First techniques to master.

[Rollon]

What would you experienced guys say are the most important early techniques to master.
You know those that once you managed to master quickly made all the difference to your Mountain Bike riding.
What was it that suddenly made you grasp the technique, was it sheer perseverance or just a little something that made all the difference.
Dave.

 

[smokeysmoo]

The best technique I found when I had MTB's was to sell them buy a road bike

 

[marzjennings]

A good place to start is unweighting the front wheel, not a full wheelie, just enough to get over roots and rocks, and handle small drops and ledges.

Another is predictive shifting, terrain can change quickly so plan what gear you want to be in ahead of time, instead of waiting to shift gear when things get tough. You see it all the time, folks hitting a small climb and having to stop and walk because the bike won't shift gear under pressure.

You could buy a road bike, the way of the wuss, or stick with mountain biking and man up.

 

[Friz]

Speed. Lack of which has been the cause for most of my major crashes. Speed will carry you over most things. That and trusting your instincts. If you pick a line, stick with it. Don't do what I do and change your mind halfway through it. That leads to lots of ouchies.

 

[Cubist]

Learning to shift your weight round on the bike. Learn the "attack position", standing out of the saddle and letting the bike find its own balance on tech stuff, and especially getting your weight back over the back wheel on descents.

 

[Muddy Ground]

Just find a local course provider and do their basic singletrack skills; £60 well spent. You'll learn more from that than any forum or magazine article. Most of us here are norms when it comes to rding skills - go out with a pro one day and it'll change your style to suit modern cycle geometry.

PIJ

 

[02GF74]

difficult for me to say as afer a while you do whatever you need to do without thinking.

certainly the gearing issue is something that needs thinking about. you are going down hill then there is an uphill section - it is knowing that you have to change gear for the upcoming slope., what gear and at what time, too early and your legs are spinning at 200 rpm, too late and you stop. when you stop, the slope can be such that is it difficult to get back on and start to pedal as the low gear will tend to make you wheelie off the bike.

 

[MontyVeda]

they guy asked for 1st techniques to master... so take off the stabilisers and try riding with just two wheels

 

[Silver Fox]

What would you experienced guys say are the most important early techniques to master.
You know those that once you managed to master quickly made all the difference to your Mountain Bike riding.
What was it that suddenly made you grasp the technique, was it sheer perseverance or just a little something that made all the difference.
Dave.

All the skills described here are important to master, take your time and it will all drop into place.

One early technique I found very useful to get the hang of was low speed manoeuvring ( drag braking), very useful when you're negotiating your way round technical terrain.

You can practice this by gently pressing the rear brake whilst turning in ever decreasing circles.

 

[Panter]

Learning that "speed is your friend" made the biggest difference to my riding. I'm definitely going to do a training day later in the Year though, I've heard nothing but the utmost praise for professional training

 

[Muddy Ground]

The training thing is often seen as not being macho MTB, especially when the trainers are, shock, horror, females - so quite a few people diss it as not being worth their effort. But these days a mornings training is less than the cost of a pair of tyres or a new stem, so pretty good value especially as you do come away with new skills. Whilst I was doing mine we were passed by no end of riders, mostly on £5k bikes. They all looked at us with sad eyes, as if we were the losers in life. Yet virtually all of them adopted chicken lines to their riding, and almost all of them had no technique to merit ownership of expensive bikes really. You do have to 'man up' to admit to needing a bit of training, but once you've done one course and then clear something with ease later on, you start to look at other courses with a lot more interest.

Warning: old fogey bit coming up! Warning! Warning!

I've been mountain biking for 20 years, and don't hang around on the trails too much. Yet within an hour of starting a basic singletrack course I was out of my comfort zone and learning new stuff. Within two hours I was utterly confused but enjoying myself. I now realise the actual difference between a good local rider and a pro. World's apart.

Go get trained people.

PIJ

 

[Red Light]

As a lot of others have said, learn to pop the front wheel up over obstacles and above all relax on the handlebars and let the bike find its own way through and over stuff - lots of beginners have an iron grip on the bars and end up fighting the bike but most of the time it will sort itself out if you relax and let it run.

Most easier trails have more difficult options within the trail e.g. a smooth bit and a rocky bit alongside. Don't always take the easy option but take the more difficult ones to start to hone your technical skills without being faced with a technical trail all the way. Quite often for example you will find a rock step with a ramp going round it. Try popping your wheel up over the step rather than taking the easier ramp.

HTH

 

[GilesM]

As a few have mentiond, how you move your weight around on the bike, and getting to grips with a basic manual that will really help you have two wheel landings, definately start small with this though. The Dirtschool DVD is pretty good if you don't mind spending a few quid:

http://www.dirtschool.co.uk/