iBikeRide has introduced a new follow feature, letting riders opt in to email updates from individual trail listings.

A follow button now sits alongside the existing favourite button on trail pages. Favouriting a trail saves it privately with no email attached. Following is different: it is an opt-in to hear about that specific trail by email, and nothing more. The button copy is direct about this: "We'll email you when there's news from this trail. Unsubscribe any time."

Riders who follow a trail get a weekly digest covering anything that happened there in the last seven days, check-ins, reviews, photos, videos, events, and any news articles that mention the trail. If nothing happened that week, no email goes out. Quiet weeks are expected and treated as normal rather than padded out with filler content.

There is a separate, faster path for one thing: a check-in that marks a trail closed or waterlogged triggers an immediate alert, either a push notification for riders with the app installed, or a same-day email for those without it.

Followed trails can be managed from a new "Following" tab on the rider's profile page, and every digest and alert email carries a one-click unsubscribe link that works without logging in.

The feature is live now on ibikeride.com. A version for the iOS and Android apps is planned to follow.