10 Feb 20

Women mountain biking is growing everyday. More ladies get into the discipline and that’s an awesome thing to see. Here at Switchbacks we see more and more females booking Holidays with us, that’s why we decided to write a post about how to get started on a mountain bike.

So here are a few tips to get you started:

 

1.The Bike

 

4 words: Try before you buy! Ask your female friends if there is some of their bikes you can borrow.  There are also loads of demo days run by retailers and brands where you can just show up, hands your driving license and go ride for a few hours.

Your local bike shop may also rent/demo bikes out of their store, it’s a pricier option but great to try many bikes to see what suits best. Whatever you do, do not buy before knowing what kind of riding you want to get into and how much you’d like to invest in mountain biking.

 

2. The gears for Women mountain biking

 

In all fairness the market hasn’t made that much effort to adapt riding gears to females. Most of the manufacturers just change the colour or their men’s kit and sell it as female range. Which rarely suits ladies’s tastes and different body shapes.

But as the industry and the market evolves, some brands really put in the effort to create great women apparels. If nothing should stop you from buying men’s gears that fits, we’ve made a quick list of companies that make exceptional women’s gears :

Giro​, Dakine,  Liv , RaceFace, ​Sombrio, Sweet Protection, EVOC, Five Ten, 100%, IXS, Ion

 

Women mountain biking : A quick guide

3. The Riding

 

A great way to get into the mountain biking or take your riding to the next level is by attending a skills clinic, class, or camp. Firstly you get to spend some time with some awesome and skilled female MTB instructors but you’ll meet a lot of like minded female riders.

Women mountain biking camp are getting more and more popular, so do some research and find one next to you, we’ve listed a few just below. If you’re a group of girls looking to go somewhere and get coaching, we do offer Women specific sessions. 

Pusscamp , Bike park Wales coaching , Hilde Straedt MTB guide

 

Women mountain biking ressources

There are great resources out there for mountain bikers to connect, communicate, share and ride. From trail conditions to MTB news, you can find everything MTB related on those websites:

  • Pinkbike: Mountain bike news, photos, videos, events, and open forum.
  • Vital MTB: Mountain bikes, reviews, videos, race coverage, and open forum.
  • Singletracks: Mountain bike trails and mountain bike reviews.
  • Trailforks: Mountain biking trail database, supplemented with Pinkbike content.
  • Strava: Ride tracking and community platform

See you on the trails!