- Alright, I've been thinking,
yep, it's a bit worrying, I know,
but here me out, right?
Us dudes at GMBN tend to show you
a number of ways and skills
to improve your riding out on the trail.
Neil likes to go really fast
and he's a great way of showing you how to do that,
I like to show you how to get up into the air
and do a few tricks and have some fun,
but how many skills do you actually
really need to take on board
to get through this basic trail safely?
I'm going to find out.
(electronic music)
Right, so I've ridden the trail,
pushed back up,
and I've come up with six basic skills
to get through a basic trail.
And that is
body positioning,
your braking, your cornering,
your pumping, your looking ahead,
and your linking the whole trail together.
Right now I'm going to explain
each individual skill and first up,
I'm going to talk about body positioning
because that's important.
Right, before you get carried away and you just drop in,
you don't know what to expect on the trail,
there's a few things you need to take into consideration
and one of them is a very important one
and it's that saddle,
getting that saddle down low.
If you have a dropper post get as low as possible you can,
but if you don't have a dropper post,
just undo that quick release bolt
and bring that saddle and seat post down
as low as possible, as much as you can really,
just to get it out of the way.
But by doing that, you're going to let your body weight
venture over the back a little bit
especially when you get into a steep session
you can bring that body weight a little bit back
because by having it up
you're just going to have it all over the front
it's going to buck you in the bum,
it's going to be a little bit uncomfortable and sketchy.
Right, let me run through
all the wrongdoings of body position,
right, I've seen this a lot out there,
and there's people riding with their cranks like this.
That is a recipe for disaster
because your foot is super low to the ground,
it's all well and good doing it
out on the streets when you're commuting to work,
but when you're out on the trail
it's rougher than it is on the road.
So by doing that you're essentially going to hit rocks
and it's going to ping you off the trail
and it's going to cause a little bit of an accident.
So the key is to ride like that.
Another one is straight legs,
straight arms all locked up
quite nervous looking, you're all a bit stiff,
and you can't really move your body,
you want your body to move with your bike
as you're going down the trail.
Right, now the correct way,
what you want to do is loosen up a little bit,
get your elbows bent, bend your knees.
So, you want your pedals to be like that,
level pedaled, feet quite nice and central on the pedals,
bend your legs, bend your elbows,
get into that press up position, the attack position.
You want to have your elbows quite high up as well.
But when you're having this all bent,
don't get stiff and get stuck like this,
you want to just be supple on your bike,
because your body is as much a suspension as your bike,
especially when you're riding a Hardtail like this,
you're relying on your knees by moving up and down,
letting your body absorb all of those rough terrains.
Right, whilst you're here talking about body positioning,
you're in that attack position, you're looking,
but you're looking at your front tire.
I've seen this a lot of times,
people are concentrating on this little area right here
when they're riding down the trail,
but this is not essentially the trail,
all of that over there's the trail as well.
So you want to look ahead,
keep your head up high, see what's coming up,
focus on certain objects that are going to be in your way
so you can make a decision
way before you get to it,
instead of looking at that boulder and going,
"Oh no, I've got a split second to go around it,"
and you hit it.
So it's key to look ahead, keep your head up high.
Right, we spoke about this in skill number one
and that's braking,
what you want to do is brake before you get into a turn
like this berm going left.
You want to come in with a little bit of speed,
slow yourself down before you get into the turn
because what you don't want to do is brake in the turn.
Like, slapping it on, because that's going to send you--
it's going to stand you up a little bit,
it's going to slow you down and you're going to end up
going out the berm or into the rough stuff
on the inside of the turn.
So, I find I've seen a lot of people riding,
berms, turns, whatever corner
and their inside foot is down low
and their outside foot is quite high.
But what you're doing is you're lowering your approach angle
when you're coming into a turn,
so essentially this inside foot
is going to be quite low to the ground
and you could strike a rock and when you strike a rock
it's going to bump you up
and push you out of the turn, it's dangerous.
What you want to do in a berm
is have your feet level,
depending on what foot you have forward,
as long as your cranks are level,
your body weight is set back,
your hips are pushed up to the top of the berm
you're looking forward, you concentrate on your exit
and you're rolling through without slapping those breaks.
