Well, all that changed over a few weeks in November and December. I had recently hooked up with a few local guys who are super technical, fast and been mountain biking for many years. Me? I have maybe 2 or 3 years experience of mainly solo riding behind me. Most of these guys now ride single speeds, but I won't hold that against them. I thought "Well that is different, but lets give them a go".
And this is where it all started to go wrong for me. I had a couple of tumbles on the first few night rides. I blamed my lights, being unfamiliar with the terrain, etc bla blah blah - "Phew! Got away with that," I thought.
Then we did a ride in broad daylight, and on single-track. The tumbles came thick and fast - there was nowhere to hide!
I had been exposed! I lack the required skills to stay upright on technical tracks!! Sounds like something you stand up and say at an AA meeting - but that is another story.
It is true, when the trails aren't wide enough for a car, my cornering sucks and my brake pads get unnecessary workouts.
Some say "Speed is your friend", well I used to say "My Friend (or is that Crutch?) is 2 fists of disc enabled stopping power" ....Until now!
What follows will be a diary of my experiences in improving my biking skills. Hopefully, this will not only help some of you who came to the same realisation I did, that your skills aren't where you would like them to be, but may also help your riding buddies to help you in an organised and systematic way.
I will share with you pain of being critiqued (by a Yorkshire man) and being re-taught to ride a bike. Additionally, you will share my mental anguish as I struggle to re-invent my riding style so that I can cope with corners and single track for a start. The guys helping me apparently have no motive other than helping a "brother" bike rider, bless them...
Come back next week to see how I got on with my first coaching session.
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Tammy Sykes
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... can't wait for the next installment. I'm hopeless on singletrack or any other track that's why I want skills training. |
Gareth Clay
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... Hey Buster, this sounds like it's going to be an excellent blog series - looking forward to reading this (and trying to soak up as many tips as possible!). Riding buddies... where would we be without them, hey? Without some friendly external critique it's often hard to know you're doing something wrong yourself until you're polishing the trail with your face. I've had so much help from Mr Stumpy and Tomtomks, who could quite easily set up a skills centre of their own, I think. Hottest tip so far has been that there's a difference between thinking you're off the back of the saddle and actually being there - cheers Tom!  Keep blogging Buster, it's great to share all this experience around  |
