So you've made up your mind you're going to start mountain biking, but you haven't gotten a clue as to proper bike fit, how to brake or change gears. You think you don't have any business getting out there because you'll make a fool of yourself.
This is where your friendly moderator shakes you and tells you to wake up: How are you going to get fit unless you take some calculated risks, get informed, and get out there?
There is such a fun element to cycling, and mountain biking in particular. When I get out I am catapulted back into my carefree kid days and I feel an element of exploration that can't be rivaled by cleaning house and running errands.
It is truly a balance to have the ability to hop on two wheels and let the bike do all the work, going up gentle slopes and soaking up the oxygen the trees provide, looking through polarized lenses at the greenery and blue sky ahead, and feeling the air moving in and out of your lungs, especially on an exhilerating downhill.
There is something so meditative and singular and truimphant about muscling along a trail, feeling your legs and hearing your breath and the machine you are one with purring along underneath.
If there are aggressions felt, anger felt, hopelessness and helplessness felt at the beginning of the ride, it's all left out on the trail between those two boulders, embibed in those green tree branches. You won't have any aggressions when you leave the ride; that's for sure.
That is, if you just follow these simple steps.
1) Make sure your bike fits. Feel that your hands don't have a lot of pressure, your back or your knees. If your knees are too high, you won't be able to breathe in all the way, and you won't get the right stride. At the same point, don't put your seat too high unless you have to dismount quickly. Another advantage of having your seat lower is a lower, more stable center of gravity.
2) Make sure you've aired your tires and maintained your bike. Also, go to a free bike maintenance clinic held at your local bike shop or REI. Put your pride aside: a minute of knowing is better than an hour of frustration: I speak from experience!!!
When you do actually get on the road:
3) Mindset: Know there's a learning curve! Don't feel ashamed if you have to take the fireroads first! When you learn how to ski, do you hit the black diamond first? No! You start with the bunny slopes. Practice technique: practice, practice, practice.
4) Learn how to brake. This takes some practice... Personally, I only use my front brake lightly, and compound it with my rear on technical trails.
5) Practice changing gears on flat ground first, then on hills. The key to biking and mountainbiking is knowing how to change gears. If you can get through that first hour of frustration, you will wind up finding a lifelong sport you can go back to time and time again.
6) Mindset: Know at some point, you're going to fall. Why jump on a mountain bike with this mindset? Let's just say within the mountainbiking subculture, if you fall and scrape a knee, it's a badge of courage. It's the knowing as a result of doing. It's the building of the wisdom of riding, and the experience and triumph of having gone somewhere not everyone has been. Kind of like travelling to Europe, comparing scars is the same thing: you never know unless you go.
So, in closing, if you are thinking about getting into mountain biking, or just regular biking for that matter... Please know you just may have something more valuable to give to others when you get home; always much more than when you started.
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