1001 Mountain Bike Tips 2023

This special edition is packed with expert advice to help you get the most from your mountain bike and riding. In the following pages, you’ll find many helpful tutorials and tips for beginners to advanced riders. We show you how to get the most out of every ride by improving your fitness, sharpening your skills and learning some suspension set-up essentials. We’ve worked with Mountain Biking UK, the UK’s best-selling MTB magazine, and some of the sport’s top riders, racers and coaches to bring you 1001 Mountain Bike Tips, your complete guide to mountain biking. We hope you enjoy flicking through the pages.…

01 STAND UP 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 you want maximum balance and stability. What do you do? I assume you’d find level ground, your legs would be energised (ready to move) and you wouldn’t stand on 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 (not standing on your tiptoes) 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…

Passion and drive are important behaviours in sport – they motivate us to give it our all. But this passion and enthusiasm to go fast can sometimes get in the way of proper technique, especially when you’re new to something. At the opposite end of the scale is the fear of a potential crash – and fear is another behaviour that really affects our riding. It doesn’t matter which trail centre I go to, most of the beginner mistakes I see come from either one or both of these things. Thinking about your technique and riding smart can help you to manage these trails, and will take you a long way in mountain biking. These photos illustrate five common bad habits, which are easy to kick if you follow my advice.…

ROUTE PLAN Think about where you’re going to ride. This allows you to prepare what you’ll need to take, and ensures that the trail is right for you. Think about length and technicality – if you’re new, you might not want to ride a 40km epic! Even if you’re at a trail centre or bike park, it’s worth noting that one centre’s blue-graded descent may be more like another’s red. Don’t let that put you off – just make sure to ask other riders for advice if you’re unsure. CHECK YOUR BIKE I’ve coached people who tell me their bike is fine, but I’ll check their tyre pressures later and find they’ve only got 10psi in them. Basic checks before a ride can reduce the chances of a mechanical. It’s…

There are two main aspects of learning to ride well. One is technical – how you move your body to make the bike work properly for you. The other is how you read the trail. Being able to pick a good line and look, brake and accelerate in the right places will make you faster without even feeling like you’re going quicker. Reading the trail can be tough to master, but once you do, everything seems easier and you find more flow. It’s all about looking and thinking ahead. Whether you’re familiar with the trail or not, there are four key considerations that’ll help you plan how to tackle it and react in time, improving your riding no end – and upping the fun factor, too! 01 SELECTING LINES Choosing the…

Ride with commitment. Of course, you’ll probably want to just get a feel for the grip levels in the first section of trail, but once you’ve done that, start trying to commit to the ride. Stay loose on the bike, to allow it to move around underneath you. It’s human nature to want to shuffle backwards when we’re unsure of situations, and on the bike this translates into hanging off the back, with no control over the front wheel. Try to counter that by maintaining a good body position that puts you fully in charge of the bike. If this sounds scary to put into practice, then start by trying it on short sections of trail that look OK, and over time you’ll build the confidence to do it on…