10 Tips for Beginning Mountain Bikers

When I first started mountain biking, I didn't know anything. In fact, I didn't know these very expensive mountain bikes didn't come with pedals. But over the years, I've managed to gather enough information about mountain biking to be dangerous, and I decided to put together a video that I wish I had when I was coming up in the mountain bike world. So let's jump right in. First off, let's talk bikes. What is the perfect bike for you? It turns out scholars have been pondering this question for generations, and the answer is almost impossible. However, I think picking a bike is pretty easy. The categories are simple. There's a hardtail. There's an XC bike. There's a trail bike. There's enduro bikes. There's downhill bikes. There's dirt jumpers. There's e-bikes. There's road... Okay, maybe it's not as uncomplicated as I made it out to be. Look, the point is there are a lot of different styles of bikes, and the one that's perfect for you is hard for me to answer. It depends on the trails you're riding and such. But I want to cover a couple categories real quick. Here's what you need to know. XC bikes. They're very lightweight. They have very little travel. They're fast on the trails. They're real fast on the uphills. But they have trouble in the chunky stuff. Trail bikes. Still pretty lightweight. Mid-level of travel. Pretty much great on almost every terrain until you're getting into the really, really gnarly stuff. And enduro bikes. A little bit on the heavier side. More travel. We're talking 150, 160, 170. We're getting into that range. Which means they can absorb a lot more chunk on the trails. And yes, that's my representation for chunk. They can handle almost anything. But they might climb a little worse than some of those previous categories. And a downhill bike. If we're here talking about beginner tips for mountain bikers, you don't need to worry about a downhill bike just yet. And of course, the dreaded e-bike. The mountain bike community, for some reason, is still divided on whether or not e-bikes should be a thing. But in my opinion, they are great. If you don't like climbing, you like doing a lot of downhill, and you like doing big adventure rides, e-bikes are certainly worth considering. However, they're very heavy. You've got to charge them, which means there's more tech in the bike. Which means more things could go wrong. But at the same time, if you get an e-bike, you're going to have an awesome time on the trail. So look, the decision of which bike to pick, I leave in your hands. I work with N plus 1 bikes. You can always shoot them a call, and try to figure out which one's the right one for you. Or find your local bike shop. Either way, I do suggest finding a bike that fits you appropriately. There's a reason why they do frame sizes on bikes. All the way from extra small to extra large. That factors into your height, and will improve your riding experience if you've got the right bike for you. Okay, next tip. Next up, should you ride flats, or should you ride clipless? And the word clipless is pretty silly, because you clip into the pedal, but they call it clipless. Look, it's been debated for centuries among mountain bikers. I'm just going to say, would you rather ride clipped in? Can we agree upon that? So like I said earlier, when you buy a really nice mountain bike, it will not come with pedals. I didn't know this when I bought my first mountain bike. But I'm telling you now. So when you do, you've got a decision to make. Do you want to ride with flats, or do you want to ride clipless, or clipped in? This one's going to be easy. Just ride flats. The last thing you need to worry about is being clipped into your pedal when you're just learning or getting familiar with the bike. I say ride flats. You can always go to clipless or clipped in later. But start with flats, and get prepared to have your shins mashed to a bloody pulp by the spikes on them. But it's a rite of passage. Next, let's talk about what to bring with us on a ride. There's a lot of different ways you can carry your gear on a ride, whether it's a hip pack, or a hydration pack, or some people will just strap it all to their bike. There are a few essentials that I won't ride without. Number one is a multi-tool. You've got to have a way to fix your bike if you're out on the trail. A multi-tool is going to have almost everything you'd need to tweak your bike in one way or another, whether it's adjusting the handlebars, or locking in your through axle that's loose because you forgot to do it last time. Either way, you're going to be able to make small adjustments if something's wrong. I also always bring a way to seal a puncture on my tire in case it happens, whether that's a Stan's dart or a strip of bacon. Yeah, I know there's a lot of terminology happening here, but if there's a puncture on your tire, it'll allow you to insert and hopefully seal that hole, which brings us to the next thing, either a hand pump or CO2, some way to refill air into your tire. If you get a puncture, it's great that you can plug the hole, but you also need to be able to put air back into the tire. You can do that with CO2 or a small hand pump. Speaking of which, tire levers. If it gets really out of hand, you can use the tire levers to get the tire off the wheel, put in a spare tube, which you might also want to carry into your tire and get it back on, inflate it, and you're back on the trail. If any of this sounds daunting, trust me, it kind of is, and we could go over that later if you want me to. Let me know in the comments down below. Okay, in addition to that, I always bring a few snacks with me in case I get hungry, and water, water, water. Always