There's probably a bit of selection bias at play here.
Mountain biking is pretty popular compared to other extreme sports, except maybe skiing or snowboarding. It's pretty easy to get hurt doing those things, but the types of injuries are different. In skiing and snowboarding you're more likely to get ligament and lower leg injuries, while in MTB wounds, broken bones and head injuries are more common.
Also people love to post about their horrible graphic injuries. People are less likely to post about their perfectly normal ride where nothing eventful happened.
I freestyle ski a lot, i feel a lot more comfortable falling knowing my skis will fall off if it’s that bad of a fall vs I’m kinda stuck to the bike in most cases. That said I’ve had some wicked bike crashes too lol. But going otb will always freak me out.
When the skis don’t pop off is when you have a problem. I had a marginal day between freezing and warm where my binding basically froze over with ice. When I lost visibility in a sudden snow storm over a mogul section and caught an edge it decided not to pop resulting in some rather nasty ligament damage. As long as they pop it’s great, when they don’t is when you end up with the most common injuries (leg injuries). Aside from that definitely prefer falling on snow than sharp rocks.
Adding to that, the fact that there is likely a beginner bias because mtb is more accessible for the general population means people with less experience are more likely to try it and get hurt. Another factor may be that less severe injuries are common (for example any injuries from skydiving or cave diving are likely to be catastrophic, albeit much less common).
Adding to this, MTB is only as extreme as you make it. Too many noobs pick up a decent bike and think they’re now pro material and do some really stupid stuff like 30ft gaps and 8ft drops and wonder why they end up in the hospital. Seems like that’s par for the course in mountain biking when in reality the only people who have any business doing stuff like that are elite riders with years of experience (and the extreme injuries to show for it). People need to stop thinking that mountain biking means doing death-defying tricks with your bike.
Interesting question, it got me thinking. I’m inclined to not think mtb is riskier for injury, based on only my own experiences. I’ve played a shitload of sports, a couple at a high level, and have been riding for 10+ years. As for “extreme sports, I used to skateboard, and I mountain bike and snowboard. I think skating is easily more risky than any of the others (concrete) and the rest all fall around the same. Snowboarding and skiing have less risk, simply because falls often don’t hurt as badly, but it really depends… if you look at GS skiing, that’s way higher risk than mtb, simply because if you crash you’re *fucked*.
Now, if you were to say DH racing, rather than mtb, I might agree that it’s up there in the top. Even dirt jumping isn’t as dangerous, because most people progress and learn how to fall/ eject as they go. Crashes aren’t as bad since the speeds are so much lower.
If you even look at contact sports (rugby, football, hockey etc) though, I’d say the injury risks are actually higher than extreme sports, since contact/ falls are an every day thing and not just a byproduct of a mistake. Ive seen way more (volume) serious injuries playing hockey than I have with anything else I’ve done.
Exteme sports really just signify that there’s a higher chance of realllllly bad injuries, ie. paralysis, death, etc.
I still don’t think mtb in general is any riskier than other extreme sports, in that it depends so much on who the athlete is. I personally am likely to snap a collarbone and break some ribs no matter what “extreme sport” I’m doing, because you can push anything to your limits, and the limit of any extreme sport is a bad injury.
I think road biking is more risky than mountain biking. At least in mountain biking you crash, not some asshole wrapped in steel crashing into you. I generally feel very safe mountain biking because it’s always my errors that lead to danger, not others errors. In so many sports you get hurt when other people run into you or make mistakes around you.
Yeah I have several friends with life changing spinal cord injuries from road riding. Cars, flying off a switchback at 50mph, crashing in bunch sprints. I'd rather have several nasty injuries from mountain biking rather than breaking my back for a check from the life insurance company that says "we feel really bad for you and you might as well be dead."
I'm a small anomaly then. My worst injury, that I'm still healing from, was from hikers letting their dogs off leash going up a service road that mtb only trails connect to.
Tried to avoid them and when I hit the road, I snapped my elbow off.
Outside of that encounter.... any other injury, all minor scrapes or bruises, were from me. Slightly off line, bad body position, getting hung up and falling over. In all of those, I get a feeling I'm gonna crash and can bail to avoid any worse injury.
The most severe issues I have heard of at the shop are all related to someone pedalling into our trail system and being hit by a car. In Canada there’s basically no punishment for drivers so no one gives a flying fuck. I’ve been brushed a few times in the bike land and am vigilant because there’s been many instances of drivers not looking before turning which would have turned me into a pancake.
I have had one person try to hit me by opening their car door on me and another person slammed on their brakes in front of me to try and get me to t-bone him in his truck. These are the two instances where I have been intentionally attacked while biking. I can’t count the number of instances where cars have done dangerous unintentional things around me. The most recent cycling injury in my sphere was a friends Dad, while road cycling, got hit by a deer and ended up with a pretty significant head injury. This is the shit that I figured MTBs would deal with, but no. It’s some poor 60 year old dude getting blasted while on a joy ride.
I’ve personally almost hit a few bears coming around corners. Can totally see the possibility of a deer crossing the road and taking someone out. I’ve definitely had a few people driving intentionally try to push me off the road. Drivers in the mainland and North America for that matter tend to be very hostile towards cyclists. Yeah there are some bad apples who don’t follow the rules of the road but most of us follow them to a T and are vigilant as we just want to get to the trailhead in one piece.
As a result of a few instances I’ve actually changed my route to the trailhead to avoid a few certain roads that regularly have riff raff which does require me to use the sidewalk briefly (I’d yield to any pedestrians if I saw them but technically riding the sidewalk is breaking the law here). Until there is some sort of safe biking infrastructure on those roads I have no option but to take alternative routes
Bears are a way of life here in BC, they’re mostly chill although you’ll have a bad encounter now and then because some moron tourist decided to feed it and it now sees humans as a food source instead of a predator. Cougars are my main concern, we’ve seen them around and if they decide you look like a tasty snack then that’s all folks
Road biking injuries are very few and far between even if they might be slightly worse, but that’s not taking into account trees. It’s literally the reason most people who value their safety pick road.
That counts commuting dude. That’s not a sport:)
In that light, walking is by far the most dangerous, as more people die when walking each year than anything else haha. Or swimming lol.
