6 Secret Mountain Bike Skills That Will Make You A Better Rider

Today, I'm going to talk about six simple skills that probably don't get thought about very much, but they will make you a better rider. Pushing the right gear for maximum efficiency so that you get your cadence exactly right probably means that you're going to be shifting gear quite a lot. Actually, I feel like I'm shifting gear all the time. This is something that downhill racers do an awful lot, is to make sure when they are getting the pedal strokes in, they're in the meat of the gear so they're not spinning out or not pushing too hard a gear. It should be shifting all the time. Also, with downhill racing, you're trying to time your pedal strokes around things on the track. There'll be sections where you can't pedal at all, but also when you can, there's often tree stumps and roots and things. Sometimes, it can help pushing a slightly too hard gear for that so you're not spinning your feet around near the floor more often. Take a tip from the downhill pros and try and change your gear really often to make sure you're in the right gear. Side note, guess what? I'm riding my Orbea Rise with this Shimano XT Di2 gears on here, which you can set up for automatic shifting if you want, which is pretty clever. I've actually turned that off, but I do use the free shift. When I'm coasting, I can hit my lovely little electronic paddle up here and it'll spin up the chain and change gear for me. That's a completely new way of shifting gear and you have to rewire your brain a little bit. I've by no means got it perfect. It's all too easy for your eyes to lower and come resting in front of your front wheel, but challenge yourself to look a bit further at where you want to be and not what you want to avoid. This is the blue that I'm riding now. It's this mellow trail. I've got a nut in this, mate. What I'm actually looking for is for grip as much as anything. I don't know if you can see, but it's gravelly. You can probably hear that. If you go too low in these turns, you'll hit all the gravel. Actually, I'm looking for the grip and then I'm looking around to the exit corner. I'm going a bit more steep now, so I need to be looking further back. When the going gets tough on really steep climbs and your rear wheel is scrabbling for grip and your front wheel is almost coming off the floor, then you need to get extreme with your weight position on the bike, but also extreme with a discomfort for a slight moment. There are some climbs that are so extremely steep that you can only just get up them if your weight is placed right on the front of that saddle, but it is actually really rewarding when you know you're on your limit physically, but also technically of actually getting those wheels to crawl up that steepness. It's uncomfortable, but it is really rewarding. On cross-country rides or even some of the epic challenges I've done over the years, it can be really tempting to save your energy and stay sat down pedaling all the time when the trail is mellow. Actually, if you stay sat down at the wrong points on some parts of the trail, that can rob you of momentum and then you have to use your energy to get back up to speed. These nice smooth rollers are a good example of this. If you just raise yourself up and out of the saddle the slightest bit, your bike can then tip and roll over this, whereas if you're sat down, all your weight is going to slam through the bike and then through the tires in the bottom of here, and that can lose you a bit of momentum. Literally, just raising yourself off the saddle will help the bike move and actually keep your overall average speed a little bit better. If you have a mate that's a better rider than you, then following them can help drag you along. You can follow their line on a technical track to see exactly how they get it done, or use their speed to help you get it right on a jump. Also, just copy what they do, break where they break in technical sections. These can all help you get a certain section of trail right, but also watching someone who is better than you can really help you visualize what you should be doing and also what it should feel like when you do it. Try to pick a friend who rides with a similar style to you. You can even pick up riding tips from watching pros in events. Look at their body movements in slow motion and try to visualize yourself doing the same thing. Next time you're riding a downhill track, think about what you're doing with the brakes. I've done this before and it was quite enlightening to actually realize that I'm often just pumping the brakes quite a lot from nothing to everything and just repeat that. It should make sense that the smoother you are with your brakes, the more grip you're going to get. Try and go from being off the brakes to just gently easing them on, and then to full power as and when you need it. Just try and think about it. I'll do this often with a GoPro and actually see what my fingers are doing, but being smooth and not just being on and off has got to be better for riding downhill. All right, there's a few things you can hopefully have a think about next time you go for a ride. For me, it's always looking and I could definitely smooth out my braking. It'll probably make me a smoother and faster rider as well. Anyway, before I do that, I'm going to go for a cup of tea. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button if you haven't already, GMBN, and get involved in the comments.