Mountain biking can be one of the most breathtaking hobbies around.
Finding the right trail, you can get the best of the most gorgeous views and scenery, as well as some high-octane thrills from the precariousness of the riding.
But is mountain biking really an extreme sport?
Yes, mountain biking is an extreme sport, by any standards. It is associated with extreme risk, which is, for many, all a sport needs to qualify it as an extreme sport. That said, it’s still one of the more accessible kinds of extreme sport, with many levels of complexity and skill available to different people.
It’s probably not surprising that riding bikes down mountains at incredibly high speeds is considered an extreme sport.
It’s naturally very dangerous, and the relationship to this danger is really what defines most extreme sports.
It’s all about the extent of risk you’re putting on yourself.
Let’s find out more.
Is mountain biking considered an extreme sport?
Yes, it certainly is.
Let’s first see how extreme sport is defined in the first place.
Just as it sounds, really the only way something is defined as an extreme sport is by its relationship to risk.
If there is a great deal of risk of personal danger and injury, then it’s an extreme sport.
It’s that simple.
Naturally, mountain biking involves a great deal of risk, at the highest levels.
Extreme and highly advanced mountain biking trails are incredibly difficult to navigate, and even for the most experienced rider, there is always the chance of even a fatal fall.
Of course, mountain biking doesn’t have to be like this. In fact, most casual mountain bikers are really at little to no risk of dying or seriously injuring themselves.
It’s more about the experience of experiencing the dramatic scenery on a bike, and sometimes riding down a steep incline.
But there’s really not much use in distinguishing more casual mountain biking from extreme mountain biking.
It is all one extreme sport, with varying levels of intensity.
There’s always a degree of risk with any sport, but often even the most casual mountain biking ride is riskier than most other sports.
No one really wishes to argue that mountain biking is not an extreme sport. But, as with virtually any extreme sport, there are certainly varying levels to it.
Really, you can make it as casual or as extreme as you like.
But just how extreme can it get?
How extreme is mountain biking?
Again, it obviously depends on each individual scenario.
But let’s consider the most extreme mountain biking scenarios.
Downhill mountain biking is naturally the most dangerous of all kinds of mountain biking, and comes with major risk of injury.
In fact, though, on the whole, mountain biking is a lot less risky than many other activities.
Studies into the injury rates for mountain biking show around 1.54 injuries per exposure to mountain biking.
Compare this, say, with soccer, which has as many as 7.7 injuries per 1000 exposures, or even rugby, with 13 injuries per thousand.
But this doesn’t really tell the whole story.
On the face of it, this makes mountain biking seem a lot safer, and thus not that extreme.
But it’s not just about the rate of injury, but the extent of those injuries.
Injuries in soccer, for example, are typically not all that bad.
Sprained ankles, maybe a broken bone on rare occasions.
More often, they are light injuries that heal in a day or two.
But if you fall on an extreme trail while mountain biking, even while wearing protective gear, the injuries have a high chance of being pretty bad.
You’re at much greater risk of head trauma, multiple broken bones from a high fall, and so on.
So, while we shouldn’t look at extreme sports purely in terms of injury rates, mountain biking is a lot more extreme than the simple figures might suggest.
The thing is, mountain bikers know these risks, and take extra steps and precautions to make sure they do not fall.
They are often a lot more careful than other sportspeople because they know the consequences if they fall, compared with the possibility of a minor injury during a soccer game.
Is mountain biking safer than road biking?
So, again, let’s look first at simple rates of injury.
Road biking sits at around 3 injuries per 100 exposures to road biking.
This is roughly double the rate of injury for mountain biking, and in this case, we can probably say road biking is more dangerous than mountain biking.
When mountain biking, you really only need to keep track of your own actions—be safe, and you’re unlikely to injure yourself.
But with road biking, you have the actions of every other driver on the road to deal with.
And road traffic accidents obviously pose a huge danger and risk of serious injury or death.
So, you can actually rest assured that you’re less likely to seriously injure yourself while mountain biking than road biking.
Whatever your personal view of the enjoyability of mountain biking, it’s hard to deny that it is an extreme sport.
It is extremely dangerous at times, and while you can certainly find mountain trails that aren’t particularly risky, the most advanced trails are certainly extremely dangerous.
That said, it remains one of the most popular and widespread extreme sports, being just a simple hobby for many people.
