Wow, great vid there macavity! From the moment I saw you ( assuming it is you ) walking up the track the way you do, I thought there is no way can you ride a bike, but how surprised I was!
No cheesy intros and I’m pretty sure your capable of much more than a wheelie, endo and bunny hop 😉
Well done sir, another talent has flourished.
Oh and I think it’s great getting the dog involved too.. 🙂

Not bad for the average trail centre riders Leo although I’m not too sure people are that bothered about what mud guards they’ve got on, it’s muddy and wet here all the time but we just get on with it. One of my courses I teach consists of riding a ‘bald tyre to learn to cope with wet and demanding trails… not too sure about the opening show off ‘ basic ‘ wheelie, endo and bunny hop, very basic and a tad embarrassing to watch but apart from them few glitches it was enjoyable to watch compared to most these days..well done 🙂

rickon – Member 
^^^ my edit of your post, in the spirit of the season I’m sure this is what you were trying to convey.

Although, everyone – please note, my words do not necessarily represent the views of Richmtbguru, and no warranty is given for incorrect statements given.

Maybe writing and communication aren’t your string points
Lol. Maybe they’re not mine either

POSTED 7 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Hehe, yes, maybe they aren’t yours either! 😉
Nevertheless thanks for taking the time and trying to help make my point a bit clearer.
As I say, I’m not sponsored by met just yet, but I do believe in the safety of my clients and any other mountain bike rider for that matter and I believe the met parachute would be a tremendous contender for enduro riders and maybe even ‘adventure’ riders.

A spare olive, most certainly the easiest of all the above methods.

rickon – Member 
I love it when people recommend kit, its usually because they’re:

A) sponsored by the manufacturer
B) just bought it and need to justify their purchase

Either way, it means I’m not going to buy anything anyone recommends to me in a forum original post, or Facebook ‘look at me’ posts.

POSTED 14 HOURS AGO #

To be honest with you rickon, I am sponsored quite heavily but not with met, I have a Fox flux helmet which is more of a ‘all mountain’ helmet where as the met parachute I would say it’s more toward the enduro side of mountain biking, and as this week I’ve been talking and discussing enduro with my clients I thought it relevant in this thread hence the post, I wish people on here could take this more seriously rather than try insult. 🙄

I always treat every day like a training day be it Christmas or not, you snooze you lose….get my drift..something I was taught in the paras was to cut all ties with what’s going on in society and focus on ‘ the job’ one day of binging and drinking can put you back a few week mentally and physically. This is the time of year to take advantage while the rest of the competition might be slacking off you can be taking the lead, if your as serious as I was 10 year ago while winning most of the races then you must not follow society’s regime and stick with your own, good luck and keep focused.

However, the better you are at biking the more extreme something needs to be to give you the same thrill = more chance of major injury!

This is the difference between two mindsets, one simply doesn’t look at the negatives of what ifs while the other does,, something that can be changed with the right tuition.

Confidence is the key here, and also confidence comes once you trust your own bike handling skills. So how do we go about this then some will say,,, Well, the first thing I teach my clients is that a positive mind is a good place to start in mountain biking, to know that you WILL get better with practice, the second important skill is to learn the art of visualization, I’ve gone down tracks before that would possibly seem impossible to ride even by an experienced downhiller, I get looked at in astonishment by walkers who simply think I’m crazy riding down certain alpine tracks, this isn’t crazy it’s just my mind skills are more ‘open’ to opportunity than most riders, instead of visualising the track as you see it, try to make it less rocky, perhaps make it less steep, stay loose and ‘feel’ your bike float over the technical bits, I guarantee you it works if you believe it works, for advanced mountain bike skills the mind is the most important tool 🙂
Keep your eyes out for my up and coming book which will soon be out after Christmas called ‘something to believe in’ good luck with the learning and have fun on the way! Always wear your helmet.

ononeorange – Member
The finned pads seem really expensive – are there any bargains out there with normal pads?

Also, can Shimano brakes be (easily) bled? Never touched ’em before but have ended up with a set by accident on an ex-demo bike.

