1st post, so be gentle with me 😉

I started riding a MTB about 6 months ago as a way of getting fit for competing in Motorsport and gradually have become hooked on trying to get better.

I’m lucky to live in a part of west yorks with some fairly decent routes and go out riding a few times a week. I’ve got to the point where I can ride a ‘red’ route at a mediocre speed as long as the obstacles can be rolled over.

What now holds me back is where there is a ledge/rock that can’t be rolled (most can on my routes) and the fact I have to slow right down to roll over them etc. My climbing is ok, it needs improving, but that’s not my weakest area.

I’d love to be able to ride fast along a trail, pumping/hopping over drops/rocks and doing small jumps.

Question – what skills should I now focus on developing and how should I best learn?

I’ve tried riding off small drops (14″ or so) and this has been ok as long as the approach and landing are fairly smooth. When I’ve tried more, inc small jumps, it’s always ended up with a painful crash and a week or 2 of skin healing 😉 I don’t bounce well at my age…

I’m trying to learn to wheelie, but my progress is laughable…

Background – I’m in my late 40’s (old fart) but fairly fit and have a decent (too good for me) full suds mtb

Two things.

#1. Welcome. Mountain biking is the best fun you can have with your clothes on. Providing you don’t put yourself in A&E, which moves us onto…

#2. Go and see a professional to teach you how to do it properly. You need to see Ed. He’s local to you if you’re in W. Yorks so you won’t have to travel far. Now, you’re going to look at the price of the course, and say “wow, that’s a lot of cash to spend on a one day course.” However, you can spend the same amount on a new set of tyres, or a new set of knee pads, but they won’t stop you crashing. Ed will. That simple. Tackle the route cause of the problem, and do it now, before you learn ‘the wrong way’ ( to paraphrase ) and then have to un-learn your mistakes ( which is what most of us do ).

Trial and error is fine, if you have time to let the skin grow back, and knee pads will only protect you so far. Learn how to really ride a bike properly, and then you’ll be flying. I had been riding for a good few years before I went to see Ed, and wow, did it make a difference. Those little tweaks make a huge difference.

I know this sounds a little bit patronising, but trust me, having some else look at what your doing, and tell you exactly how to correct it, will benefit you massively. If you were learning how to play golf or tennis, for example, you’d go and see a coach to tell you how to improve. This is no different.

http://great-rock.co.uk/courses/

Good luck

Go and ride with others more capable than you… Trying to keep up, following their lines will help you massively.

Save your penis for now. There must be one or two peeps on here willing to take you out.

Oh, and welcome.

Pennies, not penis.

Don’t listen to him. Save your penis!

Also, go and see Ed,

Welcome,

APF

Save your penis for now. There must be one or two peeps on here willing to take you out.

😯

welcome to stw!

but as above skills course or just riding with better people is the best thing to do really.

Whereabouts in West Yorks? There’s a quarry local to me where I am in the process of setting up obstacles to practise on. So far I’ve got some low speed drops/steps and a couple of faster, higher ones to take at speed. I’m very similar to you, needing to build confidence on certain trail features. Email me if you like, address is in my profile

Buy this and read it. Best skills book I’ve found.

Following people doesn’t stop me crashing. The crash just gets more dramatic as I go faster 😀

Varies per person, but I can strongly echo the above that money spent on a good skills session is worth far more than an upgrade component on your bike. Especially if the course works on confidence and mental skills.

A session with Jedi for me and I learnt far more in one day than I had in years of following ‘better’ riders, and confidence boosted massively. Though I still crash, and break things, but I’m doing a little bit bigger stuff than I’d have done before. I’m never going to be doing huge drops and gaps, but I can tackle things on the trail that I couldn’t before and my general trail technique is much improved.

Thanks for the warm welcome and feedback guys, much appreciated.

I should have said in my first post (duhh, sorry) that I did do a one-day MTB skills course and found it a great help in all respects, skills and mental. I learnt a lot and improved as a result, although there was a lot (too much perhaps) to take in during a single day.

Post-course I’ve found it slow-going at times to develop specific skills. As you say, perhaps it’s time for another course/tuition session to build on what I have and I will take your recommendations.Thanks.

As an aside, It’s also hard to judge how much skills progress is reasonable to expect in the time I’ve had so far, given my limited experience and age. I sometimes have to remind myself that the riders i want to emulate have probably been riding for years…

JoeG – Thanks, I’ll buy the book

Scapegoat – will drop you an email, thanks

who was the course with?
how long ago?

Buy this and read it. Best skills book I’ve found.

shhh! Don’t give away the secret!

