Euro –

While i agree with you JJ and know you ride with some blistering quick guys, blindly following someone faster wont teach you how to read a trail and spot the fastest lines. And that’s arguable more important in a race situation where you don’t have the luxury of following a faster rider or are on an unknown trail.

I agree. I wasn’t saying to blindly follow though, if you’re chasing or being chased by quicker riders you’ll get to see some lines that may not have occurred to you, or you might get to observe their body language on the bike. And then you might want to try them next time out.

I was on a steep, tricky trail that’s pretty new two me two weeks ago, and I’d been struggling with it as it has lots of tight drops onto corners with off camber landings…just generally tricky. I was able to follow some down and because I could see his set up, body language, weight shift etc on the trickier bits I was able to decipher it and go a good bit quicker than I had previously.

I consider myself very average but i did reasonably well at the FoD Mini Downhill a few winters ago, i got 20-something out of about 80 in my class and was riding a 140mm FS as opposed to some of the 160-200 Enduro and DH bikes that were present.

Hard to explain, the atmosphere of a race makes me go faster than i would if i was riding for fun and pulling on a full face always gives me a false sense of security and the confidence to push harder….i did an Enduro in the inaugural year of Steve Parr’s UKGE series and was rubbish….to be fair i was on a short travel hardtail and had just come back to mountain biking after years away….it is definitely a confidence thing.

Obviously strength, fitness, equipment etc all help but a timid rider will always finish behind the guy with the guts to push harder and faster….if i did another Enduro i’d definitely wear a full face for no other reason than it makes me feel invincible and allows me to ride faster….i should imagine knee/elbow pads etc would contribute to that feeling and probably allow me to push harder still.

I wasn’t saying to blindly follow though

I know but i have trouble seeing the trail when i’m riding behind somebody but then my eyes and sense of direction are somewhat less than average.

Would that new to you steep, tricky trail be in Tolly perchance?

Dave,comparing our times from Sunday I think you were faster than me on every stage bar stage 5.
So I’d say get some practice steep, muddy chutes, preferable with spectators heckling 😉

I think the real skill is being able to read the trail and still ride it at the limit. Everyone can be quick on trails they ride reguarly, but to be quick on trails that are new to you or you have had very little time on is a different skil. I notice that the pros do the practice runs with a camera so they can watch them repeatedly to learn the trial before they race.

Good, trustworthy brakes, moved far enough inboard so you can only ever use them with 1 finger is what has done it for me. Previously I had pretty average brakes and was always using 2 fingers on them. You don’t realise how much this compromises your ability to steer and move the bike around until you effectively ride with 6 fingers on the bars instead of 4. Not only will you brake better with good brakes, you will find you need to brake less as you have far better control and can avoid obstacles and change line quicker & easier.

Worked for me

EDIT: Though I am still at the back of the field, just not quite so far back 🙂

Fair point about not wanting to ride a trail blindly behind someone.

What about riding a trail you already know well with a faster rider, if possible get them to ride it slightly off their usual pace or even walk it with you 1st an point out what they’re doing, line choice etc ride it together gradually winding up the speed.

If you can ride the same track or even section of track for an afternoon you’ll quickly learn where time can be gained.

Euro
Would that new to you steep, tricky trail be in Tolly perchance?

Indeed!

Riding with faster people is GREAT… however if your technique is fundamentally wrong, you’re never going to do anything more than end up in a pile of bloody mess on the side of the trail trying to match their speed.

Having their level of fitness will help… but at the end of the day, if their positioning, technique etc is right and yours is wrong, you’ll never make it.

re: riding with faster people

I should probably have clarified…

I’m saying go riding with faster people, not simply to follow them, ie: talk to them about the trails, talk to them about their technique, talk to them about your technique, watch them, get them to watch you, follow them, get them to follow you, learn from them as much as you can.

Just following someone blindly will not get you very far, but going riding with faster riders can be a massive educational experience, but it is a two way thing for sure.

Don’t let yourself pedal on the downs, ride as if your chain is off. Makes you smoother and more fluid.

Pedalling really does make you slower.

Make sure you’re happy with the bike in every way then work on your skills in technical sections and corners?

A more skillful rider can overcome the lack of fitness. A fit rider won’t necessarily make it around that next corner 🙂

Indeed!

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Sauce knocked himself out cold the first time we rode it on the section that has the three bent, closely spaced trees. Crazy fool thought he could launch off the first drop, bypass the second and land between the last two trees. Might have worked if there wasn’t a rider taking a normal line in front of him 😀

Jimjam disagree. Good riders who are naturally good tend to show their talent from a young age. I.e Bryceland. You can practice till your blue in the face. You’ll only be good in your own sphere/bubble.

Im content in my shitbucket. £200 lessons to me are better off on the beer tab..

Neil Donohue does skills training, or at least he did a couple of years ago.

Me and 2 friends attended one of his days at llandegla, it was ok, but showed that theres absolutely no chance for even a decent mountain biker to be as smooth as he is. The pro’s are a different level to us amateurs – especially 41 year old amateurs like me.

I think part of it is that very few people actually do “proper training”, they go out and “just ride”. That’s great for building a base but nigh on useless for actually working on skills.

The last MTB Skills Day I did, the tutors had a great little circuit – only about 300m but it included a short climb, short descent, bit of singletrack and some corners. That way they could assess everyone and work out weak points without knackering everyone on a long ride.

Then it’s just a case of pushing harder and harder through a corner or over a drop until it’s nailed. The idea of BMX tracks mentioned above is a good one. Trail centres work well for that too where you can just session short loops in a relatively controlled environment.