POSTED 52 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

First off, what a fantastic psa!
Ok, yes Shimano brakes are very easy to bleed once you have been tuitioned correctly into hydraulic systems..I will give you a little tip…it’s a lot easier to fill the funnel then open the bleed nipple and let it slowly bleed it’s self out naturally then tighten the bleed nipple and pump the lever a few time to pump out trapped air. There are quite a few ways to bleed hydraulic systems but my clients tell me this is by far the easiest for them to grasp, also once bled take the yellow spacer out undo the bleed nipple and slowly pull the lever half way down then tighten the bleed nipple and slowly return the lever. This just gives a better bite as xt brakes have quite a close to the bar bite. Hope this helps. Also just out of interest, I give this a 2 spanner out of five for maintenance bike skill level on my course. 🙂

Some very good tips here that I also practice on one of my courses, and that is why I have rebumped it. 🙂
Turning the bike upside and then over again to check if there is any air still in the system is an old favourate of mine, wonder if you got this method from one of my courses, great if you did! 🙂

Great discount too.

Bump for the morning crowd, fantastic product that works extremely well 🙂

munrobiker – Member
It’s just downhill racing but you have to ride to the top. I’ve done a few and enjoyed them but I don’t “get” it. There’s never enough uphill for fitness to make any difference so you may as well do a DH race, especially with the cost of the UK Gravity series.

I’ve found that, since they’re “the riding everyone does anyway”, instead of paying to do a ride I’d do anyway I just ride my bike somewhere the race isn’t on and the effect is much the same- rad trails, twiddle back to the top, repeat. They’re a laugh. Try one, lots of people seem to love them.

POSTED 21 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Very strange thing to say about the fitness side of it, tbh I would say you need a lot more fitness on these events than skill although a good 50/50 balance will have you up there at the top. If you want more fitness then do a Xc race?

I think your doing the right thing in reporting it to strava IF you genuinely think you haven’t earned it by a genuine time, there is a lot of inaccuracy with strava and also cheats by using the digital epo and it’s really disheartening having a kom taken off you because of one of the mentioned ways, I have well over 100 koms now and it rises every time I go out on the bike, but occasionally I’ll get that dreaded email saying someone’s knocked me off which if you had a look at my record you’d know they must have cheated to do this! I just report it to strava and 9 times out of 10 I’m back in my deserved place 🙂
Anyway, good to here your using strava, it will push you to be a better all around athlete. 🙂

Anyway, keep your answers coming in, infact ask anybody you know that’s into biking what they think about the best biking magazine, perhaps they use to buy them but now don’t due to the recession, or perhaps they stopped buying them since online websites came along, whatever, it all helps toward my survey, thanks. 🙂

ton – Member
I find em all crap.

only so much can be written about bikes, hence why they are all repetitive boretastic.

POSTED 10 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

There’s so much to the biking scene than just bikes themselves ton, I think you need to open your eyes to it.

nickc – Member
having had my own centre spread in mbr you would think I’d choose that.

swoon

POSTED 8 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

Haha, yes, this was back in the day when I did most of my guiding, I was approached by a member of the mbr team, it was kind of like a mini biography encompassing some of my great expeditions

Viruses can both cause asthma episodes and make people with asthma more sensitive to other asthma triggers.

Viral triggers include:

The rhinovirus (common cold)
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
Certain flu viruses,

It really should be taken with extreme caution drac. We were really pushed to the max while para training and so obviously this is something I saw frequently.

no riding at all for fear of it having been a viral infection.

This is very good advise.
I did some medical training while in the army, and one thing I learnt a lot was how easy it is to get asthma when one pushes themselves while thinking they only have a cold! Please do NOT listen to that nonsense of people saying “I’ll sweat it out” you can not sweat a virus out. If you feel it on your chest or have a cough with it then please rest it out another couple of weeks, I used to do a lot of fell running and competed quite a lot, even though I aren’t a ‘runner’ I used it as a training tool for my riding and rowing, I’d always finish at my worst the top 5 but one year I knew I didn’t feel right, right from the start I felt quite bad but being an ex para is something they drum into you to forget about pain and so I just kept running, I managed to finish top 10 but later that day got sent straight to hospital suffering from hypothermia! Take it easy out there.

