An amazing ride with confidence!
Johnny Napalm
Posts: 1,458
Just had a fantastic couple of hours on the bike this morning, and rode like never before.
This year I have struggled with hand problems, which has made even light riding painful at times, but nevertheless, I've been out every Sat & Sun. I have to admit that I've been mainly concentrating on my fitness riding around the fire roads, and kept away from any rough stuff due to the hand issue.
As weird as it may sound, I've been practising certain techniques while racing around fire roads this year such as, leaning the bike around corners at speed, feathering the brakes, shifting my weight accordingly, being in the attack position, and also keeping my chest over the front end to help with front wheel grip etc.
Anyway, today I figured I was going to change my tact and have a go at riding some local trail descents, but with more confidence and speed...and I've had probably the best ride I've ever had.
I put all the aforementioned into practice today, and it resulted in me riding like I've been wanting to for a long time. I rode the descents fast and with confidence...even pedalling to get more speed where possible. I shifted my weight around, leaned the bike, and kept focussed yet relaxed. There were some instances where I nearly came a cropper but instead of panicking, I rode out out those problems, without jamming the brakes on like in the past.
After each descent, I rode all the way to the top to have another go, pushing myself that bit harder on each descent. I just kept climbing (which I love anyway) and descending over and over again to get as much practice as possible. After a few descents I realised that I had my MP3 player with me, stuck on some classic KISS, and honestly could not believe how fast I descended with the music on.
Sorry to bore you guys, but I just thought I'd share such a great experience, because my technical ability has obviously improved, which I didn't think would ever happen. Today, I really felt that I could have kept up with almost anyone on those descents speed-wise, which has certainly not been the case in the past. There were a few jumps too, but I have to admit that I'm not good in the air, so I rode around those...perhaps that'll come later.
Good job Peaty wasn't out today, otherwise he'd have had some serious competition this morning!
This year I have struggled with hand problems, which has made even light riding painful at times, but nevertheless, I've been out every Sat & Sun. I have to admit that I've been mainly concentrating on my fitness riding around the fire roads, and kept away from any rough stuff due to the hand issue.
As weird as it may sound, I've been practising certain techniques while racing around fire roads this year such as, leaning the bike around corners at speed, feathering the brakes, shifting my weight accordingly, being in the attack position, and also keeping my chest over the front end to help with front wheel grip etc.
Anyway, today I figured I was going to change my tact and have a go at riding some local trail descents, but with more confidence and speed...and I've had probably the best ride I've ever had.
I put all the aforementioned into practice today, and it resulted in me riding like I've been wanting to for a long time. I rode the descents fast and with confidence...even pedalling to get more speed where possible. I shifted my weight around, leaned the bike, and kept focussed yet relaxed. There were some instances where I nearly came a cropper but instead of panicking, I rode out out those problems, without jamming the brakes on like in the past.
After each descent, I rode all the way to the top to have another go, pushing myself that bit harder on each descent. I just kept climbing (which I love anyway) and descending over and over again to get as much practice as possible. After a few descents I realised that I had my MP3 player with me, stuck on some classic KISS, and honestly could not believe how fast I descended with the music on.
Sorry to bore you guys, but I just thought I'd share such a great experience, because my technical ability has obviously improved, which I didn't think would ever happen. Today, I really felt that I could have kept up with almost anyone on those descents speed-wise, which has certainly not been the case in the past. There were a few jumps too, but I have to admit that I'm not good in the air, so I rode around those...perhaps that'll come later.
Good job Peaty wasn't out today, otherwise he'd have had some serious competition this morning!
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Comments
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Sounds like a perfect sunday morning to me! Sadly i'm waiting for mates to finish work (at 5pm
) before I get out. 0 -
It was, mate...I hope that the weather holds out for you.0
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Nice story!
I'm off out at 2.30.
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Lucky sods...I'm stuck in revising for an exam tomorrow....not that i have a bike to ride just at the minute
Nice story OP, certainly moral boosting!! Good luck with the next stage - jumping
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... t=12613038Cat With No Tail wrote:Anyway, fk dis, I iz off 4 a ride innit. l8rz peepz0 -
Cheers, guys...I hope that you all have similar rides today.Good luck with the next stage - jumping
That is something that I need to practice because I am useless when it comes to that!0 -
Thats sounds great, good job Always feels good when you have a great ride and everything just comes together at the same time. I'm due a bit of that soon fingers crossed Your tale has certainly made me want to go out and ride, but alas there is still more spare room tidying to be done 0
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Cheers, guys...I hope that you all have similar rides today.
Mine was very similar but with some kind of biblical fly swarm about half way round, it went on for about a mile and they were everywhere it was not fun. That balanced out when I saw some hikers squeeling like babies as they got attacked by said flies as I flew past at about 20MPH I would have laughed but I would have swallowed about 100 flies 0 -
it's nice once it all starts coming together isnt it?
I found one of the best ways of improving your riding speed and flow is to consiously not use your brakes, try and stay off them past your comofrt level and push your limits that little bit more.
your bike will only go as fast as your flow allows and by carrying momentum through the corners you'll be much faster overall.
Worst comes to worst you take a spill, but as long as you don't get silly by trying to go much to fast or get target fixation you'll be fine.
Top tip, turn your head in the direction you want to go and focus on a point at the end of the corner. let your body do it's own thing and you'll find on smooth tracks you'll just go in the direction you face!The Frog: Lapierre Zesty 214 2010 - Upgraded - W.I.P0 -
For anybody wanting to improve their riding skills I thoroughly recommend a book written by Brian Lopez and Lee McCormack called Mastering Mountain Bike Skills,
It takes you all the way from buying a bike right through to racing, It's full of really useful tip's and I'd like to think my riding has improved considerably since reading it. (including my jumping skills Johnny Napalm )
I brought mine from Amazon but here's a link to an even cheaper copy
http://www.eruditor.com/books/item/9780 ... 43.html.enTrek Fuel EX8 Rootbeer, mmm beer!0
