New to MTB

[Apple]

Hi all, I am new to MTB but I am trying to love it, We are still in a new relationship after riding a road bike for over 30 years.
The problem is FEAR, I get so much fear and anxiety when on the MTB. I don't ride it enough and my left tern on a trail, sucks. I have only been riding in Terrey Hills and I seem ok with that as it is not to hard. I have been to Wylde but it is all left turns. does anyone now of easy trails in the North shore area. Thanks Or I am happy to travel.

[Mugglechops]

My advice would be to join a local club who will most likely have some skills days set up.

These will help your skill level come along in leaps and bounds.

[nescius]

When I first started MTB after a number of years on the roadie I had the same sort of problem, I just didn't understand how it worked. Luckily I had plenty of people to offer advice and tips on how to ride and how to improve my skills. My advice would be to definitely either join a club or find a local group that you can ride with, in my experience most mountain bikers are pretty happy to help out someone who is just getting started on the MTB.

I also found a lot of youtube tutorials quite helpful, especially those from Skills with Phil

One of the things that really helped me get comfortable was practicing specific skills away from the trails, I do lots of skills stuff in my street and on the local oval, or in the carpark out at the trails. Doing skill work away from the singletrack lets you really concentrate on what you are doing and how the bike handles without the extra stress of trail riding.

It's definitely worth sticking with, mountain biking is really great and can take you to some absolutely stunning places!

[Apple]

thanks so much. I have found a couch and did a clinic . I am just not consistent.. I didn't know there where clubs for MTB. it's so hard finding a group. road bike is easy to find. I have posted on some Facebook pages for women to ride during the week but I have not had much luck. one thing for sure, I will do some skills with cones. even though it seems boring but it may develop better handling skills as you said

[Cardy George]

Practice on grass. I know it's hard to find at this time of year but it's much softer to land on.

[bychosis]

Keep it up. It gets easier. Definitely look at some YouTube clips for tips then try to put them into practice. You have the opportunity to learn the right way, unlike many of us that started out without YouTube and have had to unlearn the wrong way!

[Apple]

Thank you all, I will try and do all the above, thank you so much. It really is time to get off the road.

[Mububban]

My biggest confidence challenge riding on WA pea gravel is the feel of your tyres slipping before they bite in as I lean the bike over into turns. I'm afraid of the bike washing out and me going down hard. I'm having to tell myself over and over "trust your tyres, trust your tyres..." as I lean into corners. But I'm using flat pedals and not clipless so I know I can get my foot down if I need to (like I did on the weekend with a mild pucker moment)

[trailgumby]

Hey Apple, happy to catch up with you and rehearse some of the drills Fi would have taught you at Chocolate Foot's skills clinics. I have a collection of soccer cones we can use for things like cornering practice. There are some beginner friendly sections of trail adjacent to Manly Dam (not Manly Dam itself) we can then go run them on.

It will help me too, as I'm just getting back to riding on the dirt after messing up my ankle Christmas Eve and need to get my head back in the space after pretty much no MTB since last June. Are you around over Easter?

[Duck!]

Riding with other people will go a long way to helping overcome the fear that comes with doing something new. When you can see how they do things, it takes some of the perceived difficulty off the task, and you'll often tend to follow without having the time to overthink it.

[Duck!]

My biggest confidence challenge riding on WA pea gravel is the feel of your tyres slipping before they bite in as I lean the bike over into turns. I'm afraid of the bike washing out and me going down hard. I'm having to tell myself over and over "trust your tyres, trust your tyres..." as I lean into corners. But I'm using flat pedals and not clipless so I know I can get my foot down if I need to (like I did on the weekend with a mild pucker moment)

When you're riding on loose stuff the main thing is to initiate the turn sooner than you normally would with the complete expectation that you're going to drift a bit. Only catch is that sometimes you grip when you expect to slip and turn in too soon! Running a fairly low pressure in the front and a fairly high pressure in the rear tends to help; the soft front will bite into the ground while the firmer rear will tend to be a little bit more playful, which by allowing the tail to slip out a little more will have the effect of keeping the front wheel pointing where you want it to go, and a rear drift is a lot easier to control than a front drift.

