I really want to be good at mountain biking, get out there and ride, maybe even do some events etc.

There is one small problem.

MOUNTAIN BIKING SCARES ME SH!TLESS!!

Even more so now I've ventured into the world of SPD's… 😯

Any advice? Please?! I really want to do it, but I have a irrational fear every time I get on anything more rutted than my local park!

I have a beautiful bike which I love dearly. I've ridden some stuff in the Peaks and have ridden trail centres; and when I do go out there, I get the feeling that I could be pretty 'ok' at it. However, it still scares the life out of me and I'm always trying to find excuses not to go and then feeling bad about it!

I've tried a couple of skills days, but end up being to scared to try some of the stuff they encourage you to have a go at.

Is it just a case of keep getting on the bike and doing it? Or should I just give it up with the idea that I'm never going to 'get over myself'

Any advice would be much appreciated.

😳

Just keep pushing yourself in little stages. Ride with people better than you – peer pressure will take you out of your comfort zone and you'll improve far quicker.

Find some people you have fun riding with and just enjoy being out on your bike. Also start to enjoy crashing, bailing etc. It is part of the fun and once you soon realise failure isn't that bad you get back on and have another go far more readily.

My top tips would be to go on a basic skills course and ride a bike which has a low bottom bracket.

Hmmm – from knowing my missus who has similar issues I would say the opposite :-)to alistairmc.

You need to find your comfort zone before you can push out of it. Ride alone or with folk who will not pressure you at all until you feel comfy riding like that – then push on if you want to.

You can push yourself a bit but I am guessing others watching even if they are encouraging puts you off. Get the miles in gently at your own pace then as your confidence improves start pushing a bit

Edit – enjoy crashing – dinnae be daft! I hate crashing – part of the reason I ain't a quick rider. *touch wood* its a while since I have

WTFU 🙂

Definitely ride with a tolerant group. There's Manchester Mountain Bikers in Manchester (since you mention The Peak), Blackburn & District and of course the wonderful Bog Trotters (north Lancs)

Even tho I am an spd fan I would say lose them – get proper flats and shinpads

*** bing bong …. Juan to the bike forum please – clean-up in aisle 3 ***

😆

Just remember that you're doing it for fun, there's no pressure to be good for somebody elses benefit.Ride at a pace you feel comfortable with and relax, if you're tense you'll never control the bike properly, and similarly if you're always on the brakes over rough ground the bike won't traverse it smoothly, it's a leap of faith to leave off braking when it turns rough but it can pay dividends with how you ride(obviously there's a disclaimer involving very high speed incidents).
Just go ride and have fun, it's why we do it after all.

TJ MTFU learn to love the crash the crash is your friend

TandemJeremy – spot on! I'm not really good around people I perceive as 'better than me' 🙄 even though they are my closest friends – and even my husband (who takes lots of abuse – I'm mean when I'm frustrated) – whom I know all really want to see me do well and just have fun riding. I'm thinking I have some wierd reverse competitive side which makes me quit so I don't fail rather than trying harder to prove myself wrong (is there a psychiatrist in the house?!!)

With the getting used to crashing and bailing, I was better with that before I went to SPD's, now I'm petrified about not being able to get my feet out, so am veeeerrrrryyy wary about letting go – even though I feel far more in control of the bike when I'm attached to it and I know that it's gotta be safer than big spiky pedals! (which have left their mark on my knees)

And radoggair – ?? I'm new to this…what does WTFU mean? Am I being naive here…?! 😕

Thank you so much for you responses so far guys, I really appreciate the help – keep 'em coming! 🙂

WTFU – "women the f up" from "man the f up" meaning stop being a wimp.

I cannot teach my other half anything – even if we both know I am right. she just freezes up and gets stroppy – the thirsty horse principle ( you can lean a horse to water but you cannot get them to drink.)

You need to ride on your own to get some confidence IMO – thats what MrsTJ does ( or get a tandem to share with your SO). Lose the spds but get some shin / kneepads – that will help confidence. Do some women only training in small groups – The girls at the Hub ( glentress) do some and Mrs TJ really enjoyed her day doing it.

Just get the miles in in a way you can enjoy. If going to a trail centre with your other half just arrange to meet up in a couple of hours and enjoy a low pressure blue ride while he does the red. That sort of thing.

MTFU = man the f__k up
WTF = what the f__k
:o)

You need to ride on your own to get some confidence IMO

well, I suppose that might work for some, though I never ride alone by choice, and find it so much more fun to play out in company 🙂

Look up "sub" & "Dom". it might describe your anti-competitive relationship with your husband?

find a local group – ride with them, away from hubby. you might find you ride better if you are not anticompeteing with him. you might even find you pull a better fella 😉

My take on this is that often its a question of time and miles. All to often its easy to feel pressure to just be GREAT at something straight out of the gate.

