Beginners course 070911

It was definitely an autumnal feel to the day when Chris came to the beginners course. He was a keen road cyclist but felt mountain biking could be a better option for the winter time. It was immediately obvious that he had done a lot of cycling previously. Despite not having been off-road much he looked very comfortable on his mountain bike that he got only 6 weeks earlier.

Every instruction was put in place immediately and once we went past the stage where before the course he would have got off and walked rather than cycled, such as steep steps, it was a delight to see the smile on his face after finding out that it was relatively easy to ride. As he was the only one on the course and he was making such great progress we also did a few intermediate skills such as track standing and jumping off drops and even with these additions we finished well ahead of schedule.

Beginners course 040911

Today was an example of two participants with very similar ability but on  two very different bikes. Emma on her budget Apollo hardtail and Cath on her brand new lightweight long travel suspension bike that she had only used twice before the course. So how did they get on? The answer is that both did very well indeed but not entirely without incidents!

Both managed the climbs very well, although Emma had to work very hard as she lacked the spockets on the rear cassette that would have provided her with easier gears for climbing with. She made up for this with shear determination! They were both very good at listening and immediately putting into place the techniques on the course, which was demonstrated in very quickly learning to set off on climbs, negotiating tight turns, drop-offs and front wheel lifts.



So did this make them immune to crashing?... well no. Grabbing of the brakes is a reflex which a lot of beginners suffer from and for Cath, whose brakes were the most efficient brakes I've ever come across on a mountain bike (and I'm not exaggerating here), this caused a couple of very impressive over the bar incidents. I am glad to say that it is a stage that passes quite quickly as not only will her brakes loose some of that immediate "bite" with time, but she will also be more able to fine tune her finger action with a bit of practice. Her ability to get back on the bike straight away for more riding was very impressive! 

Brakes that worked well wasn't a problem for Emma as not even the strongest squeeze of the back brake could provide a skid of the back wheel even on a loose gravel descent, which was hugely disappointing for her, although at least it saved her from going over the bars!
At the end after comparing the bruises and scratches we finished the day in the late summer sun and judging by the enthusiasm I'm sure they both will be out riding the trails very soon regardless if it is on a budget hard tail with rim brakes or a top of the range full suspension bike.

Beginners course 270811

After a nice summer break it was good to be back in the saddle. Today turned out by chance to be a ladies-only day, with Cate, Maureen and Paula coming to learn off-road cycling. During the chat in the carpark I found out that all three of them were quite new to mountain biking and afterwards I had to confess to Maureen that I had been slightly worried about quite how new to cycling she was when she asked how to get on the bike and get it rolling. However it was a very legitimate question and with a few hints (stand on the pedal and push off with the other foot on the ground) she started to be able to set off much more graciously. And one thing was certain, once Maureen got rolling she really got rolling and set a great example of how to use speed as your friend!

During the day there were a few crashes (some more comical than others!) but it didn't put any of the participants off. A few details, small but important, such as foot and leg positions were tweaked and the confidence grew for all the participants as the course progressed on to rockier terrain. Cate who had a couple of quite big crashes earlier in the day due to being too tense managed to relax enough to ride down all the other obstacles including the rocky track very successfully and it was great to see her confidence returning as she found out she could ride quite technical terrain.

At the end when tiredness was setting in Paula still hadn't quite reached her limit of scary obstacles and was presented with the "rooty drop". Most people I know have expressed amazement that it it part of the beginners course but Paula proved again that by showing people the right techniques it is perfectly possible for a beginner to ride even some quite challenging drops.

It was a lovely day with lovely people and was great fun. I believe the girls who didn't know each other before this day might have plans to meet up again for some riding together.

Hi Emmy,

Thank you so much for the photos and your witty narrative of the day. I just wanted to thank you for your input on Sat and to let you know that I cycled the entire blue route at Llandegla today without stopping and with some speed! went around berms and handled corners well. Was on and off the bike  much more elegantly and my confidence level was high.

I very much enjoyed my day with you and I have learnt loads and am putting it all into practice.

So thank you,

Maureen

Intermediate course 030811

Normally I have a little moan about the weather being too cold, too wet or too windy and today it was too hot! Being warm was nice for a change, but it certainly made it much harder especially on the climbs. It was nice to see Peter again who came on the beginner's course last October as a complete novice. He did exceptionally well that day so it was no surprise he had developed into a very good rider since seeing him last. He was ready to build more on his jumping skills having had a taste of it during a skills session at Cannock where he regularly rides.

