Mtb Instruction & Skills

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Catrin & Indy, which skills did you learn in the clinic? Which skill(s) are you finding to be the toughest?

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We practiced neutral and what they called "ready" position, modulated and controlled braking, what they called "window washing," i.e,. getting up out of the saddle and moving our body back and forth over the bike, moving fore and aft over the saddle, ratcheting and tight turns, and getting our front wheel up. At least those are the ones I remember.

I had a bit of trouble with getting my wheel up, although I got better with it as the day progressed, and I still have room for improvement on tight turns. Honestly, I thought I did pretty well during the skills and drills portion; it's simply a matter of integrating it once on the trail. I felt pretty good on the trail itself, too, so long as I wasn't descending. Descending scares me a bit. I think part of it is that I'm having trouble braking with one finger. As I mentioned upthread, DH is going to adjust my levers to a bit easier for me. I'll see if that helps. Part of it is "just" mental. I need practice and exposure to lessen my nerves.

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I had no problems with the neutral/ready/fore/aft positions. The sideways, "window washing" technique was challenging and I am unsure that I actually have that down. Hopping over a little stick with my front wheel was also challenging. I did improve a bit on this, but I do not think that I could actually hop over a real obstacle, that is going to take some time and that is ok. More upper body strength can only help

Shifting was something of a challenge on the trail, but that improved when I just put it in the granny gear and worked with the little gears.

The braking techniques were fun, and I found my balance to be better than I expected, so that was all good. We did some sharp turn practices and I did have a little trouble with this. I think the trouble was more from having others so close to me - most of my road riding is solo so I am just not accustomed to having other cyclists in such close proximity. Ever. Of course, one doesn't normally do such tight turns on the road so I need to practice them anyway.

One cool thing that came out of all of the drills. I got so used to the neutral position that I came out of one drill still standing on my pedals and actually caught myself pedaling! Resistance wasn't high enough for that, not really, but I've NEVER been able to do that on my other bikes

The "ready" position is a little difficult for me to separate from the ready position for some reason...but one of the instructors pulled me aside and helped me to figure it out. This still needs practice, but it was a great start!

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I started this new thread on skills & instruction to avoid hijacking the thread on Trails. Here goes:

I also decided to invest in a couple of mtb lessons. It seemed that every time I tried to tackle more advanced obstacles on my own, I didn't get any better, I just crashed more.

My instructor was very helpful & it turns out that we covered similar skills in my first lesson as what was taught in the clinic. The best suggestion my instructor made was to do drills. The drills uncovered some weakness in my techniques that weren't easily identifiable on the trails, or even during the lesson. For instance, I can corner to the left with relative ease but tight, right, cornering is far more difficult for me. Who would have guessed that I needed to work on something so seemingly simple as right turns?

The good news is that drilling tight turns, allowing the bike to lean while keeping my body perpendicular to the ground, getting used to pronounced fore & aft positions, & lifting the front wheel is improving my bike handling by leaps & bounds. The drills also allow me to experiment with proper braking techniques, the lack of which I'm pretty sure contributed to several of my crashes. I'm going to stay off the trails & dedicate myself to drilling, (including getting used to being clipped in - but that's another story), at least until my next lesson 1 1/2 weeks from now. My only regret is not getting some good instruction sooner.

Thanks for sharing that and for the good advice!

Thanks for starting this thread! I am going to practice my drills on both mtn bike and Gunnar - I won't try to hop with the Gunnar but I certainly can practice my body positioning.

I found some easy dirt as well, and I've found a couple of people willing to ride the trail I was on Sunday with me - it will just be a matter of scheduling.

Great idea to start this thread. I really cannot even begin to express what a difference the two real clinics I've done have made on my riding. By real I mean ones who follow a protocol like the IMIC one the Midwest Women's Clinic and the Ray's Women's clinic use. I also did a mini clinic last fall at a local race - was a informal mini clinic. Got me to try riding, but didn't really teach me anything.

I often see guys ( over on mtbr) react to the do a clinic suggestion w/ why spend the money just go ride. Yeah, that's one way...but as you've learned you might never progress. Or as Jonathon ( one of my coach this trip - along w/ TE's own TrekJeni) put it traditionally folks learned by riding with friends, and often getting hurt. Learning the fundamentals the right way ( ESP right off the bat) is HUGE.

