[Closed] Riding tips that have helped the most.

Don't ride into trees.

helps me by not riding in to trees.........

+1 for maxtorque.

Blind jumps into big holes at night. Its just not clever.

Have fun. If you're worrying about all that bollocks, you're not having fun.

Ride more.

[quote=maxtorque ]Don't ride into trees.
helps me by not riding in to trees.........

Aye I tried to follow that the first time that I broke myself, sadly I did it again and broke myself again

1. stay relaxed
2. just keep turning the pedals

Two words: The Jedi.

Heavy feet light hands!

Lower your seatpost, drop your heals lower, look further down the trail.

Much more confidence and feel more planted on the trail. Getting my body position better has helped with having to deal with vertigo whilst mountain biking!

Looking round the corner, where you want to go, has to be the single biggest difference maker. Normally something you learn as a beginner though.

Stay loose and relaxed on the DH, whilst still keeping a decent grip on the bars / pedals is a good tip, but I've never heard it put in a way that helps me do this. Like a really pithy phrase or visualisation technique that can resolve the paradox.

Eating is cheating.

"Just ride it ya chuffing nancy" repeated ad nauseum to oneself seems to have helped me 🙂

Capital D arms and outside foot down

Rail those corners 🙂

Turn with your hips not your shoulders

Stay off the front brake, almost forget you have one.

"Turn left at the tree"

If your not falling off your not going fast enough???

If you see something scary on the trail, like a big massive rock, don't look at it or you will ride into it.

You only crash when you are on the brakes so, don't brake.

look around the tree not at it.

Relax is the best advice, but also the most useless because if you're tensed up being told to relax doesn't work

Dropping wrists for techy/steep climbing's a nice non-obvious one, not sure I'd have worked that out myself.

Enjoy it.

Looking well ahead, especially round corners, heavy feet and loose hands, and above all else... relax and have fun 😀

Turn with your hips not your shoulders

+ trying to master this but old habits are hard to break i'm finding 😐

Stay off the front brake, almost forget you have one.

Stamp the outside of the corner (meaning put your bodyweight through that pedal)

Heavy feet light hands!

Anyone notice how the skills section in this months MBR goes against this? Suggests equal pressure at both contact points and straighter legs.

Heavy feet light hands!

This comes from the Brian Lopez book "Mastering Mountain Bike Skills". An excellent read (much better than MBR anyway) 😉

Increased cadence and doing uphill Intervals.

Brake in a straight line.

Heels down.

If the handle bars are behind you then your'e sat the wrong way around

I'm unsure about the 'drop your outside foot during cornering' technique being thrown about by the likes of IMB. Riding a hardtail this can make for a very bumpy ride. I've gave it a good go for several rides but I honestly don't think it works too well for me.

Right now I just concentrate on 'staying low and loose' and that seems to set me up great for whipping round corners with aplomb 😀

Braking causes most crashes

swingbing - Member

I'm unsure about the 'drop your outside foot during cornering' technique being thrown about by the likes of IMB. Riding a hardtail this can make for a very bumpy ride.

Your foot/ankle isn't the best shock absorber- if you find dropping it causes things to get bumpy you're probably a bit stiff in the knee?

Look ahead and don't focus on stuff or you'll ride into it.

Wise words.... 8)

Elbows up. Hands loose. Weight outside pedal. Look ahead. lean bike .Steer with hips no with rapid hands.
Pump all downslopes for free speed. Ride light and fast on roots.
Brake very hard in a straight line then get off the brakes as much as possible.

Its all going on in my head.....

haha

Northwind,

Your foot/ankle isn't the best shock absorber- if you find dropping it causes things to get bumpy you're probably a bit stiff in the knee?

You may well be right. Maybe I need to do some squat or something though because to take out all the bumps with most of my weight on one leg just gets too much all too quickly!

Stay upright

I've found that renouncing my front brake whilst negotiating steep, technical downhill sections has significantly reduced the instances of unwanted head/trail interface.. 😀

Chin up, heels down.

Keep fingers off brakes.

Most accidents I have seen have involved people panicking and pulling a handful of brake.

Speed is your friend....with all the usual caveats

Think V, have confidence in technique, relax, breathe and commit!

I steer from my heels up. Feet don't leave the pedals, but heels sort of lean (almost like a skiing turn without the angle to get edge). This ensures that in turn, my knees, hips, shoulders and head all follow suit.
It's improved my cornering and grip no end. Also ensures the correct foot is downmost in corners. Might not work for everyone though!

When riding with your mate who used to race elite DH, don't follow him down trails and try and keep up with him.

This one little tip has saved me quite a bit of pain and suffering in the last year.

Ride more.

a) it's more fun than 'think more'
b) you get better technicaly
c) you get fitter, which makes you faster, so even flat sections become fast, which makes them as techncal as downhills used to be as un-fit speeds, so you get more practice.

And the following courtesy of Mike at Switchbacks:
Speed is your friend
Don't brake (see; speed is your friend, if your worried that big rock is going to pitch you over the bars then a handfull of frotn brake isn't going to help)
If it's going tit's up on a steep downhill, lock the back brake and sit on the back wheel. That way there's nowhere to go except sit down on the floor rather than crash over the bars.