"Those who say it cannot be done, should not interrupt those doing it!" - Also, hit subscribe to help me get to 1000! ;) Make sure tho check this interesting article by Lines Magazin! www.lines-mag.at/nationale-mountainbike-strategie/

It's not just the singletracks in the woods but also (or even mainly) the fireroads that are closed for bikes. And fines can go up to several thousands of euros when getting caught riding a friggin fireroad. That's ridiculous!

You can meet a lot of SUVs every day in Donau Auen National park but to ride a bike in the same place is a serious crime, how crazy is that? This spring trees around Braunsberg mountain were cut and what was left looks like a garbage place...

I love that I, as an Austrian, get this information from some english speaking guy on youtube for the first time ^^ Additionally i must say: There will be an "austrian" solution to that which will not satisfy anyone fully, but will take a lot of time, a lot of people and a lot of money.... Because that how things are done in this country

Appropos " brilliant job ", very good video, very informative and super researched. Thank you very much!

Thanks for this. I have been going to Austria (mostly the Salzkammergut) (from the UK) since the late 1980s, mostly caving, but also hiking, mountaineering, canyoning. I had never realised that there was a nearly total ban on mountain cycling. The cycle routes around Bad Aussee are actually pretty good, and there are a lot of people cycling, despite the hilliness, but yes it's all in the valleys, except for the Loser Toll Rd. Glad to see there are signs of more cycling opportunities across the country.

"but who will maintain the trail signs??!" UK: rolling around on the floor laughing

Austria would be one of the best places in the world for MTB tourism

I'm from Romania and it is the 3rd year of going with my ebike in the italian dolomites. Last year I entered multiple times in Austria doing the "humility passage" from Sexten. When you compare how many people are on foot and how many on bikes.. there is no comparison.... so i would say the impact of mtbikers is minimal at most...

Austrian here, currently without a mountain bike (but using my regular trekking bike a lot), I'd love a rule that allows all forest roads of 3 meters or more width to be used by cyclists at their own risk. Narrower trails have a risk of accidents so there I understand that a separation is made. Of course wherever I go with my bike I'm ready to slow down, ring from a distance, pass people at moderate speed (slow down to walking speed if the way isn't wide enough to keep a safe distance). What I don't understand is, there are lots of roads built to be used by heavy logging trucks and not considered attractive for hiking. When I walk on those I wish I had a bike. Why they aren't generally open for cyclists, I don't understand. An important rule is responsibility for accidents though. It should be clear that cyclists are using the trails and roads at their own risk and can't sue the land owner for compensation if they have an accident. Not even their health insurance if they are hospitalized.

Great video. Very informative

Thanks for the great video. I appreciate the summary. Its good to see the climate of biking is changing. All be it slowly.

Good luck! Hope it works out for you guys.

Interesting. This is the main reason why despite living only an hour from Austria, it's not been hugely on my radar.

And Germany is going stupid since they are thinking about taking that right away again for bikes in the forest, just so some few have the forst to hunt for them alone.. 😢 I hope it won't happen, I want my right to bike

In Innsbruck the situation its the same. We only have one legal trail, and the rest are bunch of illegal. But in the future we will get at least two more trails.

Of course they have to change because there will be no snow for skiing in the future

Thanks so much for this video. Moving back to Slovakia from the Netherlands in a few months and hoping to ride in the alps at least once a month 😂

We have a saying in Michigan: “mountain biking is not a crime”