And for me, doing so in an all women format even better

Which leads me to drills. I do them every opportunity. This weekend I felt like I had a bit of a breakthrough in my bike/body feel, weight shifting and balance. I think some of that due to practicing ready/neutral/back/forward on my commuter (which is a more MTB geometry hybrid). I have a hilly commute and have been doing major parts standing in MTB stance. On streets.

The other big key for me is really looking forward, not down like road riding. And trusting myself to do it. Plus very deliberately telling myself mentally not to look at the tree, or the rock or the drop off. I have this constant chatter in my head, watch ahead where you're going, where you want to go. Doing that at the clinic in the field on high speed turns had me killing them. Which felt great. I wasn't 't as aggressive yet on the trail, but I'm getting there.

We'll be doing family drills on the skills from this weekend in the yard- even pulling some logs and rocks out of our woods to practice going over. Should be fun!

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Originally Posted by Catrin

Thanks for starting this thread! I am going to practice my drills on both mtn bike and Gunnar - I won't try to hop with the Gunnar but I certainly can practice my body positioning.

I found some easy dirt as well, and I've found a couple of people willing to ride the trail I was on Sunday with me - it will just be a matter of scheduling. Thankfully two of the women are instructors, and the other woman is very experienced.

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That's cool, Catrin. I'm sure some time out there with Tania (presumably) will be very helpful. I was eyeing a parking lot here in Franklin to practice some drills.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

That's cool, Catrin. I'm sure some time out there with Tania (presumably) will be very helpful. I was eyeing a parking lot here in Franklin to practice some drills.

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I've been pondering parking lot vs dirt for drills, assuming I can find some easy non-technical dirt. Of course, it should probably be both/and rather than either/or. I am thankful my Gunner has, basically, a rigid mountain bike geometry as it will make it easy to practice on it as well.

Just got back from my drills & finished supper. I thought it would be a good idea to share which drills we're doing. Maybe we can get some other ideas, improve our skills, & prevent boredom with our current drills. I'll start:)

My total drill time is about 45 - 60 minutes. My goal is to do these daily for the next 10 days or so, & then a few times a week after that.

1. The field that I ride in is a 10 minute, gentle climb, from the parking lot. It's a good little warm up. I wouldn't even ride this span clipped in when I first got my SPD's. After a few days, I'm totally confident riding this really easy section while clipped in.
2. Once I reach the field, I spend a few mintues clipping both feet in & out.
3. Next comes practice with leaning my bike from one side to the other while keeping my body perpendicular to the ground. I find it more difficult to lean the bike very far now that I'm clipped in. In addition, leaning the bike to the right feels less natural than the other direction, so I spend more time working on the right side.
4. Then I ride small circles around a large weed in the field. I drew a line in the dirt so that I know whether I'm drifting away from my tight circle. My goal is to do 50 circles in each direction but I sometimes have to stop sooner because my wrists start hurting. Something about riding the circles slowly is really hard on my wrists. I make sure to spend quite a bit of time turning to the right since that's the side I struggle with the most.
5. I intersperse front wheel lifts & more clipping & unclipping amongst the circle riding.
6. I end with riding the gentle downhill back to my car with my weight at the rear of the bike. I'm pretty confident with this skill but riding slowly prolongs the amount of time that I hover over the saddle, which is building more muscle in my legs. Speaking of muscle, riding those circles & practicing wheel lifts is giving my upper body a great workout too.

I hope to add more drills after my next lesson. If so, I'll share them with everyone.

Anyone else care to share what they're doing?

Wheelie night! Every so often, DH and I will spend an hour popping (or attempting to pop) wheelies in the back yard. My goal is to consistently lift the front wheel on demand, no matter which leg is forward. I'm more successful with my dominant leg forward, so the other one is definitely a bit of a challenge.

I keep meaning to buy a 2x6 board and practice riding along its length...just for some balance and steering practice.

I should motivate myself to do some of these drills in our yard after the kids go to bed :)

I had gift card for Amazon and downloaded Mastering Mountain Biking Skills. I've been riding all wrong!!!! I need to do some relearning.

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Originally Posted by limewave

I should motivate myself to do some of these drills in our yard after the kids go to bed :)

I had gift card for Amazon and downloaded Mastering Mountain Biking Skills. I've been riding all wrong!!!! I need to do some relearning.

