(upbeat music)
- Pedalling a regular cadence will help you
to ride smoothly.
By that, I mean trying to keep
a good average power through the peddles
rather than power surges or trying to use too big a gear.
(tires riding over gravel)
Most of us have probably
a slightly different preferred natural cadence.
It's a matter of trying to change gear all times,
you stay at that same speed.
Keep in a smooth pattern circle,
pushing down and scooping out with your feet
will mean that you use your leg muscles
as equally as possible,
and let you go further without get tired or cramping.
But also it'll help you keep grip on your rear wheel
and climb up slippery terrain easier.
A much more consistent power than spiky surges.
Part of spinning in smooth circles
is learning to read the trails
so you change gear early
and actually change gear quite a lot of the time
just so you don't risk grinding to a halt
or crunching your gears when you do get into a punchy climb.
But also, you get used to a regular cadence.
So you know when your feet
and your peddles getting close to the floor
because often peddle strike, hitting rocks,
hitting stumps can cause big crashes.
(upbeat music)
Learning how each brake, independently, front or rear,
affects the balance and grip on the bike
is something that when you master
really differentiates many bikers
from the rest of the world of cyclists.
(gravel crunching)
Just try riding around in a slow circle,
grabbing that front brake.
Obviously that really wrenches at the handle bars.
That's a bit of an exaggeration
but imagine riding around a corner
and pulling the front brake,
how that affects your grip.
Draging the rear brake around corners
can actually make the bike feel a bit more stable.
But obviously if you had a bit more speed
and bit of a lean that turns into a skid.
(bike tires skidding)
And you can actually use that on the trail,
obviously sparingly, so you don't want to be
ripping up trails
but for getting into real tight corners,
a bit loose,
just givin' it a bit too much rear brake
can help you get around that tight corner.
It's actually quite common to see
beginner riders goin' over the bars
just from the front brake,
'cause the front brakes, disc brakes,
are so good now.
So it takes a while to learn to respect that front brake
and know when and where to use it,
but also situations it might be better
to get off the brakes completely.
Sometimes where it's really slippy,
it's best to just look at tryin' to get around the corner
where I'm tryin' to brake at the same time.
That can be quite scary.
(upbeat music)
Looking is such an easy skill to think about
but I think it's quite a hard one to master
so you do it all the time.
But it really helps in corners,
tryin' to look to where you want to come out of it.
And then when going down a trail,
even up a trail, tryin' to look to the next section
so you can change gear before you get there.
Get a wide line, whatever smooths out that trail.
The old saying is, look at where you want to be
not at what you don't want to hit.
See that big hard tree on the axis of that corner?
Yes, well that's coming your way.
Look at the good line comin' out of the corner
or the smooth line through the horrible technical bit
and hopefully that's where you'll go.
Don't forget to relax and breathe when it gets scary.
It's natural to panic and freeze
but it's not going to help.
Try to look and breathe.
(upbeat music)
Not exactly an essential skill
but hopefully as you get hooked by riding
your fitness is going to improve quite quickly
and it's really going to help your riding skills
'cause you can ride fresher for longer.
Even experienced riders get tired
near the end of a big ride
and that's where a lot of crashes and accidents can happen.
So as you get fitter hopefully you'll stay more composed
all the way through the ride.
Your arms and legs will stay strong enough
for that massive compression at the end of the ride.
And hopefully you'll ride smoother or further
and enjoy it more and that's what it's all about.
(upbeat music)
Probably the most common mistake with new riders
is not moving their body weight around enough of the bike
but sometimes that's made worse
because they get their weight in the wrong position
at the wrong time and a crash happens
and then that really stops people
from wanting to move around as much as they did before.
Let's start with the ready position,
the neutral position, whatever you want to call it,
(mumbles) position, basically standing tall on the bike,
a slight bit of bend in your knees and arms
not a huge amount, you need to stand nice and strong
to get ready to move your weight around.
Try to think about moving your weight around the bike
from your feet,
so when you're in the middle of the bike (mumbles)
my feet are quite flat on the peddles.
To go to the back just dip your heels
right down to the rear wheel.
And to go off of forward you dip your toes slightly
but actually there aren't many times
when your shoulders should come in front of the bar
so that's pretty much the limit of your movement.
All this movin' around helps you react to the terrain.
Just learning when to do it and how much
will come with experience,
but most new riders don't move enough
so don't be scared to push it a bit.
Nail these five skills and then it's time to move on
and start thinking about lifting the bike
up and off the ground
and mastering corners into a comfortable
sliding the bike around and shreddin'.
Two videos to help you out with those skills
just over there.
If you haven't subscribed already, do it!
There's a video every day to help you out.
Loads of skills videos,
loads of features.
Also hit the bell and it'll let you know
when the next video comes up.
Give us a thumbs up as well, cheers.