Greetings from Slovakia. If you think mountain biking sucks in Austria come and take a look into Slovakia. We have some beautiful mountains, not as tall and big like alps but still perfect. Literally mountains are the symbol of Slovakia. If you ask any Slav what are we proud the answer would be mountains. Obviously the tallest, biggest and prettiest mountains are national parks(Mala Fatra, Veľká Fatra, Nízke Tatry, Tatry). Mountain biking in national parks is highly forbidden(I think there is 20€ fine for this incredible crime. Literally that's cheaper than entrance to some bike parks). Slovak mtb community is left with one single "big" mountain-- Lúčanská Malá Fatra. This mountain is not a national park. That means nobody gives a single fuck what is or isn't forbidden. There are few official (on trail forks, not by government) mtb trails. All of them are fucking steep and technical. Trails should be build parallel to the hill. But that requires digging a trail into the hill. Because there are just a few brave fellas building these trails without machinery, all of these trails are basically going straight down the hill. Then there are 2 types of hike trails. The main ones that are completely covered by hikers and the less used ones. These less used hiking trails are considered mtb trails. Problem with these are the lumberjacks. Lumberjacks don't give a single fuck. Using hike trails as forestry roads for skidders and tractors is perfectly OK for them. Leaving the trails bombarded and covered by branches. Last think are bike parks. There could be hundreds of perfect bike parks just like in Austria. Nope just few of them. One think that I just don't get. Every single trail in every bike park is steep as fuck. Probably because of lazy trail builders or Idk. I've been to Czech Republic, Alps , US. Only in Slovakia the trails are just stupidly steep. Saddest thing definitely being that Czech Republic, country with almost no mountains what so ever(tallest hill in Chzechia is like an avarage hill in Slovakia) has like 10 times more bike parks than Slovakia. Not even talking how beautiful and perfect these bike parks are. #Stupidity and laziness of Slovakia.

Hi Impressive this video of yours. How come Austria is the home of KTM Bike Indstries, and there is no legal mountain trails.😮 Hugs. Carlos m.

Well spoken and structured mate. I had no idea Austria (home of some of the best mountain bikers in the world- Vali Holl , Fabio Wibmer, Laura Stigger, Andi Kolb.)have had to ride only bike parks!

In Switzerland we have 26 states with 26 interpretations of the road traffic law that legislate the problem. Normally you can ride a bike on pedestrian/hiking trails. However some states forbid it for obscure reasons. For example Graubünden or Wallis are very permissive but in Vaud it is forbidden (with the subsequent illegal trails)... I hope that climate change and the World Champs 2025 in Wallis will also give the willingness to have a national policy. As one of our past president said in another context "We must act as quickly as possible, but as slowly as necessary", it is applied to everything here😄

Hello, I didn't whatch the whole video but as a mountainbiker from Holland, the first country I looked for when I started was Austria. Been there a lot for holiday decates ago. I was suprised that there was no infastructure or websites or very hard to find areas or routes in certain places. So looked further and (not mentioned in video) discovered Italy been there for almost 10years now and you can cycle on ALMOST EVERYTHING there are routes everywhere for MTB,roadbikes, tourbikes, kidsbikes, Ebikes you name it. So much that if you want can cycle 24hours a day.... So just cycle paths, really all level MTB routes, racebikes. Till this day I never understood why in Austria there isn't or very little of this, your video clears that! Austria is maybe 10 years behind the rest of other countries, that saw the gap of cycling tourisme. As I said from my view, if Austria had a good MTB network as a Dutch tourist I would consider to stay in Austria, Its much closer to Holland, but hard to compete with Northern Italy, good whether, food, beautifull cities, nature, watersports it has it all (and maybe other countries). Also Austria has the habit to charge for everything to do for tourist so it has to be a better package then your neighbours to come up with.

This is a great video

Interesting, I wasn't really aware of the current situation. I hope they sort it out in the end. I'll give it a miss till then I think.

and thank you for That video !

Funny how germany is about to do the exact opposite

i thought the USA was bad, we have lots of trails but there could be WAY more. Horses are the worst for trail damage.

Wow, great changes coming by the sound of it!

Trail access is my biggest concern with the growing popularity of E-bikes. I love what they bring in terms of accessibility to older riders or to equalize large fitness differences, but there's a subset that's not happy with the performance of Class 1 or 2 bikes that could ruin all the progress we've made and are working towards.

