Lopes Brian - Mastering Mountain Bike Skills

Welcome to the third edition of Mastering Mountain Bike Skills. With time comes change. The MTB world is forever changing, so get ready to improve with the times! If youve read the first two editions, were sure youve learned a lot and come away with some great tips to improve your riding.

Well, this third edition is going to give you even more to learn, practice, and understand. Were here to help you become a better all-around mountain biker.

Mountain biking is awesome! Even when you do it wrongafraid, tense, and tired, like most beginnersits the greatest sport ever.

Well, guess what: When you learn to do it rightconfident, fluid, and powerfulits even more awesome. You can explore beautiful places with like-minded people, get in great shape, and most important, access very high states of Flow (with a capital F).

In his skills classes, in which he has met thousands of riders of all levels, from first-timers to world champions, Lee has discovered some essential truths:

1. No one has it mastered. The best riders stay the best because they keep growing.
2. Everyone can get betterfirst-timers, timid beginners, seasoned enthusiasts, and top pros.
3. The better you get, the more fun you have.

And with over 40 years of experience on a bike as a professional cyclist, Brian has acquired the knowledge to help you achieve all three.

The following are our goals for this book. We want you to:

Have more fun on your bike. More confidence. More safety. More air. More speed. However you define fun, we want you to have it. Remember: As long as youre learning, youre having fun.

Apply the 80/20 principle. Eighty percent of your results are from a core 20 percent of the skills you learn. Rather than describing a random assortment of tricks, this book focuses on the core skills that help real people ride better: the essential movement patterns that you can improve, combine, and apply almost everywhere you ride. Youll be amazed at how simple great riding can be.

Use this medium to its full benefit. This being a print book or an e-book, we cant interact the way we can in person or online, so its harder to help you with your specific issues. This book describes the techniques and learning methods that can be conveyed in this format. The great thing about a book is that it can provide context, and its permanent. We encourage you to come back to this book often. Read a short section; then take your new awareness to the trail.

Develop a solid skills base. All great riding is built from the bottom up. This book focuses on the essential, universal skills that help all kinds of riders on all kinds of terrain. We start at the bottom of the skills tree and work our way into the branches.

Follow the path to mastery. To our knowledge, there are no magic tricks at the top of the skills tree. As you improve your core skills, you learn to execute them with more precision and power, and to combine them in interesting ways. In this sense, riding is like painting. Once you master the primary colors (aka movements), you can make any color you want.

Have fun!

As much as you already love mountain biking, just wait: Its about to get way better, especially if you follow these tips about learning:

One thing at a time. Whenever youre out riding, concentrate on one skill or one component of a skill. Always start inside your own body: drop your heels, hinge your hips, and relax your elbows. Once your body is working well, shift your focus to the trail: look ahead in the corners, stay low over the jumps, and press into holes. Think about executing the move as perfectly as you can. Soon, youll be doing it without thought, and then you can move on to the next thing.

Dontlet bad habits ruin your life. If youre a normal person, the first time you encounter a gnarly descent, youll subconsciously push your head up and back (away from danger). This is the worst thing you can do in terms of bike control! But, youll probably survive. Your brain is simple. All it wants to do is (1) not die and (2) make babies. If you ride improperly a couple times,