Hi there forums, and a big welcome… well I hope I can give you some valuable advice about the mountain bike world, you have most certainly come to the right place! 🙂

Even this seem contentious and I’ve had mixed advice and result. Flat corners: right on. But specifically why is it important to find more grip on a banked corner than is already conferred by the banking?

Sorry I mis read, and you are totally right about being level on the banked berms is ok but not good practice, I just had flat berms in mind, my fault, sometimes even we get it wrong, but only because I completely mis read, yes a banked berm at speed will have a gravitational affect… Really sorry but I still feel a little upset at how Rorschach spoke to me earlier, especially thinking he we being sincere to start with. 🙁

Rorschach – Member
Yeah….no actually.
Could’nt find an ironic face,I’m also of the opinion that you’re an ego maniacal socio path.

POSTED 17 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

🙁
I think I will be pressing the report button..you also need help with your literacy!

Rorschach – Member
Paging Richmtbguru ,paging Richmtbguru.Mr Guru to the forum please.

POSTED 10 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Thanks, Rorschach, it’s nice to know someone has faith in my abilities 🙂

Ok then, let’s start this off by saying that theoretically speaking your outside foot on a berm shouldn’t be level but facing down with a good percentage of your body weight pressing down for grip.
Realistically speaking especially with tracks getting more and more technical this isn’t always possible, ie, rocks and roots might be poking out and it might require a quick shifty of the cranks.
I would say that in general your good foot would be the one forward when doing jumps, drops and even going around berms 🙂
The best thing to do is practice this procedure, but also practice with the ‘wrong’ foot forward as well, sounds strange but it is good practice getting used to both feet forward as when being forced into it on a technical descent you will still feel stable on the bike, Go, try it for yourself! I’ve taught this way to a lot of up and coming downhillers, it’s a vital tool for downhillers! Keep safe, and always wear your helmet. 🙂

Always remember winning a race years ago when my chain snapped, thought I’d never make it to the finish line but persistence and a positive mind spurred me on, couldn’t believe it but sometimes a good core position and pumping is far better than pedaling and not having the flow, sometimes it is good to take the chain off on purpose and learn to pump down a track…maybe I should be doing this on certain courses I teach.. 💡

Hmmm… Very surprised at how nobody has mentioned the obvious! 🙄
Over 90% of the reason we get punctures is purely down to riding styles, the main key here is to stay loose and light on the bike, try ‘skim’ over the rocks instead of riding ‘through’ them.
I’ve been teaching bike skills for a long time now and this is one of the basics I go through with my clients, always stay ‘positive’ and visualise skimming over.
Another lesson I always go through with my clients is to do what I call the bald tyre riding technique which forces the learner to control the back end without having to rely on ‘grip’ this is also good for learning to drift properly, I cover this aspect of riding in one of my advanced courses, please do NOT try this on your own! Make sure to have a highly skilled mtb instructor with you and always wear full body armour for this one, and a helmet but that goes without saying! Good luck. 🙂

Ok, first off Chris, good to know your not going to be letting the chance slip! 😆
Secondly, because your not taking your own bike, step it down a gear!
This is vital, especially if you’ve never ridden a downhill bike before, it WILL give you so much more confidence, but be aware you will be going at faster speeds because of it so make sure to wear full body armour, full face helmet, neck brace if you can, and leg and elbow pads.
Plus one for setting up the brakes how you feel comfortable with, it’s your bike for the day remember! 🙂
Make sure to ask someone at the hire shop to set up the suspension for your weight and riding style, above
all else, enjoy yourself! Stay positive but play safe! 🙂

I would just like to point out, that whilst the most of you were too busy slagging off my talents, last night I received another two koms, I’m turning all this negative energy into positive, something I was trained to do so in the army. I’m sorry there is so many doubters, but doubt all you want, I’ve been places with my life! 🙂

