich."

The experience of Züritrails in dealing with authorities and in the implementation of infrastructure projects will probably make the new organization more powerful than the Trailfriends were. However, there will also be disappointed board members who will not be part of the new IG. In addition to Kienast and the Bike Trails Pfannenstiel association (which he also chairs), the IG Biketrails Winterthur will also not become members of the new IG.

The new umbrella organization for mountain bikers in Zurich has another trump card up its sleeve: it plans to work more closely with the Zurich Cantonal Association for Sport. This organization handles applications for financial support from the Zurich Lottery Fund. This will bring mountain bikers closer to this source of money. It is quite possible that this will motivate the clubs that are currently on the sidelines to cooperate after all.