If you are new at mountain biking, or even if you have been mountain biking for a while as a hobby, are any number of reasons why you could want to get better at mountain biking. There are a few different steps and things that you could do to get better at mountain biking, some of which depend on what exactly your goals are for this amazing hobby.
This being the case, the first step should always be to determine what your goals are since this will help you when it comes to prioritizing what you should be working on. This can also help to give you ideas all on its own as to what you need to practice on the trails.
For example, if you want to get better at mountain biking in general so that you can ride some of the harder trails, you will need to work on different things than you would need to if you were wanting to get faster so that you could win a cross country race.
The same is true if you want to get better at downhill or if you instead want to get better at going uphill as these two are certainly widely different and yet they are both parts of mountain biking that you could want to get better at.
Get Your Bike And Your Position Right
There are a number of different things that can be changed on a mountain bike, so it can be hard sometimes in order to get all of them the way that you personally need them to be. One thing that you want to get right is that you have the right pedals.
If you are beginner mountain biker and are still working on your stopping skills, then you should probably go with a platform pedal instead of clipless pedals since these will make stopping much more challenging for you at first.
You will also want to make sure that you have the right width when it comes to your handlebars, since too narrow will not give you enough room to maneuver and too wide will make turning hard and slower than it should be.
There are also other things that you might want to change in your bike, including getting the right size bike frame, the right size tire, and other features that you will want to consider individually before you decide which one would be the best for you.
There are a lot of adjustments that you can make on your mountain bike once you have the right parts, and making sure that all of these are set so that they are perfect for you is something that will take you a while to perfect. However, once you do get your mountain bike adjusted to you it can really improve your biking.
If your seat is too high or too low then you will not be able to pedal properly, and if your handlebars are not at the right height then not only will you find it harder to turn your handlebars but this can really give you sore shoulders and a sore back.
Once both of these are correct you will have a better balance on your bike, which is something that you obviously want. You will have more control over your bike and you will be more comfortable which are both also important when you are mountain biking.
When it comes to your body position there are two different parts to this. One part has to do with your bike and that everything fits you just right so that you can be comfortable on your bike, but the other part is to hold yourself in the right position. These two things should fit together seamlessly.
Your body should be able to be relaxed while you are riding your bike, even during the bumpy sections of the trail as much as possible. This will save you a lot of aches and pains later on since if you stiffen you will feel the bumps more.
Being relaxed will let you be able to act as your own shock absorbers, which your arms and legs are actually really good at doing but only if they are slightly bent and loose. Only tighten your grip when you are doing some trick on your mountain bike that requires you to move a part of your bike around.
It should actually be your knees every bit as much as your hands that point the way for the rest of your bike to follow. This is especially true when you are doing a term on a wooden feature and it really proves that you should pay close attention to the position that your legs are in when you are pedaling.
Learn How To Use Your Bike
The next thing that you should work at to get better at mountain biking is to learn your bike. What I mean by this is that you should work on learning how to use the various parts of the bike such as the brakes and the gears to their full advantage when you are out on the trails.
If you already have experience with biking on the road then you may have some experience with how to use your gears, however using them on mountain biking trails can be another thing entirely. Some of what gear you want to use for going downhill or going uphill is a matter of personal preference and what feels comfortable for you, but there are some things that are the same no matter what.
One of the things that stays the same no matter how many gears you have is the fact that you should never switch gears when there is a lot of strain on the chain. One time that the chain is almost always tight is when you are going uphill.
The reason why you should not shift gears when the chain is tight is because this can cause the chain to catch in a way it is not supposed to, or it can switch to the wrong gear, or it may refuse to switch at all. For this reason, you should shift gears before you reach the incline of a steep hill.
If you find that you need to shift gears while you are going uphill then you will have to relieve the pressure on the chain by either stopping or by getting enough forward momentum. This is in a way similar to how you should use your brakes.
While this will take you a bit of getting used to, you should actually never brake over the rough areas of the trail. The reason for this is that when you are braking the weight of your bike shifts forward and you have less control over your mountain bike.
Therefore, if you want to have a good amount of control over your bike, then you should not use your brakes. This includes going over the slippery areas of the trail in particular. Instead what you should do is brake before you get to the rough sections so that you go over them slower.
This is one of the main reasons why it is vital that you work on looking ahead in the trail you are on so that you have the time you need to see the rough spot and use your brakes to slow down before your front tire reaches whatever it is that you are concerned about.
Learn How To Care For And Repair Your Mountain Bike
While you night not see what this has to do with actually being on your bike, there are a number of reasons why knowing how to care for your bike can make you a better mountain biker. Obviously there is the fact that knowing how to do your own repairs on the trail will give you more time actually riding your bike instead of waiting for someone to come along who can help you.