I've played quite a few of the adventure games over the years and its all the same really. Play the game lots and regularly at the level your comfortable at and pretty soon it will start to feel too easy to be satisfying and you'll want to ramp up the difficulty. This often happens without you realising it. One day you'll find out that one of the newer to the game members of the group your cycling with are looking at you in the same way you are looking at riders you consider to be better than you.

So to get better ride as much as you can as often as you can in as many different places and on as many different types of terrain as you can (and want too). Your progress to other will seem quite quick but I'm afraid it wont to you.

With the SPD thing again mileage is the key. As you use them more they will just become completely instinctive to use and if you try flats or toe clips you'll feel uncomfortable because your not secure on the bike. In an ideal world you'd use both spd's and flats lots and in equal amounts they you'd be equally comfortable with both. With you spd's though just make sure the spring is set at its loosest, when your ready to you'll tighten them up a bit because they feel too loose.

Everything your talking about is pretty normal, no one likes to feel the crappest in a group, we'd all much rather be the cycling god who just ploughs through the boulder field like its not even there, throws huge whips off all the jumps and is aways waiting at the top of the big climbs fresh as a daisy waiting for everyone else. Oh well.

I think group riding is good for confidence – I'm a relatively confident rider but totally lost my nerve on a solo a few weeks back and I'd definitely have been fine in company.

Riding with a supportive group is perhaps the intention of my previous comments, based on personal experience. Depending on the group, you may get free coaching from more experienced riders, and you'll find little things they suggest make the world of difference to your riding and work wonders for your confidence.

Falling isn't a bad thing, it's something you just need to get used to. If you're scared of it, it'll just get in the way of riding.

TJ – I agree with the flats suggestion, both from a confidence perspective and also because it teaches bunnyhopping. It's Alasdair btw. 🙂

Here's a quick suggestion. Maybe try taking some friends out who haven't tried mountain biking yet. Organise the hire of some bikes with them and go and do one of those nice laps on forestry tracks that is the perfect way to introduce people to off road cycling, maybe a little bit of nice 'blue' stylee gentle dh single track thrown in for good measure.

What I'm getting at is that you don't need to go on courses and to hang out with the people who run them who you will ineviatably identify as being much better cyclists than you, you need to realise how much you actually know and how competant you actually are.

I've found that when I've started basic teaching of an activity its when I've really started learning myself as the self teaching process really kicks off.

Actually thinking about it consider a SMBLA Trail Cycle Leader Training course if any at all.

Sorry but i disagree with the falling off thing, I hate it and it hurts.

Not a fan of flats either, I find I feel disconected from the bike and they stab me in the shins (shin pads are goddamn unconfortable to ride any distance in too, just hot n sweaty)

Each to their own I guess

I always find that showing a picture of your _______ on an internet forum does wonders for your riding confidence.

(Anymore of that and your banned. MOD)

Forget the spds. Horrible things.

Without sounding rude, you may just never get it. My girlfriend tried and tried- she had a nice bike, a real desire to do it and had a very good "natural" position on the bike.

But she scared herself too much.

Now she has a lovely road bike and enjoys that an awful lot more!

I have to admit, a few silly tumbles into the heather/grass verge/over the bars-going up a steep climb-more than once/flipping clean onto my back-going uphill-still clipped in and not actually hurting/damaging myself did wonders for my confidence.
So yea, getting used to crashing and bailing out did help me. Don't look forward to it but I always seem to end up giggling like a kid when I do.

I'm thinking I have some wierd reverse competitive side which makes me quit so I don't fail rather than trying harder to prove myself wrong (is there a psychiatrist in the house?!!)

Oh i recognise that! and it can be very controlling when your comfort zone does you no favours except being comfortable. I suggest you try and mix it up a bit – do some learn to enjoy crashing rides and some more casual social rides.

If spds are causing you trouble don't use them! I'm a very experienced rider and recently tried spds for a few months solid to try and get used to them. I hated them, they do not suit everyone.

I would say my missus gained an awful lot from the AQR day we did at Sherwood Pines. Like all good wives she doesn't take instruction from her hubby too well!
But when 'Jon' said do it this way it seemed to click and the little group thing with other people willing you to suceed worked a treat.