That is a good info. I've been in Austria few times and hiking in few places. From single person prespective you can have the infinite number of trails :-D I hope that this will go well. I have only 7h drive to Semmering. Good luck with that.

Austria is too small for good mountainbiking😂 greetings from Austria

Do you know how it is in Spain and Portugal? Thanks!

Thanks for the video. I didn’t know this. I’m going to several country’s this summer and Austria is one of them. My MTB is going with me. I will take care where to bike in Austria.

Just checked my friend Strava and he made 43km on forest roads and trails, 2000m elevation gain in less than 3 hours. There is no way any walker can do the same damage in this short time. I guess previous research didn't account for e-MTB. Argument, "if walkers do damage to nature, I want to do it also, but on my bike" is a bit week, even if impact would be the same. I guess Austria cant reverse or ignore tourist trends any more. But one thing is sure. New law will bring accelerated degradation of natural environment. I wish you all the best and hope Austria will find good balance of developing bike tourism and protecting nature.

I didn't know this. In every summer we go to the Salzkammergut Throphy. Many of us just touring on local trails and never experienced any harassment just support and hospitality.

I live in NZ and am planning another trip to ride mountain bikes in France and Italy. I was thinking of also going up into Austria this time as well. I must admit I am reluctant to do this if I am not welcome there. In New Zealand we created trails all around the country. The tourism that this has created, especially in small towns is amazing.

If nobody is riding the trails, I'd assume none of them have been built in a way that is great for bikes. Might take a while to catch up on getting some fun trails that were laid out to be fun and flow well for climbing and decending by bike. Wishing best of luck to the Austrian MTB community from here in the North Eastern United States.

Hi , can you provide some link to the studies claiming that the bike traffic is not necessarily more destructive than hiking traffic ? Thanks

Hi Dieter, great video, thanks for putting a spotlight on that topic. Judging from the views you gained on this video already it seems like you hit a topic, that we in Austria are not aware is so important to the "outside world". Let me give you some additional inside perspective on the topic. You summed it up perfectly, so I will only add a few infos on what's already happening on the local level over many years now. I am originally from Tirol, so I know the restrictive situation over there. I now live south of Vienna (indeed the IMBA summit will happen only 5kilometers away from where I live ... so I most probably will be there 😉 ) and I am living in one of the most vivid regions for mountainbiking in Austria luckily. Years ago an initiative started called the "Wienerwald Trails" which consisted of local mtb enthusiasts and aimed at acting as a Point of Contact for local politicians and land owners in order to start discussions about legalizing parts of the vast "illegal" trail network in the viene´nees woods. What started with a few first legals trails years ago developed into a big trail network with the trailcenter HWW as the nucleus. The initiative somehow was a blueprint and best practice for many more initatives around Vienna which inspired many more legal riding spots in lower Austria and beyond (Trailwerk Wachau, Wexl Trails, Josiberg Trails, Pyhra Trail, Pfenningberg Trails and many more) . So the broad layer of initiatives you mentioned already exists. The stakeholders learned that targeted steering can actually work and there's a critical mass of mountainbikers that cannot be ignored any longer. And here's where politics may come into play. Lower Austria is the conservative heartland in Austria. Conservative politics have for a long time preserved the restrictive status quo. Recently the local governour for lower Austria - a conservative - posed for a photo op with a MTB for the MTB season opening in the Vienna Woods. She wouldn't do this if she didn't see potential for reaching out to potential voters and saw it as an relevant topic economically. So I share a slight optimism that the trajectory may remain positive. You certainly gained a subscriber with that video 😁

Super news. We often go to Austria for trips. Its only a few hours to great destinations from my home in Slovakia. Now I will have more excuses to take the family there.

Lungau region has a really great and widespread mtb-trail system. No real downhill, but great treks.

the reason is most woods are private land in austria, thats why the owner of the land can simply forbid biking even if he ruins the whole area with his tractor.

