I’ve recently discovered that when descending if I cover the brake lever with a single finger and have the remaining three on the grips (rather than two on the lever, two on the grips) it gives me much more control and generally seems to make me a better rider. I remember a similar revelation when I first learned to put my saddle up for ascents and drop it for descents.

Are there any other simple tweaks / adjustments to their technique that people have found have made them suddenly much more better at riding a bike?

not covering the brakes at all and holding onto the grip with all fingers, by the time you’ve reached for the brake lever you’re over the bit you wanted to brake for and you didn’t need it anyway

mostly

Death grip.

2 fingers bad
1 finger good
No fingers better 😈

Yes pro downhillers can ride at mach3 without dragging the brakes, but us mere mortals are quicker if we’re not comfort braking 90% of the way down.

That and exiting berms early, quicker to be out (and if possible pedaling) and setting up for the next corner, rather than following them round until you run out of corner.

Head up and looking as far ahead as possible. Looking at the gap or the line rather than the rock you want to avoid is also handy.

Slow in, fast out works for me too for tricky bits.

+1 to JoB’s tip. I’m a wuss so if I get to a bit I know I should be able to do and I know the bike is perfectly capable of doing without me then I’ll take my finger off the brake in a kind of hanging-on-for-dear-life manoeuvre.

Look ahead to where you want to be, not what’s in front of your tyre.

Edit: too slow

swimming.

i found that learing to swim front crawl with a decent technique so you dont have to stop after 400m helped me on the bike massively. all that core strength and upper body workout i guess. swimming is sooo dull though.

obviously now i’ve stopped i’m back to being crap on the bike.

Laser cock!

Find a pump track and spend some time on it. I think a pump track is a very good and underused tool for making you a better, faster, smoother rider.

Learning to manual. It’s unbelievably satisfying being able to manual down part of the trail. It’s also got the added benefit of being useful now and again. It’s saved me a few times from going OTB.

I’d also add learning to snap the back out or up. It’s helped me with tight corners and trail obstacles. I also feel like a riding god when I tyre tap a tree.

Riding with people who have mad skillz who clearly have no unpaid invoices.

Have found following them, looking at their body position has helped me from being rubbish to being not as rubbish, some times.

Adjust your lever position to be more level with the bars, not pointing down to the floor. This will bring your wrists down in line with the bars, bring your weight back when descending, help stop arm pump, and also allow you to ‘push’ the bars over bumps and obstacles, as opposed to support your weight on wrists bent the wrong way.

I see so many people with levers under the bars, pointing at the floor.

Adjust your lever position to be more level with the bars, not pointing down to the floor.

+1. I’ve recently tried this and (for me, personally) it has worked so far.

Learning to manual.

+1. It really is massively helpful for maintaining flow through trails, sucking up rollers or manualing through mogul type sections to maintain speed. As the previous poster said, it has also got me out of many sticky situations where having the split second more balance over the back has stopped OTB situations.

My other tip which is not really ‘simple’ is to give bmx a go. Nothing has doe for my bike handling than a couple of years bmxing. It removes the comfortable cushion that suspension affords and makes you concentrate on technique and form in the first instance.

cloudnine – Member

Laser cock!

I always thought it was light cock – heavy laser

OK a sensible one. Pumping without a trail/track. Take off chain and try to get the bike moving by just pumping/carving. Once you get the hang of it you can pick up a decent amount of speed. Helps ‘teach’ a great way to corner and useful on the trails for getting extra speed from corners. With a bit of weight shifting, helps with manuals too.

edit; reading that back it sounds wrong. Come over to my street and i’ll show you how to do it 😀

No matter what I try, I can never have anything but a heavy cock.

Tits N Ass is exactly the same thing as the lasercock. Point with your tits, and your ass will follow It just depends whether you prefer thinking about Darcy Turenne’s bosom and derriere, or Andy Barlow’s penis.

Ride different bikes! I’ve just noticed this but bouncing my fatbike down harder trails has made me start really working at technique, in a way I tend not to on the good bikes- I’ve got a mixed bag of functional but possibly crap skills that get me through normally, and pretty effectively, but they don’t cut it on the fatty so it forces me to ride better. If I can haul that back to the big bike it could get me out of a rut.

I find that riding with really dark sunglasses often helps with my riding technique, especially at night. You can’t see the scary bits so you brake less often.

