How to start Mountain biking TODAY! The Ultimate MTB Beginners guide! #mtb #mountainbiking #howto

So you want to become a mountain biker but you don't know where to start? Well don't worry I've got your back. Because in this video I'm going to teach you exactly how to become a mountain biker as quickly and safely as possible. Let's do this. But first guys if you could please hit that like and subscribe button that would make a huge difference to the channel and I'm trying to grow it and bring you better content. Any support would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys back to the video. I'm going to break this up into three steps and a couple of bonus tips at the end so stick around for those. The first step being the bike. You've probably heard a lot of people talk about how expensive mountain biking is and how expensive bikes are. This bike costs around 10,000 euros. You don't need a bike like this. So let's just push that myth off the table. What you do need, this is the type of bike that you need. This is a Scott Spark and I would say this is somewhat entry level. It is not cheap but it's a lot cheaper than the last one I showed you. This bike was new would be about two and a half thousand euros. I know that's still a lot of money for some people but secondhand you could probably pick them up for 1,500 somewhere around there. Again maybe you're thinking that you maybe have to spend 500 but the problem is if you go too cheap the bikes don't last. So you end up being in a tricky situation because as soon as you start riding more and progressing your riding a little bit the bike's going to start breaking which also presents a hazard of you crashing. So I would say this is a great place to start. The Scott Spark has got 120 more travel front and rear. You don't need to have full suspension. Let me just make that clear. A hardtail is going to work perfectly to start out in it. Actually I recommend starting on a hardtail because it's going to teach you so many skills that you don't learn on a full sus. This is a hardtail. This is actually a jump bike so it's not necessarily the hardtail that you'll first get and this is quite a high end jump bike as well. But just to demonstrate my point there's no rear shock obviously and this bike teaches you so much skill because there's no forgiveness in the rear so you really have to use your legs and it teaches you a lot of things that the full sus will not. So just something to keep in mind when you're getting going. Now once you've got your bike the next thing to think about is bike setup because before you get out on the trail you've got a new bike now or used but it's still new to you and you need to get it set up personally because depending on your height, your weight, your riding style, your experience, all these things come into play when setting up the bike. That can be a whole other video in itself and if you'd like to learn more about that I've done that video already of the ultimate bike setup guide and I'll link that right up here. Now that we've got the bike set up the next thing is gear. Now when it comes to gear you don't actually have to buy anything apart from a helmet because we want to make sure we protect that noggin but you can go riding in a t-shirt, jeans, some trainer shorts, you can just use normal trainers, some running shoes, whatever you've got really but having said that it is going to make it quite uncomfortable on a long ride number one and there are certain things that are also going to give you more protection number two. Once you've got the helmet the next thing you want to think about is some knee pads. Knee pads are generally not expensive. You can get some lightweight ones that are still good to pedal in but when you crash that is the first thing that's going to hit the ground normally is your knees and I can tell you from experience it's not fun ripping your knees out so get some knee pads. Shoes wise I would suggest we start on flat pedals. When you're starting on flat pedals ideally you want some mountain bike specific flat pedal shoes because those are going to grip way better, they're going to offer your feet support and they're going to be comfy for those longer rides. Of course clip pedals are in my opinion the better way to go long term but when you're starting out you want to inspire that confidence and also learn the basics of how to ride and flat pedals teach you so much more than clips do. Now when it comes down to actual jersey and gloves and gear there are loads of MTB brands out there getting some gloves and a jersey, well I say a jersey but basically a jersey is similar to a t-shirt it's just a different material, it's a nice sweat wicking material and the shorts are again they offer a little bit more protection but they're just comfy to ride in. One thing I forgot to mention was a chamois, that is going to save your butt if you're doing more pedaling rides where you're riding and you're going to be in the saddle for a couple of hours that'll literally save your butt. Right so now you have all the gear and if you really want to go all out you'll see gloves, knee pads, glasses, helmet, you got the jersey and the shorts and the flat pedal specific shoes. Now you've got that, you've got the bike, the next step is to actually get out on the trails but where do you start? To be honest you start right at home, don't even bother going to the bike park or going to your trail network, nothing like that. Literally get your bike and go out on the street in front of your house and just practice basic bike handling skills, I'm talking about just cornering on the road, practicing changing your feet position, just leaning, maybe practice a little lifting the front wheel, go up a pavement, go down the pavement, basic skills. This is going to be crucial, practice your braking, just practice braking sort of like an emergency brake. Ride fast and then practice how you control the bike slowing down as quickly as possible because I see so many people rock up to the trails that actually have no idea how to ride and they end up sending themselves straight to the hospital because there's no basic skills. That's how the majority of kids