After losing confidence following a bike crash, a mountain bike skills training clinic is just the thing to get back in the game.
The Canyon Lux XC mountain bike gets an update, with lighter weight and room for 2 water bottles.
Jeff Lenosky shows how he navigates pedally, rocky trails at San Lee Park in Sanford, NC.
A basic primer on mountain bike suspension designs.
The Trek Full Stache is a unique trail bike designed for rugged, backcountry adventures that go beyond the everyday suburban trail ride.
The Lapierre Zesty AM 527 mountain bike climbs like a trail bike, descends like it's enduro.
I talk with Charlie about the early days of mountain biking, and how he and others helped shape the mountain bike culture of today.
E*Thirteen's TRS Plus kit converts SRAM 11-speed drivetrains to 12-speed with greater range than Eagle for $300, including all necessary tools.
Pat Smage previews new mountain bike trails coming to Springdale, Arkansas.
Greg wrote and edited articles for Singletracks for more than 5 years, covering everything from travel to advocacy to MTB gear.
A surprising interpretation of mountain biking is found in hidden, forested pockets around Atlanta, GA.
As IMBA celebrates 30 years, we take a short look back at the history of mountain bike advocacy.
The Whyte S-150 S is an aggressive, aluminum trail bike built to withstand extreme conditions with a smart, affordable build spec to boot.
Pivot updates the long-travel Firebird with 29er wheels. With 162mm of rear travel, the Pivot Firebird 29 is designed to enduro.
Before upgrading your mountain bike with a longer fork, consider how increased travel will affect handling, geometry, and frame durability.
Whistler's Creekside just opened for the season with 5 new trails that are part of a multi-year trail expansion at the bike park.
We share our tips for becoming a better mountain bike climber including equipment selection, technique, and mental hacks for getting to the top of the hill faster.
Ten more affordable mountain bike upgrades for under $100 including dropper post remotes, stash tools, tire inserts, and drivetrain updates.
Fathers can and do teach their children a lot through mountain biking. A Father's Day tribute to rad mountain bike dads.
This trail bike buyer's guide helps mountain bikers understand frame geometry, suspension travel, tire sizes, and more. Read this before you buy your next trail bike.
The Canyon Neuron is a light duty aluminum trail bike that sits between XC and trail bike territory.
The SRAM NX Eagle drivetrain offers 12 gears at an affordable pricepoint. The new cassette is compatible with standard, 8-, 9-, and 10-speed splined driver bodies.
Sea Otter Europe, held in Girona, Spain, features mountain bike racing, hundreds of exhibitors, and demo bikes. Tens of thousands of cyclists attended this free festival in 2018.
Ben Weaver is bikepacking the 2,700-mile Great Divide Mountain Bike route with his instruments so he can play 15 concerts along the way.
The new Jamis Portal trail bike and Hardline enduro bike will utilize a unique mountain bike suspension platform known as 3VO.
Trek recently settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of comedian Chris Farley over the name of the Farley fat bike.
XC mountain bike race courses are becoming more technical in a bid to become more spectator-friendly and also to keep up with bike design and suspension technology.
This is the third installment in the Outlaw Diaries series that follows mountain biker Patrick "Bengel" Rasche as he seeks out rad adventures in Germany, British Columbia, and now Russia.
Jefferson County, Colorado is testing mountain bike only trails within the popular park system.
Matt Miller is a journalism graduate and enduro mountain biker based in Golden, CO.
The 10 mountain bike descents on the East Coast are among the best downhill trails to shred.
The Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest features excellent mountain bike trails to explore, including the CAMBA system.
The Prestacycle TorqRatchet is a compact, packable torque wrench for trailside mountain bike repairs.
Ten of the best kids' mountain bikes of 2018, including lightweight hardtails and even full-suspension bikes. Recommendations range from 12-inch wheels up to 24-inch wheels.
The UCI Mountain Bike Eliminator World Cup brings fast-paced, XC competition to the streets complete with ramps, wall rides, and dirt rollers.
Another mountain biker falls victim to a trail trip, this time barbed wire in Ontario, Canada.
Roam Bike Fests are designed for women to have fun on mountain bikes. Riders won't find skills clinics, competitions, or men here.
The Fox Factory Tune program allows mountain bikers to get a custom suspension tune and/or to upgrade to the latest tech for a reasonable price.
The All in Multitool fits inside a mountain bike crank spindle, and includes a chain breaker plus hex and Torx bits.
These aggressive hardtail mountain bikes are designed for trail riding and beyond, and each offers at least 120mm of front suspension travel.