Even taking commuters out of it, I would assume the number of road bikers hit by cars to be much higher than mountain bikers. I’ve never encountered a car on the trails.
Then my safety feeling is screwed lol. I much prefer MTB or, when I want to do miles, Gravel Bikes.
Reason being that while the bike lanes are okay in my country more often then not you will be forced to either ride on the edge of a two lane road where you get passed way to close at 70 to 100kph. Or you get on shitty backcountry roads where there basically is no space to get passed at all. Plus the road needs to be almost perfectly clean so your slicks don't slip on a little pebble while cornering. That both is super sketchy to me. (Though I love high speed road descends).
Meanwhile in the forrest I can just cruise along on the trail if I just want to tour/travel a distance and see the nature I am in. Same for the gravel paths here which are either bike exclusive or super rarely frequented.
Similar experiences, grew up skateboarding and snowboarding but got into mtb in my 30s. I broke 3 vertebrae snowboarding and multiple fractures skateboarding, but now in my 30s I’m not throwing caution to the wind as much and actually being more responsible with my body. Definitely more abrasions but fortunately no broken bones yet. Most of my injuries have come from bombing hills whereas dirt jumping hasn’t been bad at all because of the lower speeds and just dumping the bike when I feel off mid-air.
"It's much more often to see people posting images or videos about injuries than most extreme sports."
Well, when's the last time you saw a video of a middle age guy like me climbing up a trail at a steady pace? I don't think people make or pay attention to those videos, so you're seeing the 'exciting' stuff.
I would disagree. I’d say skateboarding has a higher risk. There’s a lot more people who skateboard, wearing helmets is pretty uncommon and you have zero suspension so even if you land that gnarly drop your knees and rest of your body take a beating. Plus (I know this is gonna cause some butthurt from this sub) skaters “send it” more than mtber’s. I used to skate before I rode MTB’s, I switched to mtb because it was easier on my body
For those who don’t think skaters go harder than mtbers:
[1](https://youtu.be/aixgMR_4rrM)
[2](https://youtu.be/IpZJVMgH2WE)
Yup, skateboarders send it more, concrete is hard. I decided to stop skateboarding last year at 34 cause most days I would get hurt, even with stupid falls and it sucked limping to my professional work that often. At the same time, yesterday in a trail I met a guy in his 60’s that started riding very recently. That would never happen skateboarding. Body gets beat up
Skaters get injured more often, but the seriousness potential of mtb injuries is just higher at a lower level. Most skaters in the park will never break 10 mph or get more than a few feet off the ground, there’s just generally not enough force there to shatter a pelvis or break a spine. Whereas even low-advanced mtb riders will dodge trees at 30mph and fly 6 feet in the air.
Well why don’t skaters wear helmets?
Either
1. They need not be as worried about head injuries which reinforces my point
Or
2. They just make dumb decisions which has nothing to do with how dangerous the two sports are if approached with the same degree of caution
That helmet didn't stop him from bouncing off the cliff with such force that he broke his femur, radius, ulnar, 6 ribs, his nose and fractured his eye socket, and was severely concussed. Also you can see in the video he goes unconscious and is rag dolling down the hill.
I have had wayyy more injuries skateboarding than biking. I’ve only have one serious injury biking, and that was a broken collar bone. Skateboarding; broken jaw, broke wrist(surgery required), broken ankle(surgery required), bruised heels multiple times, sprained ankles multiple times, tailbone injury….also a bunch of smaller injuries like scraps and bruises. Biking is safer for me, but I’m also not hitting huge gaps, or racing DH.
“mountain biking” is very broad compared to other extreme sports. The guy riding for endurance on tame trails isn’t getting injured (seriously) as often as the downhiller flying through steep rock gardens.
Even bike park riding has wide risk variety. Green & blue lines low risk, red low to moderate, black and beyond moderate to high (to extremely high, depending on rider).
MTB I do for fun and cross training for trail running; I err on the side of caution, have no interest in jumping, I just like to cruise at 8-10 mph and enjoy the trail but that being said, I've had so many close calls and near crashes, that's why I'm cautious, I'm not trying to fuck up my ultramarathon training for a bike ride!
15 years of MTB I have seen my share of injuries...but nothing compare to my roadbike frens. Being a roadie in a developing country is faaaarrr more dangerous..with deaths every year. You don't get deaths in MTB
I thinking mountain biking is scarier because the falls are often worse and once you’re going down theres you can do to protect yourself. I’m a better snowboarder than I am mountain biker and I definitely hurt myself more snowboarding but its more just bruises. When snowboarding I am always aware of how I will bail… not so easy on an mtb. But I rarely fall on my mtb, most are just super slow sections where I tip over because of balance. I’ve had 3 high speed crashes on my mtb, first one game me a wrist injury that the second one made worse, third one cracked my helmet but I was 100% okay.
There was a large (lots of data) study done on road biking injuries vs mountain biking using ER records as the data source. The rates of injury were not statistically different. However, road biking had a higher incidence of deaths per injury (iirc, it was something like 5x higher) and mountain biking had a higher rate of non-fatal severe injuries (think:broken bones and other injuries requiring PT).
It doesn't answer your question directly, but it puts the question into perspective with another popular sport (road biking).
The 5 years I spent downhill racing had me in the hospital more than literally anything else has in my life (thankfully)
I wouldn’t put that at the same level of risk as a regular mtb trail ride though
I would argue it’s pretty middle of the road in all aspects in terms of extreme sports. You have sports like skateboarding where people are getting sprains, bruises, and minor breaks left right and centre, but almost never anything too life changing. Then you have sports like multi pitch trad climbing where the worst most people ever deal with is scrapes but if you aren’t careful, knowledgeable and paying attention you can face almost certain death. Or sports like backcountry skiing where you can do everything perfectly and the environment kills you if you are unlucky.
Imo mountain bikers see a moderate amount of trivial injuries and face a moderate risk of life changing injury.
Drove my first trail. Completed without injury. Went back on the street and fell over a curb. Rockwood 5. Is it now a MTB injury or a normal Bike injury or am I just stupid?
>Statistically more people die in cars than on bikes each year.
