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
Cornering - Round The Bend
Curvaceous, bodacious Have you a craving for carving cool curves and cruising through trails with uninterrupted flow? Well if so stay tuned and read on as we embark on a crusade of cornering bliss with this edition of our core technique. Demanding trails are filled with technical features, of which, some of the most innocuous can cause the most harm...
Crank it Up - Dial in that fancy footwork
In the last issue we looked at our contact patches on the bike and gave you some insight into the micro techniques used to get that bike just where you want, and that got me thinking, specifically about crank position, crank timing, and just how important they are for all areas of skills and techniques. Having observed many things related...
Short Sharp And Steep
What goes up must ultimately come down. Long flowing descents are for many the highlight of their ride. Mother nature and trail designers alike do not always have the faint hearted in mind and when sections become suddenly very much steeper it is easy for fun to give way to fear, to have your flow broken as your mojo fades...
Just get over it
Be bold and live life beyond the crest There is a famous saying in the climbing world, there are old climbers and bold climbers, but there are no old bold climbers. On one hand, this doesn’t apply to mountain biking but on the other, it may apply to some. if you arrived late into the sports or reached a point...
Drop and Roll
Welcome to another instalment of our core skills and techniques feature, and as we enter autumn here in the UK it's time to tackle the subject of drop-offs. Dropping and jumping are two areas where the penalty for failure can be life-changing. When it goes wrong the classic outcome is an OTB (over the bars), here the typical reaction is...
Crags and Slabs
Bedrock, boulders, and slick slabs of stone are some of the key elements that make up the quintessential mountain bike experience. For those of you who are lucky enough to live in such areas, these staple trail elements are less demanding. But as many riders live miles away from the mountains, some of you may find yourself getting in above...