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Would this be a good book for someone at the introductory level? Someone else recommended a book called "Mountain Bike!" which I got from the library, but most of it seems more advanced stuff. Not that I might not get there, but I need to focus on beginning skills. It is my nature to want to jump ahead and I don't want to do that this time :o

I think the drills that gave me the most trouble Sunday was the sideways movement (fore and aft seemed fine), ratcheting and tight turning. Of course hopping was probably the most challenging of all for me. Obviously you can't master anything in a clinic, but they gave me wonderful tools with which to start working :)

I wish I had a yard in which I could practice, I need to actually take my bike somewhere...

I found this online last night in an effort to learn more about mountain bike drills.

http://www.performancevideo.com/dril...ountain_Biking

It's been a while since I looked, but there are number of tutorials on youtube, too. I need to spend some time just looking online and, of course, actually doing them. DH adjusted my brake levers yesterday so that they're a little easier for me to position my index finger on. He also moved them so that my wrist isn't so cocked. As I've noted, I really struggled to brake sufficiently on the downhill sections of the trail. My finger kept cramping and because of where the brakes were on my bars, my index finger kept gravitating inward--away from where I had the most leverage. Hopefully, this set up will be better.

I just started reading it. The first section was all bout the bike and different kinds of mountain bikes. I found it really informative and interesting as I really know nothing about bikes and all the components.

The section I'm reading now is about position on the bike. It talks alot about the neutral positioning: light hands, heavy feet. The "heavy feet" feeling is completely foreign to me. I do okay with it at certain points, but in my normal riding position most of my weight is on the saddle and I pull up with my legs for the pedal stroke. I feel more pressure from the top of the shoe on my foot than on the pedal.

When I first started riding with clipless pedals, DH emphasized that the purpose of clipping is to utilize the full circular motion, pulling up and pushing down. I guess I focused too much on the up-swing.

My biggest problem with reading & watching YouTube videos is getting the information from my brain to my body. Just like when I thought I had my weight properly positioned over the bike only to have my instructor figure out that I was subtly positioning my hips so that the bike was weighted in the wrong direction. That may sound pretty brainless to a very coordinated & experienced mtb'er, but it's not always so straightforward for the less coordinated among us...like me:)

Indy, your comment about your wrists being cocked before DH repositioned your brake handles may be the answer to my wrist pain when I ride the circles. I'm going to have my fitter take a look at my wrist position when I ride the brakes.

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Originally Posted by Artista

My biggest problem with reading & watching YouTube videos is getting the information from my brain to my body. Just like when I thought I had my weight properly positioned over the bike only to have my instructor figure out that I was subtly positioning my hips so that the bike was weighted in the wrong direction. That may sound pretty brainless to a very coordinated & experienced mtb'er, but it's not always so straightforward for the less coordinated among us...like me:)

Indy, your comment about your wrists being cocked before DH repositioned your brake handles may be the answer to my wrist pain when I ride the circles. I'm going to have my fitter take a look at my wrist position when I ride the brakes.

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I'd really like to take a few additional lessons myself. I have a couple emails out there to instructors from the clinic, but haven't heard back. It would be nice to get some one-on-one help.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I'd really like to take a few additional lessons myself. I have a couple emails out there to instructors from the clinic, but haven't heard back. It would be nice to get some one-on-one help.

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Yes, this! It would be fantastic to be able to do this. Funds are.....tight right now so I don't know that I could make it work right away but would like to do this at some point.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I'd really like to take a few additional lessons myself. I have a couple emails out there to instructors from the clinic, but haven't heard back. It would be nice to get some one-on-one help.

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I THINK that personal instruction made a big difference for me. The circle drills are really improving my outlook on hairpin turns, but I won't know for sure until I get back on the trails. Besides, I still have one more lesson to go. Depending on what we cover next time, I may be off of the trails & drilling for longer than I thought. This is killing me. I really want to get back to riding technical stuff but I'm tired of crashing. And then there are the clipless pedals to get used to. I won't try anything technical until I can get out of the pedals 100% of the time under controlled conditions. That should set me up for getting out about 75% of the time in actual riding conditions.;)

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Originally Posted by Catrin

Yes, this! It would be fantastic to be able to do this. Funds are.....tight right now so I don't know that I could make it work right away but would like to do this at some point.

