(upbeat music)
- Welcome back you beautiful people
and today is all about pump track essential skills.
Today, I have a very special guest,
Simon Richardson, everyone
- Hey, thanks mate.
- Welcome. - You're too kind.
I guess if any of you know me,
it will be as a road rider.
I am a cross country mountain biker, life long,
and I've got to say Blake,
I love pump tracks,
I'm just really, really bad at them.
- No, you're not.
- No, you wait.
- Well, today, it's your lucky day.
I brought my dirt jump bike.
You're probably not very used to it.
- I love the look of these bikes
and so I cannot wait to try it.
Have you got an allen key?
I just need to pop that seat up a little bit.
- No, that stays down, sorry, yeah.
Anyway, moving on, I want you to ride the pump track,
get used to the bike,
but whilst you're doing that,
I'm going to scrutinize your riding
and I'm gonna pull up where you need to
improve on your skills, okay?
- Yeah, alright.
- We'll help you improve on those skills.
- Thanks man, probably going to need quite a big notepad.
- So whilst Simon is getting introduced to
my lovely hard tail, the Scott Voltage,
I'm here with Simon Richardson from GCN.
I'm going to help him kind of perfect his pumping skill
and develop his skills within the pump track.
This is a great place to start developing those skills.
How'd you find that?
- It's the fact that my front wheel is about
six inches further forwards than normal.
- Yeah, it's not underneath you.
- No, it's not.
- You're not holding the handlebars past your hub.
- Yeah, I think a warm up. - I'm gonna scrutinize
your riding. - Yeah, please do.
Be gentle. - And then kind of be picky.
(upbeat music)
What did you think of that?
- It'll take me a while to get used to the bike,
but it's such good fun, innit.
- But to be honest,
your pumping technique, I can't fault it.
- Yeah?
- It looks pretty good.
- Aw, thanks man. - Really good.
I think the only thing that is your cornering,
but I feel it's a bit intimidating when it's a bit wet.
You kind of let yourself go around the corner
and you let the bike take you around the corner.
- Well yeah, to be fair,
the fact that it is a bit slippery
is a bit intimidating,
but actually, I suck at riding the corners
whether it's wet or dry.
So yeah, if any pointers there,
would be gratefully received.
- Okay, so the technique I saw you doing in a turn,
was, like I said, you're letting the corner take you around,
so you're just kind of being a passenger in a turn.
What you're also doing is you're coming
and you're staying quite low in the turn.
So, you want to enter high, exit low.
So, you're basically dropping down
and getting ready for your straight.
- Okay.
- Now body position,
what I saw you doing was kind of sat back,
arms a bit straight.
Your knees are bent,
but not bent enough. - Okay.
- You want to bend your elbows.
You're gonna bring yourself down into it,
like you would on a straight in that attack position.
- Okay.
- So, not sat back.
- So more aggressive?
- More aggressive, looking ahead, looking at your exit.
So, you can pump the turn.
- Pump a turn? - You can pump a turn.
- Whoa.
- So, that's when you want to be
on that aggressive attack position.
- Okay. - Not sat back
letting the turn do the talking.
- So, you literally, like you're pushing your front wheel in
as you're coming into the apex
and then you push with your feet
as you're kind of going through?
- Yes. - Okay.
- Yeah. - Alright.
- Have a good at that.
That's it, it'll feel weird because you feel like
you're gonna lose the front end.
Yeah.
There you go.
That's heaps better, well done.
Your form look way better and you looked quicker.
- Cool, well it felt a whole heap better.
It's not rocket science, is it?
Taking the wide on the inside.
But man has it made a difference.
It always felt a little bit like,
I'm not sure you can case a berm
but it sort of felt like. - Yeah.
- You know, I'd hit the end of it,
lose all my speed,
and to roll out of it
like a little trickle. - Start again.
- Exactly, where as now,
it's like oh yeah, I can actually carry
a bit of speed through that.
- [Blake] Right, recap time.
Remember to enter the corner central or higher.
The faster you go, the higher you want to enter the turn,
which in tail, will bring you to the exit the corner lower.
It's about being in attack position
and that's elbows bent, knees bent,
and looking at your exit.
Corners can be very intimidating at high speed,
but the more you ride a berm, the easier it gets
and you can start to pump in a corner to gain more speed.
- I've got one last favor to ask.
- Yeah?
- Can you teach me how to jump?
- (gasps) Yes. - Just quickly.
- Yes, I know the perfect straight.
- Funny you mention that, yeah.
- Can you jump?
- Uh.
- Have you had air before?
I know you've done it cross country and racing.
- Yeah, no, I kind of can jump.
Like, it's not like I'm glued to the ground,
but I suspect most people would be like
pfft, that's not a jump.
I think it feels quite good.
The technique, right, so you pump, pump, pump.
- Yup.
- And then it's literally just instead of pumping,
you just like woo,
straight over. - Yeah, you're kind of need,
you bring in that bunny hop technique.
- So I am gonna have to like hop it?
- Put you on a mellowed down bunny hop technique,
you don't want to bunny hop off the lip,
you just want to let the lip do the talking
and then water down that bunny hop technique a little bit.
So you're gonna lean back - I think my bunny hop
technique is pretty watered down at the best of times.
(laughing)
- Well, let's see it and I'm gonna point out
where you're going wrong.