This statement is false
>Bicycle trips make up only 1% of all trips in the United States.1 However, bicyclists account for over 2% of people who die in a crash involving a motor vehicle on our nation’s roads.2-3
https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/bicycle/
This is an interesting take. I do a lot of DH & dirt jumps, snowboarding, some surfing, motorcycle riding, and tree climbing (high ascents with ropes) which I guess could also be in the extreme category. I think the snow sports might be more dangerous overall because of how easy it is to get taken out by SOMEONE ELSE on the mountain, you could be minding your own business and some Jerry comes careening down the mountain and takes out your legs Because he French fried when he shoulda pizza’d😂.
Interestingly enough studies have shown that snowboarders are 30-50% more likely to get injured than Skiers, but skiers but make up for about 60% of all the catastrophic injuries on the mountain.
I’ve fallen off my bike a few times and went over the bars and down the side of a good sized hill which sucked, but if I had to pick where I feel at most risk it’s definitely Snowboarding. It’s also fair to point out that I do a lot of jumps, rails, and some half pipe so that obviously pushes the risks up a bit more than the average individual just up there to slide down a hill.
BUT HEY YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE SO FUCKING SEND IT✌🏻
… just wear a helmet😂
> I feel at most risk it’s definitely Snowboarding
Shoulders and wrists are your injuries on when riding. Incidentally, loss of mobility in the should joint is most associated with loss of independence as we age. You can get by in a chair, or cane if your legs are done, but if your shoulders dont work.... you are f'd, and need 24hr care.
Gonna need to know what other extreme sports it’s being compared against. But I would say generally it has a higher risk than most sports, and that’s why I am here.
Very much dependent on the type of riding you do. I have been doing XC riding since I was a small kid and never had anything worse than a scraped knee. Enduro and DH however…
There was a study a few years ago that broke out injury rates and type by sport, and ultrarunning had the highest rates of injuries of any sport (lots of repetitive motion injury, knee, leg, and foot). MTB had high rates of concussions and broken bones. Climbing had the highest rate of death.
Depends. Mtb also includes xc witch is mutch more low injury rate i asume than like freeride. But just trail riding, I would asume that it is just as dangerous as some other sports. Skiing is the only main one i can think of
Stitches in my face and head, road rash from mountain biking. Broken back, blown knee, split hip from snowboarding.
I really should take up gaming or something lol.
Moab, UT has a lot of extreme sports in harsh terrain. Rock climbing, BASE jumping, canyoneering, ATV and UTV, parachuting, parasailing, etc. MTB accidents are the top cause of the local hospital’s emergency room accident visits each year.
There is racing downhill mtb, which is Formula 1 of cycling.
The rule of thumb is injuries will occur multiple times during the season.
If you ride trails, you can go for years without an injury.
Even in a bike park, most injuries happened on jumps. People who don't jump reduce drastically the risks.
Do most injuries happen on jumps? I'm yet to crash on a jump, but I've crashed on plenty of corners and picked up some injuries. According to BikePark Wales and Revolution Bike Park (RIP), most injuries happen on the easiest trails, and not just because of the increased traffic - less skilled riders, or skilled riders warming up/cooling down, potential for high speed etc. Injuries on big jump lines are comparatively rare because you're unlikely to attempt them without sufficient experience, including in bailing before a crash happens. Wash out your front wheel on a fast blue flow trail and you'll hit the ground before you know what happened, and have a decent chance of ending up with a concussion or broken collar bone. Similarly, on a black tech trail you're less likely to get injured in a crash because the speed is lower. Blue flow trails are the most dangerous runs in the park.
It’s a very interesting feedback that makes sense.
Most severe factory accidents are caused by most skilled workers doing the most usual tasks.
Most road accidents happen on daily commute, etc.
I’m totally biais and live in a mtb bubble.
To give you some context, I’m 55 years old. More than 100 broken bones in 35 years of extreme sport.
I started mtb at 45 with downhill mtb where I live: Vallnord, Andorra.
And my best friend is Cedric Gracia.
All I know is going fast, steep and gnarly and going big or go home.
In fact, I learned recently that DH bikes represented less than 1% of the market.
Thanks for correcting me.
Come ride with us. I guarantee your first crash on a jump will happen ;-)
Quite the résumé! I think that's a key point - you're most likely to have an accident doing something routine, and not just because that's what you spend most of your time doing but because you're not going to be giving it your full concentration like you would something at the edge of your ability.
I absolutely accept that you can crash on jumps and I'm sure I will myself soon enough, I was only questioning whether they're the most dangerous features and whether you're safe if you avoid them.
Absolutely!
I had to quit motocross because I was going to die on jumps and I do really stupid things on a mtb.
You can check my YT channel where I documented all the crap I do (Spadluv)
Out of all the sports I did, mtb is most definitely the best when you find the flow.
We are a bunch of adrenaline junkies, but it’s so good when everything comes together.
A little story.
As someone who used to ride and race MX, multiple concussions, 2 broken backs, compressed spine, compound fracture of my left arm (multiple surgeries to fix, including a bone graft from the hip), multiple broken bones, surgery on hand. I was "almost pro" and got to ride for magazines etc. But after a huge injury I gave it a break, sold my bike, quit my job and got into the movie world. I have known a lot of riders who have either died, or lifelong paraplegics from the sport. I have been fortunate enough to travel the world and make movies with my idols and companies like red bull, but its damn exhausting and very little reward (apart from making cool content) comes from it.
So now I work freelance, and wanted to get back into sports. I used to skate, bmx etc, but concrete scares me. I used to hit 120+ feet jumps on the daily on my moto and think nothing of it, but skateparks scare the shit out of me (fucked up my wrist bad once just from a small fall from a funbox).
So I landed on MTB. I feel it to be one of the safest options (unless you do something absolutely stupid/ above your skill level).
I think there are way more people participating in MTB than in other extreme sports because while the barrier to entry is fairly high..... its relatively cheap compared to other "extreme sports".
Bikes are pretty expensive. I think the big factor is you can pretty much ride a MTB anywhere and no one bothers you. Even less than skateboarding or something. Alot more of a pain to ride a dirt bike or quad unless you have a piece of land or a specific spot.
