🙂

Been on the pump track at Lee Quarry and I got the straights sorted (both wheels on the ground cant do manuals) I can pick up plenty of speed but how do you pump a berm? I'm pretty sure theres a method to get more speed from the berm but not got a clue.

I acknowledge this may be tricky to convey in text.

😯

excatly the same as you pump a roller, it's just the same thing on it's side.

+1 ^^^^

it's just the same thing on it's side

hmmmm, well I'm having difficulty transfering it sideways, loose loads of speed on the berms.

I did a training day with Ed Oxley at Gisburn and we worked on this very thing 🙂 Basically you need to do any/all of your braking before you start the burm, first part is the same as soaking up a riser the second part/exit of the burm is were you pump.

There are also different lines through burms that depend on where you enter it and where you exit it and also there are different points where you take a high line and a lower line. They need to be really looked at first, i did the course with some mates and we watched each other coming through them which was very helpful.

The other thing i should mention is your body positioning is very important too, you need to be more upright and lean the bike over so this makes the sidewasll nobbles on your tyre dig in where as if you rail it like you're on a motorbike you have less grip.

Hope that helps, i would recommend going on Ed's course, you would gain a lot from it, there was 7 of us and most were experienced riders but everyone came away with something that made us better at riding wherever we are 😀

pump track fundamentals

I did a training day with Ed Oxley at Gisburn and we worked on this very thing Basically you need to do any/all of your braking before you start the burm, first part is the same as soaking up a riser the second part/exit of the burm is were you pump.

There are also different lines through burms that depend on where you enter it and where you exit it and also there are different points where you take a high line and a lower line. They need to be really looked at first, i did the course with some mates and we watched each other coming through them which was very helpful.

The other thing i should mention is your body positioning is very important too, you need to be more upright and lean the bike over so this makes the sidewasll nobbles on your tyre dig in where as if you rail it like you're on a motorbike you have less grip.

Hope that helps, i would recommend going on Ed's course, you would gain a lot from it, there was 7 of us and most were experienced riders but everyone came away with something that made us better at riding wherever we are

I think that's all fine for trail riding but not so relevant to PTs.

Trawl thru leelikesbikes.com, Lee McCormack is a bit of a god in PT terms and very good at explaining such things through words.

The idea of a berm being a roller in a different axis is a good one though, although it might be awkward to visualise / apply. Trying to explain, badly, on a PT there's a roller at each end of a berm(just like there's a straight between two rollers). Drive through your legs on the backside of the entry roller, aim to be driving most in the apex of the turn (or just hanging on 😉 and then go light on the face of the exit roller, but just leant over a bit.

Trust the berm, if it's well built it should carry you round without any real need to brake. Berms on a PT should be configured so your body can be aligned on the same plane as your bike, although it's leaning over. Christ – words fail me 😉 McCormack does good diagrams too! Whatever, riding berms on PTs is not about setting the edge of your tyres for traction.

Keep your head up and look through to the exit.

You can probably go a load faster through (good) berms than you imagine / feel comfortable at first. Good berms will work for you and keep you safe. At least until you cock it up a bit and are suddenly way fast and not in control (my fractured rib!).

Try practicing by pedalling into them fast, then driving with the legs and slingshotting out. If you get the feeling under speed you know what to aim for when pumping.

Sorry, I've built and ridden a few but explaining it is tricky.

McCormack is the answer 😉

Also worth pumping your tyres hard and locking out / compression damping forks and shocks.

Well I had a go on tuesday night, went ok, I treated them like a roller and managed to get a bit of speed out of them. Even had a go on my mates wallowtastic kona stab and managed a couple of slow laps 🙂

Good vid B.A, that guy rips round the berms but WTF is going on with his facial hair?

Were you at Thackley / Buck Woods?

[potential weird co-incidence / stalker-like content]

Nah, Lee Quarry, quite a good explanation up there ^^^ too cheeky, thanks.

No worries. I was out on Tuesday as well at Buck Woods and there were a couple of lads there trying the PT as well. Ohe had a Kona FS and swapped for a few laps with his mate. You can see why I asked …

Get "Pumptrack Nation" from McCormack's site ($10 ebook / pdf). Whilst it's mostly about digging / building them, and for that he will always be a God in my eyes ;-), there is a useful section about riding. Worth it for the money IMO.

Alternatively get his book, Mastering Mountainbike Skills (II). Just out now and the guy has a gift for putting things into words.

@cheeky monkey – great description of something really har to visualise.

@donk – here's a different way to visualise it. imagine your front wheel as a bouncy ball. you want to use a pump (which is bike speak for a sharp, snappy push with either hands or feet or both) to get the ball to bounce as hard as possible out of the corner. so as the bike is coming past the apex you throw the ball forwards into the slope of the berm, the force is translated into a thrust out of the corner, and you pick up speed. As cheeky monkey said, suspension will abosrb a lot of the force if it is too soft (look at bmx racers to see what pump can do on a fully rigin bike with rock-hard tyres).

Best thing to do is get down there with a friend and a video camera or regular camera that'll shoot some shorts. You might quickly see what is and is not working.

If you have access to a bmx then don't just stick to the pump track – get down to one of the race tracks in manchester or preston on a cruiser and your pumping skills will really get a boost.

Chris@CycleActive

I always imagine it as you start the "pump" 90deg before the exit, so a 180deg berm its halfway, a 90deg berm I imagine I'm trying to kick the bike through the corner as fast as possible (weight on the front/centered turning in, then kick through the legs and move weight back).

The roller on its side analogy is a good one though.

The roller on its side analogy is a good one though.

I cannot take credit for this as I'm paraphrasing Lee McCormack.

It's harder trying to build one and explain how to build them to others. I end up waving my hands around an awful lot 😉

Riding a PT is one of those things though, when you do it right (and as you're learning "right" might be for brief moments or on very short sections) you can feel that it's right (how very Zen ;-)). Concentrate on what's happening when it feels "right" and then try to repeat. I think it's a bit like the body learning the feeling of gyroscopic balance on a bike for the first time, there's masses of processing going on under the surface of your conscious efforts.

Whatever, the feeling of building momentum over a series of well shaped and spaced rollers, then brap-ing through a good berm after is awesome. When you get it it doesn't matter that you're bezzing round like a hamster in a wheel on a length of track / trail so insignificant you'd never notice if it was laid out in a line on a "proper" ride. They really are addicitive.

McCormack's advice on the way to free speed is to go as light as possible on the front wheel / face of berms. First off go light on your hands, then as you get the hang try lifting the wheel before it gets to the face. The ultimate (wheels sort of on the groud way) is to manual the rollers, so it's just the rear wheel being driven through the legs on the back face for speed.

My manuals are sh*te though 😉

I've been trying to go as low as possible on the bike as well, which helps confidence and balance, IMO.

I was all set to get out for a 'proper' ride this evening and now i'm reconsidering the PT option.

Addictive hamster wheel bike riding kind of sums it up nicely. Cheeky even sounds like he knows what he's talking about 😉

even sounds[/u] like he knows what he's talking about

Oi! I've emphasised the key word in your statement 😉

Wow i bearly move on my bike, i really need to loosen up! Great vid and advice by all. Im no where near experienced to try all of this but i will certainly try some pumps and get moving alot more.

The roller on its side analogy is a good one though.

I quoted Cheeky Monkey from a PT session a Stainburn we had a few months ago.