Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)
  • how to combat self preservation to be awesome in downhill trail centres?
  • wolfenstein
    Free Member

    how? 🙁

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    Start small and build up, just because you can’t ride 20ft doubles doesn’t mean you can’t do 3ft tabletops, then 3ft1, 3ft2, 3ft3 etc. Same for drops, cornering quickly or any other skill.

    Having said that I can’t jump for toffee.

    br
    Free Member

    Its easier now, my kids just remind me I’ve to drive home – otherwise one of them will drive my car 😯

    wobbliscott
    Free Member

    Following a skills course mid last year I now will stop at sections I find tricky and session them for 40 mins or so, wether it be a jump, drop, technical climb, whatever. That way bit by bit I’m getting quicker though all the parts of the trail I find tricky and my speed over the ground is steadily increasing as are my skills. As said before, take it step by step, but you’re confidence through the tricky sections will improve quicker than you think. These pro’s partly look great because they’ve practiced the course. When you watch them perform it isn’t the first time they’ve done that course. Their hugely better skills means they can more quickly get the measure of a course, but as with us all, practice makes perfect.

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    Buy an Audi or VW van and an Orange 5.

    epicyclo
    Full Member

    More anodised bits on the bike, singlespeed it with a huge ratio, put niche drop bars on it, and preferably rigid.

    But whatever you do, don’t ride it. No-one is going see you do your non-riding, but they’ll assume you do.

    Now park it outside the trail centre cafe and they’ll all think, Jeez how does he ride that? Soon you will have imitators, and of course, they’ll injure themselves trying to ride. You will tell them they need to go a bit faster and jump longer to avoid injury, and it’s best to practise at night if they’re nervous.

    Is this awesome enough?

    No? Well one day some young lunatic will actually master riding your crazy setup and become world champion. Naturally he will let it be known that without you as a mentor he would have never achieved this.

    See – you will become an awesome riding god and you don’t have to turn a pedal.

    Just remember who your mentor was 🙂

    tymbian
    Free Member

    Line you tyre logos and valves up.

    Oh…practice, practice, practice.

    Or sign up for a skills course.

    Can you bunny-hop?

    tymbian
    Free Member

    Double post..sorry.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I’m not awesome, but I’m pretty good- I go faster than I used to by knowing very well where my limits are, which you only really get from experience.

    Skills courses are useful if your fear of falling is founded but not always so useful if it’s just fear- some really just focus on the mechanics of it and that can give you confidence but I think we probably all know people who won’t ride things even though they know they can.

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Its easier now, my kids just remind me I’ve to drive home – otherwise one of them will drive my car

    Don’t joke. My eldest son once had to try and change gear with my broken collarbone driving home from that rad downhill centre, Swinley. We eventually left it in 3rd and chugged back on diesel torque.

    neiloxford
    Free Member

    Where’s the like button when you need one 🙂

    cazum
    Free Member

    bah self preservation….

    its bike preservation lol hence my cracked ribs! think i must have crashed the only way possible to save the bike and damage myself lol

    chilled76
    Free Member

    I got faster by falling off lots. I still maintain of you aren’t falling off then you aren’t pushing your limits much. I now ride at a rate that I don’t push my limit much anymore as falling off hurts when you are riding quick (although I did brush my knee on the floor on a berm today and I’ve never done that before so am still improving)… but yeh go out and push your limits until you crash, if you don’t crash you just pushed the envelope of what your limits are.

    wolfenstein
    Free Member

    I already did skills course.. And it does helps a lot… My nearest riding place is an hour and more away.. And 90% of the time i ride alone.. It just pisses me off that your heart is telling you to smash down that downhill cliff or MTFU those drops.. But your mind telling you… Whos gonna drive you back home if you c*ck it up.. How you gonna afford a new stanchion ..or a new frame… Whos gonna drive the kid to school… How you gonna go to work (if you have one) … Thoughts like this are my biggest obstacles whenever im riding 🙁 how you lot get over this ?

    jimmy
    Full Member

    whatever you’re thinking from the moment you park up at a trail centre, do so in an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice. Vocalise it such as well.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    oh, and trust your tyres / physics.

    nickc
    Full Member

    Same as Northwind, I know when I’m at my limit.

    Oh, and lay off the brakes …

    beicmynydd
    Free Member

    Easy to say but ride within your limits, when I first started riding downhill I fell off a lot.

    At first I rode tracks like trail centres and went as fast as possible on the straights much to fast into a corner just about got away with it only to fall hard on the next. I now take it a bit slower into the bends and use more of the available grip for cornering rather than sloppy late braking on the front wheel.

    Now I think more about carrying my speed through the corner keeping off the front brake and only using the back to slide a bit if required. I have found this has allowed me to get progressively faster while still leaving a small margin for error.

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Get some mates.

