I noticed that no mountain bikers have responded to swissbob's comments, so here goes.

I agree - mountain bikers and hikers should not be on the same trails, and that is how it would be in an ideal world. Unfortunately, although Switzerland is a great place to live in many respects, the mountain biking here is very disappointing. This is mainly because there is not nearly enough space in this country for mountain bikers to have their own trail systems.

I learnt to mountain bike while living in Ontario, Canada, where there is a lot of space. This meant that on the edge of the town where I lived there was a large area specifically devoted to mountain biking trails. The 30+ km of trails were not officially open to any other type of use and they were absolutely awesome. There was a group of dedicated riders who did a great job at maintaining the trails who were aware of the erosion that biking could cause, and so they frequently changed the course of trails to allow areas to recover and to keep the trails in areas where they would do the least damage, and they made sure that all of the obstacles on the trail were rideable by a skilled rider.

There are many areas of Canada like this, but since arriving in Switzerland I have been unable to find anything like it. All that I've been able to find are hiking trails. Some of the hiking trails are rideable, but these are still far from ideal. As you say, there are often hikers on them. I always give hikers the priority, which they often seemed surprised by, and I try to go out at times of the week and day when there will be the fewest hikers. However, the hikers themselves are not the main problem. The main problem for me is that the trails are not designed for riders. There are frequently obstacles on the trail that are not made to and/or cannot be ridden over. Plus, the trails are not maintained with bikers in mind and so, as you say, bikers often cause trail erosion.

Having gone riding in the areas that I've been told hold the most promise around here and still being generally disappointed, my wife and I have pretty much given up on the mountain biking. After all, the road biking is SO AWESOME here (possibly the best in the world), why would we waste time being frustrated with the mountain biking? We are now more hikers than mountain bikers - the same trails are generally far more satisfying when hiking than when mountain biking. When I see a mountain biker on the trails I generally feel sorry for them because this is all they have to ride on, there are no true mountain bike trails on which they could really enjoy the thrill of mountain biking.

In summary, I generally agree with swissbob that mountain bikers cause trail erosion and don't mix well with hikers. These things can only be avoided by constructing biking-only trails that are properly maintained. However, I doubt that will ever happen in this small country where hiking is so popular. So, my adive is, if you want to bike, then get a road bike, and if you want to go on the trails, then hike. If you want to mountain bike, then go somewhere with a lot more space.

I must add that we live in Lausanne, in the heart of french-speaking Switzerland (Suisse-Romande), and from what I have read and heard it sounds like mountain bikers in the german-speaking part of CH may have some better options. If there are bikers who have had better experiences than me, then I'd love to hear from them.