Doing my Dirt Divas day on Saturday

SpinningJenny

Yay!

\o/

I wanna do one....

Ditch Witch

You should. Tis really awesome.

Morning spent working on bike handling skills. Standing up, riding along a plank of wood, riding over a plank of wood, bunny hops, endos, climbing and descents. Physically pretty easy.

Afternoon spent lots more climbs, singletrack (level and downhill) and drops. Much more riding. She starts you off gently and gradually ramps it up during the day. You weren't forced to do anything you didn't want to and quite a few of the ladies just didn't feel up to doing the drops at the end and it was NOOO problem.

Boosted my confidence about a zillion percent

SpinningJenny

not jealous AT ALL!

SleepyLea

Oooh... I missed this thread. Whoops for going early, but a big well done for being the bestest. Sounds like you really enjoyed it! And it sounds like you feel alot more confident too, job done!

Congrats!

thighsofsteel

I've been looking at doing the B2B for a while now and seeing how enthusiastic you were about it I'm soooo booking myself on!

My boyfriend lives right on the edge of Bracknell Forest right by the Lookout so we're in those woods all the time but there are some trails where i don't have the confidence to throw myself off the bigger drops - being super-competitive though i reckon in a group scenario i'd be 1st off them!

How many were there in your group? Is there much waiting around?

Ditch Witch

Oooo! You really must

There were 12 altogether so we were split into 2 groups of 6. I think they do as many as 30, so I suspect that will be 5 groups.

Not much waiting around, no.

9:30: intro chat about what various parts of your bike are and inevitable H&S
10:00: 2 mile road ride to surrey hills (just outside swinley)
10:15: skills
Standing on the bike (attack position)
skidding
balance of feet
riding a plank of wood
bunny hop over plank of wood
endos
Turning in a tight space
climbing: line, tacking, gears, arm postion
descents

13:00 lunch (weather was poor so we rode back to the clubhouse and back, 4 extra miles).

14:00 back to surrey hills.
More climbing
more descents
ducking under low objects. Basically, hanging off the side of your bike.
level, twisty singletrack
Drops

I was absolutely shattered by the end of the day, but gabbled non-stop to Mark all the way home

If you can already do some drops and are confident with a lot of single track, it might be worth going on to the singletrack day. Much more technical descents and bigger drops (she showed us the things they'd throw us off of on the singletrack day).

The singletrack wasn't challenging for me, but I did learn a couple of really important things:

1. I look to close to the front of my bike. This is a hangover from running and watching where I put my feet due to double jointed ankles. I need to look further in the distance to pick my path and be less reactive.

2. I need to stand up to power when doing level singletrack. I stand up to maneuvre but then sit down to power. This means I'm not in constant control of the bike.

3. I can do pretty steep/long drops, though they're a bit scary

4. I'm a better rider than I thought I was. That has was the best thing to have learned

thighsofsteel

That sounds absolutely spot on - thanks for that! I'm relatively confident, including on downhills (did Afan W2 a while back and LOVED it!) but technically i need to improve to make myself more efficient so I'm looking for tips & tricks which i think that course would give me

I'm new to mtb - have had to switch to it due to running/football-related lower back/hip injury - so am still learning, but have the strength and 'balls' to really give it some welly, but it's technique that i'm maybe lacking at times.

I totally know what you mean about not looking ahead!! I've asked my boyfriend and my other mtb buddies to give me a shout of "pedal pedal pedal" if there's a sudden sharp incline up ahead because at the beginning i never looked ahead and would be in the wrong gear etc etc - am getting better at looking up though and learning to trust that my bike will cope with all the lumps and bumps.

So nice to find other women on here who love it as much as I do...!!

Ditch Witch

The techniques you learn are really subtle, but if you take it on board, you'll improve.

The point to remember about looking to close to your front wheel is that you might as well have your eyes closed. Looking 2 feet in front of your bike is pointless because it's history. You're going to hit that spot in less than a second, so you can't safely react anyway.

