[Closed] Riding skills for natural trails not designed to be ridden

A step on from low speed drop would be pedal kick. I.e like a basic trials move, edging forward on rear wheel

Chunking during information processing of trails, and creative line choice - its much harder to see decent lines when all is chaotic and its not being spoon fed to you like a trail centre.

you could do a lot worse than to check out the courses on offer at Ryan Leech Continuum. a lot of the things you list above are covered by the baseline balance skills course. he also has a bunny hop course, which shares some of the basic techniques required to initiate a manual, which is another skill you should add to your list IMO - useful for low speed drops and lofting the front wheel over rough stuff and such like.

the stoppie and nose pivot course will cover your 5th bullet point

the courses are quite in depth and take time to complete, also they're not free! but i found them effective and really fun to follow.

Do you have an old rigid bike kicking about? It sounds like practicing some old-school trials skills (proper ‘squeak-squeak-hop’ trials. Not the Danny Mac sort of thing) might help improve your low speed agility. You can practice that sort of stuff anywhere, and it’ll really help build your bike-strength and confidence in moving the bike around with accuracy at short notice.

Pivot on rear wheel to place front elsewhere.

Front onto obstacle then pivot rear up is a fairly easy one.

Riding low walls & skinnies.

Roll up - moving, lift front onto obstacle un weight rear then scoop it up pushing forward on bars (if you struggle to get rear up, use front brake to assist with the lift & getting weight further forward).

If you're learning to trackstand, endo, and pivot, you're in the right place to learn to fakie too - it's a natural thing led by gravity/momentum you can let happen when coming out of an endo. Release the brakes and pedal backwards to let the bike move backwards. While in a track stand you can also mimic body position of an endo (without lifting rear wheel) to initiate a fakie (struggling to explain this one but it comes fairly easily too once you've picked the others up). Fakies like this are only really useful for repositioning the bike if you've ridden into a corner.

I’ve been trying to get a lot better at exactly this kind of stuff for the last five or six years, since I started watching a lot of the “Vertriding” videos.
I suppose that I have improved but not as much as I’d like and, it goes without saying, to nowhere near the standard of those guys....
But I’ve enjoyed trying, I’d second the Ryan Leach tutorials as being well worthwhile and it’s been really useful when it comes to riding stuff out in Greece - mule tracks and goat and sheep paths in fairly big mountains, where it’s all rocks and very unforgiving.
I’ve also ended up with two Liteville 301s because -hey, that’s what they all use, so......

There’s something really satisfying about taking a bike somewhere that bikes have never been before.

Honestly, I think the biggest help for trying to ride stuff like that, is to ride similar trails with like minded people, preferably someone better than you. My skills for riding steep, natural tech have come on immeasurably thanks to following other riders down trails with the mindset that "if they can ride it, so can I".

Beyond that, having good slow speed bike control is mega helpful - being able to track stand and compose yourself before dropping in to a section. Conversely, knowing when to keep momentum is key. Sometimes stopping and composing yourself is completely the wrong thing to do and you need to keep rolling, and being able to make those split second decisions can be the difference between clearing a section or not.

also don’t underestimate the importance of developing really good brake modulation skills. i don’t just mean being able to avoid locking the wheels, proper modulation is such a refined thing and becomes a much more complex skill when you factor in how much of your weight is loaded onto each wheel. being good at this is essential for slow speed steep techy stuff especially on low traction surfaces

it all seems obvious i know, and i am a rank amateur but i thought i had these things nailed until i took the RLC wheelie, manual and nose pivot/stoppie courses, they were a real eye opener because you’re forced to put all your weight onto one wheel and at that point you need super fine brake control to maintain the trick/prevent a crash

this skill translates to better control and traction in trail riding situations

The two things that helped me the most when I moved from easy going Chilterns to somewhat les benign Calderdale, was

1. Set aside some days that aren't riding a loop or "completing a ride" but are just for messing about on a particular bit of tech to practice a skill that you want to improve. I think the young persons call it sessioning.  I was finding that instead of having terrifying bits of tech that I would stumble over part way through a ride, I was starting to link trails up to go out of my way to go and find them and then mess about on it for half an hour. make mistakes, play about, look at the trail from different angles, give yourself permission to have a couple of attempts at it, and fluff it without giving yourself a hard time. If you haven't already, could I suggest ditching Strava? It's one of the best things I did to encourage myself to do this more.