Knowing how to do these repairs also in part can teach you what causes them to be needed in the first place, and this information is particularly useful when it comes to avoiding getting your bike damaged in the first place. Therefore, knowing how to repair your bike is a key part of getting to know your bike.
However, even knowing how to take care of the maintenance on your bike can help you figure out how your bike works which in turn can help you to use it more efficiently. Not only this, but doing your maintenance yourself can save you money which you can then spend elsewhere on upgrades for your bike.
Learn Mountain Biking Skills
Mastering mountain biking skills is perhaps one of the most important things that you should do, no matter what you want to improve at when it comes to mountain biking. There are some skills that are good for pretty much everything though, and these are often a good place to start anyway.
Pump tracks are basically mountain biking playgrounds that are full of small rollers and berms, and these are a great place to practice a wide variety of things at. If you are riding them right then most of the time you can ride them without pedaling, and this is something that you can work on doing as a beginner.
Pump tracks are also a great way to improve things like your balance on your bike and how you lean for your turns and things like that. Other things that you can do here and in the flatter areas near the pump tracks are practicing some of the different skills that you are working on.
Some of these are things like bunny hops, wheel lifts, and even track stands. These are very useful skills for any mountain biker to know how to do to help them over some of the smaller obstacles and even prevent crashes.
While there are a number of different ways that you could learn these skills, including watching videos and trying to figure them out yourself, but one way that you could learn is to ride as a part of a group right behind someone who you know is more experienced.
Doing this will give you a chance to see how they react to the various parts of the trail and can allow you to mimic what they do at that spot. When you are doing this sometimes you can even be learning without realizing it and if you do this enough of the time you can even form habits.
Riding with experienced mountain bikers will also give you the added benefit of being able to ask them how to do some of the skills, and where you should start at for each of the ones that you might want to learn, as well as which ones they think are the most important.
Mountain biking groups are easy to find and they exist everywhere there are trails to ride. You can usually get in touch with them by places like Facebook or by asking around at your local bike shops if they have the contact information for anyone who is in a group.
Each group will work differently, sometimes having a set day and time every week that they ride, others picking a day closer to once a month that works with as many people’s schedules as possible. A few even have meetings and arrange for trips to other trails together so that they can save on gas.
Learn How To React To The Trail
There are a lot of things that you can come across in a mountain biking trail, and learning how to react to each obstacle that you will face is a very important part of mountain biking. Some of these you will need to learn some of the tricks on your mountain bike in order to pass them, but not always.
The main thing that you should keep in mind here is the fact that simply learning the mountain biking skills will not necessarily teach you which skill you need to use in what situation. This, however, is every bit as important as learning mountain biking skills, since even if you know how to do them, if you do not know when to use them then they are almost useless.
One thing that you will need to get used to is getting comfortable being airborne. Though beginner trails will not tend to have these areas, there are trails that have things like ledges, jumps, and rock drops. For each of these there will often be a small amount of time where you will be in the air.
The key thing that you should keep in mind here is that you should not tense up or the landing will jar you even more than it otherwise would. Start off with small jumps and drops and work your way up from there to get better at this.
Another thing that you will need to learn how to react to is the differences in the terrain. While you might think that all rocky downhill sections that look mostly the same are the same, if it is wet you are going to have to act a little differently than if it is sandy, and the same goes for if it is muddy.
Train Some Off Of The Trails
Mountain biking is something that requires a lot of strength and uses a lot more muscles besides the ones that are in your legs. It also uses muscles in your core and in your arms. This being the case, if the weather prevents you from being out on the trails, either due to being too stormy or due to the snow being too deep, you should try to do your best to stay in shape by exercising these muscles.
If you do not make sure that you are staying in shape during the off season, then when you do hit the trails again after your vacation from the trails then you will very quickly find that you are not at the point that you were when you stopped. The longer you are off of the trails then the worse this will be.
There are not only different muscles, but each muscle has what can be considered to be two different types of muscle fibers. These can be referred to as either fast twitch or slow twitch and both of these are needed for different aspects of mountain biking.
Slow twitch muscles are the ones you use when you are doing the same thing over and over again for a long stretch of time and these help you to endure longer. Fast twitch muscles, on the other hand, are muscle fibers that wear out quickly and can only give you a short burst of speed when you need it.
This being the case, whatever exercises that you do should use both of these muscle fibers as much as possible. Sprinting is one thing that you can do for this, paired with some longer distance runs, and it is something that can be done inside your home or at the gym on a treadmill.