- Line choice, speed, and technique.
How do you get the most out of your mountain bike ride,
by using repeated runs?
Today we're gonna look at just that.
(snappy jazz music)
(zapping) (beeping)
I guess a lot of people
simply just want to go faster on their mountain bikes.
So what's the technique involved
to building your speed on your mountain bike?
Al, what are those techniques?
- Well really what you want to do
is you want to find a section of track
that you can experiment on.
- How long?
200 Meters, 400 Meters?
- 200, 300 meters, something like that?
- Yeah, yeah. - That's repeatable.
- So you can go back, up and down, do different runs.
- And get the stopwatches out. - Exactly.
- That's the key thing.
If you're talking about speed, ultimately
you need to work out what's fast and what's not fast
- So what are the elements involved?
I reckon there's about three or four elements to do
to doing those runs, right?
- Yeah, I think the first key one's
got to be the line choice, isn't it?
- Yeah, absolutely. - Inside line, outside line,
how you link those corners together,
because ultimately the highest average speed
is gonna be the fastest. - Yeah.
I think the second one is gotta be technique.
It could be that you're either pumpin' the ground
to try and get speed of it,
or maybe you're gapin' some roots,
If you got a set of roots there
you either go through it or go over it,
simple as that, right?
- [Alan] Exactly!
Normally on a trail there'll be two options to approach it.
and depending, potentially, on your body size,
the type of bike you're riding,
your sort of style of riding,
you'll approach it in a different way.
- Yeah. - But try different ways.
- Exactly.
I'm finally aggro.
- Yeah. (Steve laughs)
It's got to be, it's got to be.
Work out if an aggressive run is actually faster.
I've done this a lot with juniors
and they tell me it's a brilliant run.
It's not a brilliant run.
- I mean how many times have you heard,
do you know what I felt fast.
- Yeah, exactly.
- But ultimately it comes down to that Al.
- Absolutely, it comes down to the watch.
- All about the clock. - Yeah.
- [Steve] Hey Al, corner up ahead.
- [Alan] Here we go.
- So, line choice, middle way.
- [Alan] Yes.
- I mean it's just a corner, right?
- No! (Steve laughs)
It is a corner, but you can see we've got two lines here.
Okay, we've got an inside line
and we've got an outside line.
- But before you've even got to the corner,
I mean, you got six foot of track here.
So obviously, not gonna be on the inside there.
- No. - But where
in that six foot track are you gonna be?
- Right, especially if you're taking the inside line,
you're gonna want to be right over here.
And you're gonna want to
start making your turn in about here.
- Yeah.
- But if you're on the outside line,
obviously you're not gonna have to be
on the brakes quite so early, and carry speed.
- So the story is,
is if you're gonna be sectioning this track
there's already a huge amount of variables
just before the corner alone,
which is a great thing to be able to try out
when you can do multiple laps on your e-bike.
- Exactly that.
- So already it's really complicated.
Brakin' speeds, line choice, I mean, what's the technique?
You're basically gonna go
and ride this line several times, right?
- This is where we really want to practice.
You want to experiment.
Which is, for us, the best line to take?
And the only way to do that is to try inside, try outside.
- So you got that, but also remember we've got exit speed.
- Yes, if you take the inside line
you're essentially making your corner here on this bank.
- Yeah. - Okay.
- [Steve] Which is good fun.
- Which is great fun, but probably not the fastest line.
If you take the outside line,
you can have your corner made
and you could be back off the brakes
before the guy on the inside line has even started to turn.
- Yeah, so I guess the message we're saying here is
go and do this route line multiple times,
try the inside, try the outside,
and try your brakin' points.
- Yeah, and experiment and also get the stopwatch out.
- Yeah. - Bit of fun.
- Yeah, get stuck in.
- [Al] How was that then, steep?
- Yeah, that was all right.
I reckon we should do that again
using different line choice.
But you know what?
