Trailbadger

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The Purpose of TrailBadger.com

The purpose of TrailBadger.com is to provide information for Northern Ireland mountain bikers on locally accessible places to ride.

Since its original launch in February 2007, it has grown to be the number one resource for mountainbiking information for Northern Ireland, and was featured in the Irish Times magazine on Saturday 23 August 2008.

A glance at postings on the likes of MTBRider Forum highlights the need for good trail information in a central place, and TrailBadger aims to give bikers enough information to have the confidence to try somewhere new.

We don't claim the site has everything in detail - our aim is to help folks to help themselves!  Just like the Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day - teach a man to fish and he never goes hungry"

The initial version of this site lau

Defining Mountain Biking on this Site

This site leans towards cross country biking (XC), rather than downhill (DH), but there is inevitably lots of cross-over. By mountain biking, TrailBadger means:

  • Hills, trees, countryside, that sort of thing
  • Fire-road, singletrack, off-road, tow-paths, open ground
  • Some technical skill possibly required
  • You might need to throw the bike over your shoulder occasionally
  • Tiredness is perfectly acceptable, and indeed desirable

If you think this merits some amendment, please get in touch - we are open-minded!

Lanched on Blogger on 6 February 2007, to overwhelmingly positive feedback, which continues to come in on a regular basis.

Feedback On The Site So Far

An interesting debate was running on MTBRider in 2007, and a summary of early comments received is posted below.

Pro-site comments

We have received dozens upon dozens of emails and comments of support for the site. A few of the early ones are here, but we stopped posting them as there are just too many.

 TrailBadger.com Logo
  • "I would like to thank Mountain Biking Trails in Northern Ireland (our old name) for their ideas."
  • "Keep up the work, lads"
  • "Great job, really handy, cause I'm just getting into mtb."
  • "That's excellent - it is what I have been looking for"
  • "I think the website is great"
  • "I think the web site is a great idea and you're doing a great job of it! It's good to finally know a few more trails and get out and about to new places, thanks!"
  • "Excellent work. Have wanted something like this for ages, post trail maps everyone. Well done"
  • "Thanks, it'll be an invaluable resource as I explore some areas here I haven't ridden before"
  • "It's a great idea and the way forward for XC riding in NI"
  • "Fair play to ya"
  • "Good stuff"
  • "A lot of hard work must have gone into that well done"
  • "Really like the idea of the site"
  • "Fantastic site"
  • "Excellent work that man! Spread the knowledge I say"
  • "Excellent job with this idea. Hopefully the start of something very, very useful"
  • "Good work!"
  • "This could act as a catalyst for change"
  • "Good work on the site and keep it going!"
  • "Congrats on the site - top stuff"
  • "I think the website is a big step in the right direction"
  • "Good job on the trails blog, looks good"
  • "The site kicks ass by the way, it is exactly the kind of thing I looked for when I lived in NI. Good Job."

Anti-site comments

The following is the totality of all the negative comments we have seen.

  • Yes this a great site, let's put up the locations of all trails so that people who for example the forestry can see where they are, check them out and then also give them a rating!!!! Great Idea... no really i mean it... i wasn't being sarcastic or anything... i mean half of the useless tools on this site (referring to MTBrider.com) rant and rave about trails being torn down by forestry and then... (now this is the best part) they go and put their locations on the flippin internet!!!! like i said great idea...
  • "If one trail is targeted by people in a negative way, the site has failed, but I hope I'm wrong..."
  • "This new website is showing anybody, good or bad, where we are, and at this moment in time I and a few others think it is a bad thing"
  • "Leaves it open to anyone to go and destroy/sabotage trail features and this site makes it very easy for them as was done in both Bigwood and Tollymore"
  • "Bad idea promoting unofficial trails in a public way like this until we get things changed. I certainly don't want my local trail pinpointed with multimap, etc"
  • "Sorry to say but I think this website is a bad idea, it is publicly showing where unofficial trails are to be found, which can only be a bad thing. People who don't want us will now know exactly where to find us"

We welcome any feedback, good or bad - feel free to get in touch at info@trailbadger.com.

NOTE: The trails on this site have been ridden before, but you should not interpret their inclusion as an indication that mountain-biking is officially sanctioned on them. Seeking permission from landowners is your own responsibility, as is conducting yourself in a manner that is courteous, respectful to the environment, and conscious of the safety of others.