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Just ride with Tania for free! :D

Tania's actually one of the people I emailed--at Jonathon's suggestion. I sent it on Monday and haven't heard back just yet. I'll resend it next week or just email Jonathan instead with the hope of greasing the wheels. I also emailed an instructor from B'ton. I have no idea what someone would charge, but I think it would be worth it to me. Short of that, I'll just do the drills and head out with DH to BCSP when we can.

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Originally Posted by Artista

I THINK that personal instruction made a big difference for me. The circle drills are really improving my outlook on hairpin turns, but I won't know for sure until I get back on the trails. Besides, I still have one more lesson to go. Depending on what we cover next time, I may be off of the trails & drilling for longer than I thought. This is killing me. I really want to get back to riding technical stuff but I'm tired of crashing. And then there are the clipless pedals to get used to. I won't try anything technical until I can get out of the pedals 100% of the time under controlled conditions. That should set me up for getting out about 75% of the time in actual riding conditions.;)

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Out of curiosity, have you thought about just ditching the clipless pedals for the time being and using platforms/BMX? I'm not using clipless at the moment and likely won't for a while. Granted, I'm not doing much where clipless would really be of help at the moment either.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I have no idea what someone would charge, but I think it would be worth it to me. Short of that, I'll just do the drills and head out with DH to BCSP when we can.

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I am thankful that a couple of women have told me we can ride together, but it would be nice to know what a formal 1-on-1 training session would cost if it should turn out to be needed. I've emailed one of the professional coaches that live in Indy to find out, really just for the information. I need to get this dog bite bill settled!

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Originally Posted by indysteel

Out of curiosity, have you thought about just ditching the clipless pedals for the time being and using platforms/BMX? I'm not using clipless at the moment and likely won't for a while. Granted, I'm not doing much where clipless would really be of help at the moment either.

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This is a very good idea. I've no intention on clipping in for quite some time to come, not on the mountain bike. I've some great BMX pedals - they will tear your legs up without protection though so I have shin guards. I was self-conscious about the shin guards before the sessions started Sunday, but was quite thankful for them before the day was over.

If I had been clipped on Sunday on the trail my falls would have been much worse - and at the intro/beginner level I don't think we do anything where that would be required. So, for now, I reserve my Frogs for my other bikes.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

I am thankful that a couple of women have told me we can ride together, but it would be nice to know what a formal 1-on-1 training session would cost if it should turn out to be needed. I've emailed one of the professional coaches that live in Indy to find out, really just for the information. I need to get this dog bite bill settled!

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I'm not sure whom you emailed, but if you hear from them and they do offer lessons, let me know. While the clinic's website does mention that some instructiors offer additional coaching opportunities, it doesn't give specifics.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

I'm not sure whom you emailed, but if you hear from them and they do offer lessons, let me know. While the clinic's website does mention that some instructiors offer additional coaching opportunities, it doesn't give specifics.

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I certainly will, I believe she coaches for a living so I've no idea what it might cost or her availability, but it seemed worthy of a question. I will email you when I get more information.

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Originally Posted by Catrin

I certainly will, I believe she coaches for a living so I've no idea what it might cost or her availability, but it seemed worthy of a question. I will email you when I get more information.

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Is it Sally Marchand? If so, I'm assuming she caters to advanced and competitive riders and that her price reflects that. It's be nice to be wrong though!

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Originally Posted by indysteel

Is it Sally Marchand? If so, I'm assuming she caters to advanced and competitive riders and that her price reflects that. It's be nice to be wrong though!

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Yes, she is the one I've contacted. She also does work coaching teams for the Leukemia fundraiser (can't think of what it is called) and she said many of them are beginning/intermediate riders. It doesn't hurt to ask, and I do want a chance to get some of my own practicing under my belt anyway - even if I did have the money right away. It is really more for my information...but right now I think I just need to do my drills and ride with more experienced women than I when I can :)

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Originally Posted by Catrin

Yes, she is the one I've contacted. She also does work coaching teams for the Leukemia fundraiser (can't think of what it is called) and she said many of them are beginning/intermediate riders. It doesn't hurt to ask, and I do want a chance to get some of my own practicing under my belt anyway - even if I did have the money right away. It is really more for my information...but right now I think I just need to do my drills and ride with more experienced women than I when I can :)

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She coaches for Team in Training. Her husband died from leukemia. :(

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Originally Posted by indysteel

