Mountain Bike Terrain Technique
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...
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...
Conquering Camber
We often think of trail as up or down, ascent or descent. The reality is we live in a far more three-dimensional world where often the fall line of the terrain is crossed rather than followed. The cross fall of the trail can challenge a rider and present a problem that pushes them to places either they don't want to...
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...
Rock Stars
Rocks come in all shapes and sizes from solitary lumps and outcrops to collectives forming gardens of granite. Although for some of us 'home' might mean 'loam,' no matter where you live your journeys on two wheels will eventually ensure that you encounter trails that are made of sterner stuff. Whether the trail ahead is impregnated with igneous, scattered with...
Strava Be In The Pub
When the cycling press describes something as the 'technical innovation of the year,' you might expect them to be referring to electronic shifting, belt drive, 11 speed, clutch derailleur or perhaps another life-changing adaptation to wheel size. In this case however, the focus of such high praise was something as simple as an App. Strava itself is not vastly different...
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...
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...
Featured
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...
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...
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...
Stall
This issue you we will look at the “Stall” - what it is, what can cause it, and how to deal with it. Verb: Stop or cause to stop making progress Synonyms: obstruct, impede, interfere with, hinder, hamper, block, interrupt, hold up, hold back, frustrate, thwart, inhibit, sabotage, encumber, restrain, slow, slow down… There are many ways to describe it...
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,...
Speed Control
Before you think ‘Oh, I am OK with my braking technique’ and flick on to the next article, STOP. Speed control is not simply a matter of the ability to apply the brakes and stay on the bike (although this admittedly is an essential technique). The physical element of speed control is a far broader topic than that. As with...