Scotty Laughland - Rediscovering Scottish Mountain Biking

08/19/22 • 57 min

Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland Podcast

How did Scotty get into mountain biking? What about those early days racing downhill? What's changed over the years to grow his love of riding at home? We sat down with him to find out all this and more.
In this podcast, our Head of Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland - Graeme McLean, chats with Scotty Laughland on how he got into bikes, his experience as a pro rider, transitioning into the media, and during lockdown rediscovering Scottish mountain biking.
The podcast tells tales of Scotty's experiences of riding across our fabulous land and into his favourite destinations. If you are inspired to ride then please check out our ride guide for both inspiration and practical tips and links to book your next amazing mountain bike holiday - check out - www.DMBinS.com/ride-guide
Don't forget if you book your holiday through our affiliate link with Expedia then 5% will be put back into maintaining and enhancing the trails you will be riding through our networks of trails associations.
Enjoy.

Previous Episode

Dik Hamilton - Building Trails in the Tweed Valley

The Tweed Valley has a huge amount of iconic trails that are well known, well loved, and well ridden. There were very few people involved in the design and creation of these trails, 20 years ago, and here we speak to (he will not like this but we think he really is!) a real local legend, Dik Hamilton.

Dik Hamilton, was responsible for trails such as Berm Baby Berm, which he built entirely single handedly, with his five ton digger, the free ride and skills areas, Blue Velvet, the Mushrooms, Spooky Wood to name a few at Glentress. Caddon Bank, the DH tracks and the Innerleithen XC route at Traquair, with other legends in the craft of trail building, Andy Wardman and Pete Laing.

We caught up with him for a walk around some of these trails and a really interesting chat about those early days. A proper insight into how those trails really shaped the Valley as a real destination for mountain biking.

It’s 51.25 of pure gold. We urge you to take some time and have a listen the history of these trails and share our appreciation of this very humble man and those like him who have given so many of us our love and enjoyment of the sport by giving us such quality trails to cut our teeth on and progress to.

Next Episode

Dr Lesley Ingram-Sills - Evidencing the Impact

Dr Lesley Ingram-Sills - Edinburgh Napier University - Evidencing the Impact
Fascinating insight into the work of Dr Lesley Ingram-Sills. The podcast covers her journey into the outdoors, her - and the wider team at Napier's - research into e-bikes and trail therapy, along with her excitement into what the new mountain bike innovation centre will deliver for research and industry when opened in 2025.
Enjoy.
Trail Therapy Evaluation - https://dmbins.com/blog/evaluating-the-impact-of-trail-therapy-programme/
E-bike Research - https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/emtbstudy
MTB Innovation Centre - https://dmbins.com/innovation/mtb-innovation-centre-innerleithen/