20 Ways To Get Better At Mountain Biking | Beginner To Pro

Blake and Neil have 20 skills for you to brush up on to elevate your mountain biking to the next level! Even the pros go back to basics sometimes and it’s super important to have all of these skills dialled to really maximise the amount of fun you can have on days out on your bike!

⏱ Timestamps ⏱
00:00 – Intro
00:12 – Learn About Your Bike!
00:24 – Set Your Sag Correctly
00:52 – Learn How To Fix A Puncture
01:16 – Dial In Your Cockpit
01:44 – Tyre Pressure!
02:11 – Feet First
02:43 – Learn To Spot Grip
03:00 – Get A Good Bunny Hop On You!
03:21 – Work On Your Cornering
03:47 – Look Up!
04:04 – Keep A Good Mentality
04:17 – Tyre Choice
04:47 – Vision
05:09 – Watch How The Pros Do It
05:26 – Learn Your Optimum Cadence
05:47 – Pump The Ground!
06:09 – Spot Smooth Lines
06:32 – Preload Your Suspension
07:04 – Grip Testing
07:30 – Riding Spot Variety

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in this video we’re going to go through 20 mountain bike tips to help you out if you’re a beginner to go faster or to crash [Applause] less learn your bike have a look online for the manual learn how it’s put together look after it some bolts might need check in and lock tight in you’ll learn how it works and how to look after [Music] it set your sag made easier with a shock pump especially if you have air suspension on your rig Now setting up your sag on your rig can definitely make or break it set your sag where your normal riding gear sit on your bike and notice how much your suspension drops on the front and on the rear so I recommend 30% on the rear 20 to 25% on the front and from there you can tweak it learn how to fix a puncture both when using tubes or tubeless it is key skill to have to get you you out of trouble a lot of riders use tubless now and there are tricks to fixing problems like carrying Tire plugs and pumps or CO2 cartridges if the slice is too big you may not be able to fix the tire on the trail but you might be able to save it with a patch later on dial in your controls your brake lever shifter and drop of post positions make a big difference on how comfortable you are on the bike in different riding conditions make sure that you set your brake lever up so you can use one finger on the very end for maximum leverage and also that the angle right so they’re in the right place and it’s most comfortable for when you’re using them the most I.E breaking hard on a [Music] downhill experiment with tire pressure find what suits your weight riding style and trails you ride if you’re heavier ride Rocky Trails or ride really aggressively you’ll need to be on the harder side of the scale up to around 28 or 30 PSI if you’re lighter ride flowy Trails without any big compressions then you can go lower low 20 psi or even just [Music] under feet first what your feet are doing will affect your weight position on the bike if you’re running clipless pedals it’s important to set up your cleats properly on the bottom of your shoe now further back is going to help you when it comes to descending further forward is going to engage your calf muscles but it’s going to make it a little bit harder to maneuver the bike effectively and if you ride flat pedals getting a really good combo of pedals and shoes so you’ve got maximum grip and connection to the bike particularly when you need it the most in rough and Technical sections look for grip plan your riding line and make the most of the grip that is on the trail sometimes that means going the long way if there’s no grip on the obvious line or look for BMS or even edges of ruts to get grip against [Music] if you aren’t able to effectively Bunny Hop then you’re driving your bike on the trail into whatever’s in front of you when you can unweight over obstacles the trail opens up and lots more lines become possible and actually easier but you need to nail the Bunny Hop technique to make sure you get the timing right to keep it [Music] safe probably the hardest thing to try and get good at in mountain biking is cornering there are so many variables and getting it wrong leads to a lot of crashes look at where your weight is going low and to the outside for maximum grip Central for stability and turns where you’re compressing dial your bike setup suspension and geometry to balance weight and grip across both [Music] tires look at where you want to go not where you don’t want to be for example if you see a tree on the exit of a turn don’t look at the tree because you automatically end up going towards it look down towards the trail that you want to be going don’t underestimate how important the mental side of riding is confidence is key and it takes a while to build and an instant to destroy build your speed and ability [Music] gradually tires super important it can change the way your bike rides out there so when it comes to picking a tire for the conditions that you’re going to be riding it all depends on the trail that you’re going to be riding and the conditions of the trails itself as well so if it’s muddy you want to pick one that’s quite knobbly and aggressive so it can dig down to get Maximum Traction but if it’s nice and hard packed then you want something that’s a lot less rolling resistance so you can maintain your speed out there and have a good sidewall support Vision make sure that you can see the trail properly at all times now I like to use a small mod guard all year round you can maybe think about more coverage in super wet conditions and a set of riding glasses with clear lenses when it’s wet and dark gives you two layers of protection watch the pros imitate their style and skills can you see how they pick their lines where they’re pumping versus pedaling there’s a lot to learn from watching and then visualizing yourself doing the same thing just don’t forget they can make it look very [Music] easy to learn your first speed of spinning your pedals and it becomes Instinct on the trail much like walking you’ll be planning ahead to where your feet drop the timing you need is missing all the obstacles beside the trail you might want to try a slow cadence on flat pedals to minimize the risks of pedal strikes pump to be Pro making speed from the bumps in the trail is what downhill Pros are really good at that can be obvious rollers the downsides of jumps or even lumps of roots there is speed to be made and is often less risky and smoother than trying to Pedal if you can smooth out your riding then the speed can come after draw smooth lines on the trail try to link Corners you’re in the right entry spot After exiting the previous Corner flowing like this might feel slower to begin with as you need to be more careful midt it’ll be less tiring and faster if you can keep your momentum in windy sections of Trail plus it feels awesome if you can start linking turns together well on a full suspension bike it can work against you when trying to get maximum air the suspension is sucking up the pop of the takeoff so to address this you need to pump the bike in hard at the bottom of the takeoff so that is ready compressed start with small takeoffs to get the feeling of it and use it to your advantage if you need to generate height and length to clear a jump try to push your bike into a skar with too much breake and a little bit of turn this should give you an idea of the amount of grip on that day in those conditions rather than just charging into the trail and the first time you find out is in the first turn take that confidence and try to learn how to drift make your bike slide out that using any brake this will give you a great feel of where to put your weight to balance the tires and feel like you’re mastering cornering last but not least ride somewhere different variety can make you a better Rider yeah getting good on your home Trails can feel really good but actually to broaden your skills get out into the wider world and ride different types of trails also it’s one of the best things about a mountain bike is traveling to discover new places to ride oh yeah let us know in the comments down below if you’ve got any of your own top tips yeah help out the community down below with your ones if we’ve missed out some and if you like this video give us a thumbs up like and we’ll see you next time see you cup of tea cup of tea