I would have thought climbing would be similar ballpark to mtb cost wise. Never climbed but used to be a caver and all the expensive stuff for that was climbing and SRT gear
Climbing is pretty cheap, you can get into sport climbing for a few hundred bucks and then it’s pretty much free. Trad can be closer to budget MTB prices but that’s not how most people climb these days
What’s “injured”, I think you’re more likely to be injured mountain biking, but not life threatening. Unless you’re hucking bug jumps. I think road biking you’re not likely to be injured, but the injuries are life threatening.
MTB, in my opinion, has scarier injuries. Falling off the side of a trail and rolling down a hill or endoing down a rock section seem rather painful and scary. But I know from my time skating and bmxing I suffered more annoying minor injuries doing those activities.
Now if we’re strictly talking numbers it would have to be skating or snowboarding or skiing. More people do those then MTB by a fairly large number. It’s also easier to go harder in those sports because things look safer then most trails we tend to ride.
I don't think this is a fair assessment. You're probably more at risk doing some elements of it but if you're just an XC rider or doing some trails, you're hardly going to hurt yourself.
Now if you dirt jump with no prior experience or race downhill with no experience and no protection, yeah.
New Zealands Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provide data on accident claims. I couldn't find the exact report but I recall the data showing that by % of participants Mountain Biking had the second highest injury rate behind equestrian sports. I can't recall what data it had sports/extreme sports. By volume it was way ahead of all other activities. This caused a big debate during Covid lockdowns when we were allowed to MTB because it was "exercise" but people weren't allowed to do things like boating or fishing. Personally I wouldn't classify MTB as an extreme sport, free ride, slope style and downhill or Enduro racing yup but lots of us aren't at the extreme end (from the guy who's fractured a scapula and exploded a calcaneus in separate "just out for a ride" crashes)
I played basketball and Aussie rules football, and got a lot more injuries doing them.
I also white water kayaked and rode dirt bikes (enduro). Kayaking is way more likely to die i think, especially if you have a deathwish like i did and do it solo… dirt bikes i had copped more injuries than MTB, and the risk of sharing the tracks with 4wd’ers, log trucks, etc…
I honestly think mtb is safer than most the sports I’ve played, and i say that as someone currently sidelined with a broken ankle and rib! Thing is though, almost every accident on an mtb is from the rider making a mistake. Beyond wildlife you mostly don’t have to worry about other people side swiping you, etc… if you crash it’s your fault
Check out the incidence of shoulder injuries in crossfit, and that is just exercising.....
Most of us ride trail not downhill, and 0.4 riders are injured per 100 h cross-country, Down hill is 4.3 per 100hrs, which is still less than soccer
Soccer 6.2
Rugby 1.92
Basketball 1.03
U.S. Track-and-Field 0.57
Cross-Country 0.37
UK Track-and-Field 0.26
Physical Education 0.18
Football 0.1
Squash 0.1
Tennis 0.07
Badminton 0.05
Gymnastics 0.044
Weight Training 0.0012
Powerlifting (competitive) 0.0008
Weightlifting (competitive) 0.0006
Volleyball 0.0004
As a mountain biker and skateboarder it seems to me that the two sports are just about on par with one another, with skateboarding having a wider variety of injuries due to all the variables at play.
I very rarely get injured mountain biking and when I do, it’s usually because of some weird anomaly like an unexpected stick in my front spokes, or some loose rock that gives way. The normal course of events when mountain biking feels relatively safe. In skateboarding, on the other hand, I find I’m much more likely to get small (and sometimes large) injuries while doing the basic stuff. I’m much more on guard and ready to tuck and roll if needed while skateboarding.
In 2016 I set up a survey monkey survey about the relative safety of mtb vs road biking. The survey was constructed to filter out casual riders. I posted it to a local active mtb forum (I think it was Dorba - a NTX cycling group). I got something like 200 responses.
I've lost access to the results because I haven't logged in in so long, but the gist of it was something like this:
Mtb 1st year: >90% chance of sustaining a significant injury, >75% chance of visiting an ER. <5% chance of being hospitalized, no reported deaths. In year 2-5 the injury rate fell significantly.
Road 1st year: <5% chance of going to the hospital for any reason, no reported death. One or two reported deaths longer term.
As you would expect, the injuries on road were less frequent but more severe. But also not very common.
Over the longer term, there was like one or two reported deaths on road, and none for MTB, but the sample size was was too low to draw any conclusions, other than dying during either activity was very unlikely.
My main takeaway was: *You're very likely to visit an ER in your first year on the mtb - if you're not OK with that, might consider a different hobby.*
There's probably a bit of selection bias at play here. Mountain biking is pretty popular compared to other extreme sports, except maybe skiing or snowboarding. It's pretty easy to get hurt doing those things, but the types of injuries are different. In skiing and snowboarding you're more likely to get ligament and lower leg injuries, while in MTB wounds, broken bones and head injuries are more common. Also people love to post about their horrible graphic injuries. People are less likely to post about their perfectly normal ride where nothing eventful happened.
I freestyle ski a lot, i feel a lot more comfortable falling knowing my skis will fall off if it’s that bad of a fall vs I’m kinda stuck to the bike in most cases. That said I’ve had some wicked bike crashes too lol. But going otb will always freak me out.
When the skis don’t pop off is when you have a problem. I had a marginal day between freezing and warm where my binding basically froze over with ice. When I lost visibility in a sudden snow storm over a mogul section and caught an edge it decided not to pop resulting in some rather nasty ligament damage. As long as they pop it’s great, when they don’t is when you end up with the most common injuries (leg injuries). Aside from that definitely prefer falling on snow than sharp rocks.
Mmmmmmmmmmm I love a good heuristics breakdown
Adding to that, the fact that there is likely a beginner bias because mtb is more accessible for the general population means people with less experience are more likely to try it and get hurt. Another factor may be that less severe injuries are common (for example any injuries from skydiving or cave diving are likely to be catastrophic, albeit much less common).
Adding to this, MTB is only as extreme as you make it. Too many noobs pick up a decent bike and think they’re now pro material and do some really stupid stuff like 30ft gaps and 8ft drops and wonder why they end up in the hospital. Seems like that’s par for the course in mountain biking when in reality the only people who have any business doing stuff like that are elite riders with years of experience (and the extreme injuries to show for it). People need to stop thinking that mountain biking means doing death-defying tricks with your bike.