She coaches for Team in Training. Her husband died from leukemia. :(

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That's right, I forgot about that :(

Oh, I wanted to say this. For assorted reasons tonight was my first real ride of any kind since the clinic and I was out on my Gunner for a sweet 20 miles. I actually found myself even more comfortable on the Gunnar and did a few things on it that I've never done before. It is great how even the first exposure to a different skill set has benefit on all of our riding :cool:

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Originally Posted by indysteel

Out of curiosity, have you thought about just ditching the clipless pedals for the time being and using platforms/BMX? I'm not using clipless at the moment and likely won't for a while. Granted, I'm not doing much where clipless would really be of help at the moment either.

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Yes, I considered staying with platforms & am not ruling out going back to them. The problem is that my skills are advanced enough that I'm taking some pretty bumpy obstacles like rock gardens on moderate hills, small ledges, etc. (These aren't the obstacles that are causing me to crash, btw.) My feet are already bouncing around on the platforms. My instructor & awesome-bike-shop-dude-who-mountain-bikes are about the same size as I am, which is pretty small. (OK the bike-shop-dude is a few inches taller but we probably weigh about the same.) Based on their experience, they're both concerned that my feet will bounce off of the pedals as I begin taking even bumpier obstacles. Having a foot bounce off of a pedal in the middle of a very steep & technical rock garden could cause an even worse crash than not being able to get out of clipless pedals on the rare occasion that I actually have some reaction time.

In truth, the idea of mountain biking in clipless pedals has my nerves on edge. I've given it a lot of thought, though, & have come to the following conclusions:

• It seems that most crashes happen so fast that I'm on the way down before I have time to consider what to do with my feet. That means that I would probably be unable to prevent a crash even if I could get my feet out of the pedals before I hit the ground. That's sure been the case with the platforms so far.
• I wonder if we attribute too many crashes to clipless pedals because one of the last sensations that we remember before hitting the ground is that our feet were tugging at the bike. Again, it would seem that by that time, it would be too late to prevent the crash by getting our feet loose.
• It seems that most of the falls that can legitimately be attributed to clipless pedals are the slow speed falls or tip-overs where we actually had some reaction time but couldn't get our feet loose. These slow speed falls are usually pretty harmless.
• I do have big concerns about being more seriously injured in a crash if I hit the ground with my feet still attached to the bike. I choose SPD's with multi-directional release cleats for my mountain bike for this reason. I've already tipped over a few times with these pedals & my feet came loose the moment I hit the ground. I can't say as much for the Frogs that I love on my road bike & the Candies that I couldn't make friends with.

So all of this makes perfect sense in my head but fear still strikes my heart when I think of taking my SPD's on the trail. I'll probably carry my platforms with me on the first few trail rides so that I can change out in the middle of the ride if I think it will keep me safer.

I'm also seriously considering getting a remote control seat post. The post would allow me to lower the seat a bit & ride unclipped over or around some obstacles. It would also be awesome to be able to lower the seat when starting out on both downhills & uphills. The remote control would allow me to quickly raise my seat to the best riding height for uphills once I got going. The posts are pretty expensive though...like $300.

What about a good set of BMX pedals and real grippy shoes like Five Tens? I've been told the soles of these shoes are SO grippy they really grab onto the pins of the pedals and won't bounce off. I am considering a pair of these shoes for myself.

I am considering the same remote control seat-post - but not this year. Once I have the basic skills under my belt and my trail riding to fall ratio reverses then I will do this. Because of my fit needs other than inseam, the saddle height on my Jamis is going to be well above my bars and I think that will make things easier later on to be able to get the seat post out of the way easily when I need to do so.

I couldn't justify it at this stage, even if I had the money...

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Originally Posted by Catrin

What about a good set of BMX pedals and real grippy shoes like Five Tens? I've been told the soles of these shoes are SO grippy they really grab onto the pins of the pedals and won't bounce off. I am considering a pair of these shoes for myself.

I am considering the same remote control seat-post - but not this year. Once I have the basic skills under my belt and my trail riding to fall ratio reverses then I will do this. Because of my fit needs other than inseam, the saddle height on my Jamis is going to be well above my bars and I think that will make things easier later on to be able to get the seat post out of the way easily when I need to do so.

I couldn't justify it at this stage, even if I had the money...

