UK BIKE SKILLS

Jedi, what level of riding will you be coaching at the new skills area at Herts?

travis, good to hear that it's coming together 🙂

fair play to Jedi for making a living/few quid of out of something he/we enjoy. But to me riding bikes well is…….

riding crappy bikes as kids, everywhere, all the time, you buy a bmx you maybe race it, ride street, park etc, you get a bit older, women kinda get in the way a bit but you still keep riding your bikes, everything else almost becomes secondary to riding bikes after a while-stuff seems to fit around it.
You buy a mountain bike when your knees are too knackered for bmx, you get a hardtail and learn the trade-line choice, corning punch, you get a DH bike and learn to hang it out a bit and jump like you used to jump your bmx all those years ago only faster and further moto style. Forest centres spring up, you go and ride flat out round blind corners knowing there's no horse riders on the other side. You buy a XC and puke on the climbs. You sell the full sus bike knowing your only fooling yourself and you want that mix of wheelie, drift, and punch that only hardtails give outta berms.

You figure out why you cant get thru that berm any quicker, you go back and do it again, and again, and again. You make yourself understand what your weight does. You will crash, if you body dosnt show the scars of crashes you aint learn the hard way. You will hang up on double jumps and send yourself over the bars, fall off logs, and loop out backwards doing wheelies You'll destroy £1000's of bits in the process and buy crap because the ad campaign told you to. You'll covert peices of tube hand welded together in sheds.

You'll get to the bottom of a flat out Alpine descent with smoking brakes and a red hot shock, or ride the steepest loosest rock skree ever, its almost like that Monday morning drive to work on auto pilot. all those thousands of little bike corrections, body movements, subtle weight shifts, line choice, balance. They happened-you didnt think to make them happen……they just did

…..they're in there stored from years of riding.

Anything less is……

cheating?

Or just less painful and much cheaper…. Jedi – are you near / coaching at GT for much longer?

RustyNissanPrairie – Member

cheating?

I disagree with this entirely, I'm nearly 40, started jumping on a chipper (small chopper) when I was 9, went on to bmx, got into MTB when I was 19, and have ridden all the time since then, and my experience is exactly what you describe above. But a day with Jedi opened new doors. Its not cheating, it's using your resources to your advantage.

I agree Toys19 – it ain't cheating. What RNP is saying maybe true for a small percent of riders who are happy with their riding but most people even those on the top of their game use coaches to get the most out of what is possible.

I'd not give a set of skis to someone and say off you go! or give some car keys to someone and say the same.

But each to their own, if you can't see the benefit of coaching then you probably won't benefit, but those with an open mind will find the value and lots of it.

user removed, im at gt til wednesday next week.

coaching isn't for everyone. being happy with your riding is most important.
wether or not that involves coaching is up to the rider.

🙂

RNP – and what happens if you come late to MTB (like me)?

I'd love to have built up years of experience but realistically that isn't going to happen anytime soon (if ever). Meanwhile I don't see the fun in trailing along at the back of the pack due to lack of skills/know how.

Life really is to short not to enjoy it and if a skills course helps fair enough. Cheating doesn't come into it IMO.

bumley, sorry i missed your question.
when i get the herts skills area built fully, it will be for all levels from the ground up 🙂

bumley – I saw the skills area tony is building and had a play on it. It stands to be a very good set-up. As seems with all his creations it has been very well thought of. You also will also get to see Herts Shore which is a sight to behold!!

glad you enjoyed your visit to herts shore tim. 🙂

i can't see what is wrong in sharing the fact you had a good time and it's helped your riding, i've not done a session with Tony but i've met him and his enthusiasm for riding and life comes across massively if he put half of that into his coaching it must be fab

Jedi is one of us, a rider of bikes and a forum member, i say we support him not shout him down for doing something he clearly loves and could benefit many of us

5thumbs – Member

RNP – and what happens if you come late to MTB (like me)?

I'd love to have built up years of experience but realistically that isn't going to happen anytime soon (if ever). Meanwhile I don't see the fun in trailing along at the back of the pack due to lack of skills/know how.

Life really is to short not to enjoy it and if a skills course helps fair enough. Cheating doesn't come into it IMO.

Yup – what he says ^

I only started riding a few years ago. I never had the luxury of a childhood full of riding and have had to learn most stuff from scratch as an adult….so I'm working really hard to catch up with those lucky enough to have started from a young age and need all the help I can get

Even if it is 'cheating' at least I am trying to get the most out of my riding (and life!) before I'm too old to appreciate throwing myself down mountains.

There is very little more frustrating than being limited in what you can ride due to a poor skill set.

In addition – repetition may have been the way you learnt, but I've seen many riders who have been on bikes for decades, but have ingrained bad habits from repeating said habits rather than developing the skills they need. RNP – I guess you're one of the naturally gifted lucky ones.

i can't see how a skills course is cheating, it's learning or topping up, i thought MTBing was a friendly open pastime, this smacks of the roadie thing of "earning" your spot in a club and all the elitism that goes with it and IMO doesn't have a place in MTBing

getting to work by car is cheating if you had a driving lesson 🙂

[old joke]Do you offer skills courses on how to ride down The Beast?[/old joke]

riding with a bust leg didnt help.
washed out rather than crashed dude 🙂

I rode to school until the age of 17 (on a racer and I spent as little time on the bike as possible )Got into a car for the next 15 years.

Fast-forward those 15 years to a fat, seriously unfit me who bought a "Land rover Corazon" to get to work on. After all that time, it was hard work, I can tell you

I was invited out with a few guys from work to go out on the local trails a few months later, and although I broke the bike, I had an ACE time and I have been upgrading (and downgrading) since.

I dont have this wealth of experience to fall back on so a bit of Skills tuition is perfect for me…