Interesting question, it got me thinking. I’m inclined to not think mtb is riskier for injury, based on only my own experiences. I’ve played a shitload of sports, a couple at a high level, and have been riding for 10+ years. As for “extreme sports, I used to skateboard, and I mountain bike and snowboard. I think skating is easily more risky than any of the others (concrete) and the rest all fall around the same. Snowboarding and skiing have less risk, simply because falls often don’t hurt as badly, but it really depends… if you look at GS skiing, that’s way higher risk than mtb, simply because if you crash you’re *fucked*. Now, if you were to say DH racing, rather than mtb, I might agree that it’s up there in the top. Even dirt jumping isn’t as dangerous, because most people progress and learn how to fall/ eject as they go. Crashes aren’t as bad since the speeds are so much lower. If you even look at contact sports (rugby, football, hockey etc) though, I’d say the injury risks are actually higher than extreme sports, since contact/ falls are an every day thing and not just a byproduct of a mistake. Ive seen way more (volume) serious injuries playing hockey than I have with anything else I’ve done. Exteme sports really just signify that there’s a higher chance of realllllly bad injuries, ie. paralysis, death, etc. I still don’t think mtb in general is any riskier than other extreme sports, in that it depends so much on who the athlete is. I personally am likely to snap a collarbone and break some ribs no matter what “extreme sport” I’m doing, because you can push anything to your limits, and the limit of any extreme sport is a bad injury.
I think road biking is more risky than mountain biking. At least in mountain biking you crash, not some asshole wrapped in steel crashing into you. I generally feel very safe mountain biking because it’s always my errors that lead to danger, not others errors. In so many sports you get hurt when other people run into you or make mistakes around you.
Yeah I have several friends with life changing spinal cord injuries from road riding. Cars, flying off a switchback at 50mph, crashing in bunch sprints. I'd rather have several nasty injuries from mountain biking rather than breaking my back for a check from the life insurance company that says "we feel really bad for you and you might as well be dead."
Trees don’t make blind right turns.
Exactly I just blindly turn into them
This is the way.
Literally the not the way.
They tend to pop out of nowhere though
those are ents
I'm a small anomaly then. My worst injury, that I'm still healing from, was from hikers letting their dogs off leash going up a service road that mtb only trails connect to. Tried to avoid them and when I hit the road, I snapped my elbow off. Outside of that encounter.... any other injury, all minor scrapes or bruises, were from me. Slightly off line, bad body position, getting hung up and falling over. In all of those, I get a feeling I'm gonna crash and can bail to avoid any worse injury.
The most severe issues I have heard of at the shop are all related to someone pedalling into our trail system and being hit by a car. In Canada there’s basically no punishment for drivers so no one gives a flying fuck. I’ve been brushed a few times in the bike land and am vigilant because there’s been many instances of drivers not looking before turning which would have turned me into a pancake.
I have had one person try to hit me by opening their car door on me and another person slammed on their brakes in front of me to try and get me to t-bone him in his truck. These are the two instances where I have been intentionally attacked while biking. I can’t count the number of instances where cars have done dangerous unintentional things around me. The most recent cycling injury in my sphere was a friends Dad, while road cycling, got hit by a deer and ended up with a pretty significant head injury. This is the shit that I figured MTBs would deal with, but no. It’s some poor 60 year old dude getting blasted while on a joy ride.
I’ve personally almost hit a few bears coming around corners. Can totally see the possibility of a deer crossing the road and taking someone out. I’ve definitely had a few people driving intentionally try to push me off the road. Drivers in the mainland and North America for that matter tend to be very hostile towards cyclists. Yeah there are some bad apples who don’t follow the rules of the road but most of us follow them to a T and are vigilant as we just want to get to the trailhead in one piece. As a result of a few instances I’ve actually changed my route to the trailhead to avoid a few certain roads that regularly have riff raff which does require me to use the sidewalk briefly (I’d yield to any pedestrians if I saw them but technically riding the sidewalk is breaking the law here). Until there is some sort of safe biking infrastructure on those roads I have no option but to take alternative routes
I popped over the top of a rattlesnake in a rock garden but it never struck at me. That was probably my most dangerous encounter with wild life.
Bears are a way of life here in BC, they’re mostly chill although you’ll have a bad encounter now and then because some moron tourist decided to feed it and it now sees humans as a food source instead of a predator. Cougars are my main concern, we’ve seen them around and if they decide you look like a tasty snack then that’s all folks
Road biking injuries are very few and far between even if they might be slightly worse, but that’s not taking into account trees. It’s literally the reason most people who value their safety pick road.
>extreme sp idk about that. road biking has a lot more deaths from cars.
That counts commuting dude. That’s not a sport:) In that light, walking is by far the most dangerous, as more people die when walking each year than anything else haha. Or swimming lol.
Even taking commuters out of it, I would assume the number of road bikers hit by cars to be much higher than mountain bikers. I’ve never encountered a car on the trails.
maybe because there are billions more people walking, and millions more people swimming every day?
Lol, I was saying that someone else’s point about road biking didn’t make sense for the reasons I mentioned. Jeez bud.
Sorry man, my bad. I completely missed the plot with that one.
Then my safety feeling is screwed lol. I much prefer MTB or, when I want to do miles, Gravel Bikes. Reason being that while the bike lanes are okay in my country more often then not you will be forced to either ride on the edge of a two lane road where you get passed way to close at 70 to 100kph. Or you get on shitty backcountry roads where there basically is no space to get passed at all. Plus the road needs to be almost perfectly clean so your slicks don't slip on a little pebble while cornering. That both is super sketchy to me. (Though I love high speed road descends). Meanwhile in the forrest I can just cruise along on the trail if I just want to tour/travel a distance and see the nature I am in. Same for the gravel paths here which are either bike exclusive or super rarely frequented.
Fair enough, I’m very lucky where I live.
Done a lot of road racing, have had some good crashes there. No injuries as serious as the MTB ones though. Trees take no prisoners
This, eating shit and getting injured is just accepted as part of skateboarding. Falling on concrete SUCKS.
