Exposed! Without the necessary skills - my skills blog
In my own mind I may have convinced myself I was right up there with my riding, so over the past year I considered taking my riding to the next level. I thought about doing a skills course, but in the end they were either too far away, or they never got back to me or it was too much hassle and "Hey!" I was doing ok. Wasn't I?". I mean I can go for miles and miles and then go back for more, really...
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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