Women riders - how many are there?

[kitch]

We want your rough guesstimates for how many mountain bikers in the UK are women.

Every time we do some mag research, it tells us only 5% of mtb'ers are women. But a trip to any trail centre on any weekend tells a different story. We reckon the fact that it's usually the male in a 'household' responding to our surveys that skews the figures and I'd say the percentage is much much higher. Some of the major bike companies claim that women's kit accounts for 15+ percent of their total sales, so is that a truer figure. Let us know what you think...

[Zanzibar]

I quite often see couples out riding together.
Yesterday, for example, I rode various trails around Tal y bont (Brecon Beacons) and saw at least 6 or 7 other groups of riders with at least 4 female riders in tow.

So I would guess 10% to 15% would be a fairly accurate reflection.

My wife rides (cycles) with me occassionally, so I think you should ask how many women riders ride, and how many women riders regularly ride?

[tricks]

We have 2 women riders in our family and we are your normal sized family.

So i would have to agreed the Zan 15% sounds about right, however that figure is growing daily.

[SLB07]

I remember reading a study which showed that for most leisure activities if a bloke did it he'd buy the kit, read the mags, lurk on forums and become a bit of a stato geek etc etc. However most female participants are less likely to "progress" beyond actually taking part in the activity.

This was for sports, hi-fi, computing, whatever and seemed fairly consistent. Something to do with blokes defining themselves as mtbers (climbers, hi fi enthusiasts etc) whilst women prefer to think of themselves as women who like mountain biking or listening to music...

So if that's true any survey which depended on feedback to a request in a mag is likely to fail on two counts - firstly, a woman is much less likely to buy the mag and so won't see the survey and secondly - if they do see it (in their partners copy for example) they're unlikely to consider themselves as the "serious" mtbers at whom they believe the survey is aimed.

However this could well be totally wrong - like I say, it's summat I read ages ago! And FWIW I'd say a lot more than 5% of the people I see out biking are female.

Oh and the vast majority of women spend much less than their male counterparts (hubby on a gleaming £2k full susser, wifey on a catalog special ring any bells?). So if companies are claiming that 15% of their income is on womens specific products then surely it's possible the number of participants is higher.

[rb2000]

I remember reading a study which showed that for most leisure activities if a bloke did it he'd buy the kit, read the mags, lurk on forums and become a bit of a stato geek etc etc.

that couldn't be any truer!

[greeneye]

gore and i rode hamsterly sunday gone and we saw a couple of female riders and then a few more in the pub afterwards.

put that against the male riders we saw adn i reakon 16.7% is closer to the button.

[MTBLeague]

Best guess 15-20%, although number of rides per woman as apposed to their male counterpart/spouse/family member etc may be lower, due to the differences in psychology , geek obsessive factor v's not that bothered, more important things to do etc etc, but they do go out but not so often.

[Tango]

Been out with the bogtrotters from lancaster a few times and i would say on average 15% are women.

[prophet_1000]

Some of the major bike companies claim that women's kit accounts for 15+ percent of their total sales, so is that a truer figure. Let us know what you think...

I reckon that a small percentage of the buyers will buy the kit for other activities not just biking! My missus buys kit from all sorts of activities (Snowboarding, Biking, hiking etc) but only does Snowboarding, she just likes the cut and style of the clothing so buys it regardless of it's intended use!

However on the flipside, lots of bikers Male and female don't buy biking specific clothing and just wear sports style clothing or running/ gym kit to ride in! so it could even out I suppose?

[stevewiz]

We have 2 women riders in our family and we are your normal sized family.

2 women riders - tricks and gore!!