Most riders will have around a 2psi difference between front & rear tyres, which doesn't sound like much, but when you consider the low pressures that MTB tyres are run at, it becomes a fairly big proportional difference. By comparison I run with a 6psi difference, which at 18/24psi F/R is positively massive.

[Cardy George]

Riding with other people will go a long way to helping overcome the fear that comes with doing something new. When you can see how they do things, it takes some of the perceived difficulty off the task, and you'll often tend to follow without having the time to overthink it.

^^^^^ this!

Even semi-pros learn from others, have a read of this

https://marathonmtb.com/2014/05/01/what ... world-cup/

[Cardy George]

My biggest confidence challenge riding on WA pea gravel is the feel of your tyres slipping before they bite in as I lean the bike over into turns. I'm afraid of the bike washing out and me going down hard. I'm having to tell myself over and over "trust your tyres, trust your tyres..." as I lean into corners. But I'm using flat pedals and not clipless so I know I can get my foot down if I need to (like I did on the weekend with a mild pucker moment)

When you're riding on loose stuff the main thing is to initiate the turn sooner than you normally would with the complete expectation that you're going to drift a bit. Only catch is that sometimes you grip when you expect to slip and turn in too soon! Running a fairly low pressure in the front and a fairly high pressure in the rear tends to help; the soft front will bite into the ground while the firmer rear will tend to be a little bit more playful, which by allowing the tail to slip out a little more will have the effect of keeping the front wheel pointing where you want it to go, and a rear drift is a lot easier to control than a front drift.

Most riders will have around a 2psi difference between front & rear tyres, which doesn't sound like much, but when you consider the low pressures that MTB tyres are run at, it becomes a fairly big proportional difference. By comparison I run with a 6psi difference, which at 18/24psi F/R is positively massive.

Oh, and ^^^ that!

That's enough Duck! fanboy from me

[Apple]

thanks , I am taking it all in. I am off to a training camp in the snowy this weekend. So lets hope I learn some new tricks. I will need to find friends to ride with. I went with one guy a few times but he just screamed and yelled told me that I have to ride down this hill which I just said. NO I am walking. never saw him again. LOL
There doesn't seem to be any groups like road riding. Even though I like riding solo on my road bike

[Apple]

Hey Apple, happy to catch up with you and rehearse some of the drills Fi would have taught you at Chocolate Foot's skills clinics. I have a collection of soccer cones we can use for things like cornering practice. There are some beginner friendly sections of trail adjacent to Manly Dam (not Manly Dam itself) we can then go run them on.

It will help me too, as I'm just getting back to riding on the dirt after messing up my ankle Christmas Eve and need to get my head back in the space after pretty much no MTB since last June. Are you around over Easter?

I forgot to check the forum in time. I sent you a PM. and sure love to ride those when I get back from my MTB clinic at the Snowy.

[Apple]

Riding with other people will go a long way to helping overcome the fear that comes with doing something new. When you can see how they do things, it takes some of the perceived difficulty off the task, and you'll often tend to follow without having the time to overthink it.

I agree, but it needs to be the right person. I had one guy that just scared me sh*t less. He would take no for an answer, he wanted me to ride where I was very uncomfortable. It is so hard finding people when all my friends are road riders.

[trailgumby]

Riding with other people will go a long way to helping overcome the fear that comes with doing something new. When you can see how they do things, it takes some of the perceived difficulty off the task, and you'll often tend to follow without having the time to overthink it.

I agree, but it needs to be the right person. I had one guy that just scared me sh*t less. He would take no for an answer, he wanted me to ride where I was very uncomfortable. It is so hard finding people when all my friends are road riders.

That's not good. You need to be stretched a little, but not to breaking point. Getting terrified or, worse, hurt does not move you forward. You need to start with small challenges first where making mistakes won't bite you badly, which you use to learn the techniques and correct those mistakes, before going bigger. Confidence comes from experiencing competence.

[Sparx]

For trails - try H2O in Westleigh. The trails are easy enough that I take my 5yr old but also fun enough that I enjoy riding there myself. The green/blue loop is relatively flat, smooth and had just enough of a technical challenge for a beginner. There are a few left turns though!