bring enough water for you on the ride. Next, let's talk about eyewear. I personally won't go on a ride without some level of eye protection. I've been on enough rides where dirt and dust is flying into my face that it just impedes visibility so much. It's not worth it. The last thing you want is a bug flying in your eye when you're hauling down a downhill section, which brings us to the sponsor of this video, SportRX. You see, having the right eyewear for a ride is essential. In the world of mountain biking, our rides can take us all kinds of places, and that's where SportRX comes in. Their large selection of lenses and frames will have your eyes covered in any type of terrain or weather. Even better, they specialize in prescription eyewear for the outdoor enthusiasts. I got my hands on a pair of their Huxing glasses, and I couldn't be more stoked. The lighter tint on the lenses improves visibility for me in the light and the dark, giving me one less excuse for picking the wrong line on my ride. And these rubber temples located here and here also help the glasses stay secure when I'm out on a ride. SportRX has a great selection of glasses and lenses, including companies like Oakley, Ray-Ban, and 100%. Now, I don't personally have a prescription, but when I told my buddy Kyle about it, he was beyond stoked. So stoked. This is Kyle, everybody. Hi. Kyle's been riding with his regular glasses for way too long. Way too long. So when we got him set up with his custom SportRX glasses, it was kind of life-changing. Seriously, no more watery eyes from wind and dust, and a huge improvement in contrast when riding in shady lighting conditions. So true. And I don't have to deal with glasses sliding off my face anymore. Which is kind of important when you're barreling down a gnarly section of trail. Yep. And those glasses are specifically tailored to your prescription, so they're kind of unique to you, one of a kind. Seriously awesome. I was able to get two sets of really amazing glasses that are designed for the terrain and trails I ride, thanks to a quick consultation with one of their live sports opticians. My buddy Kyle here had a long list of questions ready to go for him, and they blew us both away. In his words, they nailed it. And my buddy Kyle has never seen better or looked better on the trail. Thanks, I guess. And now back to the video. Okay, and you remember how I mentioned tubeless tires earlier? If you don't know what that means, it's kind of simple, but also kind of complicated. So in the past, you would have a tube inside of this tire to keep it inflated. That's no longer the case with modern mountain bikes. Usually we're running tubeless setups. What does that mean? That means there is rim tape inside of this wheel that prevents air from getting out. That also means there is fluid inside of your tubeless tire. And I know that sounds weird to some people. There is fluid inside of here that is designed to, if you get a puncture, the fluid will come out and seal the hole. So that also means there is some maintenance involved with this. That means every, I would say three to six months, you should be checking the fluid inside of here to make sure it's still there. If it dries up or evaporates, right? Now, if you get a puncture, it won't seal up. Or if you're noticing that your tire all of a sudden tends to de-inflate, de-escalate, deflate, de-illuminate. No, deflate regularly on its own. That might also be an indicator that you need to add more tubeless tire sealant inside of your tubeless tire setup. If this all sounds kind of daunting, come with me. Let's have a talk. Okay, let's talk maintenance. Now, this is a sore subject for a lot of people, but I will admit it. When I first started mountain biking, I didn't know how to maintain my bike at all. And it was years of screwing it up until I finally got it right, that now I'm a fairly capable mechanic. But if all this stuff sounds intimidating to you, when it comes to tubeless tire setups and chain maintenance and, you know, all these things, I would suggest taking it to the bike shop to have them service it. Now, a lot of the times I don't buy into these service programs. I used to go into Best Buy and they try to sell me a service plan on my Blu-rays. But when it comes to keeping your bike in proper operating condition, either you do it or you pay somebody who knows how to do it. And the other option is you don't know how to do it. You look at videos on YouTube, you do it, you screw it up, and then you take it to the shop so they can fix what you broke. So that was definitely my method. Okay, let's talk about the next thing. Next up, let's talk trail ratings and how to know where to ride. So trail ratings are pretty simple. You're going to go green, which is pretty easy. If you're a beginning mountain biker, start off on greens, that'll be fine. Blues, you start to see a little bit more chunk and features introduced into the trails. Doesn't mean they're necessarily super, super hard, but you're going to see a little bit more navigational skill needed. Black Diamond trails start to get a little dicey. You could see drops, you could see a little bit more features, things like that. And definitely, they tend to have bigger jumps and more chunk. Double Black Diamond, if you're here for this video for beginning mountain biking tips, you're going to die. No, no, no, but maybe just don't go to Double Black Diamond just yet. They can get a little spicy. Now, in terms of where to ride, there's a couple of ways to figure this out. There are apps on the phone called Trailforks and MTB Experience, and they will show you local trail systems. They'll also rate those trails. So if you're