David had come for similar reasons wanting to move on from riding mostly red routes to feel confident about tackling black graded routes, especially since he had booked a trip up to Fort William with his mountain biking sons.

Apart from getting the wheels off the ground and bunny hopping, we also spent some time on riding slowly. It is absolutely true that speed is your friend and both riders were great at speed so it made sense to increase their range off skills to improving their ability to negotiate stuff slower.  The track standing came in handy to increase their ability to balance and they were already better than average at this, while bunny hopping and independently unweighting the front and the rear wheel was applied to tackle some nice wheel hugging roots.

Both David and Peter weren't hanging about when it came to riding even quite scary looking features which made for quick progress through out the day. Even the "drop off doom" was ridden 3 times each until it had lost its scariness factor and both participants had re-evaluated what was actually possible to ride down.

Very enjoyable day which was finished off with an ice cream back at the cafe!

One-to-one skills day 210711

What a wonderful day! Sun shining, warm weather, pub lunch and a cheerful participant! What more could you ask for! When Brian contacted me about doing a one to one session to come to grips with certain types of descents that repeatedly had defeated him, he particularly mentioned very steep and  narrow ones. Naturally I planned the day to take in the narrowest and steepest slopes in the area but also included other skills such as power assisted front wheel lifts, track standing, bunny hopping and jumps along the way.

It was immediately obvious that Brian needed to look further ahead to not only keep a straighter line but also to be able to relax more while descending. You could tell he didn't enjoy the terrain but kept a brave face as he repeatedly had to go up and down the slopes. He quickly got encouraged by the improvement as each time he had another go he rode better and more confidently. Same kind of improvements were seen on the drop offs. Once we lowered the saddle he was able to find the balanced low center of gravity slightly behind the saddle position that he had struggled to find before in his riding and once he was following me he would ride anything. It was harder for me to make him have a go at some of the very scary looking obstacles at the end as the longer he hesitated the more he managed to persuade himself that having a go wasn't a good idea. I was really pleased when right at the end he rode one of the quite tricky series of drops despite initial hesitation!

Intermediate course 170711

The torrential rain didn't abandon us for Sunday's intermediate course either. This time I was joined by an undeterred Helen who wanted to get the most out of her lovely Orange 5 that she recently had acquired. I also had arranged for my friend Julian to come along to potentially provide some demos of stuff in case my wrist which I injured a couple of weeks ago decided to flare up.

Together we fought through rain and mist climbing to the top of the hill  while Julian managed to learn to wheelie remarkably well and Helen was improving on her power assisted wheel lifts. Once up at the top we used the little quarry for various types of descending. Helen's confidence grew once she started to look further ahead and able to let go of the brakes. The rocky and loose terrain was a very different surface from what Helen usually rides at trail centers and gradually she was able to trust her bike's ability to roll over the big boulders. Slow speed drops was no problem for her as she already was moving about on the bike perfectly.

Part of the afternoon was spent practicing bunny hopping. This was something Julian also wanted to be able to do as he mostly up until now had relied on speed hops. Both Helen and Julian (and Julian's wife Jane who also happened to join us!) very quickly were able to lift both front wheel and then rear wheel over the obstacles. This practiced the sequence of weight shifting on the bike necessary for performing the bunny hops. By approaching the obstacles slightly faster they were forced to use only a single "pump" of the bike for both movements. While Helen and Jane will need a little more practice to get some height into their bunny hops Julian impressed us all by bouncing over the obstacles making it look easy! Helen was able to "pump" the bike extremely well and since using SPDs it was only fair to teach her speed hops, something she put to immediate good use by bombing every puddle with her rear wheel splashing everyone in the vicinity!

The pumping action was put to further use by getting some nice air while jumping of a small drop and we finished the day off nicely with a slippery singletrack descent down to the bottom of the valley.

Beginners course 160711

They say that statistically fewer passengers book on flights that crash. Well there must have been similar premonitions regarding the courses this weekend as only one person had booked on each day which saved a few people from having to experience underwater mountain biking. Not so fortunate was Beccy who came to brush up on her skills in preparation for a mountain biking holiday in Slovenia, where apparently you can even go mountain biking in caves! (Sounds a great deal nicer than the underwater option on offer here!) However a bit of water didn't deter Beccy as she progressed quickly learning all the little tricks and techniques that makes mountain biking more fun and exciting and trying the skills out under the hardest of conditions! I think the photo kind of says it all!