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
The Golden Thread
Much has been written about ‘line choice’ as an important aspect of taming the trail that lies ahead. This issue we put our usual spin on the subject with the ultimate goal of making you a better, faster rider. Line choice is indeed an important skill to develop, but from experience we know that when you are out on the...
Speed Control Part 1 - Shifting Gears
Finding flow on a trail or maintaining a rhythm is down to a combination of things, speed control plays a major factor in descents, in climbs and on all the bits in between. This time we look at shifting and the impact of cadence on your ride. Often overlooked in skills instruction, and something we should never let slip, is...
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...
Jumping Fundamentals
Of all the techniques that make up the rich tapestry of riding, jumping is perhaps the technique that riders most often identify as an area where they could do with some help. Mountain biking continually evolves and where back in the day your average trail ride might include the odd small jump here and there which, with little effort, could...
Winter Riding
Ask any rider about their favourite mountain biking memory of that year and very few will recall a ride though sloppy conditions in driving rain with a cold wind biting, quads burning, crotch sodden and trails livelier than a bucket full of eels. Despite this the vast majority of us have experienced a ride like that and still we go...
Climbing
Uppers Will Improve your Downers Having been around the scene for over three decades I'm well aware that climbing is not everyone's cuppa tea, but when push comes to shove, we have to face the reality that in order to go down first we must go up. All too often the topic is taboo for the recreational rider, and it...