Mastering Mountain Bike Skills

5 Responses to “Mastering Mountain Bike Skills”

1. Dana Patten says:

   May 13, 2010 at 9:58 am

   This is an brilliant book if you are just getting dh or you you just want to improve your cornering. But he also trys to tell you how to climb and eat right during long endurance xc races, and it just doesn’t work to have a downhiller trying to teach an xc racer how to climb and eat.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
2. mtspace says:

   May 13, 2010 at 12:15 pm

   This book is packed with gorgeous color photos of airborne bicyclists. It inspires one to get out there, get pedaling, and get airborne. It has a lot of excellent tips on performance. In the first five chapters it talks about things that might be of interest to beginning and intermediate mountain bikers:choosing a bike, braking, to clip or not to clip, pedaling effectively, cornering, and so on. The bullet points and illustrations work very well. And it does an brilliant job of it.

   As the book extends into the late chapters, but, and the bikes become airborne, the book starts to convey a sense of “I’m the kewlest dude because I’m a world-class mountain biker who can hop 12 ft drops – hands tied behind my back, blindfolded, and sitting backward on the bike. And if you do everything I tell you, you can be just like me.” Nearly.

   It’s clear that the book is geared to a particular audience. So I wrote a quiz to help people choose if this is the right mountain bicycling book.

   1) My age is:
   
   – a)14-24,
   
   – b)24-48,
   
   -c) over 48.
   
   2) My testosterone level is:
   
   -a) stratospheric.
   
   -b) moderate.
   
   -c) nonexistent.
   
   3) I reflect of a bicycle as:
   
   -a) a excellent way to keep a rider airborne.
   
   -b) a excellent way to travel mountain trails.
   
   -c) a excellent way to get a mile or two away from the house.
   
   4) My fitness level is:
   
   -a) olympic athlete level.
   
   -b) college erudition level.
   
   -c) lettered in a sport or less.
   
   5) The prospect of riding twenty miles an hour on a slippery-wet, six-inch wide wooden rail suspended 20 feet above a rocky mountain floor:
   
   -a) is appealing beyond my wildest dreams.
   
   -b) seems like it might be scary and fun.
   
   -c) seems suicidal.
   
   6) One cannot live life fully lacking constantly putting oneself in danger of death or stable four-limb paralysis:
   
   -a) I fervently agree.
   
   -b) I reflect its partly right, partly hyperbolic.
   
   -c) what, are you insane?
   
   7) Biking:
   
   -a) is my whole life.
   
   -b) is the focus of most of my free time.
   
   -c) takes less than 30 hours per week of my time.
   
   The amount I plot to spend on biking equipment and touring in the next five years is:
   
   -a) $20,000 or more.
   
   -b) $3000-$20,000.
   
   -c) less than $3000.
   
   9) I live:
   
   – a) within five miles of hundreds of miles of mountain biking trails.
   
   -b) within 50 miles of biking trails.
   
   -c) cannot get to mountain biking trails from here.
   
   10) I have:
   
   -a) lots of “kewl” friends who live and die by their mountain biking prowess and I desperately want to be part of it .
   
   -b) thousands of hours of mountain biking experience and you want to be much better in every way.
   
   -c) the desire to get out on mountain trails a couple of times a week to delight in the fresh air.

   If you answered a) to all of these questions this is certainly a excellent book for you. If you answered b) to most of these questions, there is probably another mountain biking book that is better for your needs. If you answered c) to several of these questions, this is not the best mountain biking book for you. If you answered c) to all the questions, there is a more suitable activity for you: boating or bocce, perhaps.

   My wife and I are young retirees who stirred to Prescott AZ recently. We just learned mountain biking, and we like it. We bought three books on mountain biking. This is the least favorite, because it is a small “over the top” for our needs.

   The book is likely to bring young people to the sport, a laudable effect. But it may not be nearly as excellent at refining a frame of mind sufficiently guarded to avoid treacherous crashes. It might help young people to become members of the “kewl krowd;” but one might be tempted to conclude from the tone of this book – especially the second half – that to be genuinely KEWL requires a half-million dollar hospital stay that resulted from a failed Evil Knevil sized bike jump.

   Persons who wish to delight in mountain trails but who have a healthy dread of broken bones and stable paralysis, might find William Nealy’s highly illustrated Mountain Bike! a better fit.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
3. Ferris says:

   May 13, 2010 at 12:36 pm

   Awesome text and pics! Full of vital tips and fantastic source for skills learning. I met Brian in Brazil and lost the opportunity of buying the book. And now I got it, eventually.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
4. Saws All says:

   May 13, 2010 at 12:56 pm

   I thought this book was pretty well done, but I find that I can’t learn this type of skill very well from reading about it. Video seems to work better for me. Brian Lopes is certainly well qualified and has some fantastic tales in the book.
   Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
5. R. Smith says:

   May 13, 2010 at 3:30 pm

   Fantastic book to get some high level tips. It will certainly help improve your riding for intermediate riders looking to take their skills up a notch. The only criticism is that it was not very detailed on instructions/techniques. Certainly and simple read and worth the money.
   Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5