THE FUNDAMENTALS FOR NEW MOUNTAIN BIKERS

It’s fantastic to see the world of mountain biking growing at the rate it is, with people of all abilities and ages getting involved. The amazing thing about our sport is that you can buy a bike and immediately start riding off-road – with no training, you can just pedal off into the woods to have fun. However, there are some basic pointers that’ll help improve your experience. I’ve broken these down into Key Skills, which is what you need to do on the bike, and Key Controls, explaining how to use your brakes, gears and dropper seatpost.

The key here is to stay light, loose and relaxed. Grip the bar tightly enough that your palms don’t slip, but not so much that your hands get fatigued. If you’re gripping hard then you’ll tense up through your arms and shoulders, too. Also, make sure you’re not leaning on the bar – this makes it hard to balance because your weight makes the bar move. Instead, use your core to support your upper body. The bar is there for directional control and the pedals are there to provide a platform. To help you stop leaning on the bar, keep a bend in your elbows. This can be tricky, but if you make it second nature from the outset, it’ll help immensely as the technicality of the trails you’re riding increases.

One of the first things any mountain biker must learn is how to comfortably stand up on a bike while it’s rolling along. Imagine you’re standing on the ground and want maximum balance and stability. What do you do? You find a level surface, keep your legs slightly bent and plant your feet on the floor, with weight on your heels, not your tiptoes. If you transfer this across to standing on the pedals, the first point is to keep your cranks level (your flat ground), then apply weight through your heels, plus keep your legs ‘energised’ and ready to move. Once you’re balanced and comfortable standing up while rolling along, the next step is to practise standing up and pedalling. It’s useful to pull on the handlebar to help you balance and give you some leverage when applying power to the pedals.

This may seem obvious (and is something that helps with most aspects of life), but try to relax. When you’re new to riding it can be extremely hard to do this, so the first step is to successfully execute the other key skills of standing up, holding on and looking ahead. Try to keep your muscles relaxed and breathe steadily. I see many riders, of all levels, holding their breath when they’re nervous or tackling a challenging section of trail. This only makes it harder to ride, so try to breathe normally. It’s easy to assume that if your muscles are tight, you’re more likely to stay upright, but it actually has the opposite effect. I’d advise allowing the bike to move freely under you, as that’ll give you more balance.

When people are new to mountain biking, it’s common for them to have their eyes down watching their front wheel. However, this won’t stop you crashing – in fact, it makes accidents more likely because you won’t be looking where you’re going. Practise looking further down the trail so you can see what’s coming next and start preparing for it. For example, if you see a climb ahead, you’ll know to select the correct gear for pedalling up it, or if there’s a corner coming up, you’ll need to apply the brakes to slow down before you reach it. How far down the trail should you look? I’d focus on whatever the next ‘obstacle’ is, so if you’re riding along a straight and can see a corner, that’s what you want to keep your eyes on. It can take some time to do this consistently, so practise consciously until it becomes the norm. You’ll find keeping your eyes up helps you ride trails with more ‘flow’.

First, make sure both levers are set up so you can reach them easily without moving your hands on the grips. Loosen the bar clamp and position the lever so that when your index finger is extended, it sits comfortably near the end of the lever blade. You want the lever to be at a slight downward angle – about 45 degrees. Remember, you brake most when going downhill, so don’t have the lever pointing to the ground or

Most modern MTBs have a ‘1x’ drivetrain, meaning you only change gear at the back so only need one shifter. Some bikes have two, or even three, chainrings at the front so will have two shifters. You use your thumb to operate most shifters, sometimes your index finger too. As with brakes, take time to set up the shifter so you can reach it without moving your hand and it takes the minimum effort to change gear. Experiment with

A dropper post allows you to lower your saddle with the press of a lever. Not everyone has one, but they’re fairly standard on modern full-suspension mountain bikes as well as more expensive hardtails. Once you’ve tried one we’re pretty sure you won’t want to go back to a fixed seatpost. Again, set up the dropper’s remote lever in a comfortable, easy-to-use position on the bar. Next, set the post’s height

You can learn to mountain bike anywhere that’s not too technically demanding, but a trail centre – a forest hub with waymarked, ability-graded routes, parking, toilets and often a cafe, too – is a safe and convenient place to start. There are blue-graded beginner routes all over the country; these are some of our favourites.

it’ll pull your weight too far forward. When learning to ride, the key is to get comfortable with brake feel. Often, beginners will get scared and lock up the brakes, but they aren’t just an on/off toggle. You can ‘feather’ them lightly when you want to scrub off just a little speed, or pull harder (but still smoothly) for more stopping power. Learning the feel, or ‘modulation’, of your brakes early on will help you develop your technique.

its position so it feels comfortable whether you’re seated or standing. As for choosing the correct gear and timing your shifting, the trick is to plan ahead. Changing gear usually requires a full pedal rotation for the chain to shift to the correct sprocket on your cassette. If you’re approaching a climb, change into an easier gear (the larger cogs) in good time; as you near a descent, shift onto a smaller sprocket.

in the seat tube so that when it’s fully extended the saddle is in your optimum seated pedalling position. Dropper posts are really useful to get the saddle out of the way and create more space to move about on the bike when riding downhill. However, if you’re new to riding it’s easy to forget to put the post down when you’re about to descend. A good tip is to adjust your dropper just after you’ve selected a gear.

There are loads of great options north of the border, but our favourite has to be the Blue Route at Glentress Forest. In fact, it’s so good that last year we declared it to be Britain’s best blue trail. What makes it so good? Even the climb is entertaining, as it twists through beautiful woodland, with wide-reaching views over the Tweed Valley and multiple line options for those wanting a challenge. The descent, meanwhile, includes everything from sweeping turns and arcing berms to opportunities to get air as it carves its way through the forest. This trail really gives you a sense of what mountain biking’s all about. For details of more fun Scottish blue routes, visit https://forestryandland.gov.scot

While Coedy-Brenin and Brechfa have decent beginner cross-country loops and Cwmcarn has a short blue descent that’s tons of fun, Wales offers a UK-first riding experience for MTB noobs in the form of the uplifted trails at BikePark Wales. With a van and trailer to whisk you and your bike to the top, fitness is less of an issue (although you can ride up if you prefer), and there are some great blue runs to choose from, including the UK’s longest, Terry’s Belly. It’s the Sixtapod/Willy Waver combo that’s our pick of the bunch, though, as it’s packed with flow from top to bottom. Also worth checking out is the new beginner-focused Dare Valley Gravity Bike Park, a halfhour drive down the road.

English riders are less spoiled for choice than their counterparts to the north and west, but there are a handful of decent blues scattered across the country, from Cardinham Woods in Cornwall to Whinlatter in the Lake District. For us, the newly-revamped Verderer’s Trail at the Forest of Dean, in Gloucestershire, takes top honours, with some punchy (but never too long) climbs to test your fitness and grin-inducing rollercoaster singletrack as your reward, plus a skills area and pump track on the way back to the cafe, where you can work on your skills.

FOR MORE GREAT BEGINNER TRAILS...

Check out our three-part Blues Cruise series in MBUK395, 396 and 397 (back issues available at www.buysubscriptions. com/back-issues).