Guidebook author Stephen Hlawaty talks about his favorite MTB trails in Colorado, and why he's still a fan of paper books in the digital age.
The National Recreation Trails class of 2018 includes notable mountain bike trails like Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park in Florida and the Climax Trail in New Mexico.
The BLM in Idaho is testing a new travel management plan that would allow Class 1 electric mountain bikes on previously non-motorized, multi-use trails.
The BLM approved an additional 22.5 miles of singletrack mountain bike trails at Phil's World and has begun construction, despite minor opposition.
Summer mountain bike camps for young riders are popping up all across the USA this year. Campers can learn new skills and get ready for NICA race season.
The second annual Epic 17K mountain bike race claims to be the world's highest, and is set to take place in India's Sikkim state June 26 - 29.
Youth conservation corps programs offer paid trail building programs this summer. Participants gain useful skills, while mountain bikers get new and improved trails.
This kid's hardtail mountain bike build was tricked out with electronic shifting, 4-piston brakes, and color-coordinated hardware.
3
![[feature]
[caption id="attachment_241122" align="alignnone" width="1170"]<img class="wp-image-241122 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0667-1170x878.jpg" alt="" width="1170" height="878"> Instructor Ian Massey with student Anne Spalding.[/caption]
[/feature]
An exceedingly stupid crash on the easy part of the <a href="https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-trails/my-downieville-downfall/">Downieville Downhill</a> course in the summer of 2017 resulted in surgery, a cast, crutches, a wrecked summer, and a slow, hobbling recovery. I was back in the saddle (albeit on the bike path) by September, so by now I’ve got a good eight months of crash-free riding under my belt. And yet, a toxic wiggly-worm of doubt has neatly inserted itself into my sub-conscious. This doubt asserts itself not only at the crest of jaggedy drops or rocky riddles, but also at tiny twigs, pine needles, and embryonic ruts. I’ll be riding along, zippy do da, pleased as punch, then the wiggly-worm pushes the big red button in my brain—“STOP! STOP! OMG Stop Now! It’s a... PEBBLE! A <em>Pebble</em> I Say!!” After one too many such instances I decided it was time to seek professional help.
<a href="https://trailtechnique.com/home/ian-massey-fb-med-04/">Ian Massey</a> has been a fixture in my mountain bike circle for more than a decade. The hopped up twenty-something with the showy muscles, lots of air, and his sights on riding pro has been replaced by a very slightly toned down (very slightly) mid-thirties skills instructor and coach who really really really wants you to ride better. I wondered if he could help exorcise my button-pushing panic-worm.
I looked up his <a href="https://trailtechnique.com/">'Trail Technique' website</a> and clicked on the video of him holding some poor suckers’ front wheel four-feet off the ground, an inverted ass over teakettle, imploring him to go further back, further back. Ian was on about pivot points and balance, and if the subject knew what was good for him, it’d be all “Yessir! Right away sir!” Else he’d end up flat on his back in a jiffy.
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-241134" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0644-e1527801209265-878x1170.jpg" alt="" width="878" height="1170">
“Pshaw!” I spat at the screen, “Hope he knows I ain’t doin THAT!”
So there I was about 4,000 degrees past vertical, Ian’s right arm casually holding me aloft, going on about pivot points and balance, me all “yessir, no sir, right away sir.”
Ian made us ride flat pedals for the class, and I grudgingly submitted (I loathe flat pedals). We rode over some boards spaced deliberately to bring us to a dead stop if not ridden right, and he drilled us how to ride them right. The answer to most everything we learned that day was “weight back.” He spoke often about violence and its prevention—keeping the bike stable under you when all hell was breaking loose below. To this end, he also locked out our suspension so that we could better feel the bike and the trail, and the results of our efforts.
After the boards-on-flat drills, we moved on to the small obstacle while climbing drill. I’m a wicked quitter so this one was good for me. Having witnesses to shame me into follow-through was key--I seem to have issues with commitment. Lately my brain is too quick to say “oh you can’t do that. Why try? Just gonna fail. Might as well walk.” My brain also does this nifty thing where it internalizes <em>other</em> people’s crashes as well as my own. Super helpful, right? So not only “you can’t do this one cause it’s hard,” but also “Suzie crashed there three and half years ago—can’t do that one!" It’s really pathetic.
While I won’t be able to re-create his physics lecture with any accuracy here (getting information from Ian is like taking a sip of water from a fire hose), what he said made sense on an elemental level. Though I am more of a letters-than-numbers person, I appreciated being given the<em> reasons</em> to do a thing, not just a “do-it-cause-I-said-so-I’m-the-professional” approach. I received that exact response in the past from one such highly-paid professional and it made me deeply angry.
