Australian Trail Difficulty Rating System Revised

In 2018 Mountain Bike Australia released the Australian MTB Trail Guidelines which included a revision of the Trail Difficulty Rating System (TDRS).

The TDRS, which is used to grade mountain bike trails according to their relative technical difficulty, underwent a further revision in October 2020.

The Australian TDRS uses the IMBA system of classifying trails with the following additions and interpretations:

• The addition of two new trail difficulty classifications – one new classification between green and blue and one new classification between blue and black.
• Making the following difficulty assessment criteria ‘guiding criteria only’
• Trail width
• Trail surface
• Trail gradient
• Quality of signs
• Making the following difficulty assessment criteria ‘risk assessable criteria’:
• Trail exposure
• Natural and technical trail features.

In terms of changes between the 2018 and 2020 versions of the TDRS, the following revisions were made:

• Inclusion of rail trails into very easy trail grade
• Increases in trail gradient
• Increases in level of exposure
• Natural obstacles and technical features – height of obstacles and inclusion of new obstacles

A copy of the revised TDRS table which highlights the changes between the 2018 and 2020 versions, was emailed to all those who purchased a copy of the Australian MTB Trail Guidelines. A copy of the 2020 version and summary of changes is available on the AusCycling website.

Revisions to TDRS Guidelines

Summary of Revisions to Aust MTB Trail Grading