@ op. Any of Lee Mccormacks books are great for giving you the building blocks to improve skills. Stick it in the bog as reading material (not to wipe your arse)

Seems like the next step for you is controlling front wheel height, that’ll get you off drops and over small lumps like rocks roots and sticks nicely – and it’s also the first part in a proper bunnyhop.

The technique is called a “front wheel uppie-duppie sans pedalling”, or “manual”, there’s probably a wealth of instruction on youtube for this technique. Watch some, then repeatedly ride off kerbs to nail it down. Bon chance! 🙂

Like all new things that your brain tries to learn, it takes time. And unfortunately, the older you are, the longer it takes!

Before you can “drop” or jump a 4foot obstacle, you need to be able to reliably and “automatically” be able to drop or jump a 6″ one no matter what the approach or conditions are like.

Also, unfortunately, riding a MTB properly is about controlling your mass, and these techniques are not immediately obvious when you just watch someone else ride (you can’t necessarily see where they are applying their weight to the bike etc). Getting some decent coaching explains the basics, which you can then take away practice a bit at a time.

When you watch those myriad YouTube videos of people jumping, they make it look like, in a lot of cases, they just roll up to a drop/jump, and wammo, off they go, 30foot up or 30foot down without really seeming to do a lot. In reality, they are working hard to control their inertia and mass.

When you’ve got your basic technique dialed, the next part takes even longer, and that is “reading” the obstacle. Depending on your speed, the conditions, and the actual shape of the obstacle, some jumps require you to pump massively, some do nothing at all. That knowledge takes time, and a lot of practice to acquire.

Then, there is the fact that we are not all the same, in terms of how we act, how we learn, and our physical make up. Some coaches have a “you must do it like me” routine, which, if you are not like themmdoesn’t help imo. So, take the basics from coaching, but if it works for you, develop your own style. How you position your mass, how you move your legs,arms and head etc all effect how you fly, and are personal things. And again, time/practice required to find YOUR sweet spot.

As an example, I suck at jumping, i’m not a natural at it whatsoever, and trying to learn to do it myself lead to my wrist snapping into 3 pieces. Luckily for me, Tony (The Jedi 😉 at UkbikeSkills isn’t far from me, and he has a fab skills area, in which to learn under closely controlled conditions. By starting small, and bringing you along during the day in small steps, you start to improve (slowly in my case….) In particular, i just couldn’t get on with jumping “tables” at all. All the wrong technique at all the wrong times, doh. But Tony persevered, and slowly i started to “get” it. Right now, i can get over pretty much most jumps/gaps/drops without hurting myself. I’m not elegant at it, and i’m not going to feature in any Red Bull Videos any time soon, but it’s a start.

So, in short, unless you are a visual learner, and can just follow faster friends to “see” how to do things, you need to get some basic core skills dialed under controlled conditions, and work from there 😉

Any suggestions where to buy the Lee McCormack book? The delivery from US is extortionate.

I recommend ProRideGuides in Harrogate, they’re excellent. they had me doing and understanding the mechanics of bunny hops in 20mins, something i’d really just not ‘got’ on other courses. they also teach you some basic fundamentals that you will go away with and instantly start using to transform your riding, one of those is how to do drops. they run courses at Stainburn.

Thanks again guys.

Soobalias – the course was a couple of months ago with Stephen Hall at http://www.blackshawoutdoor.co.uk/mountainbikeskills.html it was a great course and he is a good, patient teacher with great communication skills as well. I benefited a lot from his tuition.

I’m thinking I need to go back to him, or see Ed, or both!

Yeah, the postage when buying directly from Lee is a bit steep. Got my copy from US Amazon. Less than £19 delivered.

+1 for Ed Oxley

Do his stop crashing courses and you’ll progress well.

Then get on Alpine Tech when you’re ready.

You may find stop crashing a little dumbed down on the day and come off it wondering what you’ve learned. Don’t worry. Go ride for a month or two after and you’ll realise what a difference it has made.

I was nervous doing the Alpine Tech thinking it would be out of my depth. On the warm up run down the Blue Pig trail I avoided every big obstacle and took a really bad line. By the end of the morning I was rolling over everything with a lot more confidence.

After 3 courses with Ed there’s very little I won’t attempt to ride and now get frustrated when a ride isn’t technical enough. Without thinking about it I’ve knocked 1/3 off the time it took me to ride a very technical downhill section local to me and now just roll down what I used to avoid like the plague.

Your money won’t be wasted with Ed.

Jedi is the man 🙂