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Thanks for the suggestion. I have BMX pedals & grippy shoes on my back-up list if the SPD's don't work out. I knew that shoes were less likely to slip on BMX pedals but I hadn't heard that they were less likely to bounce too.

I found new, remote control, seat posts on ebay at a slight discount. The discount isn't big enough to get my business from my LBS, though.

How's that lower handlebar thing on the Jamis working for you? I thought you would do a more upright position on your mtb because of your hands.

Apparently some BMX riders use the Five Tens with BMX pedals and their feet stay in place, I think the pins kind of dig into the soles if I understand what is going on and you can actually pull up on the pedals.

The saddle height on my Jams is currently lower than it should be - right now it is important that I be able to get my feet to the ground quickly :o Eventually I will need a different stem as I get more experienced/comfortable and spend more time on the bike. I require a short reach as well, which is one of the reasons my Jamis is a size smaller than probably someone else with my measurements would order. My fitter and I worked it out though.

So far the different position isn't bothering my hands, but it isn't like I am spending long periods of time on the bike without stopping, falling, something :) The problem is the reach - with the larger sizes the TT is much, much too long for me... Thankfully my hand position on mountain bars doesn't automatically cause pain like it does on road bars...and I am probably stronger than I was a year ago.

I've also found that I have more latitude in my mtb fit than I do with the road bike. Yes, stopping more must have something to do with it, but I think our bodies just plain move differently while mtb'ing compared to road riding.

On another note, I changed from Frogs to SPD's on my road bike when I put SPD's on my mtb. It seemed safer & more efficient to teach my feet to unclip the same way on both bikes.

Today was my first road bike ride with the new pedals. The road bike pedals were way easier to unclip than the ones on my mtb. I was sure that there was a difference in the pedal tension between the two bikes. I did back-to-back test rides for comparison. It turns out that there is no difference at all. After riding the road bike, I was able to unclip easily on the mtb. Once I reproduced the "trapped" effect on both bikes, it messed with my ability to unclip from the road bike too.

At this point, I'm thinking that my unclipping drills on the mtb are doing more harm than good. I have a plan...this weekend, I'm going to take the road bike out for a quick ride to get that unclipping muscle memory back & then go straight to the trail with the mtb where I'll have less opportunity to over-think the unclipping process. I'll let you know how it goes.

I did it! Rode my favorite trail clipped in. I did tip over once but I think I might have fallen even on platforms under the circumstances. Hubby was riding a little ahead of me & saw a small snake curled up in the side of trial. He knew that it was a harmless bull snake & decided not to warn me for fear that I might freak-out & fall ON the snake. (Bull snakes aren't venomous but they would still probably bite anything that landed ON them.) By the time I got to the snake it was stretched out in the middle of the trail. I had no choice but to run over it. I still got a little freaked-out, (first afraid that it might bite me, then felt bad that I might have killed it), looked up to see hubby stopped right in front of me, slammed on the brakes & fell lightly to the side. All in all, pretty harmless for for us, but maybe not such a great day for the snake.

The cornering & braking drills were very helpful. I was in much better control around the tight curves than in the past. I think I've passed the learning plateau that I was on. I feel good!:D

ETA: While I was still a nervous about being clipped in, the nervousness was countered by the security I felt in not having my feet bounce around on the pedals in the rock gardens.

That's great, Artista....minus the snake!

I need to do some drills tomorrow. DH was working on my bike today to see if you can't get the front shifting to be a bit easier. From what we've read, the cheap SRAM shifters have their weaknesses. Shifting in the back is fine, but not so in the front. We might switch out some of the components from the my Trek FX that I never ride or spring for an X-7 shifter. I don't want to put much money into this bike because it really was intended to just allow me to see if this is something I might really like such that I can justify a nicer bike.

Indy, if DH can't get the front shifting thing resolved without spending $$$ on your shifters, would it be possible for you to ride primarily in one chain ring? 80% of my favorite trail can be done in my small chain ring. I end up spinning out sometimes but I always know that another uphill is right around the corner so I just coast in my small chain ring for a little while.

Artista...where do you ride your mtn bike? I live in Denver too and am fairly new to mtn biking. DH and I have been spending time up at Buff Creek.

