Mountain Bike Trail Maintenance Technique
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...
Featured
The Trade off
Having just witnessed many disciplines at the 2023 World Cycling Championships I thought it fitting to delve into that classic British idiomatic phrase that is thrown around at such times and hopefully inspire some of you to take a moment to review your approach to your riding regime, the equipment you use and the cycling endeavours you choose. I hope...
The Need For Speed Part 2
Welcome back, last issue we looked at riding trails for the first time and how you can hit them with more confidence and more speed, this time round we delve into one of the common features on a trail and a feature where speed is not the only thing that can be wiped out. For some riders the fear of...
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...
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...
Manual Labour
Lifting Without Shifting Manuals and ‘proper’ manual bunny hops are closely knit companions in your skill arsenal, alongside dropping and jumping they are often considered as the ‘holy grail’ skills. When we look at them performed effortlessly by the likes of Danny (that guy that hops around Edinburgh and Glasgow) MacAskill and other notable mountain bike celebrities it can become...
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...