Chin Up

When you ride your bike are you just a passenger or are you a driver?

Think about the difference between an F1 driver and a Moto GP rider. One sits in a seat and pilots his car round a track (yes i know they are good at what they do!) and the other constantly adjusts his body weight to control his machine….

We all enjoy moments when a section of trail feels like it really worked but we also struggle through some like a dyslexic doing his wedding speech.

When it all comes together and feels just so, then this is called ‘Flow’.

Ed’s ‘The Flow’ riding course is all about helping you discover this illusive skill.

On Day One we hit the Pump track at Lee Quarry first (where else!). Ed broke ‘pumping’ down into easybite pieces, building through to manuals or doubles for those that fancied it!

From there the day was an ‘ad hoc’ (look at him,of course it was gonna be ad hoc!) collection of pumps, jumps, drops and corners both bermed hardpack and seriously loose and off camber (we all crashed on the off camber but we all went back for more!).

Day Two we met at the Buck Inn in Cowpe for the gentle climb! to warm us up for Crag Quarry. After riding all day yesterday then climbing up that hill our legs were screaming as we set off on a taster loop.

Ed then chose a few different sections for us to session to try and get us to understand the difference between just ridinground a corner and whatever happens happens, ie, your front may slide/your back may slide, exit in the wrong place, etc, or really riding, ie, getting your body in the right position so you can choose to make the front grip and the back slide, looking much further ahead and picking a line into a corner so you exit in the right place and jumping your bike off a lip rather than being forced into the air so you can choose to put it back down where you like.

As you would expect in a class of six we were all of varying ability (in trail centre parlance, red route or above). One or two people definitely rode some things they would normally walk around
and everyone rode some things in a way they normally wouldn’t.

A word of warning, if you never ride on flats then spend a month on them before doing the course. There was nothing you couldn’t ride on Spd’s but as you are there to improve your technique and may be asked to do things beyond your comfort zone (asked but not forced i might add!) its best to get used to them first…

Eds teaching style is no doubt born out of a love for what he is doing. In fact ‘style’ is no doubt what you would gain if you perfected all the technique on offer. He instantly makes you all at home and at no point do you feel like your being lectured. His demonstrations are lovely to watch but he never looks like he’s showing off.

So if your already a riding god who nails every berm, pumps every dip and always knows when to flatten or jump a lip then this course isn’t for you. If your the other 99.9% of us then you will gain a lot from a little tuition!

Thanks to Matt, Steve, Ian, Mark & John for their easy company (and never/always laughing at my daft concentration face!) and to Ed Oxley for filling my head with new things to work on.

And  thanks to all those that made Lee & Crag Quarry a reality, both very different but very good facilities.

Braaaaaaaap!

I went down to Hope in the Peak District to run a skills day on natural trails on Saturday. The day was the idea of the guys from 18 Bikes in Hope, a great bike shop in the centre of some fantastic riding. Using the loose format of the Stop Crashing courses, that run on the man made trails of Gisburn Forest and Lee Quarry, the Peak day was all about looking at the fundamental skills of mountain biking. However there was a twist! I decided to run the course on one of the most technical descents in the Peak. It’s not called ‘The Beast’ for nothing, but by breaking it down into sections, walking through some lines, practicing first on easier sections and building flow and control rather than just trying to go fast, the group made some really good progression.

The riding experience of people in the group ranged from 3 months to many years. We looked at climbing skills, spent plenty of time on body position and looking well ahead and brought all the skills together as we practiced by sessioning the Beast.

After lunch at The Woodbine Cafe in Hope, and a visit to 18 Bikes for some TLC to a couple of the bikes, we went to Pindale Quarry, where we practiced more skills and laid down some MASSIVE SKIDS.

This special course will be happening again soon. Keep an eye on the site for details.

Thanks to Rich Sulley for the photos.

Be A Better Rider – Part 1 from Singletrack Magazine on Vimeo.

I went riding at Foel Gasnach in Wales yesterday with Jon Woodhouse from Singletrack and he shot and edited up this video. He asked me what one thing I would show people if I only had a couple of minutes to improve their riding. It’s the first in a series of bike tips that he will be producing as an online feature for the Singletrackworld site. We had fun riding the different tracks and also managed to include a photoshoot for the flat pedal group test that we have been doing. This will also go out soon as an online test.

Stop Crashing, Start Riding ……

……… said the strapline for the mountain biking skills course. Perfect for myself and Ms Ducky, with
several years worth of falling off mountain bikes under our belts. We opted for a women only course,
hoping that our fellow participants might be as soft as us. Sunday morning saw 6 of us duly assembled
at the Dog and Partridge, Tosside, eyeing each other nervously and wondering if we might be out of
our depth. Our course leader, Ed, plied us with hot coffee and reassured us. Then came a thorough
check of our trusty steeds, to make sure none of us was riding a death trap. A few minor tweaks and
the bikes all passed the MOT. But would the riders?