start and that's how adults should start too in my opinion. You could even start progressing to things like bunny hops, wheelies, I've got videos for those too so if you want to see more about those I'll link it up here. Now the next place you should go is a pump track in my opinion. For those of you that don't know what a pump track is, a pump track is a series of rollers and berms and sometimes jumps. It's normally tar, it can be dirt but nowadays it's mostly tar and they have them in most cities and towns these days. It's a great place to learn your skills because you can repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. You can go around, they have the same things that you're going to have out on the trail and I guarantee you if you can hone your skills at a pump track, when you get to a mountain bike trail you will be able to ride it because it's a majority of the same skills. The only thing that's missing is you don't have the wet, the wet when it's raining, you don't have mud and you don't have rocks and roots or the gradient but the majority of skills you get from riding a pump track. That's why kids are so good from riding BMX and just messing around with their mates because they're learning a lot of those skills. Next up you want to move on to a blue or family line trail. Could be blue or green, it's always different depending on the bike park, well it doesn't even have to be a bike park, it could just be a trail network. Now every trail network and every bike park has different trail markings so most of the time blue and green are the easiest, red is a bit more difficult and black is then the expert level and then you've got sometimes double black and also black diamond and double black diamond. So things do change but generally it's in that order and I would suggest starting out with the flow line first. Family trail, green, blue, flow line because it's quite similar to a pump track. There'll be rollers, there'll be berms, it won't be too steep, there generally won't be many rocks and roots so it's fairly easy to get into, it's not very technical and generally a lot of the places have a surface on it so it's not slippery when it's wet either. So that is the perfect place to really get your confidence up. Don't make the mistake of jumping ahead too soon because what's going to happen is you're going to have a crash, knock your confidence, you might even get injured and that's not going to do anyone any good. So that will be my next step. Once you've been able to master the flow line and it's really boring for you, it should actually get to the point where it's boring, then you want to move on to a red trail. Now a red trail is going to have some jumps in it, it's going to have some of the features of the flow line but it might have some technical features as well like roots and rocks, it will probably be a bit steeper but that's okay. Now you're ready to take that next step, you've been to the pump track, you've been to the flow line, you're really moving on to that next step. It's going to have some jumps but generally the jumps enable you to either go around them or they're very well marked and they're quite easy to judge. But when you're going to go for a new jump, always speak to a local, try to follow someone in so you've got the speed when you're getting to that point. Don't just hit stuff blind, that is a recipe for disaster, I've done that myself and even nowadays I sometimes make the mistake of, I sometimes get a bit too overconfident and end up having a crash because I hit something without looking at it. Now once you have mastered the red trails and again these can always change a bit from bike park to bike park but then you want to move on to the black trails which could be a downhill track, it could be a big jump line, it could be super technical, there's no sort of one size fits all but it's going to be the pro level line and this is something that is going to take years to move up to. So just have that in your head, don't try to do it too soon because it's not going to work out well. I go to the bike park all the time and I see people have massive crashes, you see the helicopter going and it puts people off and it gives mountain biking a bad name. Mountain biking does not have to be dangerous, as dangerous, there's always going to be some sense of danger. Now for the bonus tips that I promised, you've been out on the trails, you're riding all the trails now but there's a couple of safety tips that I want to point out before you go on and head out on your mountain biking adventure. First of all, ask around, try to find friends as quickly as possible when you get to a new place that you've never ridden before, always ask around, follow people if you can, generally the mountain biking community is really welcoming. Try to make this a habit because it can really save you a lot of crashes. So that's point one. Number two, always check your bike. When you go out, make sure that you check over as much as you can, tire pressures, spokes, some bolts, you know, things have a tendency to come loose and can lead to big crashes. I've had my axle fall out before, I've had a seat fall off, I've had many things happen, I've had bars snap on me and this is all because I didn't check. That is something that I can highly recommend and it's what most people don't do. And then the final bonus tip is don't let your ego win. And this is particularly for guys. Women generally tend to be a little bit better with this but guys, don't let your ego win. When one of your mates wants to send something big, if you don't feel comfortable, don't do it because all it's going to do is you're going to end up having a big crash, potentially hurting yourself, you're going to lose your confidence and potentially you might even not want to ride anymore or certainly won't ride for a while and that's not going to help anyone. So always, you need to push your limits but within reason. If your limit is a 9, you can go to a 10 but if your limit is a 9, don't go to a 15. Guys, that's my best tips. I hope to see you out there on the trails really soon and if you want to see more how-to videos, check out the playlist right up here.