Some take up mountain biking for the sheer pleasure of enjoying the outdoors and experiencing the terrain’s beauty. Others harbor ambitions to become champion racers, conquering the toughest climbs, downhills, and drops. Whatever your goals, mountain biking requires physical, mental, and technical skills for safety, fitness, and fun.
If you’re just taking up the sport or ready to ascend to the next level, here are ways to improve your mountain biking skills. That way, you’ll be ready to take on some of the best bike trails in the U.S.
Train for the Trail
Mountain biking is a full-body sport. You don’t have to build bulky muscles, just strong ones, and you need strength in more than just your legs. Your core and upper body play a huge role in providing the balance and technical skills necessary for climbs, cornering, wheel lifts, and bunny hops. Mix up your training to work your arms, shoulders, abs, and obliques as well as legs.
You can practice cornering, bunny hops, and wheel lifts on a quiet side street, in a cul-de-sac, or up and down a curb. Some bike parks have areas just for practicing moves like this, before you try them on the trail.
When you’re on the bike, you’ll often be pedaling while standing up. You may take tough terrain in an “attack position,” off the saddle, standing with knees and elbows bent, hinging forward from the hips or waist. This creates a kind of natural shock-absorption, giving you the flexibility to weight and unweight the bike, or shift your weight fore and aft as well as laterally to maintain balance. Practice these movements and positions off the bike, and find a trainer who can show you how to use kettlebells or dumbbells to build strength from knees to shoulders.
Watch and Learn
Observation is one of the best ways to improve your mountain biking skills. There are two kinds of observation that will make you a better mountain bike rider: reading the trail, and biking with and watching riders who are better than you.
Reading the trail is a basic survival skill for mountain biking. Know where you’re going before you get there, and choose your line. Look ahead all the time and anticipate climbs, drops, turns, and obstacles. You don’t want to discover mid-air that you should have applied the brakes twenty yards ago.
Watch riders with more experience. Observe how they take corners, prepare for obstacles ahead and make decisions about when to dismount. Don’t try to punch too far above your weight, though—it’s unreasonable to expect to keep up with pros right off the bat. Ride with buddies who are supportive and can push you a little, without pressuring you to take on difficult trails until you’re ready.
Maximize Bike Time
If you can safely get where you’re going on your bike, do that. Winter leaves a lot of crud behind on the streets, creating obstacles that you could look at as opportunities to practice. Get around rocks and over branches, up on curbs, and back down a few steps. The more time you spend with your bike, the better you will be at feeling the nuances of balance, weight, reading your route, and anticipating challenges ahead. Ultimately, the best way to learn how to ride a bike is to—wait for it—ride your bike. Happy trails.