I hope this helps to distribute bikers more evenly. The problem I as an hiker on foot have with bikers is, that I'm basically banned to the side of the trail. Instead of being able to relax, I need to be constantly alerted, look behind me and be aware of where I could go in case I need to give way to a biker. This isn't a problem if there are only few bikers. But there are places where you encounter a biker every few minute... So I really hope this helps to distribute them

The video portrays very well the Everyman's Right to roam in nature. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z5yJnqqB3t7ZqGg.htmlsi=ptcUDHyHVCLm4hhe In Finland we have the right to ride in the forrest, lappland and city parks. Except natural parks and they usually have dedicated tracks to follow. As I live in Helsinki I can use at anytime our central park for moutainbiking. This should be a right in whole of europe.

The cynic in me cannot keep himself from rolling his eyes at the idea that the skiing resorts may be the ones finally making this happen. Of course it has to be about profit. All hail The Holy Economy, praise be upon Its name. 🛐 Great video, thanks for taking the time to do the research 💪

Austria is way back behind CH, I hope they will adopt sooner than 2030

Well there is already a huge selection of bikeparks in Austria so in that way they are doing great. For the “community” trails, yes they could improve. But if I have to choose one country to go biking for the rest of my life I’d still take Austria, even in the current situation. The mtb tourism is big already and with skiing seasons getting shorter, they have to embrace the mtb culture. If it will only get better from here on, it will be the best mtb country in the world. (It already is imho😅)

The most important "nut to crack" is the "liability of the land owner" part: Even where mountainbiking is prohibited still today, people do it ilegally, and when they injure themselves or get injured because they are in places they shouldn't be at times they shouldn't (forrestry accidents with extra closed road signs which they of course ignore) the owner of the land is held responsible too. And when those owners try to enforce the prohibition, they do get attacked. (not all the time, but increasingly) Most of the time only verbally, but in some cases even physically. (There are videos online where the attackers film themselves attacking and are even proud that they "made a fool" out of the old landowner...) (I hate when people who do something illegal, attack the person that points it out to them.) So that's why it is such a problem: if you get held repsonsible for something you weren't even able to prevent. And years of wrong behaviour that left their imprint in the minds of many landowners. And lastely, it hurts me to say this, but our cyclists in austria today are among the most reckless "traffic participants" i have yet encountered. I have been a cyclist for decades myself, but the huge increase in recklesness by bikers i wittness almost every week is quite shocking to me. And it's not just being reckless to others but more and more often they are reckless towards their own health and life... Maybe it's just my impression, but in the last 10 years the problems and the recklessness as well as the aggression among austrian cyclists has drastically increased.

Here in the neighboring Slovenia a motocross rider riding an unmarked trail have lower fines than a moutain biker.

In Carinthia, forest owners are supported with state funds to keep their forest roads in good condition, sometimes you can even drive there by car but not by bike with no bike - that's crazy, isn't it? A fundamental problem is insurance in the event of an accident. In Germany, paths on state or federal forests are automatically insured. I'm not sure about trails in private forests, but if I have a private trail or a private forest path and a mountain biker has an accident there or hits another vehicle because he can't brake, then the owner is responsible for the trail and has to pay. If some idiots lay a trail in a private forest and a mountain biker has an accident there, then in Germany the forest owner has to pay. So please also understand why certain forest owners are against their paths or trails being used, it can ruin them!

Hello! I'm mountainbiker in Styria, far away from resorts. I ride since 1986 and had been forester for 20 years. Most hunting terrytories are leased to rich people from the industrie. If you leagalize biking the landowners has to reduce the rental for them. It gets less worth for hunting, that's a fact. The other problem is the exploding numer of bikers upcomming with E-Bikes. We have elections this year. The green party has a massive image problem, so they try to get points. As I know the peoples party an opening would mean that you are allowed to use some forestroads in summer, no trails, not in winter. A typical Austrian solition as always.😢 What did I since 1986? Ride and don't ask if it's allowed or not. I never had serious troubles doing so.

