IMPORTANT,
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I’m going to give you guys some tips to help you become faster in the trails. The first and most important thing I can tell you is to STAND UP. Your body positioning is going to be the key to success and as you get faster and more comfortable on the trails, you’re going to see that you’ll be moving your body a lot on the bike. You need to be able to move around quickly and efficiently and standing up is the best way to do that. It’s important to stand through corners, up and down hills, and through rough terrain. Avoid sitting down in situations that make you uncomfortable. You might feel like you’re slower when you first start trying to stand up all the time but I promise you that if you power through, it will make you a faster and better technical rider in the long run!
So this brings me to STAND UP CORNERING. So many people slow way down and sit down for corners. This is probably what slows people down the most in the trails. I’m going to show you guys some tricks to help you corner more quickly and safely standing up. The first trick is all to do with your body positioning and where you’re putting your weight. In order to rail a flat, loose corner without washing out or falling into the corner, you’re going to need to get your weight to the opposite side that you’re leaning the bike. So as I turn to the left, my body is slightly out to the right to counter balance the bike as I lean it into the corner.
The next tip is once again all about body positioning and using your body weight. Many riders are afraid to stand through flat corners or corners with no berm because of a fear of washing out. To help prevent a front wheel washout , you can weight the front tire. In order to do this, I get my upper body forwards over the bars, still keeping my legs central on the bike. You don’t want to bring your knees forwards. This completely unweights the rear end and puts you in a weak, vulnerable body position.
The next thing I want to talk about is the gear your ride in. Lots of people are in the habit of reving their bikes out, especially people who ride two strokes. I like to go up a gear or two because it’s smoother, more energy saving, and in turn, it’s faster. If you can get comfortable using your clutch a little more and riding in the lower rpms, you’ll be smoother and quicker in the trails in no time. Right now I’m in and out of 3rd and 4th gear for the most part, clutching in the corners when I need to rather than down shifting.
So we talked about standing up and why it’s important, we talked about ways to help improve your stand up cornering, and we talked about riding a gear higher to smooth things out. Stay tuned for part two for more tips to speed up your trail riding! Thanks for watching!