Remember it’s supposed to be fun.

Most important thing ever, imo, is getting your riding position sorted. This means learning about what riding position you actually want, how changes affect the ride, as much as actually implementing them. There is no one ideal position – it can constantly evolve depending on what you are doing and where. As you get better at certain things or start doing things, your position can change. I’m always making slight adjustments as things evolve.

My other top tip would be learning to unweight the bike in the rough bits. Like a little bunny hop, but you don’t leave the ground. Allows you to skim them rather than plough through. To be used in conjunction with moving your weight around.

Talk to yourself when riding, encourage yourself to stay relaxed and loose, have as much fun as possible, smile 🙂

Skills course
Practice
Skills course
Practice
Still rubbish

Follow someone better than you but not so good they leave you for dead 🙂

Learning to track stand is not too difficult and pays in the slow techy places and balancing the bike in general.

My tip is don’t be obsessed with leaning back, get the grip from the front tyre and make those forks work for a living.

Learn to track stand, even if for just 5secs, it gives you thinking time before you hit the chutes!

Pedal position, and using your heels to push the bike down.

I got this one from an instructor on a skills course, but you can have it for free.

“just ride your bike lots”

Nothing that’s not already been said, but looking where you’re going and not where you I find makes a massive difference to speed and flow. I still find I have to tell myself to do it rather than it coming naturally unfortunately!

Adjust your lever position to be more level with the bars, not pointing down to the floor.

And this if you’ve not already done it, one of the first things Jedi taught me!

Ride a cross bike on mountain bike trails, makes riding a mountain bike seem a whole lot easier and you get used to the bike moving around all over the place so it’s just natural in the end.

Learn to weight your bars rather than turn them. Got this off Jedi on one of his skills days and it’s amazing how much difference it makes when riding a berm.

Some of you might know Clive Powell of Elan Valley fame, he was once asked how to improve at climbing hills he answered with “climb hills more” which was made even more appropriate because (at the time) we were at the bottom of the hardest climb in the Elan Valley.

I think you had to be there or know Clive 🙂

Light hands.

Learn to weight your bars rather than turn them.

You what?

Ride more , and shave your legs obvs.

2 fingers bad
1 finger good
No fingers better

Tried this the other day at Blacka Moor and almost went straight over the handlebars when I had to stop for the gate half way through the descent.

Learn to weight your bars rather than turn them.

is this the drop your elbow to turn thing that gets talked about on skills days?

couple of things that have made a difference to my riding

1. Get off the brakes, the bike can manage just fine, it’s your mind that’s getting in the way.
2. Look Up
3. steer with your hips.

he was once asked how to improve at climbing hills he answered with “climb hills more”

And its the truth. Funny how the same doesn’t necessarily apply for descending though.

Looking further ahead is my top tip.

And getting a new bike obvs.

opusone – Member
Learn to weight your bars rather than turn them.
You what?

Probably not clear enough explanation by me but pushing down on the inside bar when cornering makes it want to corner without actually turning the bar. Better explained by Jedi, in a field, in Hertfordshire.

jam bo – Member

Remember it’s supposed to be fun.

Yep, far too often I take it too seriously, too busy racing my mates and looking for cheeky shortcuts and shaving a moment here and there, less fun.

Keep the mentality of having fun, put your mind to flowing rather than racing and as if by magic – I go quicker… so says Strava, which is a sort of oxymoron for me.

**** Strava.

Oh yeah 1 finger braking is a must, none of this two on the lever thing – haven’t had to do that since I ditched the V brakes 10 years ago – deathgrip if you want to go mental, but it’s too much of a mind **** for me most of the time – I try to never drag brake, but there’s always that time when it’s so steep it feels more like falling than riding, probably the worst time to drag brake…

There’s technique to braking, if you can practice really hard braking, throwing your bodywieght into the tyres and really stopping it lets your brain drag less and brake later.

spend thousands online bike part shopping….. well, I’ve invested in this method but I’m yet to see the improvement. But I’m sure it should come at some point….

Ride a bit more, for fun. Don’t just ride your bike at ‘the trail’, ride it to the trail and around and about. Hop up and down kerbs. Do some wheelies. The more you feel comfortable bossing your bike about, the more you’ll enjoy bossing it about 😀

I’m still bobbins though.

Go slower.