What's the Most Useful M Biking Techniques You use?

5Thumbs

I am a relative newcomer here , mainly enjoy riding single track and trail centres. I see lots of technique videos and features in the mag and wondered which techniques or skills people found most useful in practice for trail riding.

I tried bunny hopping (harder than I thought) and manualling (which I think is like a wheelie - also hard).

Before I devote loads of time to practising these and falling off I thought I'd pick the brains of the more experienced to see what's really worthwhile...

ride_whenever

bunny hopping (with which wheelies and manuals come more naturally) then trackstands, anything else is the cherry on top and will come wiht bike handling skills.

GrantyBoy

may sound odd but learn how to fall, knowing how to ditch the bike and roll when your in a crash will help save you injuries down the line

5Thumbs

Jeez how do I practice that one ? :shock:

I suspect that's a skill learned the hard way !

Seriously - any do's or don'ts on that one?

Bikerbaboon

do relax and try to go floppy and let your self roll.
dont stop yourself using your face on a log.

Uncle Peter

Do...

after your incident, jump up while pretending that nothing happened.

Don't...

Squeal.

Do...

Pedal away as fast as possible and check for injuries around the corner/behind a tree.

Don't...

Cry.

Do...

If you're with friends laugh it off, and take all 'p' taking on the chin.

Don't...

Get the hump, it'll be your turn to laugh soon enough.

And certainly don't...

Worry about coming off, it's going to happen no matter what, just have fun.

You can't really give advice on coming off, too many variables. If you are worried though get some decent gloves, and body armour (elbows/knees) Practicing commando rolls will only get you so far even if you are fully clipped out.

Surf-Matt

Crying when I get to the top of a nasty downhill section..

dave_hill

Learn to laugh at yourself - if you can't, you're in the wrong sport! You will make a complete tit of yourself sooner or later...

Learn to lift the front wheel, even if it's only a little bit. It will make getting over rocks, ledges, etc., a lot easier rather than just crashing into them and trusting to your suspension to carry you over it. Suspension is there to help you ride, not to ride for you.

Weight distribution is important - learning to shift your body weight around to cope with climbing, descending and maintaining traction is very important.

As far as falling off goes, the advice to relax really does apply! When you get to that moment that you know that all hope is lost and you're really going to have to bail, let it happen, don't try to fight it. Tuck and roll to absorb any impacts - don't go "spiky", sticking your arms and legs out, or you WILL get hurt. Learning to relax can mean the difference between some spectacular bruises which you can show of in the pub afterwards and a trip to A&E.

But above all, learn to have fun - don't take it too seriously, just go and ride and enjoy yourself - it will all click eventually!

zero303

Rear Wheel lift.

xtreem

On very fast corners, take your inner foot of the pedal and lean as much as possible to
the inside of the corner, and if the front tire loses grip, just tap the foot on the ground and
you'll regain control.

That saved me many times from falling over.

KB8

Getting ready to unclip on the speedy technical

gbrnole

I hardly rode bikes before about 2 years ago but am now completely bike mad!

Biggest break in my skills came when I got the wheelies dialled, took about 6 weeks of practice, landing on my ass half a dozen times and felt I would never get the hang of it but all of a sudden one day something clicked.

Wheelies gave me a lot of back wheel control, improved my balance significantly, I can trackstand practically indefinately now and is a great bridge to learning other skills, feel so much more confident on the trail

With good back wheel control and finding your balancing point, this really gives you a great starting point for manuals, J-hops, drops, front wheel lifts etc..

A lot of the people I ride with do a lot of trail riding and rarely find time to just mess around on the street and practise skills, it's the skills that make you a better rider on the trail.

In my experience having spent the time getting the wheelies dialled made the progression to other skills a lot quicker and improved my riding considerably.

ddraver

I ve just got back from a week at Switchbacks in Spain (i ve only been riding for a year) and the major benefits i ve learned is that I have to be more mobile on the bike

Drop the saddle well out of the way and get used to really moving around on the bike and letting the bike move under you - they guy refered to it as riding the bike not being a passanger on the bike

The second thing was brake control, make sure you are "Conciously" aware of what brake you re using - one finger braking helps alot with this

The third was leaning the bike in to corners

Fourth - ride as much different terrain as you can

fifth - practice the "flatlands" skills

tlw1

stopping at the pub after a ride

hucking_fell

When going slow - wheelie drops and hopping the back wheel to the side to avoid stuff on tight corners / wiggly bits.

Surf-Matt

Bunny hopping and generally being able to unweight the front or back wheel at will.

P-Jay

For me in really really early days was working out that you should only be seated climbing or cruising. Trying to descend singletrack sat down is a short-cut to pain.

Manuals and bunny hops are bread and butter, you have to do it.
But don't be put off by watching the guys on the vids pulling huge manuals for meters and meters hanging of the end of the bike.
You only have to lift the front high enough to cover the thing you don't want to hit with the front wheel (roots, puddle, deep mud etc) and long enough to cover it.
I still practice now clearing wet patches on the pavement on the way to the shops or or puddles on the trail. I just kinda jerk the front up, lean back a bit and I can clear 1 or 2 meters, that'll usually clear most stuff, especially puddles, at best it means you don't get a face full of dirty water at best you don't bin it because the puddles 3 times deeper than it looks.

For bunny hops I used to practice jumping piles of horse poo that are everywhere on my local trails and in the nature reserve near me, helps with focus ha ha.

