It is relatively safe. 1.54 injuries per thousand exposures
for Mountainbiking vs between 10.6 and 19.8 for rugby. You are 10 times
(on average) more likely to be injured playing rugby than mountainbiking.

Who knows what is being counted as "exposures". Your statistic
aside, it is NOT safe. That is the bottom line, especially in view of my many
reports which show just how stupid most of the accidents are. In fact, it is
almost impossible to bike on a hiking trail and not have an accident. Your
statistic is irrelevant to what is being discussed here.

So, you are critiquing a report from the British Medical Journal as to whether their methodology on exposures is correct. This despite the fact that they have no axe to grind .. they just treat people who get injured.

Then, in the next sentence, you're happy to reference completely unscientific anecdotal reports and put that up as a counter argument ? No wonder you keep losing the argument.

The simple reality is that you're just plain wrong ... the vast majority of rides no one gets hurt or injured ... whether on singletrack trails or wider fire roads.

The reports you have deigned to provide are nowhere near the level
of being significant ... there are 50 million mountainbikers in the US alone and
the trail network is vast.

Who knows what the vast majority of those mountain bikers are
doing. Most of them are riding very sedate bike paths and streets no
doubt.

No, Ed, don't add in conjecture and expect me to treat it as anything other than your opinion. You don't know what the vast majority of riders are doing ... and, critically, you don't actually care either ... you're just flailing around again trying to justify an unjustifiable position.

Why do you think injury rates are quoted relative to amount of
activity ... as in Injuries per 1,000 exposures ? Nothing in this world is
'safe' as in ... there is no risk.

As I mentioned before, thousands die in their bathrooms and
falling down stairs ... not because it is "unsafe" to take a shower or walk down
the stairs but because billions of people do it every day.

But it is only a few bikers who are riding hiking trails and
their injuries and deaths are out of all proportion to what anyone else is ever
doing (except maybe those rugby players). The fact remains that hikers do not
have many injuries at all whereas bikers have numerous injuries. There is no
comparison.

Actually, no, if you bothered to read anything outside your small circle you would find out that there are appreciable risks to hiking too ... as I said earlier, nothing is 'safe'. See here http://www.besthealthdegrees.com/health-risks/

So your fundamental proposition, that mountainbiking is particularly dangerous, is simply and provably ... WRONG.

It's not risk free ... but it's not particularly risky either and not, as you no doubt think, massively more risky than hiking.

When they crash and injure themselves, I rejoice! If and when
they manage to kill themselves, I say good riddance to bad rubbish! Death to
mountain bikers!

I say good riddance to bigoted old fools who think they own the trails and can dictate to everyone.