You have probably already seen our first hill climb vid.
We summarised things such as body position, traction, momentum, looking ahead, and bike setup.
In terms of body position, you will be standing as much as possible.
You will keep your legs bent to lower your center of gravity, and also get extra suspension.
You'll keep your body weight to the rear for traction.
Smooth throttle and clutch control are extremely important.
Maintain momentum, look ahead and don't fixate on obstacles on the way up the hill.
Bike setup?
10PSI or lower in your tires.
Lower your gearing, particularly if you do a lot of cross-training.
And finally, tune your bike for grunt, not high in power.
Now the problem is we simply aren't ready to show you any advanced hill
climb techniques as we are still amateurs!
We fall over, we stall the bike, occasionally we even throw the bike.
But we were lucky enough to speak with both Graham Jarvis and Ben Hemingway
before the Wildwood Rock Extreme climb, and get to film them as well.
Let's see how the top riders do it!
First up, true to their trials heritage Graham and Ben both walked this hill for
ages, analysing the terrain, and picking the best lines to ride.
This is a great skill to develop for hill climbing.
When Graham loses traction, notice how he keeps slipping the clutch,
minimises wheel spin, and keeps his weight on the bike, whether sitting or standing.
This is incredibly slippery and rocky terrain.
Listen to Ben Hemingway's engine and you'll hear how often and rapidly
he's changing throttle and clutch to reduce wheel spin for maximum traction.
Note how low the revs are too, considering how steep the hill is.
Watch Graham's body positioning.
Default position is standing but crouched and weight to the back.
But notice how often he changes this to suit the terrain, and how the bike is moving.
When necessary he sits, but is standing again as soon as possible.
Note how Ben times his bursts of throttle for hitting steep
parts of the slope when the extra g-forces give him extra traction.
And like Jarvis, when he loses traction completely,
he keeps his weight solidly at the rear.
At the steepest bit, note how quickly he changes body position to keep balance.
Finally let's have a look at one of the top Australian riders,
Chris Perry, with a different style.
Note how he tends to be sitting on the bike more, but still uses great throttle
control and choosing lines to only be one second later than the international riders!