But this differs on a different turn.
So as you can see,
my body weight is quite central on the bike,
my arms are bent, my legs are bent,
my cranks are level with the berm,
my hips are slightly up to the top of the berm as well,
I'm looking forward at my exit.
So this is the incorrect way of riding your berm.
So my inside foot is low down
so my approach angle into a berm is not so great
because I'm potentially going to strike the ground
which is going to cause me to stand the bike up in the turn
and send me off course.
Okay, so what I've found with my inside foot quite low,
my body weight was quite high up,
kind of trying to stand my bike up,
it kind of didn't feel right in the turn,
so having those level pedals is key
when you're going into a turn
because your body weight's quite central on the bike,
like I've explained.
But another thing is don't be scared of the berm,
don't be scared to go up into here,
because the speed you're going,
you'll stick into that turn and you're looking ahead
because if you venture off into the bottom of the berm,
it's going to be a little bit slippery and greasy
with stones with all that dirt that comes off that berm.
So don't be scared of it, ride the berm.
So technique changes when riding flat turns
because there's no bank there
for you to ride and catch grip,
what you want to do is drop that outside foot
like I'm doing right here
and essentially moving your body weight to the back wheel,
so that wheel can dig in and get maximum grip.
You can actually ride it flat footed like I am here,
but you know I'm going to get full maximum grip.
What you don't want to do is drop your inside foot
like I'm doing here,
that pedal's going to be scraping the ground,
you're not going to get your full lean on,
you're not going to get maximum grip
and it could potentially ping you and off the trail
and potentially hit that tree.
Right, pumping.
The trail is never flat,
a mountain bike trail is going to be
rough and bumpy, lump and jumpy,
so you're going to have to introduce that pumping technique
and what I mean by this is,
look at this for example right here,
this is what we call a speed bump,
a roller as such, so when you're coming into it,
what you want to do is you're in that attack position,
you're in the correct body position,
what you want to do when you're riding up it,
you want to let the bike rise up into your body,
let it come up into you, bending your kneed,
bending your elbows and then
when you come into the other side,
where you want your bike to roll down,
you're basically pushing down on the bike,
letting it drop away from you
so you're keeping the bike quite low and central
and leave it on the ground as such, then you roll through.
But when it comes to
a roller, a dip in the ground,
it's the same technique but I'll show you that.
Right, a little dip in the trail.
It's the same as going over a little lump as well,
but what you want to do is let your bike push
so you're squashing the bike into the ground,
letting it drift away from you,
then when you're getting through the whole transition,
coming out the other side, you want to let--
essentially do what you do on the speed bump,
so let that bike come up into you again,
let it rise up into you, bend your arms,
bend your knees, and then push out and push through,
to the next bit of the trail.
So, a mountain bike trail's never flat,
never straight and it's never easy as well
because it's got lumps, bumps, turns and corners
and everything like I've said.
But bringing all those skills that I've spoken about
into one practice by linking up the trail ahead of you
is going to help you conquer that trail.
So it's all about nailing the skills together,
so it's all about having the correct position,
looking ahead, having the correct braking technique,
in your corners, be confident in the corners,
and it's all about linking up the whole thing
by pumping through the trail,
getting your flow on and just conquering
that oh so basic mountain bike trail.
(laughs)
Good body, looking ahead,
brake,
(laughs)
pumping, going faster,
(laughs)
so much fun.
Mountain biking's the best, I tell you.
Well hopefully this gives you
a little bit more of an understanding
on how to tackle a basic trail,
such like that one.
It only takes a few skills to master to do it,
but the thing is, for the first time,
like everything for the first time actually,
it's going to be scary,
but the best thing about this is
you can just pedal back up to the top
and hit that exactly same trail
just hone those skills in a little bit more.
If you want to see another video,
five essential skills click just down over here,
and if you want to learn how to jump from basics.
Click just there.
Smash that globe if you haven't subscribed already
because you're missing out,
and I'll see you on the next one.