- Bike parks are great.
They offer a really good variety of riding
for a massive range of abilities,
but for me my favorite type of riding
is riding natural trails.
Trails that have just been cleared
and then ridden in with hardly any handwork at all.
But they do offer their own challenges.
So this is how to ride natural trails.
(motivating rock music)
Natural trails are often not ridden by many people at all
because they're tucked away in different parts of the woods
and they won't be graded as well.
So a blue, a red, or a black trail.
So make sure you're comfortable with that sort of terrain
before you start pushing on.
So we're here in Fort William.
Just over there we've got the World Cup Down Hill track
and just going through the woods,
we've got the world's cross country course.
But also these woods there's this crisscross
with these natural trails.
You can see the difference.
There's all sorts of roots and rocks dug out of this place.
You can see the topography of that hillside shining through.
And it is a completely different beast
to riding those properly built trails.
They just tend to be a lot rougher
and you've got to expect the unexpected.
(snazzy instrumental music)
So the two biggest differences to natural trails
and manmade trails are actually the difference
when they're dry and wet.
So manmade trails tend to be pretty much all weather.
So you don't get super muddy and super slippery,
whereas this is lovely and dry.
Super grippy at the moment,
but if this was wet it'd be a completely different matter.
You're talking about fresh lying roots,
it's gonna be super slippy.
You're gonna have to think about
riding this trail differently.
Second biggest difference is it's much narrower
than you'll find in a normal sort of manmade trail.
So there's lots more trees to duck around.
And actually that's one of the main reasons
why I run my bars at 750, 760 mil wide.
'Cause these are the trails I love to ride
and 800 mil wide, I'll be smashin' my knuckles all the time.
I kinda like working fingers.
The conditions are absolutely prime in the minute.
You can see how it's been quite wet so under here.
Still quite dark dirt where people have been skidding down.
On top it's nice and light.
I wouldn't call it a low me,
but it's proper nice dirt.
Loads of grip.
You can also see where in the wet,
there's a big rock that's dug into that corner,
but now it's dried out.
You can use that as a bump.
You can really rail that corner.
Loads of grip there.
Don't forget it's just super natural.
If you mess up that corner and drop over that bank,
see ya later.
Natural trails can be
some of the most tactical trails you'll find.
This section here probably started off as quite a mellowish
but steep shoots and now it's dug out
and you've got big drops.
You got stumps.
You got roots, you got rocks.
Again, it's really narrow
so line choices can be really important.
You've got that right-hand corner at the bottom
so you can get a bit creative with sections like this.
Try and find the fresher bits, go outside,
but I've gotta get inside to find the rock in that corner.
Otherwise I'm gonna crash like I've already done.
So learned that by experience.
I'm actually just gonna smash it down the middle
down those bumps and hit that nice rock
at the bottom of that corner.
This trail is actually quite common in the UK.
You've got really thick forest,
so trees absolutely everywhere.
You get these natural undulations.
This is where I think about getting heavy
and then getting light.
So by heavy, I mean really trying to use that pump
to make speed 'cause you've got rocks and stumps
and roots everywhere.
It's really easy and I have been doing it already
to clipping your pedal on the floor.
You can see that rock there with marks all over it
where people are just slamming their bike into it.
And that can cause big crashes
so I'm trying to rely on those pumps.
And you've got those natural undulations.
You can do it all over the place.
So that's getting heavy to make speed.
And then getting light is where I'm bringing in my bunny hop
or the really smaller version of that
where I'm just un-weighting the bike.
And that is over the roots.
I'll definitely be doing that way more if this is wet,
but today it's pretty grippy.
So I can actually find grip in those roots.
There's sections like this
where if I drop into all these holes,
it's gonna be super rough.
I could start moving around on my pedals
and it's not gonna be fast.
So that's just trying to un-weight the bike.
Sometimes even bunny hop.
So there's some tips that I hope are gonna help
you ride natural trails a little bit better.
I absolutely love it.
It's one of my favorite things to do
is to session a trail like this
where you've got stuff everywhere
and try and really memorize the tracks
and know where every rock and root is.
And try and get the perfect run.
One of my most favorite things to do.
But even though it's quite hard,
these trails can be pretty difficult,
I would say you still rely on a couple of
really fundamental skills like your pumping, like your hops.
So there's a couple of videos on the screen now
if you want to practice those a little bit better.
And let's do a poll.
Hit this button up here, let us know which you prefer.
Natural trails or bike parks.
Give us a thumbs up for natural trails
and don't forget to hit that sub button,
if you're not already subbed.