Learn to float your bike over obstacles

Pressure control is the use of body movement vertically over the bike to make it lighter or heavier as required by the trail. Lighten the bike to ride over short rough sections of trail or weight it up for extra grip.

Unweighting

Think of a Kangaroo bouncing qucikly across the a field. The faster they go the more distance they cover with each leap. As they land from one leap they bend their legs to absorb the landing then use that stored energy to launch themselves forward for the next leap. To lighten the bike use a similar technique to take most of your weight off it as you come to a rough or rooty section.

As you approach the rough section use both your arms and legs to push yourself quickly up and away from the bike. As you stop pushing with your arms and legs your bodies momentum will make it want to continue upwards for a second or two taking your weight off the bike. You should feel nice and light as if on a trampoline. The bike is now unweighted until you need to use your arms and legs to stop yourself falling onto the bike. The more effort you put into pushing your body up the more you can unweight the bike.

You can use this unweighting in a number of ways

Completely relax your arms and legs for maximum unweighting over a short period of time for short but very rough sections or maintain a little support in your arms and legs to slowly return to the bike. This will give less unweighting but over a longer period of time for longer not so rough sections.

Start and finish in a crouched riding position for even more range of vertical movement and a stronger or longer unweight.

Weight Up

As you return to the bike you will need to slow your fall using your arms and legs. As slow your fall you will feel heavier, you are now weighting the bike. Your downwards momentum is being transfered through your bike to your tyres, forcing them into the dirt giving you extra grip. The extra grip lasts until you stop pushing down on the bars and pedals.

This extra grip can be used in a number of ways, you could give the brakes an extra squeeze whilst weighted up or use the extra grip to get you round a tight corner a bit faster. These techniques are covered in more detail in later topics.

You can weight the bike up from the normal attack position without unweighting it first by lowering your weight to a crouched position before pushing back of the pedals and bars although coming from fully unweighted will give much more weight to the bike.

Keep your balance on the bike by staying over the cranks

Keep your weight centered over the cranks all the way over the obstacle to avoid an unexpected trip over the bars or the front end getting loose when you land.

Natural suspension

The key to riding an mtb over rough sections is to stay loose and allow the bike to move under you. Pick a smooth line that avoids the biggest obstacles but keep your turns gentle rather than zig zaging all over the trail. Keeping your weight centred over the pedals will give you greater stability. Use your arms and legs as suspension to separate your upper body from any smooth bumps, dips and rollable obstacles you have to ride over. These techniques can be used on the flat, when climbing and when descending. There is a an adapted technique to be used when braking on steep descents to reduce the risk of going over the bars.

Lift over raised obstacles

Rock, roots and bumps in the trail can cause a problem if you hit them at speed. If you don't absorb the bump it can act as a jump and send you airborne or kick your back wheel up. At the very least it can upset your front/rear balance making controlling the bike harder.

As you hit a bump in the trail allow the handlebars to come towards you keeping your bodyweight centered over the cranks. Once the front wheel is on top of the bump push the handlebars forward and down over the bump. As the rear wheel rises over the obstacle, allow it to come up under you before extending your legs again as it drops down the other back side of the obstacle. Again, the timing of these two movements may overlap on shorter trail obstacles meaning you need to roll the bike over the bump in one smooth motion.

For larger trail obstacles and humps extend raise yourself up on the pedals by extending your legs just before reaching the obstacle. This will give you much more range of movement in your limbs to suck your bike up and over the obstacle.

Push into drops

As you approach a dip in the trail lower your body slightly just before the front wheel gets to the dip. Use the handlebars to push the front wheel down and away from you into the hole whilst keeping your body balanced over the cranks. Extend your legs to push the rear wheel into the dip to keep your body high.

If you allow your bodyweight to drop into the dip then it makes it harder to get back out again loosing you speed and affecting comfort. As the front wheel gets to the end of the dip pull up on the bars to help it get onto the higher surface in a similar manner to that used to get over raised obstacles. As the rear wheel comes out of the hole allow the rear of the bike to rise back up under you.

For bigger dips and holes, lower your body before entering them to allow you to extend your arms and legs more through the dip.

Bigger and faster

Move your weight to a little behind the cranks as the front wheel rises on faster and larger obstacles or mounds which you can't fully suck up. This will give a little extra stability but make sure you suck up the rear wheel as much as you can as it goes over the bump or the bike may buck you up and forwards over the bars. Return your weight to it's neutral position as the bike levels as you extend your legs on the backside.

Rougher downhill sections

As discussed previously, braking reduces the bikes ability to handle rough terrain. Braking hard on steep and rough downhill sections greatly increases the chances of an over the bars trip to the A&E department of your local hospital. As the trail approaches the limit of your riding ability, control your speed in the smoother approach and then let go of the brakes through the rough section using the smoother trail afterwards to again control your speed.

Downhill rocks and roots

This is a variation on the technique used for riding over smaller trail obstacles. It takes advantage of the different weight distribution found when braking on steeper sections of trail.

If you are worried that the front wheel will hang up on a particular rock or root whilst braking downhill, release your brake just before the front wheel hits it. Pull on the bars as described above and move your weight forward whilst extending your legs slightly to raise you body. This will momentarily unweight the front wheel allowing it to bump over the rock or root.