I think it gives you good insight into what's faster
by doin' it time and time again, right?
So this clearly illustrates,
you've got six foot of track here.
We've got, not only our different line choice,
but also the braking points of the corner.
Now behind Brandon, behind the lens here, is Neil Donohue,
I'm gonna call him for some remarks on our technique here.
Don, what do you reckon about our line choice and our--
- Whose that one? - That's me!
- I prefer Alan's. (Alan laughs)
- Why do you prefer Alan's?
- 'Cause there's a long, flat, straight after it, Steve.
- Right, so this inside line?
- It'd be faster inside.
- Right, okay.
- I'm lookin' at carrying smooth speed
all the way down on the trail. - There ya go.
Great advice from The Don.
- [Don] Points to Alan!
- Alan, it's not just about that one line,
that one corner there, right?
It's about corners link themselves together
and it's how to get the optimum line out of a section
rather than just that one corner.
- Yeah, exactly that.
You can see what we're doing,
we're walking up the track backwards,
and on this line here you're gonna need to be out here
to make this corner really any good.
- Do you know what I see so much in the woods,
is that people tend to be rabbits.
They tend to follow each others lines,
where as you can see there's a load of space in here.
Now I'm not sayin' to go and cut a fresh line in,
all I'm sayin' is there's an inside line
which has never been used
simply because people have been followin' the main track.
- What I think's a really interesting one
is if you were to actually go to a race,
because the center section of track
that you've seen there from going down the middle,
you watch the racing lines
and then you'll see the variation,
the options that are there.
- Yeah, and I think it's making your mind open
to what's on the ground.
Getting' a bit of awareness of the trail,
rather than followin' that one line
because that in itself, I think, is a skill,
to be aware of what is there, right?
- Absolutely and like you said,
trying to keep your head up
and not just look at the braking points ahead of you,
'cause if you did that you could end up down here,
there's a big gully,
but it's not taking me into the best spot,
I want to be that little bit wider.
- So what we're saying then Alan
is keep your eyes open and muck about with some lines.
Just have a bit of fun, be ridin' some different lines.
- Exactly, and actually bother
to get back up there and repeat it.
- Yeah, and it's quite easy. - It is.
- Too aggro. - What happened?
- Too aggro.
- Well the thing is with this corner
is the key thing is that part there,
coming out to the corner. - Yeah, too excited.
- You came in a little bit too hot.
There's no banking here.
It's quite a tricky corner, it's a flat corner isn't it?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- So sometimes, set your speed.
- Exactly. - Don't go in too hot.
- But look at this Al, it's so easy.
You just peddle back up through the gully
and it's a classic part track to section.
Come down on the outsides,
peddle back up through the middle.
It's brilliant place for learning technique.
- Try it again, and again, see what the clock says.
See what the stopwatch check is.
(Steve laughs)
(bike rattling)
- [Alan] Oh, Steve!
(Steve laughs) Stop laughin'!
I came in a bit hot, if I'm honest.
- [Steve] Let's do it again!
- [Alan] Should we do it again?
- [Steve] We got all day on this track.
- [Alan] Back up.(laughs)
- So there you go, how to master line choice
on a really tricky corner.
So Al, it's all about sessioning, right?
- It is, it's about practice, repetition.
Trying to learn the best line,
the line you should try and not get sucked into.
- Yeah. - And go from there.
- And try to avoid bad habits.
- Yeah, exactly that. - So that's it.
It's pretty much about having some fun in the woods.
We say performance training, but really it's just--
- It's having fun isn't it? - Havin' some fun, sessionin'.
- If you wanna see more videos,
I did this one with Alan on the more fitness side of things.
Fat burning training down here.
If you know a little about e-bikes versus downhill bikes
there's a video we did in San Remo just down here.
Give us thumbs up, let us know your thoughts.
Al, thanks for joining us.
- Absolute pleasure, enjoyed it.
- And to grab subscribe to EMBN.