Ian coaches at all levels, his roster full of racy names like Alex Wild, Paul Serra, and Sandy Floren. He also coaches Joe or Jill McNewbie who just bought a mountain bike and who have zero interest in ever seeing a start line, let alone a podium. Regardless, he starts either the same way.
“I try to break clients of their bad habits and teach them how to make stability and lift with their mass. I do the same process from beginners to pros. Good technique is good technique.”
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-241137" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0671-2-734x1170.jpg" alt="" width="734" height="1170">
Ian gave us homework, and this, along with a very small and surprising tidbit have already made a huge difference. I rarely ride alone. It’s not that I don’t like to, it just doesn’t seem to happen much. And since I am usually the slowest one on group rides, I don’t take the time to session anything because people are already waiting for me.
So, two days after our skills class, I set out to ride <a href="https://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/camp-tamarancho.html">Tamarancho</a> by myself. I wouldn’t let myself move on from a switchback, or a rooty climbing corner until I had cleaned each three times in a row. And the surprising thing that made a huge difference? The thing Ian won’t even remember he said because it’s so simple? Breathe. Relax.
[caption id="attachment_241405" align="alignnone" width="1170"]<img class="wp-image-241405 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Ian-Massey-Dirty-Sanchez-2018-1170x780.jpg" alt="" width="1170" height="780"> Ian Massey at the Dirty Sanchez 2018, just to show he's got the chops. Photo by J. Newman.[/caption]
Good grief. Unbeknownst to me until that wisdom sank in, I was tensing up, holding my breath, white-knuckling the handlebars in preparation for my inevitable fail ‘n flail. Look up—Relax—Pedal—Breathe. What a concept. Now I’m still not going to be tail-whipping past you any time soon, riding a wheelie through your local rock garden, but I’m way more confident that you won’t find me shrieking and slamming on the brakes in front of an errant stick.
I’m also confident that taking some follow-up classes would provide a significant return on investment. Slaying the mental and physical dragons of both fear and bad technique will likely take more than one session. There’s only so much my pea brain can absorb in one go.
But no matter where you fall on the skills spectrum—total beginner to already pro—rattled from a crash or just looking to move it up a notch—check out Trail Technique or one of the many other skills classes or clinics offered around the country. A new dose of confidence might be just what the doctor ordered.
[caption id="attachment_241132" align="alignnone" width="878"]<img class="wp-image-241132 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0694-2-878x1170.jpg" alt="" width="878" height="1170"> Anne Spalding (student), Ian Massey (instructor), Maureen Gaffney (student, author).[/caption]
<em>Thanks to Ian Massey for providing complimentary coaching services to the author.</em>](https://images.singletracks.com/graphics/no_photo_750x500.png)
![[feature]
[caption id="attachment_241122" align="alignnone" width="1170"]<img class="wp-image-241122 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0667-1170x878.jpg" alt="" width="1170" height="878"> Instructor Ian Massey with student Anne Spalding.[/caption]
[/feature]
An exceedingly stupid crash on the easy part of the <a href="https://www.singletracks.com/blog/mtb-trails/my-downieville-downfall/">Downieville Downhill</a> course in the summer of 2017 resulted in surgery, a cast, crutches, a wrecked summer, and a slow, hobbling recovery. I was back in the saddle (albeit on the bike path) by September, so by now I’ve got a good eight months of crash-free riding under my belt. And yet, a toxic wiggly-worm of doubt has neatly inserted itself into my sub-conscious. This doubt asserts itself not only at the crest of jaggedy drops or rocky riddles, but also at tiny twigs, pine needles, and embryonic ruts. I’ll be riding along, zippy do da, pleased as punch, then the wiggly-worm pushes the big red button in my brain—“STOP! STOP! OMG Stop Now! It’s a... PEBBLE! A <em>Pebble</em> I Say!!” After one too many such instances I decided it was time to seek professional help.
<a href="https://trailtechnique.com/home/ian-massey-fb-med-04/">Ian Massey</a> has been a fixture in my mountain bike circle for more than a decade. The hopped up twenty-something with the showy muscles, lots of air, and his sights on riding pro has been replaced by a very slightly toned down (very slightly) mid-thirties skills instructor and coach who really really really wants you to ride better. I wondered if he could help exorcise my button-pushing panic-worm.
I looked up his <a href="https://trailtechnique.com/">'Trail Technique' website</a> and clicked on the video of him holding some poor suckers’ front wheel four-feet off the ground, an inverted ass over teakettle, imploring him to go further back, further back. Ian was on about pivot points and balance, and if the subject knew what was good for him, it’d be all “Yessir! Right away sir!” Else he’d end up flat on his back in a jiffy.