My advice from watching kids learn to ride is this - play on your bike! Muck around, do silly things, practice those little skills like getting your front wheel up etc.

I also find mtb a lot more of a solitary pursuit than road riding, it's harder to maintain a 'bunch' on the trails. But I'm OK with that.

[bychosis]

I also find mtb a lot more of a solitary pursuit than road riding, it's harder to maintain a 'bunch' on the trails. But I'm OK with that.

While it is true that MTB is a lot more solitary while riding, I find that it is a bit more social becuase the groups I ride with tend to stop at the end of a section to re-group and there is time for a chat and a drink until the slowest (occasionally me) is ready to go again.

[Calvin27]

I am always losing mtb confidence and I've been doing it my whole life.

Huge stretches on the roadie and I forget how choppy a mtb ride really is. Got smashed up which took me out for 2 months and the mountain bike trails feel so foreign now. Just takes a lot of riding.

[Inspectorgadget]

I am 60 years old and I am careful when riding off road. I also owned 14 motorbikes over the years and my last bike was a Kawasaki ZX-10R. I did 265kph on it one day but I always rode with the view not to take it too close to the edge.

I have fallen off several times but nothing serious.

Lucky yes but I have also flown gliders, have a pilots licence and do scuba diving.

I am still alive.

I have always believed in the ‘there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but no old, bold pilots’.

My advice to anyone is to take it easy and don’t fall off. It is great to have fun but getting seriously injured could end it all. Do it safely and comfortably unless you really enjoy risk taking and have a good tolerance for pain.

I have also seen Mountain Bikers putting others at risk by going way too fast downhill and on a loose surface your braking is limited unless you hit a tree or another biker, walker,dog.

[trailgumby]

I also find mtb a lot more of a solitary pursuit than road riding, it's harder to maintain a 'bunch' on the trails. But I'm OK with that.

While it is true that MTB is a lot more solitary while riding, I find that it is a bit more social becuase the groups I ride with tend to stop at the end of a section to re-group and there is time for a chat and a drink until the slowest (occasionally me) is ready to go again.

^^^ This. I don't mind being single file on single track. You're fully engaged with the activity anyway - I just don't have any attentional capacity free to focus on anything other than what I'm doing on the bike anyway.

That's one of the beauties of mountain biking - it forces you to push everything else out of your mind except what you're doing RIGHT NOW. Picking your line, moving the bike, making the shape of your body on the bike, scanning the trail, thinking about where you need to be to best negotiate the section 20-60 feet ahead, pumping with your body weight to generate speed when you can't pedal, and lofting your tyres over those square-edged hits to maintain your momentum. All the worries of daily life are pushed out of mind in an extended moment of flow.

All of that is stuff you just don't need to consider on a road bike most of the time unless you're a courier on a fixie salmoning through traffic.

Then, when you regroup with your mates you can talk about those things, and the endorphins from the state of flow help you keep them in perspective.

[Apple]

well I am riding it , but the fear is no better. I will try H20 soon. I am also going to duck hole with a friend who fell off a cliff on her MTB( SHOCK.) she now has an electric bike because her legs are not strong. OMGosh, no wonder I have fear.
BTW where are all the emoji things, we used to put smiley and angry ones.

[Cardy George]

well I am riding it , but the fear is no better. I will try H20 soon. I am also going to duck hole with a friend who fell off a cliff on her MTB( SHOCK.) she now has an electric bike because her legs are not strong. OMGosh, no wonder I have fear.
BTW where are all the emoji things, we used to put smiley and angry ones.

We all have our own fears when we're on the dirt. My personal one is double jumps, I came off and smashed my helmet when I was 15(ish) I'm now 38 and I still need to talk myself through them.

Don't rush it, it's a practice thing. Go slowly over things at first. Even the professionals walk the track first.

If your posting from your mobile hit the full editor/preview button under the reply box, the emoji are hiding in there

[Inspectorgadget]

I guess to me MTB is my way of enjoying nature and seeing some lovely unspoilt areas that would be time consuming to access by walking.

Others see it as motocross or BMX level challenges.

You can expect to get hurt if you want to go fast and do technical tracks.

I could get hurt too but I keep my speeds down and just use the bike for access.