1. Relax
Whether you are riding a rigid bike or a full suspension, the best suspension you have is your arms and legs. Stand up, relax and allow them to absorb the bumps and ruts on the trail. Once you learn to let the bike move beneath you, you will be able to float over most obstacles.
It also helps to relax your grip a bit on the handlebars. Be sure to hang on firmly but not too tightly. A white-knuckle death grip will cause your forearms and hands to fatigue sooner and then make it tougher to be in control.
2. Spin
Cadence, or the rotation of your cranks, is a very important aspect of cycling. Professional cyclists spend a lot of time developing a good spin. If you pedal in squares, or with jerky downward strokes, you are actually throwing yourself off balance and working harder. Spinning is not only more efficient, but it helps keep traction on loose trail conditions.
Good cadence incorporates pedaling in circles and being in the right gear. If you are geared too high, it will be difficult to power over things, and if you are geared too low, you'll spin out and jerk the bike around. But if you change gears to keep the same pedaling RPMs, around 70 to 100, you'll find that it is much easier to climb and pedal through rough sections.
3. Learn the Wheelies
Wheelies and nose wheelies (having the back wheel off the ground) are fun little tricks, and they are quite useful on the trail.
You can pull a little wheelie to get your front wheel up and over an object, and then shift to a nose wheelie so your back wheel doesn't hit. Even if you can't get either wheel off of the ground, knowing how to take your weight off them will make some sections of trail smoother. These are easier to do with clipless pedals, but less intimidating to learn with platform pedals.
Starting with one pedal up and one down, a basic wheelie is a combination of pulling up on the handlebars, shifting your weight over the back wheel and pushing down on the up pedal. You can just do it for half of a pedal rotation, or try to maintain the wheelie and keep pedaling. Either way, keep your hand ready to pull the rear brake if you are going too far back; grabbing it will get your front wheel down.
The nose wheelie is a little different. You definitely don't want to do this if there is something in the trail that is going to stop your front wheel, and you don't want to grab your front brake. Either one will toss you. In one motion, lean a little forward, push forward on the bars and pull up with your feet. Even if you are using platform pedals, you can hook your feet and still lift the back of the bike up.
评论
发表评论