I need to sort that this winter – done very little MTBing the last few years (mostly road, track and CX) so my off-road skills are sorely lacking at the moment. 🙁

Go see Andy Barlow at Dirt School in Glentress.

He rides hard, fast, finishes well in Enduro races too. Plus he’s an incredible coach.

You won’t know what you’re doing wrong, you need someone to watch you and point out where you can improve.

Andy’s also a master of spotting lined you didn’t think existed.

The Bruce Lee quote said by a previous poster is very true, as in flow with your bike and the trail. Let the bike move underneath you, any little rises don’t let your arms and legs become rigid, the best suspension you’ve got are your limbs. Use any little dip or drop off to pump and gain/keep momentum. Obviously when you can peddle, peddle hard but don’t be to savage on the brakes either. There’s no point in peddling like a madman only to brake like crazy coming into a corner and losing all momentum on the exit. I was lucky enough to tag along with some quick riders at last weekends final round of the pmba gravity enduro and to see those guys practice on the Saturday (and race the day after) was certainly impressive, so quick, smooth but never looking out of control.

Just cut the tape 😈

Serious lack of big hitters on this thread.

Doesn’t need ‘Big Hitters’. To get faster, do one or more of these things:

– Session, don’t ride
– Ride new trails
– Ride different trails
– Hit the uplift at a DH course
– Go to a skills course
– Ride with faster people
– Ride with people just a bit faster than you, follow their lines
– Do enduro races
– Ride your bike a lot
– Get better genes
– Start riding at age 2
– Practice riding 10 minute descents without stopping

Most people pedal too much, pump more, pedal less. Going faster is about eeking out the extra milliseconds through each corner and section, keeping your energy up. Eventually it all comes together and you start knocking off seconds from a run.

Do 2 weeks in Whstler BP on a 160mm.

Listening to specifics on a forum isn’t going to help. See all the generic things I’ve written above.

For the fitness side of things read Faster by Michae Hutchinson. Love that book.

It’s also just basic psychology mixed with natural talent, I never raced DH much, just went along for fun sometimes where as my brother raced and was fast. He spent a year off the bike up until several months ago when I rode the DH section at Cannock Chase, despite being off the bike for ages, he had no second thought at hitting everything there at near to his old race speed on a bike that he was totally unfamiliar with. He had plenty of people watching him ride that day. A few years before that he didn’t think twice about dropping off the big drop at chicksands on a brakeless, rigid, 24 inch dirt jump bike….without a helmet on.

I’m a mild thrill seeker but the gulf between him and me is massive. Combined with the thrill seeking, he has an all or nothing personality and shows innate ability to either turn fear off or compartmentalize it to an extreme degree. He works 18 hour shifts in Michelin star restaurants now, something again that I consider to be thrill seeking and he’s had a history of fighting and getting into trouble for it. He didn’t fight because he got angry, he used to end up in them because he found it entertaining. He’s bright at the same time, so when all this is mixed together….the right psychology combined with a hard working attitude, intelligence, physical strength and good spatial awareness then you end up with a fast rider.

Most of us will never be that, he’s a genuine crazy person who has that mad Guy Martin glint to his eyes.

sounds like you’re quite a lot better than me, so this may not apply:

I need practice, to lose 25 years and I’m short of fitness but I also need better psychology. Every now & then, mostly when I’ve been in the alps riding behind faster riders, I suddenly find that I’ve gone a few hundred metres MUCH faster than I would have if I’d thought about the terrain. It’s a real thing; a guy who was about my standard all week in Les Arcs got “dropped” by me in the space of a couple of bends and asked me afterwards WTF happened there.

I’ve had the same thing when I’ve been skiing a few times too and I bet most people have. Shows you what you can do (and what pretty much any passable equipment is capable of)

This is how I got faster:

– raced more. enduros, xc marathons, 16 in total this year
– bought a 29er, ibis ripley, on which I’ve done all of the above.
– ‘holiday’ for 2 weeks in the alps. Puts stuff in the UK into perspective a bit!!

I’m 43 and riding faster than I ever have in my 25+ years of biking (feels like it anyways)

Ride slower – sit in a group and stay off the pedals, learn to carry speed. Then after a bit of practice you will be sat behind someone pedaling like mad and you are keeping up with no power.
Avoid anything that is going to slow you down, hop it jump it find the smoother line.
Do longer more strenuous descents (both physically and mentally), no matter how good you are you can’t ride well when your hanging.
Focus the fitness – When I’m at my strongest I’m doing more specific solo riding more, last summer was 1hr – 1.5hr blasts round the local singletrack no stops no breaks no taking it easy. Hammering down then heading back up. I was focusing on a multi day event with stages that long.
Stay fit and healthy.

Finally consider the equipment you are using, are you lugging round coil shocks and dual ply rubber because people said you needed it?

This is how I got faster:

– raced more. enduros, xc marathons, 16 in total this year
– bought a 29er, ibis ripley, on which I’ve done all of the above.
– ‘holiday’ for 2 weeks in the alps. Puts stuff in the UK into perspective a bit!!

I’m 43 and riding faster than I ever have in my 25+ years of biking (feels like it anyways)

This guys got it spot on.

This has been a really good thread, interesting to read everyone’s take on the subject and has reminded me that I need to do more sessioning on certain technique things.

So I’d disagree with this…

Listening to specifics on a forum isn’t going to help.

I suspect the OP is familiar enough with STW and its inhabitants to work out who’s on the same wavelength as him and filter out the irrelevant bits.