trying to find where to start, where to stop, what to ride, Trailforks and MTB Experience could be invaluable in terms of navigating, especially if you don't know a lot of people in the sport just yet. This could be your tool to success for finding a trail system that you can ride. And speaking of finding people to ride with, when I first started mountain biking, I didn't know anybody that rode. So it took me a while to start meeting people in the mountain biking space. The way I did that is I talked to people on the trails. But in addition to that, I found a local Facebook riding group, and they would go out and do group rides. And that's where I started meeting a few other people in my local area. There's also groups that exist on Instagram, and they probably do in your area where you can meet, get together, and go on group rides. This is a great way to start finding riding buddies in your area. Give it a shot. Next up, let's talk trail etiquette. This one's pretty simple. First off, just be kind to everyone on the trail, whether it's hiker, equestrian, or fellow mountain biker. Just be cool, man. There's one thing you need to know. Technically speaking, the uphill rider always has the right-of-way. Now, that's just the rules, okay? I don't always enforce them. But the bottom line is if somebody's climbing and you're going downhill, the common courtesy is to give them the right-of-way on the trail. Otherwise, they might yell at you. Me personally, if I see somebody coming down the trail and they're having a blast on the downhill, I will happily get out of their way. But rules are rules. So just, I told you, and you can't say that I didn't warn you. Okay, all right. Okay, side note. One other tip for trail etiquette. Winter is coming. That means these trails are going to get muddy real fast. And don't be a trail widener. It's a suggestion I have for you. What is a trail widener, you ask? That means if there's a mud puddle here and you ride around it, you start to widen the natural trail. The single track is no longer single. So just kind of slowly go through the mud puddle or be like a kid again and ride through it full force. That's what I always do. Don't be a trail widener. Trail etiquette 101. Okay. Okay, next up, we're going to consider this a half tip. Long socks. If you're a mountain biker, you got to wear long socks. I don't know why. I didn't make the rules. But if you wear short socks, someone somewhere is going to make fun of you. So you got to wear long socks. It's like a, it's an unwritten rule that's... Okay, I don't know why. Okay, speaking of half tips, you want to take a good picture of your bike. Here's the simple way to do it. Find the stick and stick it in your crank hole. That sounds really inappropriate, but that's how you stand your bike upright and make it look cool for a shot. Okay, two half tips make a one tip, right? Okay. Okay, now let's talk about a couple of basic riding techniques. I'm not going to cover everything because there is so much to cover. That could be an entire video series on itself. But here are some basic things that I wish I knew when I first started riding. Okay, first things first, when it comes to brake control, you don't need to grab the whole brake like this. Modern brakes are so powerful that really all you need is a single finger. Just light, just light single finger. That will get the job done. That means you have more grip on the handlebars and on the grips and you have just enough braking power with your fingers. You will be fine. Trust me. Let me give you one other tip. This one's your front brake. If you're in the US, I only found out recently that the UK is reversed. But your front brake, don't grab too heavy on the front brake when you first start mountain biking. That could result in the old over the bars and you don't want to do that. And in addition to basic brake control, one other riding technique was a game changer for me on the trail. And it is quite simple to do. It's a matter of looking where you're going. What do I mean by that? I mean, don't stare at your front wheel and what's directly in front of you. You want to look beyond. Look past. Look down the trail. That'll help you see any avoidable features coming up and allow your reaction time to compensate for what's coming up down the trail. Look beyond your wheel. Look down the trail. Look where you're going. Not at the front of your wheel. That's one suggestion I can make. That was absolutely huge for me. And let's talk about dropper posts for a second. One of the single greatest inventions in mountain bike history. It's a seat that goes down and then up and then down and then up. But why? You see, there's a small lever on the handlebars that'll let you control the dropper post. And whenever you ride downhill, you want to lower the seat. The reason why you do this is it gets the seat out of the way for maximum control of the bike on the downhill. Then when you climb, you raise the seat back up and you're at maximum power for the climbs, meaning your legs can fully extend on the climbs. The dropper post, I would never ride without one at this point. It is the greatest thing ever. And I'll fight you if you argue with me. So look, those are some of the basic things I wish I knew when I first started mountain biking. I purposely didn't get super technical in this video because I didn't want it to be that technical. But if you guys want me to dive into the weeds on some of these topics, let me know in the comments down below. Otherwise, I appreciate you hanging out and hopefully you'll learn something new, which is very unusual for this channel. Anyways, appreciate you stopping by and we'll see you on the next one. Okay.