trying to do more challenging riding.....

mtb crazy

i go out biking alot on my own, however at the moment i feel ive reached a kind of plateau with the learning, how many others of you have found this? i want the guts to ride even bigger descents and the confidence to do corners at speed, but ive not got the confidence yet i have been riding bigger things than i ever thought i could do but i want to be able to go that bit further. Any ideas of how i could do so?

albo

Practise, Practise and...

I find time on the bike is the main thing (obvious I know) but just get on your bike as much as possible and push yourself to take sections of trail the way you wouldn't normally, even if it seems slower/pointless.

But at the end of the day if you want to go big you have to take a deep breath and go for it :twisted:

Northwind

Try and ride more with better riders...

Failing that, skills courses can be very effective if done well.

popstar

MTB Crazy, honest advice here to follow ... before you actually start looking for your limits, do yourself a favour and get yourself some decent knee-elbow pads. Not telling to get a full face helmet as hope you aren't that crazy to huck yourself into big jumps'n'drops but sometimes little falls can cause great injuries ... and that could stop you from riding for quite a very long time.

Sooner or later hope to see you on trails.

mtb crazy

i will be on trails soon when i can get up to swinley. im not gonna go down massive drops just yet :P

Yeah i will go out with others soon, tomorrow im meeting up with someone for a ride which should be fun. i want to do a skills course, Dirt Divas look quite good for us girls!

jimexbox

popstar wrote:

and that could stop you from riding for quite a very long time.

Indeed.

Make sure you have stiff soled mtb shoes, I didn't, too much flex and I'm waiting for my broken toes to mend. The knee and elbow are healing nicely, arm and elbow pads are in the post.

rockmonkeysc

Try a skills course. I did one with Chris Smith recently, mainly based around freeride but the basic skills also really help with trail riding. Massive drops are easy, the hard bit is to block out the little voice in your head telling you not to do it
It's worth finding a local club, when I started riding I joined a club and just asked better riders to follow me & give me tips about where I was going wrong.

getonyourbike

RockmonkeySC wrote:

It's worth finding a local club, when I started riding I joined a club and just asked better riders to follow me & give me tips about where I was going wrong.

I wish I could do that but everyone in my club seems to mainly ride road and the mtbers aren't any more skilled than me. I think I'm the only person in my club that goes anywhere near a DH course, they all like doing XC and cyclocross.

neilrosser

mtb crazy, where in Reading are you? I'm in Tilehurst and go to Sulham most of the time, it's ok for trails but you've got to be careful of dog walkers, so can't always get up to speed to practice taking corners etc, theres a few hills/slopes to work on decents though, and fitness by going back up
Cheers
Neil

mtb crazy

Rockmonkey, yeah i want to do a course as i think that will really help with confidence and learning. Want to do a Dirt Divas course and am also going to start riding up at swinley soon.

Neil, im in winnersh and go up to Coombes lane in barkham as thats the best place to practise round here (and the only place). descents are fun, though going up is hard work lol. Where abouts is Sulham?

.blitz

mtb crazy wrote:

i go out biking alot on my own

So do I but one of the best things you can do to improve your technique is find someone mental to ride with or latch onto a freight train of faster riders and try and follow them.

Even on familiar territory, it's enlightening to see the lines that other people take and how much faster they go purely because of skill and not because of effort. By the same token, watching them bin it is also a good way of learning without a trip to A&E

mtb crazy

blitz, haha yeah i would rather watch them end up in A&E than end up there myself.... though i am clumsy so probably will happen one day :P

good point about familiar routes and seeing how other people pick lines, i am going out at the weekend to swinley so will watch people there

ian220476

skills course - took my riding on leaps and bounds.

I saw Richard at All Biked Up in the Surrey Hills (he writes technique in IMBikeMag as well). Great trails and great tuition. Money really well spent - better than any 'bike' upgrade you can do as shows you how to drive a bike not let the bike pull you down the trail instead. You won't regret it.

nozzac

ian220476 wrote:

skills course - took my riding on leaps and bounds.

I saw Richard at All Biked Up in the Surrey Hills (he writes technique in IMBikeMag as well). Great trails and great tuition. Money really well spent - better than any 'bike' upgrade you can do as shows you how to drive a bike not let the bike pull you down the trail instead. You won't regret it.

That sounds good. So did you go on a specific course to cover specific techniques or a more general thing where he assessed your weaknesses?

ian220476

You can do what you want. He runs a series of group sessions which you can joingand can be seen on his website which look at various specifics.

Personally I went for some private tuition (3hrs at a time). Selfish, maybe, but I wanted it all about me!! He asked if there were any areas I would like to concentrate on and he will help you with those. When I first went however I asked for a full assessment of my ability and we went back to basics. There were some basics techniques that I was just missing and some advanced techniques that i already had nailed. I found this type of session to be the most benenficial and then gave him a few things e.g. drops, that I would like to do as well. Obviously the more experienced you are you will fly through these, but you will always improve it.

My cornering has increased at least twio-fold in speed alone.

He's a really cool guy and explains everything very well. Look at www.imbikemag.com to see his technique articles. Its all basic in a wierd way but the differences are immense and he helps you begin, learn then perfect the techniques. I went again a few months ago and expect to go at least once more this year. You learn to drive the bike, not just be a passenger and that makes a huge difference