Very surprised by some of the negative comments! It’s know wonder some of you struggle out on the trails with such a negative mind.. I’ve been in this sport all my life and contributed towards it, I would even go as far as saying I could have even made an impact on it, I’ve taught young up and coming professionals. Jeez I’ve even given friendly constructive advice on here, how the hell is that trolling!!!
Maybe it’s just because I’m a positive person and got far in this industry and made lots of achievements, you should all try being positive, you might start enjoying this sport more! 🙄

Ok, where do I start….well the general video is ok, but there is improvement to be made on the riding, not that your as bad as some are saying! just ignore the negative feedback as this will not do your confidence any good what so ever! The first thing that I always stress to my clients is positive thinking, this is the key factor in any competitive sport. I’ll talk about that more though in my up and coming peaks pootle ride out thread I have arranged which will give singletrackers the chance to ride out with me and chat about certain aspects of mountain biking that might be bothering them.
Ok, well the second aspect of your riding I would re-evaluate would would be your core positioning, I would suggest core excersize workouts which will help a great deal towards this, are you a tall rider by any chance? This is something I see a lot with tall riders, there is certain body positioning on a bike that tall riders can gain advantage by using, again I will go into this more on my next thread which is coming up in the near future.
One more thing before I go, is one of them descents your going down in coedybrenin by any chance? If it is, I think I got the kom on strava, fantastic track though! 🙂

bikeind – Member
I do no agree with Richmtbguru !!

Its fair to say you would be better having them serviced by the professionals mojo Or TF or the bikes shops qualified for this!
I always always recommend this to my customers

POSTED 3 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

It’s important that riders themselves learn how to maintain their forks properly, as they need servicing ever 15 hours of riding, so do you really expect people to send them to mojo every time? Come on, please! 🙄
I give my clients, the chance to learn how to do practical tasks like this in my lessons, depending on which course they choose.

scott_mcavennie2 – Member
Strava is not the place to prove you are quick, as it can be jigged, saying this I make a kom every time I go out on the bike, I never bothered using strava until one of my clients recommended me using it, a few of my clients would always tell me how fast I was on the bike, I never told them I could have been a pro!
My recent stat is 1/6547, this was a climb the same day I came 1/4299 on descent, this is a regular pattern,
I’m very passionate about my riding and have never had anyone overtake me on a climb or descent.
I have over 300 koms since being on strava 8 month ago, needless to see why I teach mountain bike skills!
Obviously you are right – Strava is not the place to prove you are quick – endlessly bragging on a mountain bike forum is the place.

You’re the guy off the ‘faster than you’ video aren’t you?

POSTED 4 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

I’m just passionate about my riding, what is so bragging about that?
One thing I always try drum into my clients head is confidence, confidence is where it starts and if you think I’m bragging then your far from wrong, it’s called positive thinking, you should try it and maybe you might get some koms!

Euro- because I too believe in a great product that works well, but far too many riders are too lazy to take the time to service them which is only a 15 min job done right, this is something I teach in one of my courses, you’d be surprised how many people say “if only i’d have known how easy it was” done properly fox forks are the most reliable out there.

but theres no way Id pay full RRP on them absolute rip off, did everyone in the shop pay full price?

Premium price for premium goods, isn’t that how it is? :roll:Why would you want to settle for second best when you can have the cream for just a little bit more.

I always recommend fox forks to all my clients, it also teaches them to learn how to maintain their forks, this is good practice especially when they take my stage two course which consists of alpine riding where being caught out by failing forks can be costly, a good service every 15 hours is essential and not very hard to do, quick seal check/clean and a change of oil really shouldn’t be hard to do for a premium fork, I show riders how they can complete this task in less than 15mins. 🙂

Strava is not the place to prove you are quick, as it can be jigged, saying this I make a kom every time I go out on the bike, I never bothered using strava until one of my clients recommended me using it, a few of my clients would always tell me how fast I was on the bike, I never told them I could have been a pro! 😆
My recent stat is 1/6547, this was a climb the same day I came 1/4299 on descent, this is a regular pattern,
I’m very passionate about my riding and have never had anyone overtake me on a climb or descent.
I have over 300 koms since being on strava 8 month ago, needless to see why I teach mountain bike skills! 🙂

I would say, use strava as a training tool but don’t let it spoil a good ride. Without sounding big headed I do ha ve 9 out of 10 koms around my area and the only reason I don’t have them all is I think the trails have changed since I did them, resurfacing etc, but I don’t go out to achieve a kom, I simply use strava as a training tool and something I tell my clients to use to gauge there performance.

