- Pump track mistakes.
I'm at this rad indoor pump track at Fly Up 417
and it's a pretty rad one.
So I'm gonna show you a few mistakes and how to
eliminate them, so you can start to learn how to
use a pump track really good and really fast.
Here's mistake number one.
(thud and sloshing)
- Alright, this is a super common mistake that I see
riders doing when on a pump track and that is not
using their legs to generate the pump.
They're kinda just using their arms,
thinking that's gonna do it.
Take a look at his slow mo of me
going through this straight.
You can see my whole body working together.
My upper body and lower body.
It's the arms first, then the legs will follow
and then I'm pulsating.
I'm generating power down the downside of that roller.
So it's all about the legs as well as the arms,
working together, a bit like a piston.
Two pistons, going up and down, just like that.
Pushing, pulling, push pull, push pull.
It's quite a demanding thing, but you've just got to use
those legs in that pump track to generate your speed.
Also, it is part of that technique.
(mellow music)
Bro, this next rule is to be honest,
is everyone's hate, and that's pedaling on a pump track.
A pump track's not all about pedaling.
If you find yourself pedaling, it's because your technique
is totally down the drain, you don't know how to use
the pump, or those rollers on that pump track
to generate speed.
If you find yourself pedaling, and you're trying to learn
how to pump, on a pump track, I suggest remove your chain,
and it'll eliminate you trying to pedal.
So I hate pedaling.
I can actually start this whole pump track
and generate a hell of a lot of speed just by rolling down
this little hill here and into the pump track
and just using that pumping motion to gain my speed.
Just like this.
Look, no pedaling.
(upbeat music)
No pedaling.
You don't need to pedal to get a lot of speed,
and that moves onto my next one, and that is speed.
It's all well and good gaining a lot of speed down
a big straight just like this one,
but happens when you come to a corner?
All that power and speed that you've gained there,
kinda gets thrown away because you don't know how to
navigate your way through a turn just like this
with all that speed, so the best way to to do this
is gradually build up your speed,
build up on your confidence on your speed through
a straight like this, so when you come to a corner like
here, you can work on that technique as well.
So you can carry that speed, what you've generated there,
through the turn and then down the next straight.
So it's all about working slowly, not just going
full hammer time, 'cause that's not going to work.
(mellow music)
Body position.
This is key when it's riding a pump track.
Now, I'm going to point out the wrong ones,
and that's too much weight over the front.
So your head, is too far forward
over the front of the wheel, and all of your weight
is on that front wheel.
That's not good when it comes to riding the pump track.
The other one is too much weight on the back.
So you're leaning back too much and when you're riding
rollers, you're basically gonna end up looping up,
just like this.
Likewise, if you're on a front, you're just gonna be diving.
You're not gonna get that pop, that pump,
on a pump track.
The correct one, is that aggressive body position.
Your body weight is central to the bike,
your knees are bent and your elbows are bent and out,
you don't want to tuck your arms in,
you want to be in attack position and looking forward.
And from there you can shift your body weight
front or back.
(upbeat jazz music)
Okay, line choice, this is a big mistake that people
kind of tend to do, and it comes to in the berms.
And when you're entering a berm it all depends
on your speed.
If you're coming in really fast,
you want to enter it at high.
At a high point.
But, if you want to make the exit a high exit or a low exit,
it all depends on your entry.
So if you want to come with a low exit,
you want to enter the berm at the highest point
as possible as you can.
Also, likewise, if you want to exit a berm quite high,
it means you want to enter the berm at a low point.
So you're entering a low point and that's gonna force
you up to exit high.
So when it comes to jumping a gap out of a berm,
just like this one where you've got two rollers,
but you can actually gap it,
now line choice comes into play here,
where you need to pick the right line so you can exit this
turn where it's the most poppiest part of the berm,
so you can clear this with a nice smooth transition.
So, what I'm gonna do to get this, is I'm gonna enter
quite low, and that means it's gonna force me out
at that top of the berm, at the end of it,
which is gonna give me the most pop
and I'm just gonna turn it, and get into that roller.
So if you wanna do this line choice is key
when you want to exit a turn as well.
Like coming out the top of this, is not very comfortable,
'cause it's gonna force you into this wall of graffiti,
whereas you wanna come out of this berm quite low
so you can aim straight down the line of these rollers
into the next turn.
(mellow music)
Let me demonstrate.
On aggressively trying to ride a pump track,
you kind of go somewhere but nowhere.
(mellow music)
See, it doesn't work.
You miss out all the pump, you mess up all your pumping
skills, your rhythm, you don't have any flow,
you're tryin' to fight against the rollers.
That roller is built there for you to utilize,
for you to gain more momentum, more speed by using
that pumping technique through a roller
will generate more speed.
The more relaxed you are, the more you can find that flow.
(mellow music)
Ugh!
Oh!
Ah!
Jumping everything is alright, it's pretty cool
when you want to jump everything on a pump track
but if you're casing all the time like that,
you'll probably find that if you want to gain more speed,
rolling through that section will be a way quicker way
to gain more speed into the pump track,
but if you do want to jump everything,
you want to learn all these things,
and that brings on to line choice, which leads me on to
the speed, which leads me onto looking ahead, flow,
and all that jazz.
To make these sort of jumps doable.
(mellow music)
So there you go, there's a few common mistakes
that people tend to do when they're riding a pump track.
But if you're still struggling on how to use
or how to maintain your pump, and do the pump,
click over here, Neil's got a great video on how to do that.
Also, if you want to see a pump track challenge,
click over here and don't forget to hit the globe
to subscribe, 'cause you're missing out some rad content.
Now get, give us a thumbs up like, and I'll see ya
at the next one. See ya!