Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Mountain Biking...

Mountain biking is a pretty complicated sport and there's a lot to know. In fact, there's so much to know that I couldn't possibly squeeze it into one video. But what I can squeeze into one video are things that you should probably know and things that I wish I'd have known before I started mountain biking. Tire pressure. It's the most important thing that's overlooked by so many mountain bikers. Not only what tire pressure you actually have in your tire, but also what tire pressure you should actually run. Before I start each ride, I always check what tire pressure I have. It's the best way of preventing against getting punctures, but also it's the best way of having a really predictable and familiar ride. When I started mountain biking, I would just run 30 PSI in the back and 30 PSI in the front. That is way too hard. Nowadays, I run 20 PSI in the back and 18 PSI in the front. And I can even go a little bit lower than that. I weigh about 160 pounds, which is about 72 kilos or so. And for me, I don't get flats, the tire doesn't squirm too much, and I have optimal grip. Straighter back. Don't. I can't. And that's because I wish I'd gotten to stretching a lot sooner, especially as I'm 34 years old. Mountain biking, you're in the same position for quite a long time, and that really does play havoc on your body. I mean, just look at me. I'm a decrepit mess over here. Make sure you stretch. Everyone should be very particular about how they set up their bike. I'm talking where your brakes are, how high your saddle is versus your pedal, the throw of the lever, the angle of the levers, the stem length you have, your handlebar width. All of it is crucial to feeling solid on a mountain bike. And I'm confident that if at the beginning of my mountain biking life, if I'd been particular and figured out where everything should go, not only would I have improved it at a faster rate, but I would have been more comfortable. Things like forearm pain, leg pain, all of it can be linked to how your bike is set up. I need to get my bike up this little steep slope here. Pushing it is actually quite hard. Back in 2015, I was at an Enduro World Series race and learned how to pick my bike up and put it on my shoulder. All you have to do is grab your seat tube right down here, take your left hand, put it on the fork, and pick it up looking ahead and throw it over the back of your shoulder with the down tube resting right here. And it's so easy. Instead of focusing on jumping and doing drops, I wish that I'd spend more time learning how to corner because cornering is the most important thing when it comes to mountain biking. Once I got a bike that came with 175 mil cranks. Now, I didn't know that the cranks were a different size, but I found that when I was trying to drop my heels and drop my feet, it felt really strange. And then I found out that, yeah, they were only five mil longer, but it made a huge difference. And now, all of my bikes come with 170 mil cranks. Ah, the humble dropper post. A thing of beauty and a must-have on every mountain bike as far as I'm concerned. There was one time where I bought a hardtail and it didn't come with a dropper post and I thought, no big deal, I'll just ignore this. It only took being on a fire road and then going down a slight brow of a hill when I tried to push the dropper post that wasn't there. I've had a dropper post on my bike for the last 10 years of me riding mountain bikes. And yeah, it's a must-have if you don't have one. When I used to get a new bike, for some reason, I would just turn the rebound dial to the middle position. And I thought that was the best place to start. The actual best place to start is on the manufacturer's website to see what air pressure you're running and then see how many clicks of rebound that you need. Any suspension dial is always measured from closed, so you wind it all the way in and then count the clicks out from there. Yeah, oh boy. Whoa! If only I'd learned to use my front brake a little bit sooner. When I was first starting out, all I would do was skid down a trail like this, grabbing my back brake, because I was so afraid of yet grabbing a handful of this and going over the bars. If I'd learned to use both of them in conjunction together sooner, I would, for sure, have advanced my skills a lot faster. I used to let my bike get so dirty and I didn't used to be that bothered about it. Nowadays, though, this thing is clean. The benefits? I actually wanna go and ride it because it's not gonna be creaking, it's not gonna be filthy in any way. It's always gonna work its best, even in here. Dirt and bits of grit can get into the linkage just in here and that affects how well the suspension works. Now, if it's clean, this suspension is gonna work better, which, again, means you're gonna have better time out on the trail. Surprisingly, mountain biking burns energy and it also dehydrates you, so it's really important to carry at least one water bottle, I've got a big one here, but 