We headed off into Gisburn forest, and rode a nice blue trail, which I think we all found quite easy. So,
straight into smug mode. This was short lived till we went back over it, one by one in short sections,
under Ed`s beady eye. No hiding place. Between us we clocked up the full set of riding sins (sitting
like a bag of spuds, locked out arms, inappropriate braking, crap cornering, not looking far enough
ahead, leaping off the bike at a tricky bit etc. etc. etc.). We practised the sections, getting better and
better and better, with lots of useful feedback from Ed. We also enjoyed watching other riders run the
gauntlet past us with a full running commentary from Ed. It was nice to discover that 90% of them
were probably worse than us, even though they went fast and looked pretty impressive to our untrained
eyes. Then we learned track stands. Quite a bit of homework needed on this one.

After a slap up lunch and post mortem in the Dog and Partridge, we moved up to a red trail in the after-
noon. Here we practised “flowing” over rough stuff and rolling over small drops, some bigger berms
and tighter corners. Ed`s demos of how to “flow” were a thing of beauty and a goal to aspire to. We
were probably a tad less beautiful, but spiced things up with a few interesting tumbles and some choice
swear words. But we practised the sections, analysed why some things worked and others didn`t, and
got better and better and better. The riding ended with a brilliant swoopy singletrack through the forest
and a race to the pub (we won). A celebratory pint in the Dog and Partridge made a perfect end to a
cracking day.

Ed was a brilliant instructor. He got the measure of us all very quickly and pitched the level of the day
perfectly. He inspired confidence and explained and showed things in a way that made sure you just
“got it”. The balance of challenge and support was just right, and we got lots of personalised feedback.
We all came away with improved riding skills, increased confidence and some specific areas to work
on to improve further. £60 well spent. By next year`s Ale Wobble we will be totally transformed.
Meanwhile, if you come across a couple of glamorous Dashettes, flowing across the moors and down
the trails with supreme skill and confidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . it probably won`t be us. Yet.

Happy pedalling.

Sue Taylor and Sue Ducky

Kovarik Korners from Ed Oxley on Vimeo.

And here’s a video of the lake jumping session that we were treated to by our chalet as part of a barbecue. Thanks to Jo and Tony from Chalet JoJo for looking after us in a friendly and great value style. There will be another alps holiday in the same area in 2011 and details will be up here in the next couple of weeks.

Lake Jumping from Ed Oxley on Vimeo.

Tim doing the lake jump

We’re out in Morzine in the Alps at the moment on a Great Rock mountain bike skills and riding holiday. We’ve been having skills coaching led by the Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense downhill World Cup Team. Chris Kovarik, Matti Leikonen and Claire Buchar have been doing skills coaching and we have also had excellent local knowledge guiding across the French and Swiss Alps. The other night we had a barbeque laid on by our chalet where we also had a wooden ramp and a jump bike provided for us to take a dip in the lake. The water was surprisingly warm!

We drank beer with Kovarik and survived....

Chris Kovarik was a great coach, showing us lots of different cornering techniques on berms and flat turns, with plenty of foot out action. Then we went and drank lots of beer. We’ve got people on Orange Fives and other trail bikes as well as a couple of guys on downhill and freeride bikes. Everyone can progress by improving the basics and getting lots of practice in on the best trails in Europe. Happy days.

Singletrack Classic Weekender DH Course Preview from Ed Oxley on Vimeo.

Me and Brant from Ragley Bikes went up to Lee Quarry yesterday to ride the different lines on the Singletrack Classic Weekender downhill course on our hardtails. You can still book a place for the weekend of fun and games and racing on 3rd and 4th July by clicking the link above.

Cragg Quarry, Bacup from Tim Royle on Vimeo.

Great new video from Whitenosugar Productions featuring Rowan Sorrell, the trail designer and top rider, along with Ed Oxley (that’ll be me!) riding the trails at Cragg Quarry near Bacup, Lancashire.

Check out the dust, taste the roost! Get up there to ride if you get the chance. I’ll be using the trails at Cragg on the Flow course that I’m running on 21-22 August.

Rowan Sorrell & Ed Oxley on the sunshine trails

I was up at Cragg Quarry last week showing some of the guys from Wideopen around the trails. They are going to be doing a feature in the next issue of their excellent online magazine. The photo is by Dennis Oates.

Here’s a news story about Cragg Quarry from the Wideopen website.

photo from wideopenmag.co.uk

Proving that he has still got what it takes, Nigel took the win on the Fort William downhill track yesterday. He was up there for his job as the manager for the Chain Reaction Cycles/Intense World Cup downhill team. His team did well too with Kovarik 1st, Lehikoinen 4th, Simmonds 5th, camellini 6th, Cunningham 10th and Claire Buchar 2nd in elite women.

Nigel will be sharing his riding tips and tricks on our Alps holiday trip to Morzine in July this year. There are still some places left if you fancy learning from the master while taking in the great lift assisted riding of the area.

Click here for more details of the holiday..

The wideopenmag.co.uk article is here..