hello today we're taking it back to the basics here are some really simple skills
you can practice anywhere you don't even need a trail and these will make you a better Rider
right let's start with the absolute Basics the ready position so when you're rolling along on
the trail standing nice and Tall but with a slight Bend in your knee what you've got to
remember is your legs are much stronger than your arms so this is where you want to control the bike
learn to soak up the bumps make sure that even the array position you're looking nice and forward and
your heels are slightly dropped on the pedals two simple things to check here as well your
foot position so the ball of your foot is just in front of the axle or very near the axle of
your pedal that'll put you in a nice neutral position slightly flat or heel down if you're
too far on your toes or if you're in flippers pedals and your cleats too far forward you'll
find your foot won't start dipping toe down which isn't ideal but it's okay so try and get your foot
flat or slightly heel down and then second thing is brake lever position if when you're standing up
nice and tall you're reaching right round to grab onto your levers and they can bring your arms on
top of the bars I'd rather have them slightly higher so your rest rests rest slightly behind
the bars simple right standing up with your feet level ready to ride so what everyone knows that's
how you mountain bike but what we're now looking to practice is using that range of movement so
going from that ready position to slightly up and forward then all the way down and back so
that your bum almost touches your rear wheel that's where a lot of people don't quite get
used to how far they can move over the back of the bike if you've got a dropper post make sure
it's down out of the way so you've got all that space to move around and if you're an intermediate
Rider trying to get really good then actually learning how much space you've got will make a
big difference when it comes to Jumping doing bigger drop-offs and riding gnarlier trails
okay right now you can use that space to get some really effective braking working
now what you need to do is as you apply both the brakes start moving back behind the bike
I've kind of talked about it a little bit ready just dropping your heels and getting behind the
bars means that when you hit the brakes the weight's going into the bike whereas
if you're too flat with your feet or on top of the bars hit the brakes and you know that
horrible feeling of the bat we'll go in light your weight coming up and forward if the bat
Wheels light it's not doing any stopping but also there's a chance you can go over the bars this
is a really common mistake staying too Central means that you won't be able to slow down fast
moving it on from the break-ins getting down and low and really effective stopping a good
brake control we're actually going to kind of do some of the signs kind of wrong so it's basically
staying too far forward and using too much front brake is actually going to start lifting the rear
wheel and that can be really useful once you get to mastering how each brake affects the way your
bike rides in the UK we use our right brake lever actually for the front brake which is different
to most the rest of the world I don't know why the same as motorbikes so it kind of makes sense
so actually it's really learning to control your front brake so make sure you know which one's your
front brake like I say stand in the middle of the bike and just grabbing a bit of front brake making
sure there's some weight on the front tire will then lift the rear wheel if you're too far back
your front wheel is just going to skid and that's pretty uncontrollable so it's weight in the front
wheel and getting used to how good your front brake is and to start to lift the rear wheel off
the ground when you've got a hang of that you can start using it for for tricks for what you call
stoppies where you Roll Along on the front wheel just using your front brake but actually it's more
useful for getting around really tight Corners in the trail now you do have to be a bit careful
with this one obviously front brakes can be a bit dangerous probably skid that's not good but also
if you grab that front brake and it grips really well and your brakes really good you can start
getting over the bars which is not good it's no fun but you're sort of safety net with this one
is if you're going too high with the Ando you just let go of the front brake uh I ideally you
get really good at modulating your front brakes you can get a feel for it and if you're not going
as high as you'd like you pull it a bit more and again if you're going too hard let go of it and
you'll roll out of it if you keep that front brake on obviously you pull it hard enough to the rear
wheel lifts and then you hold it on you might just do an endo which is what you call it when you sort
of do a rear wheel lift and you stop and then your rear wheel drops down like I say if you just then
let it off as your reel starts dropping you'll roll out of it really nicely and it really does
feel good this when you start to think oh is that I know exactly how well my front brake Works how
good my front tire is and then it becomes really useful for riding a really technical terrain those
really tight Corners when you need a bit of help to get Ryan those really horrible switchbacks okay
this is moving it on slightly from the beginner basic skills but if you commit to a turn and then
do the end so that's when you can start using it on the Titus the corners it's an endo turn
to master at the end though turn or the nose pivot roll into the Endo but drop your shoulder to one
side as you pull the front brake and swing your feet around keep your weight forwards
as the bike swings round you'll probably only make it to about 90 degrees to begin
with but keep trying and you might be able to get it all the way around to 180 degrees
let's finish off with a super easy fun little exercise you can do just try and practice all
these things at once do it with the mate as well if you can't a bit more fun you can try and push
each other off sticks and markers down on the ground I've got some gloves and a GoPro and a
jacket and just weave around them so super slow good for practicing your balancing skills but
also you might need to throw in some Endo turns a bit of uh drop in your outside foot and getting
the bite Lent over try and get around all those obstacles like I say give it a go super easy don't
need anywhere to do it and hopefully it's going to make you a better Rider this is very tight
I'm useless Endo in left you will see I can turn in because I ride leffert
forward I can actually pivot rounds to my right a bit better there you go
it's really hard to keep them out
oh thank you
pressing your corner in on somewhere nice and flat is actually a really good and easy way of
doing it so most people when they turn a mountain bike will actually stay quite in line with their
bike meaning that when they turn the bars and lean in actually kind of hips stay above the
saddle and away they go turning an arc but if you can start angling the bike over beneath you and
your weight staying fairly sort of upright into the outside of the bike that can be a
really effective way of corner especially when it comes to loose flat turns where there isn't
much grip you can angle your bike over and make it do the corner and it's going to want to lean
in and carve a tighter Apex and then if you feel like you're going too tight you can then pick
the bike up there's much more adjustable than just using a bit of steering and a bit of lean
but it's really common for people to do this a bit one way but not the other so this is where
you might need a friend to help you out and video it and just look at what you're doing I'll always
try and dip the outside pedal so going from my flat paddle position to slightly down on
the outside and then that kind of a bit like skiing that also helps you turn your hips in
but I'm trying to keep it simple if you start thinking about hips you can be doing too much
so think about dropping your outside foot and angling the bike over and the way to do that I
find is by picking up my outside elbow and pushing my inside hand down see what I'm doing the bars
bars are going down and over and as I do that the saddle slides down the inside of that leg takes
a bit of practice like I say try it both ways if you get a knack for this try and do this on
the trail on flat corners and it'll give you way more confidence all right there are some simple
skills you can practice anywhere to make yourself a better Rider come back for part two where we're
going to talk about front wheel lifts wheelies and then you're going to be amazing so stay tuned