AMTB – Independent Maps

Types of Adaptive Mountain Bikes

Recumbent Hand Cycle
This group of bikes are recumbent, propelled with your arms and controlled with your hands, power assist and have a throttle. Designed for rugged mountain bike trails.
Recommended for those with less trunk stability or problems getting into a kneeling position. You MUST have sufficient finger strength to operate a shifter and throttle and sufficient grip strength to operate a hand brake

Lasher Recumbent Hand Cycle Mountain Bike

Prone Hand Cycle
This group of bikes are propelled with your arms and controlled with your hands and chest. The body position is kneeling, with your chest laying down on a pad. It has power assist and a throttle. Designed for rugged mountain bike trails.
Recommended for those with better trunk stability. You MUST have the flexibility in your legs to get into a kneeling position. You MUST have sufficient finger strength to operate a shifter and throttle and sufficient grip strength to operate a hand brake.

Foot Propelled Recumbent Trike
This group of bikes are recumbent, propelled by your legs and controlled by your hands on the shifter and brakes. It has power assist, but no throttle. Designed for moderate mountain bike trails.
Recommended for those with balance issues, below the knee amputations, and those with some leg weakness or coordination problems unable to ride a 2 wheeled bike. You must have sufficient flexibility in your legs to pedal.

Maryland DC Adaptive Bike Links

Last edit -February 9, 2025

2025 D.C. Metro Adaptive Mountain Bike
Mini Series – Completed!

For Spring 2025 Catalyst Sports is teaming up with Friends of Patapsco Valley State Park, MORE, Montgomery County Parks, and Prince George’s County Parks. We’ve got four weekends of fun planned.

Organizations that offer ride opportunities

Volunteer Opportunities

Support riders ride with the adaptive athlete and support as necessary. That could mean spotting through a difficult section of trail, helping someone right a bike that tipped, or packing a water bottle on a hot day. Catalyst Sports has an online training that covers this in full.

Ride leaders have more experience. They can select and fit a bike for adaptive athletes and guide the ride.

Ready to take it to that next level. Get certified! BICP offers Level 1 and Level 2 Fundamental Skills Training. I took the level 1 with Mike and learned a lot!

Trails

MORE is our local IMBA chapter and they are onboard with building and maintaining adaptive mountain bike trails. They steward 925 miles of trail across Central Maryland and Northern Virginia. They were recently awarded a RTP grant for improvements to Rosaryville State Park. That grant includes adaptive spec trail to be constructed late 2025/2026.

The McKeldin Area of Patapsco Valley State Park offers the first trail in the state specifically built to the KASA adaptive mountain bike standard. The Tall Poplar and portions of the switchback trail are regular trails in our rides. More trail is under construction now and should be ready for the spring 2025 mini series. In the map below the existing trails are green. Blue is new!

OpenStreetMap with Multiple Overlays

For the first time in 2024, the MoCo Epic included an adaptive loop. It’s 4-5 miles depending on where you start.

Trailforks has an adaptive category in their database, but the quality of that information varies. https://www.trailforks.com/trails/all/adaptive/

ToDo:

Add information on AMTB plans at Rosaryville State Park. Upper Marlborough MD.
Add information on AMTB ready trails at Rockburn Branch Park, Elkridge MD, Howard County Parks.
Add information on AMTB ready trails in Wheaton Maryland, Montgomery County Parks
Add information on AMTB ready trails at Fairland Regional Park, Burtonsville MD, Prince Georges County Maryland.

Bike Shops

Lancaster Recumbent has been a supporter of adaptive mountain biking at Patapsco since the start. They’ll work with you to select and adapt a bike to meet your needs.

Bikes

A Comprehensive List from Mountain Bike Adapt
Lasher Sport ATH-FS (available locally to try)
Reactive Adaptations Bomber (available locally to try)
Reactive Adaptations Nuke (available locally to try)
Reactive Adaptations Hammerhead (available locally to try)
TerraTrike All Terrain (available locally to try)

Chanelle Riding a Bomber Prone Style Bike at the McKeldin Area of Patapsco Valley State Park.