(It is possible i'm a crap teacher…)

Now the only thing that is missing is more time on her bike to improve her fitness.
SPD's soon become second nature and the only time your feet don't come out is the odd occasional stall. Every big crash i have they come out naturally.
Having said that i like flats when riding riding logs n stuff.

Just my $0.02 worth.

Stick with the SPDs as they will halp you ride better once you are used to them (but don't be afraid to change the pedals for certain rides / trying stuff!)

I have heard great things about the courses Stuart at ForestFreeride runs, lots of ladies in the local club have got lots of confidence and skills from them. He is based in Mid-Wales so the other half could always ride some trails while you get the lessons.

Bike set-up is key, and even bike choice. My wifes riding was improved a lot by her 29er with 100mm forks = much more stable, less chance of going over the bars and smooth in the tricky stuff.

SSP

SPDs get my vote as well but not right now. You've said you feel worse with them so take them off and go back to flats. Save them for when your riding is at a place where you feel they might be useful. if you never get to that place, fine, you'll be one of the many who don't use them.

You say you've tried the skills days. The other things to consider is who you're riding with. It sounds like that might be an influence on you. How many females in your normal group? We normally ride in about 6 with a 50/50 slip and when it gets a bit technical, it will natural split a little and everyone takes that section at their own pace. The females in our little group have all been where you are and recently enough to remember it! We ride the peaks as well so if you fancy, shout up and come out with us.

The other things is where you're riding. There's a huge variety in the peaks, perhaps you're going to extreme too soon. After all, who'd want to be thrown down cave dale or chapel gate on their first ride?

Hmmm, i'm afraid the only way to improve on your bike is to ride more and with better people. Try to feel comfortable/ relax around people of a higher skill than yourself and learn off them, it'll bring you on no end.

Speed is your friend, try to stay off the brakes a bit more, ensure you look well ahead up the trail not at your front wheel, if an object/hazard scares you don't stare at it or you will hit it. Relax.

I'm sorry but yes get used to crashing, embrace it, laugh about it, sometimes it hurts sometimes it doesn't!

If you are severely lacking in confidence get some nice big flat pedals, grippy shoes and knee/shin pads, you can bail when you want then 😉
I believe people should learn to ride on flats first and on a rigid / hardtail not full sus, it teaches the basic bike skills that alot of riders are lacking…

Then theres the basic things like bike set up, ensure your happy with it eg. lever position (try them quite inboard so you just use one finger, the others stay on your bar then) tyre pressures, get some decent width bars, sus set up, drop the saddle when descending etc etc.

One last thing, yes it is scary, thats why we do it 😈

OK, female perspective here. Get some one-to-one tuition – ask for recommendations on here. Might be worth having a few of these.

Ride by yourself in different places. If you feel you don't want to do this, ride with other girlies cos we're good at empathy and trying to help.

Riding with others can make you feel under pressure. Make sure YOU want to ride rather than your husband wanting you to.

Ditch the SPDs and I speak as someone who used them for years (had some nasty falls and couldn't unclip). Get some decent flats (DMRs) together with decent shoes (5:10s) and cover your legs, or wear 3/4 baggies with knee warmers.

Get your bike setup checked over, a bit of tweaking can make all the difference. You need to feel comfortable WITH the bike rather than just sitting on it.

I'm afraid I will disagree about the point about it being scary – it doesn't have to be if you don't want it to be! I personally don't want to scare myself, rather have more time riding and less time injured. You need to decide what you want from your riding.

Best of luck and if you're ever down South, I would be happy to show you around my trails.

Edit: start off on a hardtail.

Get some decent flats (DMRs)

Erm no, they're not a decent flat. They were maybe in the nineties but not now, far too thick and a much too small platform.
Try some penthouse flats or straitlines, kona wah wah's are a good shape nice and thin but my pedal fell off the axle after two runs 😯

Edit: start off on a hardtail.

Yes, yes, yes. 😉

However, it still scares the life out of me

Me too – I really dislike crashing because I fear serious injury. But riding is really happening when I find the edge of my fear tolerance – one step back is a pleasant bimble in the country, one step over is butt clenching crash nightmare. On the edge is the place to be.

Scary is largely based on your perception and as above, what you need to do is find a way to adjust your perception to a point where normal (eg not 10 foot drops!) riding is within or at least near your comfort zone. I think almost everyone remembers when they started mtbing and what now are completely inconsequential objects looks imposing until you'd ridden them a few times and realised that actually they were easy.

Suggestions above for skills courses or just riding on your own to try things out are good.

