Beginner Mistakes & How To Avoid Making Them | Mountain Bike Skills

Have you made any of these mistakes?

I have a problem getting stiff on the bike 😏

Gracias 😊

Have always rode clipped in to my pedals. Have only failed to get out a few times. Love the secure feeling that I and my bike are one.

I don't mountain bike, but it's interesting how most of the advice to body and angle position is similar to riding a horse.

Just started mountain biking in Colorado and it is so much scarier than I thought it would be. Will definitely be taking it slow until I get an ounce of confidence lol

ur talking about the front brake... but i never use that.. always back brake cause im scared of falling over haha.

Good

Speed is your freind

Thx a lot guys! From an excited newbie!

Just wanted to say, gyroscropic effect isn't what's keeping the bike upright. It's the cantering back wheel. It essentially "pushes" against the way the front wheel is wanting to go, so it tries to counter out any turning.

You can see this happening even at very slow speeds if you get off your bike, hold it by the seat and push it forward. If you lean the bike slightly to the right AND push straight forwards, the front tyre will automatically correct back to the middle. As soon as you stop pushing, it won't.

Pretty new here, I found my most awkward thing is navigating sharp turns on narrow paths on loose substrate. Surely there's some techniques to doing this with slowing to crawl or face wiping out?

Excellent instruction!

Are you Australian?

One of the best tips when i was starting was to bend your knees and elbows and keep loose only use force on your hands to hold the bars and keep control but legs and arms always loose

OMG I don't go anywhere near as fast as you guys I'm just a cruiser jeepers. Not sure my bike will even allow me to jump like that but awesome guys

Great product, easy to clean -worked out great !

After only a year of mountain biking, I went full superman and broke my collarbone at the distal end. During recovery my bike was stolen and haven't returned. That was a few years ago. I'm using these videos to help me get back into it but have to admit, just the intro of these guys blasting down the trail makes me sweat. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for the tips guys 👌

How long does it take to get a decent level of MTB riding. Starting from total newbie, to intermediate level, and eventually advanced (not speaking bout pro riding)? Thanks

what is the Seat post size

heh the first and hopefully only time I over did the front brake I went over the handle bars and busted my elbow. the armpit to fingertip cast sucked.

Biden's skill method.

i was once about half a second away from having my rear wheel hit by a car as i sped across a road crossing it stupidly fast without looking and thankfully i hit the front brakes without thinking as thats all i could do at the time and it lifted the rear of the bike over this utes bonnet like a ms before impact and i assume saved my life before slamming into the back of my head as i faceplanted the footpath on the other side

Thank you for your advice

Great information and instruction

I went to a trail that I have been to a couple of years before. Even tho I had a better bike and was just as strong, I was surprised to have so much trouble going in but it was hot and mostly uphill. So I turned around early and found myself really hot 🔥🥵🔥 in the az heat. I'm now starting to go a little faster than I would like to, but in order to keep from stalling I needed to keep moving and dodge rocks and boulders of various sizes at the same time. Only by some really dumb and🤞🤞🤞 rare luck, am I here able to walk and think and re-live those terrifying moments as I cashed in on years of bad luck (at a very high interest rate) to survive for several minutes.
The problem was that in a couple of years it had 🌧️☔☔🌧️🌧️ like hell a few times and made the trail much more difficult for 67+ yrs plus like me to navigate. Great exercise if you live!!!

I had no idea how much confidence i would gain simply from buying the right shoes, and some pads. Bought the 510 trailcross mids, and they are outstanding. Crazy how something so simple can make riding that much more enjoyable. Tackling way steeper downhills and riding tight trails way better and faster than before. Also, is it wrong that i pretty much never use my front brake? Im 38, dont plan on jumping anything anytime soon, hit some moderate drops here and there. I never find a need to use the front brakes, ever. Just curious.

My biggest mistake starting mountain biking is I use a bmx bike with no breaks and no bucket for my canelope 🪖

Biggest mistake I made when I first started mountain biking was starting out with clipless pedals. (Took a few nasty spills in the beginning) Now that I am more experienced I can fully appreciate the locked in feeling and the confidence I gain from riding clipless.

That thumbnail picture is so me.

Forgetting to level the peddles when going over tricky terrain is the biggest bastard for me. Constantly nearly smashing my crank set off 😂

You only ever really want to use ur back break

So cool!

Dropper post is the number one upgrade before almost anything else. It’s that impactful.

I one time went stiff on my bike and crashed. My whole bike was deformed. I compressed my left arm and right thumb on my knee. Yeah it's a terrible situation. I hit a tree and went unconscious for couple of seconds. Yeah definitely not gonna do that again. Thanks for the tips !

Good tips but, sadly, there's a long way to go from knowledge to muscle memory. At least I got some knowledge now thanks to you guys. Cheers.

Maybe it goes without saying, but properly adjusted gearing is among the most important things on the trails, other than a quality bike that won't break or fail. Quality of the components come out during climbs and hard descents. It is simple to properly tune a bicycle, it savces the havok of shifting off the derailleur or half shifting under stress, all of which lead to a terrible experience.

Thanks! Great video.

I just have one question about the brakes what is with all the front brake this front brake that i 90% use the back break i honestly don't know why there is a front break because personally i feel there is little use for it

I have these fears of jumps, drops, and descends and I'm having trouble conquering them

Also before you start consider the amount of injuries and life changing injuries people get. This helped me when i did trials motorbike riding which is nowhere as dangerous as mountain biking.

As someone that has just started, someone gave me advice, it's okay to stop, take a breather, and plan what you want to do, especially if you don't know the trail.

Obviously I learned to ride a bicycle when i was a kid but never took it past being able to cycle around confidently, drop off kerbs and etc, I mainly just used it to commute to school, I stopped riding bicycles and started riding motorcycles around the same time, mostly road riding but I quickly got into serious sport riding too, doing road trackdays etc. I found a lot of the tips you mentioned here are very similar to what I learned during motorcycling, especially braking, body position and in general being stiff, and when I recently got a mountain bike, both as a cheaper way to have fun when I don't feel like going far and as a training tool for motorcycling before I eventually get into offroading with motorcycles, MTBs and trail riding was a natural path to take. It almost feels natural to transfer motorbike skills to cycling, the only difference is the bicycle is a lot twitchier, especially the one I got which has a fairly steep head tube angle, but you very quickly get used to it and these skills IMMEDIATELY and exponentially transfer straight back into motorbikes. I've almost never felt as confident and relaxed on my S1000XR Sport touring bike as I have after my 1st time going out on my Boardman MHT8.6 to the forest behind where I live. Honestly this is such a beautiful sport in terms of improving control over your body and your machine, but I have to add the caveat that this ONLY applies to Trail/Enduro and it's disciplines and maybe Trials/Stunt riding, not road cycling and commuting.

is that an attempt at the English language?

Feet bouncing off the pedals: that’s very dangerous. Why not use something like Shimano SPD pedals?
I can’t ride without these.
When I ride without I lose control or bust my balls on the saddle…

The biggest mistake is not washing ur bike after it gets dirty on a ride