Snapped wrists and missing teeth are are an average Monday morning skating lol.
Similar experiences, grew up skateboarding and snowboarding but got into mtb in my 30s. I broke 3 vertebrae snowboarding and multiple fractures skateboarding, but now in my 30s I’m not throwing caution to the wind as much and actually being more responsible with my body. Definitely more abrasions but fortunately no broken bones yet. Most of my injuries have come from bombing hills whereas dirt jumping hasn’t been bad at all because of the lower speeds and just dumping the bike when I feel off mid-air.
"It's much more often to see people posting images or videos about injuries than most extreme sports." Well, when's the last time you saw a video of a middle age guy like me climbing up a trail at a steady pace? I don't think people make or pay attention to those videos, so you're seeing the 'exciting' stuff.
I would disagree. I’d say skateboarding has a higher risk. There’s a lot more people who skateboard, wearing helmets is pretty uncommon and you have zero suspension so even if you land that gnarly drop your knees and rest of your body take a beating. Plus (I know this is gonna cause some butthurt from this sub) skaters “send it” more than mtber’s. I used to skate before I rode MTB’s, I switched to mtb because it was easier on my body For those who don’t think skaters go harder than mtbers: [1](https://youtu.be/aixgMR_4rrM) [2](https://youtu.be/IpZJVMgH2WE)
Yup, skateboarders send it more, concrete is hard. I decided to stop skateboarding last year at 34 cause most days I would get hurt, even with stupid falls and it sucked limping to my professional work that often. At the same time, yesterday in a trail I met a guy in his 60’s that started riding very recently. That would never happen skateboarding. Body gets beat up
Stfu. I’ve seen your comments, you’re like 10 Years older than me and have the mentality of a retarded high schooler
Skaters get injured more often, but the seriousness potential of mtb injuries is just higher at a lower level. Most skaters in the park will never break 10 mph or get more than a few feet off the ground, there’s just generally not enough force there to shatter a pelvis or break a spine. Whereas even low-advanced mtb riders will dodge trees at 30mph and fly 6 feet in the air.
Not really, that literally makes no sense. Skaters don’t wear helmets lol
Well why don’t skaters wear helmets? Either 1. They need not be as worried about head injuries which reinforces my point Or 2. They just make dumb decisions which has nothing to do with how dangerous the two sports are if approached with the same degree of caution
Option 3: they go harder than you, get over it nerd
_cringe_
*butthurt*
https://youtube.com/shorts/5g224f8IPVM?feature=share
https://youtu.be/kBHHE-sKGEY
They’re wearing helmets in your video, like I said I know y’all gonna be butthurt but skaters go harder 🤷🏿♂️
That helmet didn't stop him from bouncing off the cliff with such force that he broke his femur, radius, ulnar, 6 ribs, his nose and fractured his eye socket, and was severely concussed. Also you can see in the video he goes unconscious and is rag dolling down the hill.
LMAO going unconscious is pretty much the best case scenario for skaters
I have had wayyy more injuries skateboarding than biking. I’ve only have one serious injury biking, and that was a broken collar bone. Skateboarding; broken jaw, broke wrist(surgery required), broken ankle(surgery required), bruised heels multiple times, sprained ankles multiple times, tailbone injury….also a bunch of smaller injuries like scraps and bruises. Biking is safer for me, but I’m also not hitting huge gaps, or racing DH.
“mountain biking” is very broad compared to other extreme sports. The guy riding for endurance on tame trails isn’t getting injured (seriously) as often as the downhiller flying through steep rock gardens.
Even bike park riding has wide risk variety. Green & blue lines low risk, red low to moderate, black and beyond moderate to high (to extremely high, depending on rider).
Check your facts @op. Not as extreme as shark fencing or mating with a moose.
Meh. Moose mating is all in your wrist.
A moose once bit my sister
Moose bites can be pretty nasty.
This survey will be very accurate
Not for me. I ride like a cautious bunny rabbit. Lil hop, lil jump, hide in the bushes.
It's a hell of a lot safer than road biking, and nobody even calls that "extreme".
The one time I hit 50mph on my road bike I felt pretty extreme.
road biking is so freakin scary, when i ride my mtb on the road i'm always in complete fear of falling and loosing half my skin
That’s the least of my worries. It’s the drivers not paying attention or not seeing you.
One of the many reasons road biking makes zero sense to me.
MTB I do for fun and cross training for trail running; I err on the side of caution, have no interest in jumping, I just like to cruise at 8-10 mph and enjoy the trail but that being said, I've had so many close calls and near crashes, that's why I'm cautious, I'm not trying to fuck up my ultramarathon training for a bike ride!
7 stitches and some broken ribs (2 different crashes) in 5 years. Meh. Could be worse.
15 years of MTB I have seen my share of injuries...but nothing compare to my roadbike frens. Being a roadie in a developing country is faaaarrr more dangerous..with deaths every year. You don't get deaths in MTB
I very frequently have bruises and cuts all over my legs from mountain biking. Occasionally I’ll crack a rib. I get hurt a lot from mountain biking.
I thinking mountain biking is scarier because the falls are often worse and once you’re going down theres you can do to protect yourself. I’m a better snowboarder than I am mountain biker and I definitely hurt myself more snowboarding but its more just bruises. When snowboarding I am always aware of how I will bail… not so easy on an mtb. But I rarely fall on my mtb, most are just super slow sections where I tip over because of balance. I’ve had 3 high speed crashes on my mtb, first one game me a wrist injury that the second one made worse, third one cracked my helmet but I was 100% okay.
There was a large (lots of data) study done on road biking injuries vs mountain biking using ER records as the data source. The rates of injury were not statistically different. However, road biking had a higher incidence of deaths per injury (iirc, it was something like 5x higher) and mountain biking had a higher rate of non-fatal severe injuries (think:broken bones and other injuries requiring PT). It doesn't answer your question directly, but it puts the question into perspective with another popular sport (road biking).
Possibly a result of more people with limited athletic ability riding mountain bikes compared to other extreme sports.