5Thumbs

Very interesting and makes a lot of sense - thanks

Couple of questions - I can see the benefit of bunny hopping to clear obstacles such as roots and rocks but manualling....? Why is that such a useful skill? (and why isn't it called wheelying by the way)

Trackstand - what is that and why is it useful?

Sorry for my ignorance but you have to start somewhere.

supertwisted

Trackstand is balancing the bike while stationary. Usefull for stopping to assess an obstacle on a trail or just showing off!

I can do none of the above by the way. Just about managed my first controlled bunny-hop without using a ramp on saturday. Can't make it look as smooth and effortless as I've seen in videos though. I lurch upwards and then slam the bike into the ground again. But at least I'm airborne...

Surf-Matt

5Thumbs - manualling is more or less wheelying but is more useful. It's handy for drops where you need to keep level in the air (say off a big kerb) and also for clearing stuff to long or big for a bunny hop - unweight the front wheel and you'll be able to get over most stuff.

Track stands are often useful is really tight spots - it's more about bike control and being able to balance well. It's also very useful in traffic!

roger_merriman

using one's weight. get that and every thing else follows, as that really is the base skill of MTBing.

Stuey01

Manual and bunnyhopping are by far the most useful skills on the trails.

Manual (that's a skateboarding term) is like a wheely but standing up and without pedalling (as far as I can tell), basically you're getting your front wheel in the air whilst standing on the pedals. It is useful because you can lift the front wheel over an obstacle (e.g a rooty or rocky section) and either let the back wheel crash over or suck it up with your legs. You can do the same over small dips in the trail, lift your front wheel and just let the back follow the contour of the dip, makes for smoother and faster riding.

Bunnyhopping - the benefits are obvious, clearing trail debris.

P-Jay

5Thumbs wrote:

Couple of questions - I can see the benefit of bunny hopping to clear obstacles such as roots and rocks but manualling....? Why is that such a useful skill? (and why isn't it called wheelying by the way)
Sorry for my ignorance but you have to start somewhere.

No probs, the only difference between a manual and a wheelie is:

Wheelies - the front is brought up by peddling and balanced by using the pedals to lift and rear brake to lower to hold on the sweet spot between the front coming down and you going backwards over the bike. You'll see guys who've being doing it for years, worked up from BMX's and all that can do this literally as long as they like. This is usually done sitting down.

Manuals as done standing / crouching you use your body weight, arms and thighs to bring the bike up to the sweet spot and hold it there using your body weight and rear brake, again people skilled at this can do it for as long as they like (bastards!).

There are exceptions to all of this of course, some people can peddle the front up even travelling as full speed and hold it on a manual.

Wheelies are for showing off and manuals are for clearing rough stuff and showing off.

I.E. you're flying down a trail and you come across a couple of roots or a log. You could bunny hop it.
But if you just lift the front as you go over it the front will clear it, the back will hit it, but as long as your backside is off the seat it's not the end of the world as you can take small impacts like that all day, done right it'll even give you a bit of a "pop" and you get some air.

Same goes for puddles and mud. You’ll never really know how deep they're going to be at speed, and as you know they can be way longer than you can bunny hop.

If you can clear it with the front wheel slightly off the ground and it turns out to be deep the worst will be you'll get drag and your front will come down, and you get splashed.

If you go in with the front tyre on the ground you'll get a face full of puddle water and if it turns out to be a foot deep your going to crash, over the bars, straight into the drink.

That's my interpretation anyway, and what I use them for. Tbh after a while all these little things become second nature and you just throw yourself around to cover ground as smoothly or not as you like. Lots of techniques are just for the sheer fun of it.

Surf-Matt

Or in my case, you fall off.

P-Jay

Surf-Matt wrote:

Or in my case, you fall off.

Yeah there is that, ha ha.

You've got to bin it now and again, lets you know you're trying ha ha.

mcbazza

There are several key skills that really helped me:-

1. Learning that going faster is often easier/safer/smoother.
2. Dropping the saddle.
3. Shifting weight around on the bike.
4. Learning to look to where I want to be, not where I am.
5. Uplift days are not for fat lazy DH'ers, and are really useful in honing your descending skills rapidly.
6. Relax. The bike will find the way, you just need to hang on.

tonyeynon

Sorry to add a comment but its a great thread and your asking all the questions im thinking!

Is manualing the main thing used for drop offs to stop you nose diving?

also, how fast to need to be going to manual as opposed to wheely?

I really want to start tackling drop offs but theres always a little voice telling me I will be going over the handle bars hahaa

tonyeynon

Or can you just ride of the edge of drop offs if your going quite fast?

P-Jay

tonyeynon wrote:

Or can you just ride of the edge of drop offs if your going quite fast?

God I hope I don't sound preachy writting these because I'm by no means an expert...

When it comes to drops I try to land both wheels at the same time, perhaps a little rear first, it kinda depends on the drop, but I sort of just hop off the end to clear the lip.

There's been some really good "how to's" in MBUK and they've been posted on this very site if you have a search there's loads of pics of Doddy doing the do and better explanations than I could give. Once you've got the basics sorted check out the DVD Fundementals, I found it really Helpfull.

xtreem

[b]tonyeynon[/b] wrote:

Is manualing the main thing used for drop offs to stop you nose diving?

also, how fast to need to be going to manual as opposed to wheely?

First question: You only manual a drop when you ride moderate or slowly.
At high speed you just lift the handlebars with your arms.

Second question: 0km/h , but than you can just lift the front wheel and that's it.
There is no min limit for manualing, but usualy is done from 5 km/h., from walking speed.