improving speed.....

mtb crazy

is it really just practise?! ive been riding for about 8 months now and feel like i should be better at riding than i am! would wearing knee pads help, cos i am still quite nervous of crashing....

1mancity2

Practice, position, tyres, confidence, loads of reasons but the main one is confidence.

Wearing armour will help if you fall off but should not be used as a reason to hit things faster invest in a skills course, best money you can spend and you will improve quicker.

mtb crazy

yeah am going to do one soon hopefully, most likely one of jedis

1mancity2

mtb crazy wrote:

yeah am going to do one soon hopefully, most likely one of jedis

Honestly the best money you will spend.

Dirtrider

pedal more.

agg25

Find out what's holding you back. Is it fitness? You running out of breathe? If so work on this, ride more, for longer, cross train. If it's your technical ability, like losing speed around bends, you'd need to work on this, maybe try sessioning one tricky part of a trail over and over until you get better.

bluechair84

Just keep riding. Maybe your not feeling confident because the tyres aren't grippy enough for you - think about some lighter weight and grippier rubber maybe? Watch the video on my blog post here- the rest of it is crap as it's written by me, but the video is very interesting.

MountainMonster

Do you mean speed on flats, descents, or climbing? I've gotten about 200% faster in the climbs the last few months due to lots of training, many hours on home trainer,a nd lots of riding, but have not seen much of an increase in performance on the descents as climbing alot doesn't help that.

cooldad

Stop using getting drunk on weekends as an excuse and ride more. You know it's true.
Try keeping up with thel33ter, Ben, bdj etc at the front of the group and you'll get faster.
Or die.

mtb crazy

mountainmonster, i would like to improve speed (and confidence) on descents, as always last to finish a trail in the group i ride with.... i know its not a competition but just want to get to be a better rider.

agg25

After I spent a week in the Alps my descents got a lot better, find some big mountains and throw yourself down them, pad up and push yourself to the limit, maybe look at a skills coach if you've got the money

miss notax

mtb crazy wrote:

is it really just practise?!

Yes

Although it's also pushing yourself beyond your individual comfort zone - my fitness has improved significantly over the past year and it's purely because I have been REALLY pushing myself to be first up the hills etc. It's not been pleasant, but the changes have been pretty dramatic!

I would also recommend Jedi, it's money extremely well spent

rockmonkeysc

Practice, bike set up & training. If you want to get some training to descend faster, smoother & with less effort look up Chris Smith on Facebook, I have had a few lessons with him & it has seriously improved my riding.

thegiantbiker

Try "attaching" yourself to the rear of a faster rider. if someone overtakes you, see how long you can stay behind them for. By watching where they pedal, which line they take around corners etc you'll soon see where technique can be improved. Also the physical aspect of chasing them will improve the fitness.

bartimaeus

And have a read of Brian Lopes' "Mastering Mountain Bike Skills". I know a book isn't as good as a course, but this one is very helpful... "heavy feet, light hands".

rockmonkeysc

Try "attaching" yourself to the rear of a faster rider. if someone overtakes you, see how long you can stay behind them for. By watching where they pedal, which line they take around corners etc you'll soon see where technique can be improved. Also the physical aspect of chasing them will improve the fitness.

When descending you won't pick up much following someone. The biggest speed gain I found was learning to pump off every possible feature & learning to manual in to the rough stuff. Pedalling is often limited by ground clearance & with line you won't see if someone fast is using little ruts & small features in the trail to get more grip, sometimes a couple inches in line choice can make a huge difference in grip. Changing gear on the way in to a turn so you can get maximum acceleration out can gain a lot. Also try chasing someone faster than you can end in pain when you run out of talent :shock:

1mancity2

RockmonkeySC makes some really good points about using the trail for speed, this is were a skills course will help.
Learning to pump the trail and unweight the bike at the right time will improve your speed no end.

Skills course first, speed later.

delcol

look for fluid ride-ride like a pro on dvd or a dodgy download off net.

get your self on a skill course it really will make a huge difference. and get out practice practice and practice. then repaet another 10 times and another 10 times you get the idea...

try to find a pumptrack and put some time in on that,,, like mentioned finding free speed out of the trail will make you quicker and save energy.. and line choice is an important one.. also stay loose let it all hang out let the bike move and track under you..

1mancity2

delcol wrote:

look for fluid ride-ride like a pro on dvd or a dodgy download off net.

Tried to get this recently and I have had no joy!

delcol

it appears that fluid ride like a pro is nowere to be found on dvd.. it's availble on certain websites in certain file formats,

Jedi

miss notax wrote:

mtb crazy wrote:

is it really just practise?!

Yes

Although it's also pushing yourself beyond your individual comfort zone - my fitness has improved significantly over the past year and it's purely because I have been REALLY pushing myself to be first up the hills etc. It's not been pleasant, but the changes have been pretty dramatic!

I would also recommend Jedi, it's money extremely well spent

thanks for the recommend

mtb crazy

thanks guys, delcol fortunately theres a pump track not far from me and ive been there loads to practise pumping. only thing is i find it then difficult to know which part of trails to pump.... some are obvious and others not. can you pump most things? getting better at the track but taking it to the trails is somewhat more difficult :-S

delcol

just look for undulations in the trail anything that you can use to gain speed off, it's just getting used to reading the trail ahead of you and finding that line,.

1mancity2

Do a skills course, you will then see the light, the trail looks totally different after it.

Every rock, root becomes a launch pad to getting free air and clearing rough sections, every dip becomes free speed, every corner is railed, every drop is cleared with a punch or a pre-jump, you get the picture...

Northwind

Going fast is as much about maintaining speed as gaining it... Seems to be quite common that people who're trying their hardest to go fast, end up pushing too hard- so you get the classic pedalling like mad in a straight then arriving in a corner way faster than you want to and banging on the brakes. Happens with motorbikes too, and probably loads of other places.

So, try going slower to go faster. Dirtschool talk about riding familiar sections back to back with and without pedalling- often people find that they feel slower through a section but actually go faster, while using less energy and in more control.

delcol

north wind has a good point.

obviously needs to be a slight down hill section..

try removing your chain and riding chainless this is a really good way to maintain flow. it makes you concentrate on what your doing more as you can pedal..

Blind Danny Johnson

Personally I found following someone faster a big help eg thel33ter. If you go behind him on a section you will notice where you can steam over stuff you thought maybe too rough and would've slowed down for and also where a little bit of braking and speed control can help you maintain speed and come out of a section/berm faster than if you were to enter too quick and slam on the brakes, losing all your speed.

The more relaxed you feel and the more fun you're having the faster you will go I reckon. Are you coming to SH on Sunday?

cooldad

Problem is if I try and follow him I either fall off, or he loses me in about 5 seconds.

Blind Danny Johnson

Ha ha! I have done that too, hence the knee pads!

dirty face

One of the best ways of improving speed is simply to 'look ahead' as apposed to looking down. Scan the ground ahead and you will be better set up for whats coming therefore less breaking needed. Top tip is to 'keep your chin up' so as to exagerate the looking ahead bit.