Trevor on a Lasher Recumbent Hand Cycle at the Germantown Skills Park at the 2024 MoCo Epic.

Adaptive Mountain Biking – What Does it Take?

What does it take to be an adaptive mountain biker? A thirst for adventure is a good start, but there are some physical and cognitive requirements for this sport. Compared to road and gravel riding, mountain bike trails twist and wind their way through more challenging terrain. Gravity never stops and bike control is all you!

PVA Off-Road Fall Camp 2024 @ Pocahontas State Park

Catalyst Sports Essential Eligibility for Adaptive Mountain Biking

Rider has a permanent, disabling condition
Rider can make safe cognitive decisions in a fast-paced changing environment.
Rider can follow all safety precautions identified by the instructors.
Rider can hold their head upright without any head and/or neck support.
Rider can wear a properly fitted and rated bike helmet, as well as any other safety equipment appropriately.
Rider can understand and follow multiple-step instructions from the instructors independently and in a fast-paced environment.
Rider can transfer in and out of the bike independently or with some assistance
Rider can remain alert and focused for the duration of the ride and can make decisions quickly in variable terrain.
Rider can demonstrate they can independently peddle, steer, stop, start and ride the bike over, around, up, and down a variety of terrain deemed appropriate for their experience level.

Chanelle Riding a Bomber Prone Style Hand Cycle

AMTB Support Rider – What does it take?

You don’t need any experience with disability to start. You do need a mountain bike and the skills and fitness to ride it on single track mountain bike trails. When you volunteer, name a trail or a group ride that you like and we’ll do our best to match you up with an adaptive ride.

Anneliese and Katherine at the MoCo Epic 2024. Shaeffer Farms White Trail

The MoCo Epic Adaptive Route was 5.5 miles with 443 feet of climbing.

Catalyst Sports has an excellent online training to get you started. (link) The course covers your role as a support rider and disability etiquette. This is required for Catalyst programs but I recommend it for anyone.

As you gain experience, you’ll progress from support rider, to ride leader, and bike fitter. If you want to take to the next level, you can become a certified adaptive mountain bike instructor.

Adaptive Mountain Bike Trails Mapping Initiative

With e-bike tech, adaptive mountain biking has escaped the gravity resorts and enabled more people to get outside and enjoy our parks. These bikes are capable and they can ride many of the same trails I enjoy as an able bodied biker. However these bikes are longer, wider, and more sensitive to camber.

To help people find the right trails for them, we need to tag them in trail apps and databases, preferably with an AMTB rating assigned by an adaptive rider.

AMTB 1 – NO SUPPORT NEEDED
AMTB 2 – SUPPORT RECOMMENDED
AMTB 3 – SUPPORT NEEDED

The unpavement website describes the rating system in detail and Kootenay Adaptive Sport Association produced a set of standards for adaptive trail construction. Neither the trail spec nor rating system are intended to be ADA. Challenging terrain is desired!

Where can we tag these trails to make them discoverable?

Open Street Map

Also known as the Wikipedia of maps, OpenStreetMap data serves as the foundation for Strava, All Trails, and many other applications. Anyone can edit the map or export the map data for use in other applications. As with Wikipedia, quality varies but is generally very good.

The key mtb:scale:amtb is proposed, but not yet approved. I’ll update this post after I consult with their trails working group. In addition to the 1,2,3 rating, they propose an attribute for ‘NO’ meaning not suitable for adaptive bikes and a technical attribute for trails with drops and other challenging features.

Trailforks

Trailforks and it’s app support AMTB ratings when the trail is edited to show it it open to mountain biking and that adaptive bike is a recommended bike type. The Trailforks advantage is that edits are curated by vetted editors and they cooperate with the agencies or responsible parties that mange the land. The disadvantage is that edits in Trailforks stay there. They don’t move on to OpenStreetMap or any other platform.

2025 D.C. Metro Adaptive Mountain BikeMini Series – Completed!