She suffers from a weird twitching and overcorrecting while riding, I don't know if it's from the bike (she's 162cm tall, 5'4" for my imperial user friends and rides an XS, 390mm reach, 650b) or from her confidence and riding skills?
Her bike is on the conservative side, with a 66.5° HTA, lowered to 66° through an offset bushing but still the same twitching, I wonder if the reach of 390mm (or even less since messing with the HTA) is too low ?
Also you'll see on the video 2 crashes, and in my opinion they are totally due to overthinking the danger. Those trails are green ones from Alpe d'Huez.
Any good advices ? She seems to like riding and want to help her improve…
Thank you!
by A6RA4
25 Comments
Loosen up move your hips and body around the bike
You should feel lucky that your wife achieved so much already and is with you on the trail. Take it slow and most importantly have as much fun as possible. She will get there if there’s right atmosphere and feeling.
Check her handle bar width. Also with mountain biking is all about feeling confident. Make sure she is riding trails that are confortable for her. It takes times to build that confidence and all you need is patience at that point.
pay for a coach, they can help diagnose better than reddit.
What about a coaching session with someone decent. In the UK you could look at Katy Curd (Forest of Dean) UKBikeskills (Tony/Jedi in Hertfordshire), BPW.
Also just ride a lot more of the stuff you want to. A regular trip to BPW each month can help, visiting decent trails most weekends.
Try doing some less gravity- oriented trails with her to build her confidence
Get a coach that can teach her the basics: position, bike/body separation, heavy feet:light hands. Instead of starting with downhill: maybe start with some trails where she has to pedal at least some of the time. Starting on a downhill trail could perhaps tempt her to go faster than she is ready for.
Women and men are not the same when it comes to dangerous activities. Where you find it easy to just yeet yourself through or off of anything, women’s brains are more geared towards self-preservation. Her brain makes her overthink absolutely everything, and it honestly sucks when you know you can do something, but you’re also told not to do it if you have any doubts… which there is always that little voice going on.
Also, her strength is in her core and legs, unlike a man who has core and arms. So, teaching her how you do things might not always help.
Get her into a women’s downhill course lead by a woman, being around like-minded and similar ability individuals will help her open up. A great women’s coach can teach her how to use her body better and be more confident on the bike as well as help her set up her bike to fit her. I saw great improvements after going to courses, and now I’m better (technical wise) than my husband. He’s only faster because I’m too short for a long travel 29er, lol.
In my case confidence with moving my body and trust in my muscles capability makes the most out of my riding.
She’s doing great! Confidence and experience are all she needs. The crashes are due to tensing up, and the only way to get over that is to learn to relax and trust the bike, which really only comes with time in the saddle. Tell her she’s rad, brush off the crashes as normal and nothing to freak about, and just keep riding.
Keep them cheeks off the seat.
I took my wife out and she couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that she was sitting down too much.
Second voice for the low speed training in the safe area. She is overloaded with the basic cornering, too early for the trail.
Glued to the seat. Bike doesnt move. She only comes off when bumped off it looks.
The twitching and overcorrecting look to me like a consequence of looking down at the front wheel. Need to get that vision way up to let the brain’s balance system do its thing.
Alps d‘Huez?
How to Bike Pinkbike Ben Cathro on YouTube
Have you spoken to her about how she feels when running this trail? Is she nervous? Is she happy? Is she overthinking the corners is she happily flowing down the trail? She looks nervous. The other suggestions about coaching are good advice. If she isn’t keen on large group coaching then just the 2 of you might help get that progression.
We used to have a guy in my group who was nervous and avoided all the features on trail or anything looked challenging, I noticed and organised some coaching days just the 2 of us away from group/crowds/onlookers to concentrate on individually running steadily larger features and faster and developing confidence to flow, this really paid off.
Keep riding. Nothing beats time in the saddle.
Yeah bro she’s doing fine
That twitching is nothing to do with the bike.
Your wife is low and rearward on the bike just before it gets all twitchy. She’s not really weighting the front and and looks very rigid on the bike.
That’s all I can see but follow and rear cameras are not suport good as she is so tiny in the frame.
I suggest your wife watches the first three episodes of pinkbike ‘how to bike’ and goes and practices. Then spends a bit of time with a coach.
Ride more and have fun. It’ll come naturally.
Just an idea… maybe she could go down the route 5 minutes ahead or behind you? Maybe behind so that you are not going faster and end up on her wheel, etc.
Sometimes, having someone who is more experienced and ‘knows more’ can make a nervous person very aware of what they ‘should be doing’ and then over correct, etc..
If you value your marriage, don’t teach your wife. Pay for lessons from a qualified instructor.
Its confidence, needs to build it and it only comes with time. I got my wife riding and she has the skills but not the confidence. She didn’t ride a bike the same way that I did as a kid.
Only thing I can see from riding wise she could work on detaching from the bike. Get her leaning the bike.
Enjoy the journey.
Find her a women’s riding group
Advises from the local MTB school tutor would be better than from people who only see a short video. 1-2 hours would be enough for starters