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-241134" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0644-e1527801209265-878x1170.jpg" alt="" width="878" height="1170">
“Pshaw!” I spat at the screen, “Hope he knows I ain’t doin THAT!”
So there I was about 4,000 degrees past vertical, Ian’s right arm casually holding me aloft, going on about pivot points and balance, me all “yessir, no sir, right away sir.”
Ian made us ride flat pedals for the class, and I grudgingly submitted (I loathe flat pedals). We rode over some boards spaced deliberately to bring us to a dead stop if not ridden right, and he drilled us how to ride them right. The answer to most everything we learned that day was “weight back.” He spoke often about violence and its prevention—keeping the bike stable under you when all hell was breaking loose below. To this end, he also locked out our suspension so that we could better feel the bike and the trail, and the results of our efforts.
After the boards-on-flat drills, we moved on to the small obstacle while climbing drill. I’m a wicked quitter so this one was good for me. Having witnesses to shame me into follow-through was key--I seem to have issues with commitment. Lately my brain is too quick to say “oh you can’t do that. Why try? Just gonna fail. Might as well walk.” My brain also does this nifty thing where it internalizes <em>other</em> people’s crashes as well as my own. Super helpful, right? So not only “you can’t do this one cause it’s hard,” but also “Suzie crashed there three and half years ago—can’t do that one!" It’s really pathetic.
While I won’t be able to re-create his physics lecture with any accuracy here (getting information from Ian is like taking a sip of water from a fire hose), what he said made sense on an elemental level. Though I am more of a letters-than-numbers person, I appreciated being given the<em> reasons</em> to do a thing, not just a “do-it-cause-I-said-so-I’m-the-professional” approach. I received that exact response in the past from one such highly-paid professional and it made me deeply angry.
Ian coaches at all levels, his roster full of racy names like Alex Wild, Paul Serra, and Sandy Floren. He also coaches Joe or Jill McNewbie who just bought a mountain bike and who have zero interest in ever seeing a start line, let alone a podium. Regardless, he starts either the same way.
“I try to break clients of their bad habits and teach them how to make stability and lift with their mass. I do the same process from beginners to pros. Good technique is good technique.”
<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-241137" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0671-2-734x1170.jpg" alt="" width="734" height="1170">
Ian gave us homework, and this, along with a very small and surprising tidbit have already made a huge difference. I rarely ride alone. It’s not that I don’t like to, it just doesn’t seem to happen much. And since I am usually the slowest one on group rides, I don’t take the time to session anything because people are already waiting for me.
So, two days after our skills class, I set out to ride <a href="https://www.singletracks.com/bike-trails/camp-tamarancho.html">Tamarancho</a> by myself. I wouldn’t let myself move on from a switchback, or a rooty climbing corner until I had cleaned each three times in a row. And the surprising thing that made a huge difference? The thing Ian won’t even remember he said because it’s so simple? Breathe. Relax.
[caption id="attachment_241405" align="alignnone" width="1170"]<img class="wp-image-241405 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Ian-Massey-Dirty-Sanchez-2018-1170x780.jpg" alt="" width="1170" height="780"> Ian Massey at the Dirty Sanchez 2018, just to show he's got the chops. Photo by J. Newman.[/caption]
Good grief. Unbeknownst to me until that wisdom sank in, I was tensing up, holding my breath, white-knuckling the handlebars in preparation for my inevitable fail ‘n flail. Look up—Relax—Pedal—Breathe. What a concept. Now I’m still not going to be tail-whipping past you any time soon, riding a wheelie through your local rock garden, but I’m way more confident that you won’t find me shrieking and slamming on the brakes in front of an errant stick.
I’m also confident that taking some follow-up classes would provide a significant return on investment. Slaying the mental and physical dragons of both fear and bad technique will likely take more than one session. There’s only so much my pea brain can absorb in one go.
But no matter where you fall on the skills spectrum—total beginner to already pro—rattled from a crash or just looking to move it up a notch—check out Trail Technique or one of the many other skills classes or clinics offered around the country. A new dose of confidence might be just what the doctor ordered.
[caption id="attachment_241132" align="alignnone" width="878"]<img class="wp-image-241132 size-large" src="https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/IMG_0694-2-878x1170.jpg" alt="" width="878" height="1170"> Anne Spalding (student), Ian Massey (instructor), Maureen Gaffney (student, author).[/caption]
<em>Thanks to Ian Massey for providing complimentary coaching services to the author.</em>](https://images.singletracks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/GIrls-on-Wheels-group-shot.jpg)
