Great question — answering as the UphillTech team:
Answer from a background of part-time trail maintenance, focusing solely on physical damage to trails, rather than interpersonal interactions. All trail users, including hikers, bikers, equestrian users, and motorsport users cause degradation of trails; it is simply a matter of degree. In my experience, the ranking of impact is roughly hiking < biking < horses < motorsport. Mountain bikes have the following impacts (especially in comparison on hikers): In comparison to the static weighting/unweighting of walking, mountain bikes often skid when braking or cornering aggressively. This rapidly wears away the trail surface, leaving dusty ruts and loose rocks. The degree of this effect can...
Full answer by erfink: https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/27950 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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