u/Cingen

Hey all!

First some background info: I'm a beginner MTBer who hasn't ridden a bike (other than a sporadic yearly ride) since childhood.

I REALLY want to learn manuals (and bunny hops, jumps, ... .) but I have issues getting my front wheel up, and when I do get it up it just instantly crashes down again. It's pretty obvious I do quite some things wrong.

I'm sure it's technique related (obviously, I noticed I instantly move my weight forward again and I have issues training myself to stop doing that), but I also suspect there is a mental block stopping me from getting low /far back enough with my ass.

Now I'm wondering, could a manual machine help me by practicing the balance point in isolation and by helping me get over the mental aspect?

What can and can't it help me with?

And finally, do I sound like a case where it may be worth getting an MTB Hopper Balance Trainer?

Hey all!

First some background info: I'm a beginner MTBer who hasn't ridden a bike (other than a sporadic yearly ride) since childhood.

I REALLY want to learn manuals (and bunny hops, jumps, ... .) but I have issues getting my front wheel up, and when I do get it up it just instantly crashes down again. It's pretty obvious I do quite some things wrong.

I'm sure it's technique related (obviously, I noticed I instantly move my weight forward again and I have issues training myself to stop doing that), but I also suspect there is a mental block stopping me from getting low /far back enough with my ass.

Now I'm wondering, could a manual machine help me by practicing the balance point in isolation and by helping me get over the mental aspect?

What can and can't it help me with?

And finally, do I sound like a case where it may be worth getting an MTB Hopper Balance Trainer?

Hey all!

I posted a few days ago about my not so positive MTB clinic experience, and am looking into other ways to learn.

I bumped into the Roxy Bikes mountain biking fundamentals course and was wondering if any of you have any experience with it?

I'm really interested into going for it, but it isn't the cheapest for an online course. If its good and worth it I have no issues paying however.

Thanks in advance!

Hey all!

I just did my first beginner MTB clinic and there was a big focus on the ready position and cornering.

Mainly the ready position got me confused.

All the media I consumed before mentioned that the ready position is slightly bent legs and slightly bent arms, pretty relaxed.

At this clinic they gave us the following criteria to a good to them ready position:

1. Heels tilted back (so far so good)

2. Shoulders over the handle bars (this is where I started to get confused. I always thought they had to be slightly before? The tutor really wanted my shoulder above and head past the handle bars which felt a bit weird)

3. Legs straight (that was the really weird one to me. I always heard you need a slight bend to absorb impact. The teacher his reasoning was that bent legs exhaust your quads on longer riding days. He did mention very briefly to bend them when you see obstacles, but never came back to this and told us to straighten the legs whenever a slight bend appeared. Even when going over bumps.)

4. Elbows bent as much as possible to bring your chest towards the bars. Seems more aggressive than what I saw in online videos but I guess it sort of matches still.

The person who he called the star student for this was in a position I have never seen on a MTB before. We were riding on flat grass, her hips were at a 90 degree angle, her body was literally parallel to the floor and her elbows were above her shoulders like she was deep in a pushup.

Could anyone enlighten me and explain why he may have given us these cues?

Thanks in advance!

Hey all!

I just did my first beginner MTB clinic and there was a big focus on the ready position and cornering.

Mainly the ready position got me confused.

All the media I consumed before mentioned that the ready position is slightly bent legs and slightly bent arms, pretty relaxed.

At this clinic they gave us the following criteria to a good to them ready position:

1. Heels tilted back (so far so good)

2. Shoulders over the handle bars (this is where I started to get confused. I always thought they had to be slightly before? The tutor really wanted my shoulder above and head past the handle bars which felt a bit weird)

3. Legs straight (that was the really weird one to me. I always heard you need a slight bend to absorb impact. The teacher his reasoning was that bent legs exhaust your quads on longer riding days. He did mention very briefly to bend them when you see obstacles, but never came back to this and told us to straighten the legs whenever a slight bend appeared. Even when going over bumps.)

4. Elbows bent as much as possible to bring your chest towards the bars. Seems more aggressive than what I saw in online videos but I guess it sort of matches still.

The person who he called the star student for this was in a position I have never seen on a MTB before. We were riding on flat grass, her hips were at a 90 degree angle, her body was literally parallel to the floor and her elbows were above her shoulders like she was deep in a pushup.

Could anyone enlighten me and explain why he may have given us these cues?

Thanks in advance!