Mountain Bike Maintenance Technique
Driving Force
Even with the best technique in the world, if your bike lets you down you are going to lose speed and there is a danger it will have a knock on effect on your riding ability. The power transfer between you and the bike is perhaps the most important one when looking to tackle steep climbs. Skipping gears and a...
Trail Fix
We have looked, over the last 12 issues, at many aspects of skills development and how to get more from your riding. These articles have focused heavily on elements that make up the physical and psychological tier of a skills development model that we have identified. Each element of each tier plays a part in reaching your full riding potential....
Featured
A More Professional Approach
Many of us dream of riding like a pro... or at least gaining just a small portion of the skills they posses! As riders, we are all happy to benefit from the technical developments that help the top guys and girls in the pursuit of ever advancing standards when it comes to our bikes and equipment. The filter down effect...
Carving Corners
Having looked at the fundamentals of cornering in an earlier issue it is time to add some meat to the bones and offer up some additional advice that will take you from 'getting by' to cooking on gas. There are 5 key ingredients in our recipe for success. Those ingredients don't change from corner to corner although the ratio in...
Winter Skills - Part 2
Stop the press, break out the balloons and grab a slice of cake as we celebrate one year with IMB. What a year we’ve had, and what a year ahead. Creating features is a fascinating process when the guys at IMB approached me my brain went into overdrive with ideas for the technique section. I’ve been humbled over the years...
All The Necessary Skills
It is true that I questioned to a reasonable degree what I was doing heading North at the crack of dawn, from my house in the Surrey Hills, home of some truly fantastic trails. After a month of 60+ hour weeks, averaging 5 hours sleep a night, the prospect of the two and a half hour drive ahead of me...
Speed Control Part 2 - Braking
The trick with all technique and skills is to start slow, low and small and build up; repetition is everything and habits you have in slow speed situations are amplified as speed, gradient and scale of terrain increase. Welcome to another instalment of Finding Your Flow, in this three part series we shift away (couldn’t resist a terrible pun) from...
Switchbacks
Switchbacks are a trail feature that has been long forgotten in the new world order of trail centres and cultured MTB parks. Old school riders and those who enjoy getting out into the back country will know them all too well, but the new breed of riders born and bred at the trail centre will find them to be a...