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Cycling Ireland has announced several upcoming events aimed at introducing para-athletes to adaptive mountain biking.

In 2024 Cycling Ireland joined forces with adaptive mountain bike designer Noel Joyce from Project Mjolnir to make both the outdoors, and mountain biking, more accessible to wheelchair users, and with funding from Sport Ireland’s Dormant Accounts Fund, have built five adaptive mountain bikes.

The design, pioneered by Noel, is available as an open-source file, allowing wheelchair users the opportunity to take to the trails.

The frame concept is based on a modular platform that enables builders to construct and develop their own adaptive MTB cost-effectively.

As the components can be made by any capable machine shop or via online rapid prototyping outlets most parts can be manufactured and delivered almost anywhere in the world. Individuals can customize any element of the frame to suit their specific requirements. This project is being developed as part of NYU Tandon’s VIP program.

This year Noel and Project Mjolnir won Singletrack Magazine’s Innovative Product of the Year Award. Winning this award is a huge huge honour for a project still in it’s infancy from one of the most prestigious and most popular online and print magazines. Project Mjolnir’s Noel Joyce said, “It’s great to see this growing sport being recognised in the mainstream. We have a really great opportunity here in Ireland to punch above our weight in the development of adaptive mountain biking and to make Ireland a destination for the sport. Going into the New Year we will be finalizing the design and building a children’s version of the bike and a gravel version will follow not long after. This year we at NYU will work with Cycling Ireland, Coillte and other organisations to get more people with disabilities onto trails. Along with that I am really excited to reveal that because of this work we are doing together we will make a little bit more history by putting on Ireland’s first ever Adaptive MTB race this April. The future is bright, the future is inclusive.”

Now in association with Noel and Coillte, Cycling Ireland is pleased to announce a Beginners Demo Day on January 18th at Noel’s home trails of Kinnitty, Co. Offaly. There will then be a Beginner/Intermediate Demo Day on February 8th, again in Kinnitty.

These demo days will allow wheelchair users interested in trying mountain biking an opportunity to test the bikes and find their flow on the trails.

A third demo day will be held on Saturday April 26th, as part of the Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Festival in Kinnitty.

Sunday April 27th will see the first Adaptive Mountain Bike race taking place as part of the Slieve Bloom Mountain Bike Festival. This has been made possible with the help of Niall Davis of Biking.ie, Noel Joyce of Project Mjolnir and Coillte. The race will see riders take on an Enduro style competition, with accumulated time over several timed sections deciding a winner.

Riders interested in participating in any of the demo days should contact Cycling Ireland Partipation Manager Paul Norton – paul.norton@cyclingireland.ie