The attack position explained.
This could also be called the ready position or the neutral position.
This should be your default standing position on the bike when it comes to riding technical
terrain or descending.
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Let's talk about probably the first fundamental skill you need to learn when riding a mountain
bike.
[music] Of course, there will be plenty of times when
you're riding a mountain bike where the sitting position is absolutely fine.
You're pedaling away, and all is good.
As soon as the speed starts increasing or the technicality of the terrain gets harder,
then it's time to stand up and get into that attack position.
As soon as you stand up off the saddle, you bring your arms and legs into the equation,
and they become your first source of suspension on the bike.
Even if you're riding a fully rigid bike, you can use your arms and legs to dampen those
forces.
Now the more technical or the steeper the terrain gets, it starts becoming much more
important to get your seat out of the way.
Of course, a lot of mountain bikes these days have dropper post.
Now with the saddle out the way, you've got much more space to move around, and your attack
position could be much more dynamic.
Now there's a couple of bike setup things that do actually affect how comfortable you
might feel in an attack position.
Now this might not be obvious, but they are your brake lever angle, and actually, they're
the angle of your controls and the bar, shifters, and droppers as well, and your foot position.
I'm riding flat pedals today, so my foot position could be anything really.
Obviously, if you riding clips, wherever you put that cleat in your shoe, front, or back,
side-to-side, it can affect how you stand on the bike.
Really, what you should aim for is that your ball of your foot is in line with the axle
of your pedal or even slightly in front.
What that does, it makes it much more comfortable to stand slightly heeled down when you're
in that attack position.
That means your weight is nicely into the pedals rather than standing too flat and on
top, especially on flat pedals.
If you are standing with your feet completely level, if you get a spiral level on them,
if you then bump into anything, your weight can actually start rotating in front of the
pedals and start going towards the bars.
Actually, I'd much rather be slightly heeled down in that attack position.
The same goes to your brake levers.
If they're rotated all the way down into quite a steep angle, can I actually bring it all
the way up and onto the bars a little bit, or make it feel like you are already stretching
for the brake levers.
Now a lot of modern mountain bikes are starting to go towards the shorter stems, even on the
Cross Country under the scale.
My bike has got a super short stem.
It's about 35, 40 millimeters I think.
It's a trail bike, short stem, wide bars, and I've got my levers nice and high, so I
can get back on the bike ever so slightly.
In attack position, I really want my weight to be in the middle of the bike but easily
moved to the back.
With the correct setup, you can see that my heel
is slightly down, and
that's what I call being in the pedals rather
than
on top of
the pedals.