Want to know what’s in store for mountain biking in 2008? My crystal ball tells me 2008 is going to be the year of the mountain bike as we see these developments unfold:
– The 650b will overtake 29ers in terms of sales. Okay, so maybe this won’t happen until the end of 2008 😉 – but it is coming. 29er geometry isn’t for everyone and the 650b is a nice compromise that takes advantage of both worlds.
– The mountain bike scene will see further niches develop. Yeah, there are already single speeders, free riders, 69ers, and everyone else. What’s next? I don’t know–but I do know we’ll see even more ways to ride bikes on dirt in 2008.
– A net gain of singletrack in the United States. I’m not sure if anyone tracks the figures but I’d be willing to guess that for many years there were more miles of singletrack closed to bikers than miles opened. IMBA, with the help of hundreds of local clubs, has been doing a tremendous job opening new legal trails and 2008 should be a watershed year on the singletrack front.
– Mountain biking + GPS will go mainstream. For the past few years it’s been the geeks packing electronics on the trail but 2008 will see even more mainstream riders taking advantage of the navigation and fitness tracking capabilities today’s GPS units have to offer. If your mom uses a Tom Tom so she doesn’t get lost driving around town, why shouldn’t you have one when you head out into the wilderness on your bike?
– The singletracks forums will explode (in a good way that is). Thanks to some of the changes we’ve made plus the critical mass that’s been building over the past year the singletracks forums will be rocking in 2008. Besides, the big mountain bike forum website (starts with MTB, ends with R) only has around 120,000 registered members and singletracks is quickly closing in with nearly 43,000 members (and adding thousands each month).
And perhaps the most exciting prediction for 2008: Mountain biking, as a sport, will finally grow in 2008. After years of steady declines folks are finally starting to get back into the saddle and onto the dirt.
This will certainly be an exciting year for mountain biking and singletracks.com–keep coming back to see how things turn out!