A very good topic, one that I always emphasize my clients to master before going on to my stage three course which consists of level two alpine descents, a skill which is necessary in some of my descents I take them down..
First off, you must be positively focused and feeling confident, I always tell my clients it’s all in the head and once you’ve visualized and mastered it in your head you can then move forward to the practical test…
So, first off one of the main keys in mountain biking is to stay loose, composed, remember the key here is visualize!…I’ll be back later to let you know the second part! ➡

oliverd1981 – Member
Serpentine is a nice run no matter what your skill level but you do have to respect the mixture of abilities you’ll find on that sort of trail. It’s not the kind of trail most people would do lots of laps of as It’s quite long and the lift queues can be epic.

The way Chatel bike park is laid out gives you a lot of options for the second half of the hill, but a lot of the reds (and all of the blacks) on the top section of the park are quite challenging – if you’re not on your game or you just want to preserve your arms/brakes/tyres it’s not a bad idea to “poach” one of the easier trails, but respect it for what it is.

“Stormtrooper” is just a outfit – not a mindset. It’s the kids in wife-beaters and neck braces you need to watch.

POSTED 2 DAYS AGO # REPORT-POST

I would have to disagree with you there, I always ensure my clients wear full protective gear to start with especially when they choose the upgraded skills course which involves ridding alpine descents, the key with mountain biking is ‘confidence’ once they feel confident they then have the mental tools to take a positive aproach to riding something they would normally feel is way out of there level, with a positive attitude they will then be focusing and have mental visions of successfully clearing that double or drop or even a technical section. I would say over 97% of my clients feel a massive confidence boost when wearing full protective gear,
I only ever wear a helmet, but I ride well within my capabilities 🙂
Even though I get told to slow down all the time! 😆

Tony, I used to row in the army, could have quite easily made the Olympic team, this alone will tone most of the body muscles without lifting weights which would just bulk you up! Unless you did more reps but you’d be still only isolating your muscle groups, rowing gets the lot while also good for cardio, I was also a gym instructor in the forces.

ndthornton – Member
Hmm- I tend to find my crashes are bigger and more painful on smoother bermy runs compared to super steep, gnarly natural ones. Reason for this is the speeds you can achieve are so much greater.

I like to ride on the edge whatever Im riding so crashes are inevitable (especially since my surname isn’t Atherton) whether im doing 8mph down super techy rock garden or 20+ mph down dusty man made berms – but you’re more likely to find me wearing a full face lid on the “easier” runs than the more technical ones.

On the topic of full face helmets…..
The only time iv ever been thankful of a chin guard was doing the blue run at Alpe d’Huez. The track is smooth and bermy so I was nailing it but lost it on a dusty berm – crash happened so quick my face was in the dirt before I even realized I was off the bike. Conversely crashing on gnarly technical stuff I find I always have time to put my hands up to protect my face – so don’t bother with full face and often ride without pads at all.

Hmmm, perhaps your not riding the berms properly, also, if you have time to put your hands on your face when you fall off down steep technical terrain then I really don’t think your going fast enough, many of my clients tell me I ride too fast over technical ground but in actual fact this will help you ‘skim’ over things much easier.
I’m thinking about doing some skills coaching soon, keep an eye out for my up coming thread where I’ll give Singletrackers the chance to ride with me, thinking maybe a peaks pootle get together.

I used to take some of my clients down the serpentine, let me tell you, it’s a great way for them to improve their skills, as using the berms to pump and increase your speed without the need for pedaling, I always ensure they wear full protective gear not only for the main reason of safety but also for one that is is very much over looked, ‘confidence’ this is the main key to building skills on the bike, and when your armoured up you feel confident…