Lisa has been getting bolder.
Having ridden trails a few times since our last video, she’s also gotten stronger,
more confident, and definitely more adept at handling her bike.
She’s riding in narrow spaces, making sharp turns, and weaving her way around trails that
she’s never ridden before.
The first time we rode, she wouldn’t go down this mound here.
Having never fallen off a bike before, she was paralyzed with fear.
Now that falling isn’t such a big deal to her, she’s riding more confidently and making
some breakthroughs.
Last time, we talked about bikes and how to find one that’s trail worthy.
Today, we’ll be talking about riding your first trail, how to find it, and what to do
when you get there.
First, let’s take a minute to learn some terminology:
A “line” is an imaginary line you follow through the trails.
By choosing a good line, you can get through a trail faster and more efficiently.
Some lines are for efficiency, some for safety, and some for fun.
Line choice becomes really important on “technical” trails.
A technical trail is one which requires a high degree of bike control to navigate.
To ride a technical trail you may need to hop over things, shift gears quickly, and
take care not to smack your pedals on rocks.
A flowy trail is sort of the opposite of a technical trail, with lots of rolling hills
and banked turns to help you maintain your momentum.
Sometimes trails are naturally flowy, and some are purposely built that way.
In most cases they’re really fun, and because they’re not so technical they’re often
times a good place to start.
A “feature” is an obstacle, natural or manmade, that you must ride over to get through
the trail.
This could be a bridge, a big rock, a drop, or even a patch of roots.
In any case, features are what make mountain biking fun and challenging.
A “bypass” is a route you can take around a feature.
Here Lisa has taken the bypass around this skinny platform.
More difficult trails will have fewer bypasses, and sometimes no bypasses.
Finally, a “trail system” is a network of trails in one location.
Usually, when you find a trail online or on a map, it’s actually a system of trails
with many different routes and difficulty ratings.
You can ride one, some, or all of the trails depending on the route you take through a
trail system.
Now that you know these terms, it’ll be easier to understand the descriptions and
reviews that you’ll find online.
There are lots of apps and websites that list mountain bike trails by location.
They’ll tell you where to park, whether there are bathrooms, and what difficulty level
the trails are.
I find though, that the really good stuff is in the reviews.
As an example I’ll use singletracks.com.
Surprisingly, there are trails in West Palm Beach.
In this listing for Jonathan Dickinson park, many reviewers have mentioned that the trails
ride better after a rainstorm.
This is because of the riding surface, which is composed of shell rock and sugar sand.
Most other trails can get muddy and should only be ridden when dry to prevent erosion.
These are the types of things you’ll need to find out beforehand, and often times it’s
in the reviews.
Each trail system will feature trails of varying difficulty.
Green dots are for beginners, blue squares are for intermediate riders, and black diamonds
are for advanced riders.
The International Mountain Biking Association, IMBA, has set some guidelines for what these
ratings mean, but even they note that ratings aren’t always cut and dry.
An intermediate trail could look very different from system to system.
Because these ratings are relative to a trail system, you should always ride green, blue,
and black trails in that order.
A beginner trail is rarely if ever a technical challenge.
Still, there are lots of lessons to be learned on beginner trails.
For instance, learn how to tell which way the trail goes.
Some are two way, some are one way, and you should make it your business to find out.
If you’re on a heavily trafficked trail, you’ll encounter other riders quite often.
When a faster rider comes up from behind, you’ll hear their cassette.
Most mountain bikers are cool, but they do expect that you’ll let them pass you.
It’s best to just acknowledge the rider and say, “hey I hear you back there, I’m
going to move over in a minute and let you pass”.
They’ll be very happy that you’re on top of the situation, and wait patiently for a
spot where you can move over.
On any trail there are some times where you’ll need to get off your bike, and in those situation
you need to be careful not to block the trail.
It’s amazing how fast someone can come around the bend, only to find your bike laying in
their path.
It’s important to learn these lessons on the green dot trails, where people are generally
riding slower and have more time to stop.
Once you’ve gotten accustomed to the laws of the land you may feel ready to hit the
intermediate trails, but not so fast.
Sometimes even beginner trails will have optional features that you haven’t ridden yet.
Take another lap and try to ride everything before you move on.
Some features can include skinny lines, wooden bridges, rocks, rollers, and logs.
These will be mandatory on most intermediate trails, so familiarize yourself with them
before you move on.
On some of these features you can’t just sit down and pedal—you need to get out of
the saddle.
By this, I mean you need to stand up a little to let the bike move underneath you.
Lisa has been practicing this, but it’s not second nature yet.
For Lisa, getting over this hump was a matter of getting out of the saddle just a little
bit at the end.
You’ll never learn these things unless you keep trying over and over.
Next time, we’ll be talking about techniques like these more in depth.
In fact, I’ll be doing a riding clinic for absolute beginners, with a set of purpose
built obstacles to practice on.
The participants will need to learn how to get out of their saddles and muscle their
bikes around to get over these obstacles.
The next beginner video will be all about this clinic, and the mistakes beginners make
while learning these techniques.
Until then, thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next time.