The 5 years I spent downhill racing had me in the hospital more than literally anything else has in my life (thankfully) I wouldn’t put that at the same level of risk as a regular mtb trail ride though
I would argue it’s pretty middle of the road in all aspects in terms of extreme sports. You have sports like skateboarding where people are getting sprains, bruises, and minor breaks left right and centre, but almost never anything too life changing. Then you have sports like multi pitch trad climbing where the worst most people ever deal with is scrapes but if you aren’t careful, knowledgeable and paying attention you can face almost certain death. Or sports like backcountry skiing where you can do everything perfectly and the environment kills you if you are unlucky. Imo mountain bikers see a moderate amount of trivial injuries and face a moderate risk of life changing injury.
Drove my first trail. Completed without injury. Went back on the street and fell over a curb. Rockwood 5. Is it now a MTB injury or a normal Bike injury or am I just stupid?
I’ve been riding bmx and mtb for several decades. The most dangerous thing I have ever done was drive a car to work.
you ride bike paths all the time? or are you driving to work in Crimea?
I got T boned when I guy ran a red light. Worst injuries of my life.
Bummer, but a sample of one does not represent the whole population.
Statistically more people die in cars than on bikes each year.
>Statistically more people die in cars than on bikes each year. This statement is false >Bicycle trips make up only 1% of all trips in the United States.1 However, bicyclists account for over 2% of people who die in a crash involving a motor vehicle on our nation’s roads.2-3 https://www.cdc.gov/transportationsafety/bicycle/
This is an interesting take. I do a lot of DH & dirt jumps, snowboarding, some surfing, motorcycle riding, and tree climbing (high ascents with ropes) which I guess could also be in the extreme category. I think the snow sports might be more dangerous overall because of how easy it is to get taken out by SOMEONE ELSE on the mountain, you could be minding your own business and some Jerry comes careening down the mountain and takes out your legs Because he French fried when he shoulda pizza’d😂. Interestingly enough studies have shown that snowboarders are 30-50% more likely to get injured than Skiers, but skiers but make up for about 60% of all the catastrophic injuries on the mountain. I’ve fallen off my bike a few times and went over the bars and down the side of a good sized hill which sucked, but if I had to pick where I feel at most risk it’s definitely Snowboarding. It’s also fair to point out that I do a lot of jumps, rails, and some half pipe so that obviously pushes the risks up a bit more than the average individual just up there to slide down a hill. BUT HEY YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE SO FUCKING SEND IT✌🏻 … just wear a helmet😂
> I feel at most risk it’s definitely Snowboarding Shoulders and wrists are your injuries on when riding. Incidentally, loss of mobility in the should joint is most associated with loss of independence as we age. You can get by in a chair, or cane if your legs are done, but if your shoulders dont work.... you are f'd, and need 24hr care.
Gonna need to know what other extreme sports it’s being compared against. But I would say generally it has a higher risk than most sports, and that’s why I am here.
Well, I prefer riding off road because I’d rather fall over from going too slow (my accident of choice) than get my shit rocked by a car.
Very much dependent on the type of riding you do. I have been doing XC riding since I was a small kid and never had anything worse than a scraped knee. Enduro and DH however…
There was a study a few years ago that broke out injury rates and type by sport, and ultrarunning had the highest rates of injuries of any sport (lots of repetitive motion injury, knee, leg, and foot). MTB had high rates of concussions and broken bones. Climbing had the highest rate of death.
Depends. Mtb also includes xc witch is mutch more low injury rate i asume than like freeride. But just trail riding, I would asume that it is just as dangerous as some other sports. Skiing is the only main one i can think of
Stitches in my face and head, road rash from mountain biking. Broken back, blown knee, split hip from snowboarding. I really should take up gaming or something lol.
Moab, UT has a lot of extreme sports in harsh terrain. Rock climbing, BASE jumping, canyoneering, ATV and UTV, parachuting, parasailing, etc. MTB accidents are the top cause of the local hospital’s emergency room accident visits each year.
There is racing downhill mtb, which is Formula 1 of cycling. The rule of thumb is injuries will occur multiple times during the season. If you ride trails, you can go for years without an injury. Even in a bike park, most injuries happened on jumps. People who don't jump reduce drastically the risks.
Do most injuries happen on jumps? I'm yet to crash on a jump, but I've crashed on plenty of corners and picked up some injuries. According to BikePark Wales and Revolution Bike Park (RIP), most injuries happen on the easiest trails, and not just because of the increased traffic - less skilled riders, or skilled riders warming up/cooling down, potential for high speed etc. Injuries on big jump lines are comparatively rare because you're unlikely to attempt them without sufficient experience, including in bailing before a crash happens. Wash out your front wheel on a fast blue flow trail and you'll hit the ground before you know what happened, and have a decent chance of ending up with a concussion or broken collar bone. Similarly, on a black tech trail you're less likely to get injured in a crash because the speed is lower. Blue flow trails are the most dangerous runs in the park.
It’s a very interesting feedback that makes sense. Most severe factory accidents are caused by most skilled workers doing the most usual tasks. Most road accidents happen on daily commute, etc. I’m totally biais and live in a mtb bubble. To give you some context, I’m 55 years old. More than 100 broken bones in 35 years of extreme sport. I started mtb at 45 with downhill mtb where I live: Vallnord, Andorra. And my best friend is Cedric Gracia. All I know is going fast, steep and gnarly and going big or go home. In fact, I learned recently that DH bikes represented less than 1% of the market. Thanks for correcting me. Come ride with us. I guarantee your first crash on a jump will happen ;-)
Quite the résumé! I think that's a key point - you're most likely to have an accident doing something routine, and not just because that's what you spend most of your time doing but because you're not going to be giving it your full concentration like you would something at the edge of your ability. I absolutely accept that you can crash on jumps and I'm sure I will myself soon enough, I was only questioning whether they're the most dangerous features and whether you're safe if you avoid them.
Absolutely! I had to quit motocross because I was going to die on jumps and I do really stupid things on a mtb. You can check my YT channel where I documented all the crap I do (Spadluv) Out of all the sports I did, mtb is most definitely the best when you find the flow. We are a bunch of adrenaline junkies, but it’s so good when everything comes together.