Once the front wheel is over the obstacle, gently re-apply the brakes which will weight up the front wheel again whilst lightening the rear. As the rear wheel goes over the obstacle, suck it up with your legs and return to your balanced riding position.

For repeated rocks or roots more than a bike length apart repeat you can just repeat this technique.

If you want to learn how to tackle a section where the front wheel hits the second obstacle before the rear wheel clears the first then you need to check out the 'Pressure Control' section.

The Trackstand is basically a method of remaining stationary on the bike without having to put a foot down.

Learning how to trackstand will improve your balance no end allowing more control of the bike when riding slowly (for example when riding along a thin section of north shore).

It is also an essential technique that allows you extra time to compose yourself and work out your line through technical sections without putting your feet down.  It is essential when riding highly technical slow speed ‘trials’ type trails.

To practice a trackstand it may help to be facing up a slight hill. Selecting the middle chainring on the front and around a 20t sprocket or middle gear on the rear will give a nice responsive feel to your pedals without them being to hard to push.

Roll along at a slow pace with your pedals roughly horizontal one foot should naturally become your front or chocolate foot. Apply the front brake and allow the bike to come to a stop. As you stop turn the handlebars so that your front wheel is at about a 45 degree angle facing into the hill.

If you start to fall uphill, then apply pressure on your forward foot to move the bike forward, because the front wheel is pointing uphill this will bring the bike back under you.

If you start to fall downhill take your weight off the front pedal and allow the bike to roll back (this is why it is easier on a slope) under you.

Try not to move too far forward or backwards whilst staying balanced. The aim is to stay in the same place.

It’s just a matter of allowing the bike to move under you so as to correct your balance. When you start you will need to move the bike and your body quite a bit to stay in control. As you progress the movements will become much smaller until they are almost invisible.

Once comfortable turning the front wheel in this natural direction, approach the hill from the other side so that you still face uphill but with the front wheel turned the other way. Also practice in both directions with your natural foot to the rear using your opposite foot to apply pressure to the pedals. This will give you many more options on the trails and will also help you swap pedals over when turning corners.

With practise, the trackstand in will become second nature and become a key technique in your skill arsenal giving you far more options on severe trails.

Roll in

When entering steeper slopes try to keep your weight centred over the cranks by extending your arms and pushing the bike into the descent whilst moving your body back and down in one smooth motion. Maintain your ideal 'loose hands' riding position with your weight over the cranks as you continue down the slope.

Stay over the cranks

If you go any further back and hang off the bars you are taking too much weight off the front wheel which will result in poor steering and unpredictable braking. Too far forward and the rear wheel may lift sending you over the bars.

Drop both you heels and use your leading foot to help brace against any forward movement.

Braking downhill

Try not to drag your brakes all the way down a long descent. Brake firmly on smoother, less steep sections of trail allowing the bike to roll through rougher and steep sections if possible.

When descending, bear in mind takes much longer to slow down downhill so ride accordingly by braking earlier than you would on the flatl.

When braking, anticipate the extra push forward on your body as you would on the flat moving even further back and down to avoid putting too much weight on the front end. Remember to bring your weight back forward when you release the brakes again.

At the bottom

As you approach the bottom of the slopecheck to see how quickly it levels off. You will need to adjust your riding position bringing your weight forward as the trail levels off to make sure you don't loop out off the back of the bike.

Move your weight slowly if the trail transitions from downhill to level over a long distance and quicker if it has a short transition. The aim is to keep your weight over the cranks.

At faster exit speeds you will feel your body being pushed down into the trail. This is called G-out. Try to compensate for G-out evenly with your arms and legs without moving your bodyweight backwards. This will require a little weight on your handlebars.

If you try to compensate just with your legs it will put your weight too far towards the rear of the bike again leading to a possible trip off the back of the bike.

Get up steep slopes

No matter how fit you are, better climbing technique will save you time and energy on those steep uphill sections.

As you approach a climb, change into an appropriate gear early to avoid forcing a gear change halfway up the slope. Most MTB gears don't like changing under power and usually require you to ease of for a couple of pedal strokes. This can cause your forward momentum to stall making getting off and pushing likely.

Climbing steep slopes on an mountainbike poses other problems, as the gradient increases the front of the bike gets higher putting more and more weight onto the rear wheel. If you don't compensate for this eventually the front wheel lifts off the ground with each pedalstroke. Shift your weight forward by moving to the tip of your saddle and lowering your upper body over the bars.

Some hills are steep enough that even this technique is not enough requiring you to get out of the saddle to move your weight further forward still. It is also about this time that due to the amount of force required to move you up the hill the rear wheel starts to struggle for enough grip when off-road.

If the rear wheel starts slipping, move your weight back a little to weight it a little. You will now find that you are having to constantly adjust forward and back in a balancing act between getting enough grip and keeping the front wheel down.

Don't rule out getting off and pushing as a legitimate option rather than struggling up at the limit of your strength. This is fine for XC racers but wastes a lot of energy if you are venturing on an all day ride. Pushing up steeper hills to save energy is often used by riders taking part in longer endurance events.