2. Practice...practice and practice...Never let an opportunity to try a track stand pass or aim to hop a kerb at a weird angle, or hold a slide on a pavement around an obstacle while modulating the brakes, or see how far over you can lean a bike. Commuting is great for this. But grab every chance you can to practice.

I find that good line choice is one of the best things to help with natural trails, thinking about the best exit from a difficult section rather than the easiest entry. Being comfortable with the bike moving around under you also massively helps, keeping loose and allowing the bike to follow the trail without knocking your balance.

As said above, just getting out there and riding the stuff will help, even if you stop and redo a section several times. Also just going out and sessioning some bits will help. And wear some knee pads and elbows while you’re practicing. Lol

Chunking during information processing of trails

Could you elaborate please?

It's all about line choice, IMO. Being able to see the line that works. A couple of examples:

There's a trail near me that isn't steep but is a rocky gulley with slick bedrock at the bottom, which is about 6" wide and for half the year full of leaves so you can't even see what's down there. The sides are muddy, slippery and steep. The best (and funnest) way to ride it is to drop in from the left and roll up the opposite bank, then back the other way so you zig zag down like a marble in a half pipe. Because you are turning you don't need the lateral grip as if you tried to ride straight down one bank.

Another trail has a short step down which is a board across the trail, which has an eroded dip on the other side. It's not too bad to just huck across, but if you go to the far left the erosion is a lot less so it's much more easily rollable, which I do on a rigid bike.

So get creative with the line you take, don't always look at the obvious path.

This “sessioning” thing is what I do loads of, either when I’m out on my own or with a good mate who’s similarly minded (we’re both ex trials riders). Even just on a “normal” ride, if I cock up a section that I know I could do better on I often say “I’m not ****ing having that” and go back up for another run at it..
It seems a lot of people aren’t that bothered about cleaning and finessing stuff, so maybe I’m in a minority.....

Honestly, I think the only really stop/go mandatory skill, beyond basic riding like body position and weight shift for very difficult natural technical riding is the ability to track stand and pivot the back wheel. If you can do it whilst moving, so the better, but whilst line choice can make things easier or more difficult, I've often just run into mandatory endo turns that don't work unless you can.

Everything else is just more riding, probably.

Ex motorcycle trials rider here.
Made riding natural trails on mtb easy.
The obsession to clean whole climbs in the lakes was a bit nuts. But satisfying.
Practice makes improvements!

As a NW highlands local I have to admit I can't really wheelie more than 3 or four revolutions, I can't really manual and keep it up and I can only trackstand for maybe 5 seconds at most.
I have been riding off road since I was 5 though and regularly ride all the Torridon classics for example, Laggan Black on a night ride, that sort of thing.
Key moves for me are being able to lift or pop the front wheel either by pedal or by manual technique, at slow and medium speeds. Selecting the right gear to tackle an obstruction - probably higher then you might think - and keeping momentum going through the terrain.
To practice you really only need a kerb edge to pop your front wheel up on. Then find a slightly higher kerb. Come at it at oblique angles rather than 90 degrees, and practice getting the rear wheel up too - learn the feel of the rear wheel grinding and not dabbing.
With the gear selection I often find youll be in a higher gear with pedals at 9-3 and pumping rather than full revolutions - that will keep you moving over terrain where you'd otherwise pedal strike, or think you might.
Something I think Molgrips mentioned was learning to see the line - by this I mean when you are moving, ie you'll be looking well ahead for visual clues as to what is about to happen on the trail. Look at the geology and the horizon line - is it disappearing? Am I going downhill, is it steepening? Is it bed rock or boulders? Could there be a ledge drop? Is there a stream crossing? All these things are going through my mind as I travel along and i'm also thinking about what gear that might need to negotiate it and what sort of speed would be appropriate. What is going on under your front wheel will be automatic.
Lastly practice stopping quickly, on loose ground, without skidding. A lot of routes may present you with an obstacle that you know is coming but until you get to the edge you don't know the line. The ability to momentarily stop still (1 or 2 seconds) then trickle the obstruction is well worth having. Its a bit like riding up to the top of a flight of steps, momentarily stop dead at the top, then roll the steps slowly and under control.

