Mountain Bike Seasonal Riding Technique

Mountain Bike Technique - Back Behind Bars
Mountain Bike Technique - Back Behind Bars
Back Behind Bars

Although we would all like to think that we will always ride, come hell or high water (and if you are in the UK this winter you will have faced plenty of the latter), the truth is many riders will take a longer than normal break from their time in the saddle from time to time. Health, circumstance, workload, injury,...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - New Years Resolutions
Mountain Bike Technique - New Years Resolutions
New Years Resolutions

Traditionally the New Year is a time to reflect but also look forward. Resolutions are made, and probably by now broken, so what better time to have a second crack at committing to some changes. These resolutions are not ones that only involve abstinence and depriving yourself, but ones you might just keep! This issue we have a bakers dozen...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Night Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Night Riding
Night Riding

With the days in the Northern hemisphere shortening faster than the odds of a turkey seeing in the New Year, this issues technique feature looks at Night riding. Some of the article will look at which skills are required to get more out of riding at night, but equally, if not more important, is taking a look at how riding...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Riding on Snow
Mountain Bike Technique - Riding on Snow
Riding on Snow

Winter is here and depending on where you’re positioned on this globe this means you get to ride in some murky conditions. Now most people have been out on the bike in the mud before, but when it comes to riding on snow, it’s a new ballgame. Grip is limited to an absolute minimum and to make it out alive...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Roll on Summer
Mountain Bike Technique - Roll on Summer
Roll on Summer

With the clocks having sprung forward and the mercury rising (albeit not steadily), longer drier days herald the start of another summer season on the trails. After two seasons of decline in both weather and trail conditions you may find that your own riding is also a bit weather beaten and in need of a little TLC. Firmer trails will...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Seasonal Adjustments
Mountain Bike Technique - Seasonal Adjustments
Seasonal Adjustments

For Northern Hemisphere riders, another Summer is fading into memory. On the plus side, the soft light of Autumn makes for some fantastic vistas and epic riding - the days may be shortening, but there is plenty of riding still to be had. The light isn't the only thing to soften up and a change in trail conditions may well...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Slip N Slide
Mountain Bike Technique - Slip N Slide
Slip N Slide

“You know the nearer your destination. The more you're slip-slidin' away.” Well so say Simon & Garfunkel, but here at IMB, we see the slip-slidin' as a sign of life and vitality and not the end of days as the song may suggest. Winter riding is all about letting it hang out as we desperately try and get some grip,...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Travel Adjustments
Mountain Bike Technique - Travel Adjustments
Travel Adjustments

MTB tourism has boomed in the last 10 years and more and more riders are using annual leave to take their passion to new heights and explore the world from behind a riser bar. Whether travelling to a well established, well ridden, holiday hotspot or trailblazing in regions less well known, you will want to get the most from your...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Riding
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...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Skills - Part 2
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Skills - Part 2
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...

Seasonal Riding
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Survival
Mountain Bike Technique - Winter Survival
Winter Survival

With 2023 well and truly underway many of you will be digging deep to keep to those new year riding resolutions. Some of you will be doing a sterling job of hitting your goals to stay in shape or improve your skills, while others may find motivation waning as these winter months drag on. Staying motivated at this time of...

Seasonal Riding

Featured

Mountain Bike Technique - Trail Therapy
Mountain Bike Technique - Trail Therapy
Trail Therapy

To the ear of those that don't ride it would be very easy to think that riders have something against the trails they ride. We talk of 'attacking them, smashing corners, nailing jumps' and generally 'ripping' or 'tearing it up’. We all claim to love the trails, yet from the way we speak it would seem as if the relationship...

Mountain Bike Technique - The Learning Curve
Mountain Bike Technique - The Learning Curve
The Learning Curve

Discover Victory in Failure We've all done it and in all walks of life, yup… we have gone and fudged up! This is just a fact of life and one of the hardest learning curves to conquer, the process of not making mistakes and the art of recovering from them. Whether you are bouncing back from broken bones or merely...

Mountain Bike Technique - Drop and Roll
Mountain Bike Technique - Drop and Roll
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...

Mountain Bike Technique - Pumping
Mountain Bike Technique - Pumping
Pumping

Intoduction If you find you are being left behind while others are pulling away from you on the trail, you seem to be pedalling way more than others that are seemingly carrying speed with little effort, or find that you are bobbling around at the mercy of the trail surface, the chances are you have forgotten your pump... or never...

Mountain Bike Technique - Looks Like a Session
Mountain Bike Technique - Looks Like a Session
Looks Like a Session

Practice makes permanent Skills on demand and the ability to make the bike dance down the trail are not so much about perfecting things, it's more a matter of embedding subconscious memory (connections in the brain) and muscle memory within ourselves, making a permanent connection so that we can make the correct shapes at the correct times. With the core...

Mountain Bike Technique - New Years Resolutions
Mountain Bike Technique - New Years Resolutions
New Years Resolutions

Traditionally the New Year is a time to reflect but also look forward. Resolutions are made, and probably by now broken, so what better time to have a second crack at committing to some changes. These resolutions are not ones that only involve abstinence and depriving yourself, but ones you might just keep! This issue we have a bakers dozen...

Seasonal Riding