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 Weighting Game
Pump up your riding This issue it’s about time we delve deeper into the subject of pumping, pressure, and unweighting the bike. When it comes to putting words into action then this is a topic fraught with controversy and confusion. Thanks to the various lingo used to describe a sensation and a technique, the outcome on the trail can be...
Winter Skills - Part 1
Fancy a line? The works Christmas do is on the horizon (or a distant fuzzy memory for some) and the New Year beckons. The winter solstice sees us heading back to the light in this part of the world but winters firm grip means we will have to endure mud, slop, snow, ice and varying combinations of all the above....
Dare - Double Dare - The Psychological Challenge
In part 2 of our session instalment, we take a glimpse into rider psychology and our mental approach to practising sections of trail. Working on our mental game is a fast track way to improve what happens on the bike. Neglect the mental training, and all that hard work on the bike is as good as worthless. I have mentioned...
Speed Control Part 3 - To Haul Or To Stall
From shifting to slowing we now continue to roll through our trail craft technique and delve into the world of all that will stall. Welcome folks to another in’stall’ment of finding your flow, we’ve been getting down with some basics in the previous editions, and we continue the theme of maintaining speed by looking at trail elements that want to...
Riding Ruts
Love or hate them, ruts and deep-scoured sections of the trail are something that we are likely to encounter at some point in our mountain bike experience. If you ride fall-line wild trails on soft ground or lap race courses in the wet then that narrow groove cut in the dirt will be a familiar nemesis that can end a...
Jumps
Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin... Welcome and welcome back fellow readers for yet another Hip Hop (hopefully not Hip Op) inspired skills session. Join us in avoiding the ‘house of pain’ as we Jump! Jump! Jump! Jump! (Everybody jump)... Yep, you guessed correctly, it’s a jump fest as we spring into summer, so let’s get to...