I think this could work... if the "Wegehalter Haftung" was dropped. This piece of law institutes liability of landowners for poorly maintained roads and tracks. If you were to allow people to pass through, you'd be liable for any injuries they sustained on your land, unless you can prove that all were in pristine condition (by default). What the *

The general rule for MTBing in Australia is stay on established roads/trails. Give way to pedestrians on shared trails. We also have dedicated MTB parks. There are a bunch of country towns that have created MTB trail networks and successfully established a tourist market. Creating unauthorized trails is of course illegal. MTBing has only been a positive thing for our economy and perhaps not surprisingly, the local breweries.

Didn't know about such restrictive rules in Austria. Surprising, specially when for winter sports it is at high level. I would say infrastructure is in place, do not close it for summer, all huts, restaurants near to ski slopes, allow people to climb on the bike, you will have much more tourists during summer. Of course strict rules about traffic, specially where routes shared with pedestrians and rules how to behave to do not destroy nature, loudness and garbage and will be mtb paradise 😊

Funny, that roadbike riding in Austria is very rare, 95 out of 100 bikes are MTB-s, although majority of them are actually Ebikes.

I see mountainbikers all the time in austria, so nobody cares about its illegality 😅 and as child when i was mountainbiking myself, nobody said to me "you cant do this its illegal"!

I didn't know austria was so strict and against mtb. Glad things are changing and in the meanwhile.... come to Italy 😊 as simple as that. Ciao

The Austrian farmer's association is very powerful and I think the alps are also under its wing. If the tenant of a mountain does not permit the use of his land explicitly, you're basically only allowed to hike across it. Even camping is strictly prohibited in forests and on mountains. I expect a lot of headwind from the farmer's association, there will be compromises and changes made before any of this goes into effect. Don't expect to ride the alps freely anytime soon...

Mountain biking is not allowed everywhere in Austria because most of the forests and mountains are owned by municipalities and private individuals. This primarily concerns the question of liability in the event of accidents. These liabilities are still a legal gray area for us.

Interesting

That t-shirt is awesome.

It will be years before they come up with a national strategy and until its in effect.

Can anyone share experience for around Vienna? I was planning on buying an MTB and go to the trails I found on Strava but now that I've seen that I'm giving it a second thought?

wild that mountain biking is basically banned. Where I live, trails and areas are usually better taken care of because of mountain biking. It's the motorized vehicles that destroy areas. They opened all trails to motorized vehicles in one of the canyons near me and all the trails have virtually been destroyed.

Should be like this , cause the winter is not what was used to be. So mountainbiking would bring some money.

Because ski season is smaller every year.

I life in Austria and I ride mtb here. I wouldn’t change the law there is no need. We have a good trail infrastructure and the Forrest protection law in place is more important than the capitalist view on forest and tourism.

Behave well guys, dont throw away garbage so we can all enjoy the trails! No matter which country you are in!

Is it all about money and fun? Asks a 60 year old worldcyclist who has a deep relationship with Sölden and seen this beautiful landscape not hikable anymore.

Man, what you're telling us here ... I don't know how often you have been to our country and most probably you just know Stubai valley. BUT I'm a happy mountainbiker living in Austria and man I can tell you there are tons of OFFICIAL MTB-trails and routes available in our country where everyone can find something for himself or herself and enjoy the nature as well as the beautiful mountains. Of course, next to all the bikeparks you can already find in almost all big skiing resorts. That you're not allowed to go everywhere where you want is good because nature and wildlife needs their space too! And we need to respect that land owners and other mountaineers do not want mountainbikes everywhere which does not mean moutainbikers have to sacrific anything because as mention - inform yourself about the trails available on common platforms, download the GPS-track and you will have a lot of fun.