I'm a long time SPD user and would never go back but I do also remember the blind terror when I first fitted them and rode offroad… It rapidly gets better though and soon enough unclipping is so natural that even when you ride on flat pedals you find yourself making an unclipping motion. Maybe you should try some riding to get more used to them – eg just ride on grass up to logs/etc and practice unclipping quickly in a controlled environment and soon enough it'll be second nature.

It may sound obvious too but you have adjusted them to be very loose, haven't you? FWIW, I've never crashed and failed to release from the pedals despite doing them up fairly tight.

Another up to ride with other girls, as what CG said, girls, understand each other better.

As for spds, I started off with M540 and even though they were on the softest setting, I too found it hard to get around clipping out and had a few oops!. I then changed to M324's (one side clip and other flat) which I found better especially on technical parts, I could at least have a foot free, ready to put down. Better not having carbon or shiny soles though as they're too slippy, I put a flat rubber grip in the middle which didn't slip. After getting used to that, a few months later I passed back to the others and haven't looked back, but we are all different, try and find what's the best for you.

Good luck, it'll all turn out ok after a while, practice makes perfect!

I was the same as you, I got rid of my spds, I enjoy riding so much mre without them! I also got myself a met parachute helmet, knee/shin pads and elbow/forearm pads.. My confidence is now 100% greater than it was and I am enjoying riding so much more.

Hope this helps

I would say this, but … consider another skills course but this time on a one to one basis. It'll take a lot of preasure of you as you're building confidence. Some people just can't cope with the pressure of being in a group, that's the same for blokes too.

http://www.forestfreeride.co.uk

Remember it is meant to be fun.

Stuart

It sounds to me that for someone who is having troubles with confidence over 'rough' terrain, that you are going to the wrong places to ride.

Your bloke shouldn't really be taking you to the Peaks or trail centres (unless you are doing the Nutty Squirrel routes).
I'd be looking at places more like Thetford/Sherwood/Rutland water etc. that are 'off road' and enable you to gain confidence on the bike and perhaps try a few 'daring' things when you feel like it, but otherwise just potter round & gain some experience.

If you don't like the spds, get rid for the time being. Stick them in the shed & get them out again in 6 months. Get some decent shoes for flats & shin pads will probably help no end with confidence – if your foot slips off the pedal and you have sin pads on it's no real biggie.

It has taken me many years to feel that I am a competent rider, and to be honest I still am not great. But, I have now ridden in lots of different conditions and have various experiences so when I encounter something new I don't do the whole 'freeze up & stop' thing, but can tackle things with varying degrees of success.

With regards to falling off – try not to be too scared of it. I fall off all the time & 99% of the time you roll around on the floor, get back on & carry on unscathed. So long as you are riding within your limits, if you do have the odd spill you will probably be going at a fairly low speed anyway.

I also reckon it would be worth getting your bike set-up looked over. Slightly unrelated, but relevant – a friend of mine failed her driving test 5 times, but her instructor knew she was a good driver. She always used to moan about the steering though & not feeling in control. Turns out her legs are ridiculously long & she was putting the seat so far back for them to be comfortable that she couldn't reach the wheel properly. Stuck a cushion behind her back & she passed the next time.

I'll agree with a few others regarding the SPDs. Stick with them. I've ridden with them for a while now, and rode the other day with flats and felt completely out of control. They make such a positive difference to your riding. But make sure you have them set loose. From my experience, any problems you get when you're learning are at very low speeds or stationary. You can nearly always just pull your foot off without thinking about it if you need to put it down, and that occurs a lot less then when you're riding flats. Unlike some people here, I don't like crashing, but when I do, I've never (touch wood) had a problem with being stuck in SPDs, you just unclip automattically.

When I started riding, I switched to spds pretty quickly and then went backwards with my riding as I was worried/thinking about unclipping. I decided to put spds on my commuter so I would get used to it. It worked, but took a bit of time with some nervous moments. Now I hate riding anything if I'm not clipped in. I also started using knee/shin pads as I couldn't corner and would fall off all the time. Have ditched the pads (although I'm still not a fan of switchbacks) IMO, best thing to increase confidence is general time on the bike, just in terms of feeling confident on the bike, knowing how it handles etc. I also took some time off the mtb, and went road riding instead – a break from mtb'ing helped put some of my fears into perspective and I came back with better balance / able to track stand for longer after road riding. I did a skills day but didn't really learn much – I was willing to try new things, and one of only a couple of woman on the course who actually tried anyhting, the rest just watched.

Is there one thing in particular that scares you, or is it just in general? If its general, not sure what to suggest, but if its specific things, then a skills day might help.

oh, and having read stumpy01's post, agree about the location – you need to start on easy/fun trails and learn the skills/build up confidence/start having fun before progressing.