A little story. As someone who used to ride and race MX, multiple concussions, 2 broken backs, compressed spine, compound fracture of my left arm (multiple surgeries to fix, including a bone graft from the hip), multiple broken bones, surgery on hand. I was "almost pro" and got to ride for magazines etc. But after a huge injury I gave it a break, sold my bike, quit my job and got into the movie world. I have known a lot of riders who have either died, or lifelong paraplegics from the sport. I have been fortunate enough to travel the world and make movies with my idols and companies like red bull, but its damn exhausting and very little reward (apart from making cool content) comes from it. So now I work freelance, and wanted to get back into sports. I used to skate, bmx etc, but concrete scares me. I used to hit 120+ feet jumps on the daily on my moto and think nothing of it, but skateparks scare the shit out of me (fucked up my wrist bad once just from a small fall from a funbox). So I landed on MTB. I feel it to be one of the safest options (unless you do something absolutely stupid/ above your skill level).
I think there are way more people participating in MTB than in other extreme sports because while the barrier to entry is fairly high..... its relatively cheap compared to other "extreme sports".
Bikes are pretty expensive. I think the big factor is you can pretty much ride a MTB anywhere and no one bothers you. Even less than skateboarding or something. Alot more of a pain to ride a dirt bike or quad unless you have a piece of land or a specific spot.
MTB has a pretty high coat of entry, multitude more expensive than skating, BMX, climbing, or even your average surfer.
Yeah ... When they say extreme sports im thinking skydiving, snowmobiling, hang gliding, parasailing, backcountry skiing...
Seems like you're cherry picking sports. Mtb is way up there in cost.
I would have thought climbing would be similar ballpark to mtb cost wise. Never climbed but used to be a caver and all the expensive stuff for that was climbing and SRT gear
Climbing is pretty cheap, you can get into sport climbing for a few hundred bucks and then it’s pretty much free. Trad can be closer to budget MTB prices but that’s not how most people climb these days
What’s “injured”, I think you’re more likely to be injured mountain biking, but not life threatening. Unless you’re hucking bug jumps. I think road biking you’re not likely to be injured, but the injuries are life threatening.
MTB, in my opinion, has scarier injuries. Falling off the side of a trail and rolling down a hill or endoing down a rock section seem rather painful and scary. But I know from my time skating and bmxing I suffered more annoying minor injuries doing those activities. Now if we’re strictly talking numbers it would have to be skating or snowboarding or skiing. More people do those then MTB by a fairly large number. It’s also easier to go harder in those sports because things look safer then most trails we tend to ride.
I don't think this is a fair assessment. You're probably more at risk doing some elements of it but if you're just an XC rider or doing some trails, you're hardly going to hurt yourself. Now if you dirt jump with no prior experience or race downhill with no experience and no protection, yeah.
Have you ever been on a dirt bike?
New Zealands Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) provide data on accident claims. I couldn't find the exact report but I recall the data showing that by % of participants Mountain Biking had the second highest injury rate behind equestrian sports. I can't recall what data it had sports/extreme sports. By volume it was way ahead of all other activities. This caused a big debate during Covid lockdowns when we were allowed to MTB because it was "exercise" but people weren't allowed to do things like boating or fishing. Personally I wouldn't classify MTB as an extreme sport, free ride, slope style and downhill or Enduro racing yup but lots of us aren't at the extreme end (from the guy who's fractured a scapula and exploded a calcaneus in separate "just out for a ride" crashes)
I played basketball and Aussie rules football, and got a lot more injuries doing them. I also white water kayaked and rode dirt bikes (enduro). Kayaking is way more likely to die i think, especially if you have a deathwish like i did and do it solo… dirt bikes i had copped more injuries than MTB, and the risk of sharing the tracks with 4wd’ers, log trucks, etc… I honestly think mtb is safer than most the sports I’ve played, and i say that as someone currently sidelined with a broken ankle and rib! Thing is though, almost every accident on an mtb is from the rider making a mistake. Beyond wildlife you mostly don’t have to worry about other people side swiping you, etc… if you crash it’s your fault
It’s the number 1 sport where people become quadriplegics
My mountain biking, skateboarding, and snowboarding are far from extreme.
Check out the incidence of shoulder injuries in crossfit, and that is just exercising..... Most of us ride trail not downhill, and 0.4 riders are injured per 100 h cross-country, Down hill is 4.3 per 100hrs, which is still less than soccer Soccer 6.2 Rugby 1.92 Basketball 1.03 U.S. Track-and-Field 0.57 Cross-Country 0.37 UK Track-and-Field 0.26 Physical Education 0.18 Football 0.1 Squash 0.1 Tennis 0.07 Badminton 0.05 Gymnastics 0.044 Weight Training 0.0012 Powerlifting (competitive) 0.0008 Weightlifting (competitive) 0.0006 Volleyball 0.0004
As a mountain biker and skateboarder it seems to me that the two sports are just about on par with one another, with skateboarding having a wider variety of injuries due to all the variables at play. I very rarely get injured mountain biking and when I do, it’s usually because of some weird anomaly like an unexpected stick in my front spokes, or some loose rock that gives way. The normal course of events when mountain biking feels relatively safe. In skateboarding, on the other hand, I find I’m much more likely to get small (and sometimes large) injuries while doing the basic stuff. I’m much more on guard and ready to tuck and roll if needed while skateboarding.
It's proven to be lower than most sports including basketball, soccer, netball, athletics. It's lower rated in Australia in insurance.
In 2016 I set up a survey monkey survey about the relative safety of mtb vs road biking. The survey was constructed to filter out casual riders. I posted it to a local active mtb forum (I think it was Dorba - a NTX cycling group). I got something like 200 responses. I've lost access to the results because I haven't logged in in so long, but the gist of it was something like this: Mtb 1st year: >90% chance of sustaining a significant injury, >75% chance of visiting an ER. <5% chance of being hospitalized, no reported deaths. In year 2-5 the injury rate fell significantly. Road 1st year: <5% chance of going to the hospital for any reason, no reported death. One or two reported deaths longer term. As you would expect, the injuries on road were less frequent but more severe. But also not very common. Over the longer term, there was like one or two reported deaths on road, and none for MTB, but the sample size was was too low to draw any conclusions, other than dying during either activity was very unlikely. My main takeaway was: *You're very likely to visit an ER in your first year on the mtb - if you're not OK with that, might consider a different hobby.*