Shred School
Mtb tips and techniques learned from 25+ years of experience.
Ride faster with more confidence.
For all the Mtb tips and techniques mentioned below, try focusing on one aspect of your riding at a time.
Whistler wasn’t built in a day as they say…….
How to ride berms
Braking
In the ideal scenario you do all your braking before entering the corner. Braking mid turn will try to stand the bike up and kill your momentum.
Roll into the corner, feathering the brakes (not skidding) until you’re at your comfortable speed. Look up and towards the exit of the corner. Release the brakes and feel that flow baby!
Line choice
Enter the corner at the very point it begins. To get a visual of this watch the video below. Enter the corner as early as possible which will open the apex or the turn and allow you to carry more momentum.
Read the trail
Pay attention to the conditions you’re riding, see what obstacles lay ahead in the corner. Braking bumps? Holes? Loose gravel? Wet or dry?
Keep your eyes up and looking beyond your front wheel, this way you can react before an issue is at your front wheel and pick a different line.
Bonus – always try to stay out of the braking bumps, stay inside or outside of them. Never through the middle of them! It saves your arms pumping up and helps keep your bike fresher for longer.
Weight placement
Keep your body weight central with you head poised atop of the bars. Soft elbows and knees ready to soak up impacts and pump out of the corner.
Leave your pedals level for this type of turn. No need to move your body weight as the bowl turn is supporting your bike and grip is at a premium.
Commitment
Know when to push your limits, sometimes you’re feeling great on the bike and other days you may be feeling timid.
When your feeling good then you can start pushing the limits and leaving your braking later and hitting the turns faster.
How To Ride Flat Corners Like A Pro
Flat corners are similar to the techniques of riding a bowl corner but require you to be more accurate with your technique. The chances of sliding out are much higher as there is no bank to grip from.
Look Ahead
Again, look beyond your front tyre so you can read the trails ahead.
Attack position
Approach in the attack position, soft knees, elbows with your head over the top of the bars. This is so you can absorb impacts and move across the bike easier if you need to.
Foot Placement (most important)
Keep your outside foot down and lean the bike over, keep your body over the bike, This helps plant the bike into the ground.
It’s a common mistake to lean your body into the turn with your knee out like Valentino Rossi! Don’t do that unless you want to eat dirt!
Roll Freely
It’s important to keep the bike rolling freely around flat turns. Do your braking before you enter the corner as you would for a bowl turn. This allows the tyres to really grab and not skid around.
Tyre Pressure
If you ever need your tyres to be hooking up it’s now! play around with your PSI to find what works for you. Remember the harder you go, the less grip you’ll have. The softer you go, you’ll have more grip but slower rolling speed with more chances of damaging a rim or picking up a flat. Anything between 22-28psi seems to work well depending on conditions.
How To Ride Rock Gardens
Rock gardens can come with little to no margin for error, especially when you’re hitting them with speed. Adjust your speed and lines according to the weather!
Line Choice
Find the straightest line possible which will usually allow you to carry more speed.
Body Position
Approach in the attack position so you can absorb impacts and move around the bike and easier. Holding on white knuckled and being rigid on the bike will make for a rough ride.
It’s important to stay loose when riding rock gardens. You need to allow the bike to move under you.
Drop the ankles
Anchor yourself in, this will allow you to bulldoze through sections.
Momentum/ stay light
Speed can be your friend, use your momentum to carry you through obstacles. You want to be skimming through small rock gardens rather than compressing into each hole.
When entering a mellow but long section of rocky trail, pump your suspension on entry to glide across the top.
Look ahead
It will help you plan your entry speed/turning and braking points.
Pick your turning points
Look for stable objects such as banked corners, large rocks to turn against. This will allow you to attack the section more aggressively at a higher speed.
Pick your braking points
Avoid locking up the wheels, look for parts of the trail which will give you the best grip. This will allow you to brake harder.
Set up your bike correctly
Tyre choice and suspension setup can give you more grip and make your ride smoother which allows you to attack the sections harder and faster.