Something worse remembering on very remote rides or if you are soloing is to be mindful of trashing your bike or yourself. It's easy to smash a rim or mech or worse trying to clear a stupid obstacle and save your pride, when really you should be concentrating on getting back to the car in one piece. 'He who runs away, lives to run away another day' in other words.

Chunking during information processing of trails

Could you elaborate please?

It's a technique used to compile smaller things into larger things to make them more manageable. Often used in memory tasks, but also relevant here.

For mtb, it's the process of seeing that several roots/rocks combined can be approached as a single unit instead of planning/thinking about each one separately. As such, its a way of reducing the load on your mental bandwidth and to a degree, systemising your approach to particular features or combinations of features.

I think all mtbers do it tbh, but great mtbers are simply amazing at it.

You know how noobs fixate on each tiny individual thing in the trail? Thats the absence of it.

For mtb, it’s the process of seeing that several roots/rocks combined can be approached as a single unit instead of planning/thinking about each one separately. As such, its a way of reducing the load on your mental bandwidth and to a degree, systemising your approach to particular features or combinations of features.

I think all mtbers do it tbh, but great mtbers are simply amazing at it.

You know how noobs fixate on each tiny individual thing in the trail? Thats the absence of it.

Yeah that is basically what I was trying to say, it becomes automatic after a while. It is also what a white water kayaker does if you are river running without inspection. As a paddler as well I have always thought biking and paddling were very similar in that regard

A lot of what is mentioned there I learned by just playing on my bike in the street.
As mentioned above, track stands, bunny hops, side hops, endo's and slow drop offs as all staple trials skills. You can learn a lot of them in the street with a curb to jump off/on
It's really old, but have a watch of Dirty Tricks and Cunning Stunts here, it'll teach you a huge amount of the basic techniques.

Riding an exposed trail - any tips?

https://youtu.be/DtAJV89cVPk?t=867 (deep narrow rut bonus)
The filmer says in the comments it accurately portrays the drop.

I'll try - balance, fall into/towards the mountain, maybe don't have your dropper all the way up. High gear and ratchet the cranks in the rut. Turn by leaning the bike but keep your weight on top of it - lean the bike but not yourself.

I'd have no problem walking that (and I would/have hike/scramble far worse), but I wouldn't ride those two bits - moderate chance of ballsing it up, high chance of not saving it, high consequence. Maybe it's a mental thing of imagining what could go wrong, but that's useful for self-preservation and something I had less of when younger. I see the above, I think I'll get a pedal strike, or get the front wheel trapped, or lose momentum unable to pedal in the rut, then instinctively in panic I'll put my normal (in this case wrong) foot down (done that before) onto ground that isn't there.

@bikesandboots - don’t look where you don’t want to go is the old mantra. Also, don’t think too hard about what could go wrong, instead focus on riding well and enjoying the view 😁

That trail isn’t quite as bad as the video makes it - you don’t need to pedal on that first section as there’s enough gradient to just roll. It’s also not a hugely deep rut, and the drop off to the left, although not somewhere I’d like to fall, is nowhere near as bad as the video makes out.

This thread has made me smile! Not because of any guidance given, but because it is my preferred type of riding. Thanks OP for giving me a reminder of some wonderful rides.

1 Combination track stand-open gate-close gate combo

2 hoiking the bike through large roots/anti motorbike-pro horse sleepers using weight shift and not dabbing

3 getting a smile/acknowledgment from every walker, that's a tough one