Sad news: A mountain biker seriously. Injured in a fatal crash with electronic motorbike

Mountain biker injured in crash with electric motorbike on one-way Sunshine Coast trail

Beth Fairley was shocked when she rounded a corner on a downhill mountain bike trail and saw a motorbike coming towards her.

Queensland authorities are investigating after a mountain bike rider was injured in a collision with a motorcyclist on a one-way trail on the Sunshine Coast.

Motorbikes are not permitted on the trails

Beth Fairley says she gave the rider involved in the crash a “passionate lecture”

A mountain biking club presidents says such accidents have the potential to be fatal

Beth Fairley was riding at Tewantin when she slammed into an off-road electric motorcyclist coming up the trail.

Fairley fell off her bike at about 35 kilometres per hour and sustained a broken thumb and a concussion.

She said ignoring one-way signs on downhill trails was extremely dangerous and was glad it was not a child who was hit.

“As I was coming around the corner, I came across a young man on an electric motorbike going up the hill,” Fairley said about the incident last Saturday.

“I clocked him a couple of metres out and just threw myself off to the left-hand side of the trail as much as I could.

“I just dumped the bike and went over the bars a bit.

“I ended up with a concussion that I’m still feeling a bit scrambled from … and I gave him a quite passionate lecture on trail etiquette and how motorbikes really aren’t allowed in national parks for very good safety reasons.”

A three-panel image from the perspective of a mountain biker that shows a collision in bushland with a motorbike.

Beth Fairley said motorbike rider apologised for riding the wrong way up the trail.(Supplied: Beth Fairley)

A Department of Environment spokesperson said rangers were investigating and called on anyone with information about the motorcyclist’s identity to come forward.

The spokesperson said “several offences” were associated with the unlawful use of motorcycles in national parks.

Fairley, an endurance rider, said she had only just started riding after an injury and that her brand new bike was damaged.

“I’m glad that happened to me and not a kid riding down there and then going underneath the bottom of this bike,” she said.

“It could have been so much worse.”

A woman racing through bushland on a

Noosa Trailblazers Mountain Biking Club president Andy Fellows said riders did not expect to see anyone coming up a downhill trail — “especially somebody on a motorbike”.

“It has massive consequences … it could have been a lot worse,” he said.

“It could have been a massive injury — you can imagine two bike riders going flat-out, having a head-on collision could potentially be fatal.

Mr Fellows said he hoped authorities increased signage in the area and said electric motorbikes posed an additional challenge for mountain bikers.

“There’s no noise — you can’t hear them coming so you can’t really prepare yourself to get out of the way,” he said.

“Whereas if it was a [petrol] motorbike it’d probably be less likely to be an accident, because the mountain biker would be able to hear the motorbike coming, but they’re pretty stealthy on those e-motorbikes.”