You need to look well ahead to pick your line to make sure you don't get caught out with nowhere to go in the first place. I think I'll always struggle with that as it's how I walk and run, for safety reasons, so it's habit. I just have to get out of the habit on the bike


And the more the merrier! This forum will be what we make it, so let's make it good and get more ladies in here

SpinningJenny

I'm not a lady - but I guess you lot knew that already!

Ditch Witch

Yeah, I knew that, but "ladies and cheeky moos" was a bit of a mouthful

SpinningJenny

ooh, missus!

thighsofsteel

Now now ladies (and cheeky moos)...

Good point about hitting that spot in front of you within a second - hadn't thought of it like that. Like you said, it's years of running that have trained me to look right in front of me!

Right, off to my first ever spinning class at the gym - wish me luck! :shock:

miss notax

What was the course you did DW? Sounds interesting....

I'm quite good at downhill / drop-offs etc but can't do bunny hops or any of the stuff that people just seem to 'know'. Does that sound like the right kind of day for me?

Also (sorry!), how much did it cost, where was it, and were you actually shown how to do all the stuff first?

Ta!

Ditch Witch

It was dirtdivas.co.uk back to basics course. £80 I think (twas a gift from Mr). Held at Swinley Forest.

to be honest, if you can do downhill and drops, then you'd probably want the singletrack course.

Bunny hops are piss easy. I could do them before, just by messing around!

The best thing I gained, though, was confidence in my ability. She made me realize that I had the skill to do the job, I just needed to believe it.

I did some big damn drops that I would never have done before, and then, tonight, I did some drops and ditches and things that I've chickened out of before, this time without even stopping, cuz I knew I'd done bigger.

I dunno, somehow being surrounded by girls in the same boat takes the pressure off. You can stand there and um and ah and prevaricate while she gently encourages you to give it a go. There's no guy on the other side of the drop shouting "just stay in the middle and you'll be OK" or whatever, after having just taken it at mach speed and getting air.


When you say, "shown the stuff", I'm not sure what you mean. There was a lot of explanation and encouragement. At no point did she just drop off some massive cliff and disappear in the distance

SpinningJenny

Ditch Witch wrote:

At no point did she just drop off some massive cliff and disappear in the distance

That'll be me at the weekend - except it'll be a surprise to everyone, including me!

Ditch Witch

miss notax

Ditch Witch wrote:

It was dirtdivas.co.uk back to basics course. £80 I think (twas a gift from Mr). Held at Swinley Forest.

to be honest, if you can do downhill and drops, then you'd probably want the singletrack course.

Bunny hops are wee-wee easy. I could do them before, just by messing around!

The best thing I gained, though, was confidence in my ability. She made me realize that I had the skill to do the job, I just needed to believe it.

I did some big damn drops that I would never have done before, and then, tonight, I did some drops and ditches and things that I've chickened out of before, this time without even stopping, cuz I knew I'd done bigger.

I dunno, somehow being surrounded by girls in the same boat takes the pressure off. You can stand there and um and ah and prevaricate while she gently encourages you to give it a go. There's no guy on the other side of the drop shouting "just stay in the middle and you'll be OK" or whatever, after having just taken it at mach speed and getting air.


When you say, "shown the stuff", I'm not sure what you mean. There was a lot of explanation and encouragement. At no point did she just drop off some massive cliff and disappear in the distance

Cool, that sounds great. Thanks!

Yes, possibly the singletrack one would be more appropriate then... And that is soooo true about the 'just stay in the middle and you'll be ok comment'. I've spent many a happy moment in exactly that situation :?

SpinningJenny

question of a serious nature (now don't be surprised!)...

what do you class as a 'drop'?

Ditch Witch

Well, basically, where you have a short (or long) sharp drop, as opposed to a downhill. If it's much steeper than the path you're on, I'd call it a drop. Don't know if that's right, though.

maybe it's a matter of degrees? Less than 45 degrees, where flat is 90 degrees?

SpinningJenny

must take a protractor with me on saturday to measure the angles

thanks, btw