- Okay. - Yeah?
- Yeah, right.
If you think I can case berms, you watch me jump.
- (laughs) I think he just wants to show off,
'cause I think he can jump.
But I want to see him jump.
Okay, I see what he did there.
- That nearly made 1000 fails.
(laughing)
- You did kind of the push through.
You kind of thought the lip was gonna do the actual lifting
of you off the ground.
- Yeah.
- You kind of went like, like whoa.
- It sounds like an excuse,
but I think because it's got such
a different position to normal - Yeah.
- It's like the front wheel kind of feels very different,
doesn't it? - Yeah.
It takes off before you think it does.
Maybe do it again.
If you do it again, now you understand
where that kind of front wheel is
and where it's gonna take off.
Relax a bit more.
- Yeah, I think not feeling like (beeping) my pants.
- Exactly, relax a little bit more.
Oh, you had that.
- Yeah, I'm pretty sure I left the ground.
- You left the ground.
Exaggerate a little bit more.
Put a little bit more effort into that exact technique
and you would clear it. - Okay.
- A little bit faster as well.
Yes!
Nearly, so a bit more speed,
a bit more speed.
A little bit more pop.
Wah, yes, but as soon as you left the ground, you went.
You kind of straightened out your arms
and that kind of, you pushed yourself through.
- Okay.
- So, you did the pop,
but then you didn't continue with that flow,
you kind of just went rip.
- No, the current flow left me when I left the ground.
(laughing)
- So, bring the bike up into you a little bit more.
- Okay.
- Yes, yes.
On a pump track, it's not all about getting height,
it's all about keeping it low, keeping it fast.
That's what he did right there.
Oh, damnit.
Should I demonstrate?
(laughing)
- No, please do.
- So you can actually, no, so you can see how,
I'll over exaggerate everything
so you can see where I'm pulling and pushing.
- Yeah, okay cool,
that'd be super helpful. - 'Cause you've got it.
'Cause when you're doing,
you've got the pop,
it's just when you've got the pop,
it feels like you're getting a bit scared,
so you're like, whoa, I don't want to go too high.
- [Simon] That's pretty much spot on.
- Forget about how high I go,
it's just the technique of the jump.
A bit more speed and you're like.
I'll show you what you do.
- Yup.
- With the arms, you've got to keep your arms bent,
not push out. - Okay.
- Yeah?
- [Simon] That looks rubbish.
- You see, you've got the pop to get yourself into the air,
it's just you're not letting your arms continue
- No.
- Through the process. - It's kind of almost
flattening it off.
- It's a short lip but you lean,
let the bike come up, and then when you do it,
you just kind of push forward
and bring up your legs when you're leveling out.
- Okay. - Yeah?
- Alright, cool, thanks mate. - Try that.
- Yeah, I will do.
- [Blake] Yes!
- Still not there, was it?
- No, that was good.
Your arms look way better on that one.
Maybe the bigger the lip, the easier it'll be.
- Okay.
- 'Cause the smaller lip, you kind of,
you actually have to do a little bunny hop
to get up into the air.
Whereas that one, you can actually let it
glide yourself over.
- Okay, I'll try and do both.
But I'll try and give it a proper one on that one.
- Yeah, it's snowing leaves, look at that.
The first one was brilliant.
That was good.
- Yeah? - Yeah, I was like wow,
you're dropping in on a side wind.
Jumping is all about being confident
and this comes with practice and time.
Using the bunny hop technique off the lip
can help you get into the air,
which is all about timing and getting it right off the lip.
Next is relax and not to tense in the air.
You want to keep those arms bent
and panic and straighten out in the air.
- Just a bit more practice.
You've got the confidence, that's for sure.
- I could get used to this bike though.
- It's fun, isn't it?
- Super fun.
You know your cables are a bit tangled up, Blake?
- It's for tail whips.
- You what?
- Tail whips.
- Blake, thank you so much mate.
That's been super cool. - You're welcome,
you're welcome, thanks for coming over.
Definitely improved, your pumping is spot on.
If you want to go faster,
you just have to exaggerate your pump.
- Okay.
- So be more aggressive. - Yeah.
- Your cornering, straight away,
I saw that you were letting the corner do the talking,
not you, you're not making the corner work for you.
So, by getting into that attack position, spot on.
Going in high, coming out low
- Yeah. - Into the straight.
- It did feel like it made a huge difference.
You know, you can tell me how to do it,
it's easy to put it into practice,
and yeah, it did feel better.
So yeah, thank you for that.
- And then jumping, that just comes.
You've got the pop, you've got the skill,
you're comfortable, you could relax a little bit more,
but that all comes with practice and confidence really.
- Yeah, thanks man,
I definitely feel like I need to practice.
But you know, you telling me what I was doing wrong,
it helps to clarify things
and it's like okay, now I know what I need to work on.
Yeah, so hopefully mate,
I'll be like taking - You'll be back, yeah?
- Landing on another before too long.
I still don't know how you do that.
- I've been doing it, practice, practice,
it's all about practice.
Hopefully this has helped ya.
If you enjoyed this video,
we got Simon to go around the corners, get in the air.
If you want to see another video on how to jump,
click over here.
- I'm gonna click on that, mate.
- Yeah, don't forget to hit the globe to subscribe
and give us a thumbs up like.