Resources - A Welcome and Basics
Our Newbie Helps section was originally started and written by the Admin here at MTB Dirt and is designed to help the people starting out in the sport learn a few of the foundations they will need as they progress. None of the information delivered should be taken as perfect for you personally, only a professional cycling coach or experienced bike mechanic can give you that depending on the topic. However we do hope our own experience spelled out for you here is helpful.
Recently we asked a renowned professional in the cycling industry to have a look through our Newbie Help sections and suggest updates. Roadie Rob is not only a qualified cycling coach (road, bmx and mtb), he also has a history of competition in all these disciplines, professionally builds mtb trails, and manages a bike shop, so his knowledge on the subjects we cover is extensive!
Happilly he found our newbie help to be very good but has added his own thoughts to our text on most pages.
Below is some words of welcome and the first in some his mtb basics for you to learn. If this is what he gives away, imagine what you can learn by hiring him to teach you in person!
Welcome to Mountain Biking:
Hi I’m Roadie Rob from Roadie Rob’s Bicycle School, I’m going to give you some hints and tips that are going to help you get going in the wonderful world of mountain biking. It’s always a little tricky to exactly put words to practice so if you are having trouble getting it together please don’t hesitate to contact me at info@roadierobsbicycleschool.com.
Safety First - There are things you can do to help reduce the chances of hurting yourself though and the most obvious is to wear a helmet at all times. School kids might think wearing helmets is un-cool but in the bush with real cyclists (like you will become) only a fool wears no helmet. Wear appropriate clothing. A muscle shirt might look cool but your shoulder won't think so when it's covered with gouges after a fall on gravel. Nothing wrong, (especially when you first clip in) to use knee and elbow guards. If your going hardcore wear everything, pretty well guarantee if you wear it you’ll rarely need it, if you don’t wear it make sure your health insurance is paid up. Never ride alone, learn first aid and carry a kit, have In Case of Emergency numbers in your phone (ICE), medical emergency bands, and make sure your buddies know what to do if you’ve got medical conditions, I had to get a 100kg guy I was social riding with out of the bush one day, and I never new he was Diabetic.
Getting Started
Get smooth and the speed will come:
So you first get on the bike and it seems everyone out there is faster than you right, try and resist the urge to chase. When you chase you’ll feel like you’re going faster, the bike will be sliding around, you’ll be a bit stiff and ragged, but the crew will still be riding off in the distance. The key is to get smooth on the bike and let the speed come to you.
Look Ahead
I spend most of my day on the trail yelling this one out. You steer your bike more with your eyes than you do with your hands. I call it the “Hills Hoist Theory” (RR Copy write on this one). Everyone has seen funniest home videos, and seen the kid in the back yard run straight into the Hills Hoist or the one and only tree in the back yard. The reason why this happens is Mom and Dad do the right thing, they say “Here you go Johnny here’s your new bike but whatever you do don’t run into that!!!” so little Johnny takes off down the back yard looks up and stares straight at what he’s not meant to run into and behold he runs straight into it. Mom and Dad are stoked cause they just won 500bucks, little Johnny not so stoke as he now has a nasty bump and an embarrassing home movie. There are lots of Hills Hoists out around the trail they are called trees, if you look at them you will run into them, skid marks off the trail are like magnets, again if you look at them you’ll end up skidding off the trail. Get single-track focus look ahead and you’ll ride safer. Remember you can do nothing about what right in front of the bike but if you look ahead you can prepare for anything.
Attack Position
The attack position is the next most important technique on the trail, this will keep you safe. You’ll use the attack position for descending, drop offs, obstacles, and for maintaining flow on the trail. To get into an attack position, you’ll need to stand up on level pedals in a neutral position (not too far forwards, not too far back), have your elbows bent out at right angles, your backside off the seat so if the trail gets steep you can move your weight back, knees and elbows bent and supple so the bike can follow the trail, whilst your body follows one plane and stays fairly still. What you’re trying to do is stop your body becoming a pendulum, pendulums on bikes are bad, you can imagine if you’re sitting upright on your bike, your head and upper body can swing back and forth, to much head movement forwards initiates rotation and you end up going over the bars. You also need to get lower than what you think, I always say the more ridiculous you think you look the closer you’ll be to the correct position. The reason for this is humans tend to push away from what intimidates them, that’s fine if you’re walking down the road and have to jump out of the way of a speeding car, not so good on a bike going around a steep corner, because if you push away on a steep corner you’ll push your head in the air, pull on the brakes, next thing you know you’re the human pendulum going over the bars, we’ll do more on cornering later.
Practice your Basics
I find my riders that practice the basics the best become the best riders, you can do a lot of your basic training out front of your house, and sure the neighbours are going to think you’re crazy but your mates will be impressed with your mad new skillz.
Driveway balancing
For this one you can do it at home on the driveway or in the car park at the trailhead whilst waiting for your mates who got out of bed late today. (Safest place first up is on the grass with flat pedals, so if you do fall over it’s a soft landing) Driveway balancing is pretty simple but extremely important. As the name suggests you start buy riding in a circle on your driveway large circle at first at a constant slow but comfortable pace, then try to slow down and tighten up your circle. Make sure your elbows are relaxed, and you’re looking ahead. To ride even slower, ease both brakes on evenly, you’ll find with something to pedal against, the bike will feel more balanced and easier to ride slowly, (this is good one for manoeuvring around Roadie’s at the coffee shop), it will also teach you brake modulation which will get you smoother later on with switchback corners. Next see if you can momentarily stop the bike and balance, make sure you have your favourite foot forward and in a fairly high position so as soon as you loose balance you pedal away, try to get out of the habit of putting your foot down, this will help to eliminate the Gumby Stack. The Gumby Stack is the fall everyone has at some stage, where you get stuck on top of an obstacle, and you try and unclip your pedal, this is also the time when your pedal won’t unclip and you fall in an embarrassing screaming heap. If you practice driveway balancing you’ll feel more in control at slow speeds, so when you do get stuck you’ll balance, control, Look Ahead, and pedal.
So get out from behind that computer and go ride your bike and remember if it’s all to much to take in or you just want to beat your mates give me a yell.
Rob