I've found on the fire road from a few weeks back and on Pine Loop last week, that it works for me just to stay in the small ring. The easiest gear on my middle chain is just a touch too hard for some of the climbing, and I dropped my chain when I tried to shift. This was not the bike but the user as I waited much too long to shift :o

I've a 10-speed cassette (11-36). Indy is a stronger climber than I am right now, I've hopes of narrowing that gap a little :D

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Originally Posted by Artista

Indy, if DH can't get the front shifting thing resolved without spending $$$ on your shifters, would it be possible for you to ride primarily in one chain ring? 80% of my favorite trail can be done in my small chain ring. I end up spinning out sometimes but I always know that another uphill is right around the corner so I just coast in my small chain ring for a little while.

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So far, I've mostly been in my middle ring. To the extent I have to shift to my small chain ring, the shifter works just fine in that direction. It's moving up from small to medium to large that's difficult. I doubt I'll need the large ring much, but it would be nice to go from small to medium without breaking my thumb.

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Originally Posted by indysteel

So far, I've mostly been in my middle ring. To the extent I have to shift to my small chain ring, the shifter works just fine in that direction. It's moving up from small to medium to large that's difficult. I doubt I'll need the large ring much, but it would be nice to go from small to medium without breaking my thumb.

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I understand now, I thought you were having problems shifting down. If I had the money I would change my front shifter from trigger to an XO grip shifter to save my thumb, but not just yet. Next year :)

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Originally Posted by solobiker

Artista...where do you ride your mtn bike? I live in Denver too and am fairly new to mtn biking. DH and I have been spending time up at Buff Creek.

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Solobiker, our favorite place to ride so far is Ridgeline in Castle Rock. It's a series of interconnected trails, some of which are more fun to ride than others. The best route we've found so far seems to be about a moderate-beginner level. It starts with a short, steep climb, around a curve. Then it flattens out into about 1.5 miles of flow-y single track. Then there's about a mile of climbing with a few tight curves - but still very do-able. The top of the mesa offers beautiful vistas - a great place to stop & catch your breath & get some water. After a short rest, we follow about .5 miles of flow-y single track to the easy, rock gardens with mostly buried, head-size, rocks. Then starts the downhill with a couple of nerve racking switch backs. From there, we usually do a section that's about .5 miles long with some extended, steep climbing, followed by steep downhill. (I've been walking most of this part. I think I'm now strong enough to ride parts of it after I get used to my SPD's. I have the most problems unclipping when my legs are very tired, which they would be on this uphill section.) Then it's a super easy, .5 mile ride back to the parking lot. The whole ride is about 8 miles & takes me about an hour, although my strong, skilled, hubby says he can do it in about 40 minutes when he's alone. These trails are fairly populated but the users are mostly middle aged men on bikes, & women hikers with their dogs. Everyone is friendly uses good trail etiquette.

We also do Greenland, between Castle Rock & Colorado Springs. I consider these trails to be easy-beginner with nothing technical, but they offer beautiful views. The east-side trail is very wide with several miles of moderate climbing. The downhill portion is long with some sand just to keep things interesting.

The west side, Greenland trails, are mostly double track with some rolling hills. Again, nothing that I would consider very technical.

I did a women's group ride in Colorado Springs on the Ute Valley trails. The technical sections ranged from advanced beginner to intermediate level. These trails presented my first exposure to riding large, smooth, granite rock, sections. There was one section of very steep downhill with big, smooth, rocks that all of the intermediate riders did. I was astounded!

The Ute Valley trails would have been better if not for the young, male riders, with no consideration for others. Not sure if that's the norm there or an isolated experience.

We want to try the Bear Creek trails someday. I hear that they offer enough technicality to keep things interesting without striking fear into an advanced-beginner rider.

We should bring our husbands & do some rides together this summer.

ETA: I included a description of the first trail for clarification on what I consider moderate-beginner obstacles. I'm never sure about what others consider beginner, intermediate & advanced.

Sounds great Artista. I think you may like Buffalo Creek. It is a beginner/intermediate with no real technical areas. Some climbing but very do able. There are some sandy areas which I am getting better at. There are all sorts of trails and in some areas you can hook on to the Colorado Trail which is very fun. I would like to find the one down by Castle Rock you wrote about. Sounds nice. Have you tried Centenial Cone? It is a very nice trail area. Quite a bit of climbing but very smooth. If you try on a weekend it alternates between hikers and bikers. Hikers on odd days, Bikers on Even days. Throughout the week is fair game. :)