    Practice practice practice

    The other thing to remember is a trail cenrre is designed to be ridden. Things have been put together with some planning. I remember hitting the new false teeth section at cyb blind and going into the bomb hole drops fairly fast . The missus had stopped to look I decided that the landing although out of sight would be good and just went for it.

    davidtaylforth
    Free Member

    It really is a case of MTFU. Its a trail centre, its supposed to be ridden, you arent gonna end up in hospital if you fall off. The drops are about 3 foot high, as are the jumps. You may get a few cuts and bruises, thats it.

    kudos100
    Free Member

    Ride some proper downhill. Trail centres will seem much easier.

    getonyourbike
    Free Member

    mikewsmith – Member
    I remember hitting the new false teeth section at cyb blind and going into the bomb hole drops fairly fast . The missus had stopped to look I decided that the landing although out of sight would be good and just went for it.

    Take it from me that those drops are not nice to land to flat in the bottom of. This wasn’t hucking off them, just going for it. Still sitting in 14th of nearly 1300 on the old Strava after that…

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Yep the bottom wasn’t brilliant but it wasn’t the worst in the world (I was flying too but in pre strava days), I eased slightly on my next go to hit the downslope, but it holds true they didn’t hide a massive rock garden on fallen log in there. There are no doubles with just a badly dug hole etc.

    wolfenstein
    Free Member

    Its a trail centre, its supposed to be ridden, you arent gonna end up in hospital if you fall off

    🙄

    firepoiboy
    Full Member

    If you are thinking all that stuff about driving home, or paying for repairs you are not concentrating 100% on your riding. This might be a good place to start. You’ve already twigged it’s just in your head not your heart, so just get all of your head on the thing you want to.

    HermanShake
    Free Member

    It just pisses me off that your heart is telling you to smash down that downhill cliff or MTFU those drops.

    Slowly slowly catchy monkey. There is no quick fix as a lucky break will be humbled by an unlucky break.

    Match the challenge to your competence (or rather perceived competence) and get not just ok but great at the things within your reach. Then you’ll be more confident to do the things a bit out of reach, but obviously still scared of things way out. Everyone has a threshold but we build it on experience and reinforcement.

    I can ride bigger drops than ever before thanks to sticking to riding a bit more regularly and sessioning things like wobbliscott (not sessioning him, but obstacles repeatedly…). I feel more connected to the bike to ride things out when they’re not going as well and trusting the bike to handle more than I thought it could (which is really more than I though I could).

    Build your confidence, step up to bigger things gradually, ride more, wear pads. Listen to the little voice, it’ll shout when you least want it to and will win with a painful “I told you so!”

    mikewsmith
    Free Member

    Its a trail centre, its supposed to be ridden, you arent gonna end up in hospital if you fall off. The drops are about 3 foot high, as are the jumps. You may get a few cuts and bruises, thats it.

    Utter balls, I’ve seen some horrific injuries from tiny drops and lapses in concentration. Also a 3ft drop is enough to seriously mess you up if you get it properly wrong. See how often an ambulance makes it to llandegla.

    Respect the trail and understand your ability.

    If you are thinking all that stuff about driving home, or paying for repairs you are not concentrating 100% on your riding. This might be a good place to start.

    Good point too, you need to be with someone to let yourself go a bit, when I’m out alone I tend to ride at 70-80% with 100% concentration, with friends I up it nearer to my max depending on who I’m out with.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    davidtaylforth – Member

    you arent gonna end up in hospital if you fall off.

    Fair dos, trolling’s all good fun but this is pushing it a bit don’t you think?

    motozulu
    Free Member

    My sister-in-law is a paramedic, as is a riding mate. Both have Cannock as part of their ‘manor’.

    You may well be surprised at how many times they are called to attend someone who has messed up on one of the 3 foot drops on the Chase.

    sunnrider
    Free Member

    If you´ve never or rarely done jumps or drops before why on earth would you attempt them just because you´ve driven somewhere with lots of them available?

    Even if you are able to manage them, sometimes you just have an “off ” day (pardon the pun) and it´s best just to take the chicken line.

    kayak23
    Full Member

    Be the trail…

    roverpig
    Full Member

    I reckon that MTFU must be the worst advice out there. Well it would be if it where actually advice rather than just a childish insult.

    A crash can be useful, but only if you learn something from it. Often all it does is dent your confidence, make you ride more tentatively (leading to more crashes) and slow down the process of learning.

    The problem is (generally) middle aged men jumping on mountain bikes and getting frustrated that they can’t ride like a pro in a few months. We all have different natural abilities but for most of us it takes many years (and many hundreds of hours of riding) to really feel comfortable and in control over technical terrain.

    Yes, you can just let go of the brakes and trust to luck. It’s surprising how often that works. But you’re not really riding the trail. Just being taken for a ride by it.

    Take your time, ride lots and if you don’t see any improvement in a few years then it might be time to reassess how you are riding. But don’t try to rush it.

    Oh yeah, and try to enjoy it. This is your hobby after all.

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