- This video is all about correcting some mistakes
that might be slowing you down.
You might not realize you're doing them.
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Rock gardens, braking bumps and rooty sections
can really give your arms and suspension
a proper workout, sometimes you can just bash through
on the mainline or racing line, but actually you might
not realize that all that sort of up and down
is robbing you of forward motion and speed.
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This is quite a good section here where
you can see the mainline down the middle
it's quite rough, I mean not crazy
but a bit braking bumpy and actually just getting
off the mainline, it might be a longer way round
but if it's that much smoother, it's going to be faster
and less tiring, another one here, can you see where
the root dips away, there's actually quite a big hole
there on the backside of that root.
So rather than bash into that stone the other side,
I'm going to use a little hop and weight up an over
get slightly inside that corner and save a bit of energy
and hopefully go a little bit faster.
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The amount of grip you've got can really change
from trail to trail, from day to day obviously
from dry to wet, type of dirt you're riding,
so it's good to have a really good idea
of how much grip you've got.
Now there's a few different ways of doing this, but when
I race downhill, what we try and do is either do a little
skid or do a little cutty, obviously try and be careful
where you do this, you don't want to start wrecking trails,
but just try and do it on a bit of dirt, even if it's on the
fire road, but the same dirt you're going to ride on,
and you'll have a really good grip, just a little skid,
get the backend out and try and feel for when it starts
to grip again, racing downhill sometimes it could
be a couple of hours at least between practice
and then your race runs, so it's definitely
a good idea to sort of get a gauge
of how much grip there is.
You can see the top part of this track
is kind of clayie, there's lots of support in there
and nice and tacky, loads of grip.
While in this section you can see how it's sort of fluffy
and dusty it is, I mean you're going to drift in that
and it's not going to give you as much support
and potentially the tires you've got on
aren't going to work as well in this section.
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Moving on from rough sections but staying on the theme
of line choice, actually riding the mainline
could be slowing you down.
To move in a couple of feet over to this side,
is pretty simple, you can see a lot of people
do use it anyway, so it's not crazy off the mainline,
a lot of people use this, but actually coming this way
it's going to really straighten out the next
sort of 40 foot of track.
To go down that gully,
you going to have to weave right then left.
If you come here, sets you up to go straight down,
just a couple of simple skills just a bit of a drop off
over here, but I am going to need quite a critical bunny hop
to then straighten on the next bit,
so if I hit that rock, I'm in trouble.
So just by coming off the mainline, means I can come
straight into this section, but now it's kind of dodgy,
so all you'd need now is a little hop
and then I'm straight into the next bit,
saved a lot of space having to weave all the way round there
and that is going to be quicker.
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The comfort of dragging your brakes is something
that you might forget you're doing quite a lot,
I know I do.
Having the brakes on just a bit through fast corners
can make you feel a lot safer, but it's not always needed
and it's definitely going to slow you down.
That's what brakes do.
I think this is a hard one to overcome, you need
to challenge yourself, brake into the corner if you need to
and then dare yourself to come off them
it should give you more grip, because you're not then
asking your tires to grip in two directions
just around the corner.
This one does take a bit of overcoming so you might
have to concentrate on it.
Being cautious is a good thing and crashing
could be pretty serious.
But try to arm yourself with some know how
and you can push yourself a bit faster.
Following a mate who knows the trails can help
you push a bit more.
If you're naturally a bit cautious, this can be harder
to overcome, I would try and push yourself just a little bit
every time you ride and see if that helps.
Get some mountain bike coaching, I know I would say that,
I'm an ex coach, but I think getting someone to look
at your riding and let you know what you're already doing
well and then other ways to improve
is really going to help your confidence.
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Wrong bike setup is definitely going to rob you of speed,
now we could probably talk an hour on bike setup,
but get yourselves over to GMBN and Tech where
Doddy and Henry can bore you to death stroke
really help you over there, I am taking the mickey,
sorry those boys are really helpful,
they'll help you setup your bike from the front
to the back, but I think the number one cause
of wrong setup is probably tire choice.
Now I know they're expensive so people often buy one set
and then just ride them to death
and then replace them again, but having the right
tire choice for the conditions you ride in
are definitely going to make you faster.
But I'm definitely guilty of this myself to be honest
because I don't really change my tires as much as I used
to between seasons and if it rains, if it's dry,
because I don't really want the faff of getting
tubeless sealant everywhere and all that stuff,
I'd rather just stick with a set of tires
that I know is pretty good all round
but it is costing me speed.
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Cross country races are looking for that magic combination
of grip versus roll and resistance with our tires.
And different bikes a full suspension or hardtail
depending on capability
and balancing the offset of the weight.
Downhill races of changing tires, geometry, suspension
all the time to try and get that perfect bike
for that track where hundredths of seconds count.
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Getting off line in corners,
this one drives me absolutely nuts, nothing more
annoying that when you're trying to go fast and be smooth,
then feeling like you're going to go over the back
of every single corner, having to grab your brakes
and then readjust your line.
This doesn't normally lead to a big crash,
it's just super annoying, I really think looking around
the corner is the big help for this one.
I think this skill is one that really evaporates
if you don't ride your bike for a while you lose it
so get on your bike, keep looking down the trail,
you'll nail those lines hopefully,
also braking in the corner is probably going to stand
your bike up and actually make it worse, so try
and look round the corner and commit to your line.
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There's some common mistakes a lot of people make
that slow them down, myself included I do loads of those.
Most of those I think will improve just by riding
your bike a bit more, but a bit of practice
never hurt anybody, if you want to see Blake teaching
me how to do a tuck no hander
click up there, top of the screen, bottom of the screen
for Blake's video, How To look Like A Pro.
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