500 mil per hour should be enough, and a snack. I swear, at the beginning of riding, I would just take a big sandwich and then I'd eat it at some point. I wish I knew the exact amount of fuel I needed for each hour. If you've seen my other video where I made over my friend Anna's bike, you would've seen how messed up inside her suspension was and it felt awful. You've actually gotta service these things to keep them working as best as they can and one of the key indicators you'll see if things are going wrong are wear marks coming up and down here. Doing a lower service is so easy. I've actually done a video all about it, which you can find by clicking this link up here and it really does transform your bike and it's just so easy to do. On my Instagram, at paulthepunter, I asked you guys what you wish you'd known before you started mountain biking and I got quite a few responses, most of them were just talking about how much mountain biking costs, but I wanna put that into a different kind of angle here. I talked about this in my trail guide video, but it's actually important to spend the right money at the beginning. If you buy cheap, you buy twice. Mountain biking is a lot of fun and you'll probably wanna do it for a long time. Invest in good gear like some good knee pads, good clothing, good bikes, whatever and it'll last for much longer and it's actually gonna help keep those costs down that can be annoying. Trails don't build themselves and building trails costs money. You've gotta donate to your local trail association and I'm gonna do that right now. As mountain bikers, we spend so much money on the products, but rarely do we do this kind of thing and this is really what's gonna make the biggest difference for all of us. So I highly recommend that you get in touch with your local trail association. If you do have one, I'm aware that not everywhere does and you can either donate financially like I'm doing right now or you can donate your time, but just giving back to the trails, A, will make you feel incredible, but also it means that you're gonna have more places to ride and those places to ride are gonna be better. When I first started riding steep terrain, kind of like this little shoot that I've got behind me, I was told to lean back. That is the worst advice that you can get. If you're leaning back, there is no weight on your front wheel and you need that in order to steer. Some better advice would have been to stay more centered, that way you're gonna negotiate a tricky feature like this much easier. Tubeless tires. I started using tubeless tires maybe six or seven years ago at this point and it used to really intimidate me, but nowadays, I mean, I won't even make a video about it because it's so easy to do. Now, for those that don't know, tubeless means that you'll be able to run lower tire pressures and it's gonna help protect against punctures a little bit better because the fluid inside will seal up any hole if you get a thorn or any sharp object in there and you'll be able to continue riding. I mean, one real quick tip that I will share is that by taking the valve core out is gonna make inflating them that little bit easier. Okay, one more tip. If you don't have anything to measure the tubeless fluid with, just pour it until it goes across four spokes. Life hack. Instead of just going out with some friends and heading down the nearest black trail, I wish I'd got some lessons. In every single other sport, like let's say skiing or golf or whatever, you go and get lessons if you actually wanna get good at something and luckily, nowadays, there are so many mountain bike coaches and teaching programs available, I recommend you find your nearest one, go and sign up and learn some valuable skills. Oh, oh, oh, God, ugh. Let's be honest, climbing sucks but do you know what? It gets easier the more you just do it and if only I'd known that if I applied myself to improving my fitness and just stayed on my bike for a bit longer on the climbs, the fitness would actually come quite quickly, faster than I expected, in fact. Hmm, where, where am I? I'm in the middle of nowhere here. Luckily, this is just a dramatic reenactment because Trailforks doesn't use your data, it works off maps that have already been downloaded onto your phone and GPS. Do you know what I really think I wish I'd known before I picked up mountain biking, Joel, is just how much traveling I would end up doing and the places I would go and the people I'd meet. I actually think that people spend maybe a little bit too much money on bike parts and everything and not enough on traveling and going on trips. If you'd like to be a sponsor's dream just like me, then grab yourself a sponsor's dream piece of merch from the link in the description below and it's also the first comment that you'll see down there and if you've enjoyed this video, hit the like button and if you aren't already, subscribe to the channel so you'll be notified of future videos just like this but more importantly, watch it twice. Cheers, punters, I'll see you next time.