7 Essential Mountain Bike Skills | MTB Skills You Have To Master

We're going to fly through some top essential mountain bike skills I think you guys should master, but like I said, we're going to fly through a bit. If you do want more in-depth and detailed videos of how to do all of these things, well, then the links are in the description below. Let's start with braking control then. As I think you'll agree, it's going to be pretty useful to know how to use these properly before we start venturing into the big wide world of mountain biking and start getting a bit too lairy. Let's take a look at our brakes then, and we'll start with the front brake. Normally, on the right-hand side, but if you're a Euro, it could be on the left-hand side or our American friends as well. The front brake is going to give us the most stopping power, but it's also the one you're going to have to be the most delicate with. Try not to just grab a big handful and be a little lighter and feather that brake, pulling it a little bit more gently. Onto the back brake then. Now, this one is going to complement your front brake and slowing you down as quick as possible, but it's also used to lock the back wheel up. This can be really useful for getting around tighter turns or slowing down as quickly as possible without losing too much control. Try using both brakes simultaneously. Firm on the front brake to slow down nice and quick, but just as firm or if not a little bit harder on the back brake to get that back wheel slowing down or locked up if needs to be. A great practical application of this could be out on the trail where coming into a turn, you might need to brake really hard so you'd be nice and firm on the front and just firm enough on the rear so the back's not quite locked up but slowing you down nicely. The manual then, a great skill to have in your arsenal and can be used in a multitude of ways. You can use it for picking the front wheel up over rough sections, generating more speed, or just to look cool down the local trails. The basics to manualing are squat and pop, but I think we can do a little bit better than that, so let's take a more in-depth look. Whilst riding along, squat into the bike and as you pop back up, you're going to want to shift your weight backwards, extending the arms, pulling the front wheel up off the ground. The simultaneous action of your weight being over the rear wheel and pulling up with your arms will lift the front wheel. Now, this is a simplified version, but fear not, a more in-depth vid is in the description below. Once you've got that front wheel airtime, make sure you're covering the back brake to stop any embarrassing loop outs. You'll also use it to feather and keep the balance point should you want to sustain the manual. You've dialed in your manuals, you've got them pretty set, but where do you use them on the trail? Well, this is a great little section where that would be really useful. We've got a nice little compression in the trail where you could pump and push your way through, but what we're going to do is manual through it, so the back end is going to go down into the dip, front end nicely over the other edge, and that's going to generate us some speed and be a nice and smooth way of getting through it. You're feeling pretty confident and it's come to that time in your mountain bike life that you want to get some air under those tires. Yes, I'm talking jumps. Now, there's lots of ways to tackle jumps and there's lots of different types of jumps out there, so we're going to briefly skim through this. Tabletops are the best jumps to learn on as generally they have the lowest consequences. You can start small and work your way up. Once you've got your skills dialed in on those, you can then take it to single fly-offs like we have here or onto double jumps where there's a gap in the middle. Now, to really delve in deep into the technique of how to jump, Blake has done an awesome video for this, which like all of these set skills that we're touching on here, the links are in the description. Corner time then, and let's face it, a super useful skill as mountain bike trails are seldom in a straight line. When you go to a new trail center or a new track that you've not ridden before, being able to tackle berms, flat turns, switchbacks is going to be really, really helpful for getting you down those trails safely. A great way of practicing your cornering skills is heading to your local trails or trail center and riding and repeating as many different types of turn as you can. This kind of repetition is going to build up your confidence and get you down and through those turns much easier. If, unfortunately, you don't have any trails on your doorstep or can't get to them very easily, then there are other ways of improving your corners. A great little tip is to get some cones or markers on the floor and just set up some nice S-bends. You can change how tight they are. This is going to be a really good way of practicing moving your weight from side to side and learning the grip that you have in the turns. It moves me nicely onto my next thing, which is moving your body around on your bike. Shifting your body around from left to right and front to back is really going to help grow your confidence when those trails get a lot more technical. This is something that can be combined really well with the cornering techniques we talked about earlier. Just having those cones or markers on the floor and leaning and shifting your body around from front to back, practicing your braking is all going to tie in nicely together for when it comes to maneuvering about. Now, I'm up here at my local trails, and we've got some tight twisty corners to get through. Unless I move my body around correctly, then, well, let's face it, this tree is definitely going to win in a battle between me and it. This is a great example of a real-world application of having to move my body around on the bike. Surely, one of the most useful skills, if not the most useful, is old faithful the bunny hop. Now, there are a ton of applications to this. You can use it on all different bits of the trail. The great thing with the bunny hop is that you can learn to do it anywhere, and you can even make some interesting challenges along the way to spice it up. How do we bunny hop? Let's have a quick look. Whilst either static or moving, assume the neutral riding positions so your arms and legs are going to have a slight bend and bum over the saddle. You're going to compress into the bike, shifting your weight backwards behind the saddle and over the rear wheel. Straighten your arms and lift as well. This will make the front end lift off the ground. To lift the back wheel up, exploding with your legs, shift your body weight up and forwards, dipping your toes so that the weight is forced into the pedals. This will lighten the back end and bring it up, leveling out the bike in the air. These may feel like odd movements, but piecing them together will work, and patience really pays off. Repetition is going to be key here, and practice, practice, practice. This skill is not something on the bike, but a skill nonetheless, and it's a bit of a gem, something you might find yourself enjoying more than you thought. It's bike maintenance, of course. Now, our trusty steeds aren't going to be going very far without a bit of love and TLC now and again, so it's a good thing to learn and get on top of. Basic M-check is a good place to start. Speaking of start, with it, you would start at the back, then work your way up to around the seat, down to the bottom bracket, up and around the headset, and then down towards the front brake there. That way, you can go over most of the essential moving parts. Once you've got to grips with the basic M-check and you're feeling a bit adventurous, you might want to start learning a little bit more in-depth. You could start with how the gears work, and then if you're feeling really brave, you could move on to advanced mechanics like how to bleed your brakes. Doddy has done a wicked video for this, and guess where the description for that is? Oh, no, the link. Now, like I said, it is a bit of a brief overview, this one. If you want to really delve in deep to the techniques and how-tos of these, then all the links to the videos for the skills that we've done are in the description below. Thanks for watching, everyone. I hope you've enjoyed it. Don't forget, subscribe, thumbs up, and I can't wait to see you again. Cheers.