ABSTRACT
This chapter develops the concept of experience landscapes to explore how UK mountain bike trail centres create experiences for riders, and how riders encounter these trails in practice. We draw on empirical research involving an online survey of UK mountain bikers and interviews with five individuals from public and private sector organisations involved in mountain bike trail provision in the North of England and Scotland. The chapter explores: how trail centre providers work with and modify existing landscapes; users’ different perspectives on the trail centre experience; the embodied and technologically mediated encounters between people and trail centre environments; and the challenges posed by the development of unofficial ‘wild trails’ by users. The chapter concludes by calling for greater acknowledgement of the need for a diversity of potential experience to cater for the requirements of more diverse trail centre users, alongside users wanting to create ‘wild trail’ experiences alongside ‘official’ routes.
