Originally Posted by
norco_rider77
ok, Im not stupid, but I need some facts about mountain biking. Ive only found one useful peice of advice on here. anyway, popularity meant how many people do it, especially compared to skateboarding, in Canada would be the most helpful.
I'll have to agree with others - Google is your best bet. Data accumulated for the US can be interpolated to Canada reasonably well, but if you're using this for a paper, simply dividing the numbers by 10 might not fly. You can also try Statistics Canada, or the bike industry site [name of site and/or association escapes me]. Check with your provincial bicycle association. I'm sure they will have some links, or they can put you in touch with the right person to help you out. Search your local university library for Masters/PhD theses on the subject. You might not be able to use them directly, but you can use their sources.
Good luck!
Edit: Since I have researched this in the past, I'll throw out some factoids [note that you will need to verify this data and find your own sources]:
- ~80% of all adult bicycles sold in Canada are classified as mountain bikes [a opposed to BMX, Road, Hybrid, Unicycle, etc.]
- Only ~20% of all adult mountain bikes sold in Canada are ever taken off-road [in the US, it's ~10%]
- mountain bike use is higher in the Western provinces than in the rest of Canada
- IIIRC, skateboarding has a very different demographic than mountain biking, with over 90% of active participants under the age of 18
Again, you'll need to verify any factoid you might read on a forum. You might want to poke your head into the advocacy forum and ask around. You'll likely get a better response.