Count your suspension clickers and dial them to the middle position. Set you sag to the recommended psi then adjust in small increments from here.
Commit
Some lines command a level of commitment. When push comes to shove, you’ll need to trust the bike and let in dance underneath you to go fast through rock gardens. Stay loose.
How To Ride New Features
(Jumps & Drops)
Riding new jumps and hitting new features for the first time is a real buzz. This is how I have approached new features in the past.
Bike Set Up
You don’t want to be bucked over the bars or wallowing in suspension which is too soft. Set your sag according to the user manual. Adjust your clickers to a mid point. E.g If you have 10 clickers, adjust them to 5 and make incremental adjustments from there.
Wear Protection
If you’re sending new features then the risks of crashing are at their highest. Wear all the protection you have. If there’s a crash, we want to get up afterwards!
Start Small
Find a feature you’re comfortable on. Get some runs in to warm up on. When you’re getting that good vibe feeling it’s time to step it up.
Build Confidence
You need to hit a new feature knowing you’ve got it beaten, your confidence will come from hitting the smaller features many times.
Speak To Others
Ask riders who have hit the feature for feedback, where to drop in? how does it kick you?
If you trust them enough you could even ask them to let you follow them in for a speed check.
Send It!
Take a couple of speed checks if you need to, for blind jumps/drops walk up the take off ramp to give you a feeling of what it will feel like to ride. When it’s time to go, you have to been 100% committed.
Know Your Limit
It’s ok to walk away, If a feature has got in your head or you’re not feeling it then walk away to have another crack next time. The ultimate goal is to stay healthy all season.
How To Ride Steep Mtb Trails
The consequences can be high if it goes wrong, but the reward of clearing a slow speed, steep technical section is like nothing else you’ll do on a bike!
Learn how to crash!
It sounds crazy to be talking about crashing as our first tip, however if you get this right it will get you out of some sticky situations.
When the trail gets steep and you lose control, you need to be able to step off the back of the bike. This allows the bike to take the fall whilst you gracefully walk it out. Practise and think about how you would step off the back. When you’ve lost control you will know exactly what to do.
If you lose control and don’t step off the back of the bike, you’re leaving the outcome to the trail gods.
When should you hit the brakes?
Pick your braking points, look for clear trail or a grippy surface. Use these areas to brake hard and control your speed. If you come across an awkward root/rock or camber, come off the brakes, unweight the bike or hop over the feature and then get back on the brakes again.
Skids are for kids!
Grabbing a handful of rear brake is going to have you skidding down the hill out of control. Where possible try feathering your brakes on and off (similar to an ABS system in cars). You want to be hard on the front brake which is going to give you the most stopping power.
Treat the front brake with respect, ideally you want to be on the front as hard as possible without breaking traction. Your front brake is your anchor, your rear break is keeping you in check.
Build confidence
The more you ride steep trails, the more comfortable and less intimidated you will feel. Build your confidence on steep mtb trails by gradually increasing the steepness of the trails as you progress.
Fresh rear tyre
Having a freshie on the rear really helps you anchor into the trail and increases your stopping power. The best brakes in the world will do nothing if your tyre is burnt out!
Read the trail
You always have to be looking beyond your front wheel whilst riding bikes, but when you ride steep mtb trails you need to be looking even further up front than usual. Look ahead for braking points such as catch berms, this will allow you release the brakes and do all of your braking in the turn. Use a catch berm to reset, look to the next section of trail and drop in again.
Drop your heels
Dropping your heels anchors you into the bike, this will put more weight through the back tyre which in turn will give you more stopping power and control! This is the same technique you can use in some rock gardens too.
Drop in slow
If your aim is only to survive steep trails, try dropping into steep sections almost at a standstill. This will give you every chance possible at keeping your speed under control.
The Shred School is an ever growing book of tips
Use these guides to read through before you head out practising. Check back for new guides soon or subscribe to our newsletter form below to find out when new tips are posted.
If you’re struggling with any aspect of your riding you can request a future tips video/written breakdown here.