I,m Austrian and i get the information from you lol

I misread "Australia". I refuse to engage with any country that won't allow people to carry A SWISS ARMY KNIFE!! Mt. Biking sure has come a long way in the last 40 years! wow!

they have no more snow, and they are hungry, simply as that

bit like Japan..completely surrounded by mountains and hills but local mountain bike trails(not the large downhill parks they are some off season ski resorts with trails) are almost non-existent .. Im talking about local trails,..very bizarre.

As with most things in Austria any change is slow and takes time. The older generation is quite happy with the financial income of traditional well established alpine sports. No need to rock the Austrian tourism boat for a few bikers if business is good the way it is. But rest assured that once a decision has been made to tap this enormous potential Austria will become a leading destination for mountain bikers. The ball is rolling, maybe to slow for some, but it is already to fast to stop. Watch this space👍

lets hope politicians here the voice of the big crowd of mountainbikers...and finally get it done properly

A lot of restrictions and closures come from poor trail etiquette . guys bombing down trails and not giving way to hikers and horses . it's really important to set a good example on shared roads/trails . i get a lot of dirty looks in germany but after i stop and wait for hikers anf horses to go by ,the people smile and thank me . be an ambassador for MTBing and give way to slower traffic

just a small suggestion, use manual focus when you do clips like this. It's a bit disturbing as the camera is trying to autofocus on your hands and face at the same time.

So riding of trails are illegal but deforasting trees to make ski resorts isnt it?

Thank you for this informative video! I am a mountain biker from the US but am also a citizen of Italy. My husband and I are planning on moving to Europe and are deciding between northern Italy (Piemonte) and Austria. It is very important to us to be able to freely mountain bike wherever we live. We ride mostly XC style and like to just hop on our bikes and ride through the forest and mountain trails. I know the Wienerwald has a mtb trail system but the trails close between November and March, even when there is no snow. We ride all year, so this is disappointing. Do you know if the forthcoming new legislation will also lift the current seasonal restrictions? When do you think the new strategy you discussed with go into effect? Have you mountain biked in Vienna and what can you tell me about it? Thank you.

Is the law different (even tougher) on e-mtb?

Reality is that mountain biking create new trails, and disturb the wild animals. I saw wild forest with many animals become forest with many trails and very few animals. I saw it in france, it is a reality.

There are trails that are allowed, the rest is to be ignored. That works in almost all cases. Whenever I am stopped, I excuse and keep pushing the bike until out of sight of the forest owner. However, in some rare cases I heard that owners are very nasty.

People are half the problem. Everybody is to lazy to do something. Joining together in clubs and fighting for trails it could be better. Still i am one of the lazy guys but luckily i live in country where we can even do dirt biking almost everywhere.

With skiing nothing was a problem for decades. Nobody talked about nature and properties…no it’s all about „protecting the nature“ - ridiculous! For no biker at all you have to cut trees or maintain the hills, you don’t need any infrastructure like water Basins and snow machines. Biker only need way - they are already there! But nur suddenly its „all about nature and the wild“. I have seen so many wildlife during my rides and most animals do not care about me and my bike. They look back once or twice and disappear in the Forrest. 😂

The potential for MTB in Austria is HUGE. I am lucky enough to call the Pinzgau my home in the summer months and get to enjoy the epicentre of Austrian MTB there. Kitzschteinhorn has excellent natural terrain that has got to be one of the best kept secrets in the region. If this is allowed to spread across the vast mountain terrain of Austria it would be epic on a grand scale!

