Bartimaeus

@thenotoriousmic: I disagree... I teach kids to ride MTB at a local school, and most of them don't get to do that sort of riding with their parents. I don't know that many kids that race though. We have some very talented youngsters, but most of them prefer to have fun riding with their mates, rather than competing. https://youtu.be/lXJuxXFYytM?si=hch7GV__t5wGVqtf

@jarretthelesic: He must be a Pro - no one else can get hold of 12 speed Deore.

I'm just happy to see videos of Wyn Masters having fun on my local trails in the South Downs (similarly Brendog, Ollie Wilkins and Bernard Kerr). Will it make me buy a GT e-bike? Will a GT e-bike help me ride like that? 'Probably not', and 'no', but I certainly do see their sponsors products on a regular basis. But I'm also interested in seeing riders like me ride my local trails... unless they see themselves as 'influencers' - then they aren't like me and I have no interest in them.

A pump-track bike is my N+1...

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-the-flying-squirrels-and-radical-rippers-bellinghams-incredible-riding-club-and-development-team-for-girls.html I think the girl at the very end of the video sums it up nicely! I love that Pinkbike is such a strong promoter of women's riding.

I run a School MTB Club (Ditcham Park School - https://youtu.be/lXJuxXFYytM ) and for the first few years it was all boys with one or two girls joining occasionally. We've been trying to make MTB Club more 'girl friendly' and we now have about a 50-50 split in our Juniors with 17 girls regularly riding... I am not sure exactly how we managed this and our challenge now is to keep it going! The restrictions we have had for COVID this year have made things much harder, unfortunately, as we've had fewer opportunities to ride. I have found the following helpful: (1) Keeping girls - as in girls in general - engaged with sport is a big issue, but there is some useful advice out there: https://www.womeninsport.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Reframing-Sport-for-Teenage-Girls-small.pdf (2) Many girls don't like doing sport with overtly competitive and often critical boys. I am lucky that the Head of Mountain Biking (yes, that's now a real role at the School, currently it's my wife) is really attentive to group dynamics so we not only try to keep the girls together but we actively separate them from the more 'assertive' boys. (3) The womeninsport documentation highlights the importance of 'moments of pride'... our club is non-competitive so while we do have the odd 'timed lap' our focus is very much on having fun and learning new skills - we started coaching after school so the kids would have more fun on our monthly 'Adventure Rides'. (4) An all-male environment just isn't that welcoming for girls... you need that 'critical mass'. We are planning to do some girls only 'Adventure Rides' so the girls don't have to feel any pressure to keep up, or hit any technical sections we encounter... we do have some regulars who can definitely hold their own, but what you need is 'critical mass'. The UK Southern Enduro series organised women's enduro training sessions and I think they managed to more than triple the number of women racing. (5) Role models matter. It's great to see so many top female athletes inspiring young riders and I'm forever sharing videos from Pinkbike. We are lucky that more than half our MTB leaders are women, and we've had a few 'guests' ride with us too - it's much easier to aspire to be what you see! I better finish reading all the comments on this thread now... my challenge is to get all our girls back riding next year!

Needs Tri-bars...

@woofer2609: I'd have thought Maple Syrup would work?

@cchappetta1: Yes, I'm really enjoying "Full Enduro"... PinkBike's on a a bit of a roll with women's MTB content at the moment which is very timely. I've just subscribed us to your Insta feed (dps.mtbclub) so looking forward to seeing more great riding from you!

@cchappetta1: What other edits are you in? I see a 'meet the locals' one on Remy's YouTube Channel. I run a School MTB Club - ages 7-16 - and for the first time we've lots of girls riding, so I'm on the lookout for role model videos. And if you've any inspirational recommendations of your own, I'd love to know!