As an Austrian and MTB fan, I have mixed feelings about this video and I'm not sure whether your opinion is wrong. Firstly, the current government is unlikely to be in power for long and elections are coming up. It is probably more of a pseudo-issue that is played in the media. But I could also be wrong. To tourism. Austrian nature and the mountains have always been massively used for tourism. This is now changing more and more from winter tourism to summer tourism. Depending on the region, the mountains can be almost crowded and in my opinion rules are needed. Especially when senior hikers meet eMTB riders and when there is not enough space. Furthermore, we still have the problem that many people are incorrectly prepared and equipped and underestimate the real mountains. I see parallels with alpine skiing and ski touring. In the middle past, ski touring has experienced a real boom. Once you bought the equipment, you could ski “for free,” or so the thinking went. However, several measures against ski touring have already been implemented, including the charging of ski tour tickets. In comparison, there are various bike parks for tourism and these are booming and enable tourism income for the regions. Just as ski touring is becoming more and more undesirable (because there is no income), I can't imagine that free mountain biking will be tolerated for long if it grows more and more. Even in my area, near a big city, I drive about 10 minutes to get to the next designated small MTB trail. Never had any problems getting there and the police have never caused any problems. It's always a question of quantity and if enough people get together there are always idiots. If there are no more rules and laws about it, then unfortunately there is nothing you can do. Nowadays you can no longer rely on common sense and decency. So I honestly don't know what to do with this. We'll see how it develops. After all, there are even stakeholders who are even demanding number plates and liability insurance for all cyclists. Not that I would support it, but the trend is going somewhere completely different as it seems. -_-

"forstrecht" is spoken "forst-rasht" an not "forst-react" ;-)

Well, keep the tree line as the rule, above it is ok 😂

I could swear there was a hot mountain biker girl who was about to talk to me about mobile in Austria

On the other hand, Thailand has a backward thinking on MTB tourism industry. Not only no promoting MTB, but they also forbid you to ride in the forest e.g. Chiangmai Doi Suthep. The excuse was that safety reason: wild fire (understandable), to let the nature recover itself. However, they (the local gov) don't really do anything about local people who actually are the ones burn the forest to look for wild vegetable. (Yes, they literally burn the forest for mushroom, spinach (kinda), etc...). Chiangmai used to make a decent income with MTB industry when no such ban took place. Worse is the new culture of "trail running" which is a big new hype in recent years. Trail runners start to share the trails (which mountain bikers have no problem with) and claim the trails theirs (which MTB-kers have problem)...a lot of drama between who should not use the trail... As far as I've seen, trails would always full of trash (plastic water bottles, mainly) after trail running event. The best example of trail runners try to claim MTB original trail is 'Khao Chalak' in Chonburi where trail runners flock in the last 3 years tryning to ban MTB. There are tons of drama mostly from trail runners fears of approaching MTBs (MTB going downhill, so runner should yield). The combination of bad goverment policy on how people can use the forest and conflict between trail users, Thailand MTB tourism industry won't make it and that is very sad.

I don´t wanna dissapoint you, but as a mountainbiker from Austria I can tell you that I heard it very often that someone said that somethings gonna happen....well, here we are and it´s still a crime to ride in the woods. The second aspect that needs to be considered is, we have elections in fall, so political parties are starting with their usual fight for votes. As usual, what politicians say and what politicians do is very often not the same. The major problem in Austria is that the landowners have been told from forestry& farming unions for decades that bikers destroy the soil, they produce litter, they harm hikers, they sue the owners in case of crahses, and so on. In Carinthia the regional government has established a contractual framework incl. insurance and monetary compensation for landowners, years ago already and still we do not see legal trails apart from tourism regions. I´m really sceptic that it will be different this time. Nevertheless, let´s cross fingers that we see progress soon. I would be very happy to ride my bike without bad flavour of being illegal.

good luck with the forest owners and hunter lobby... Its never been an issue of liabilities

Some laws are just stupid. How can riding a bike in the forest be illegal.

land owners will never agree to anything here in austria. i can tell you that for sure

Why people in politics always f**k up

This only will work, when the law changes - the owner of the forrest road should no longer be responsible for any risk the biker has. When a biker hurts himself or die, because of a Tree or rock or anymals on the road then nobody should be able to lawsouit the owner of the road .. The situation now is.. when a tourist breaks his leg on the road or when he dies in a accident, then he or his family can lawsuit the owner of the road and have abhigh chance to win... Therefor nobody is alowing bikers on his roads

Another clip that shows that politicians are dumb as f...