Starting Mountain Biking? Here’s What You Need To Know...

You got your first mountain bike, you're feeling like an absolute boss, but what do you do next? Welcome to the beautiful world of mountain biking. You've stopped on one of the best channels on YouTube, everything to do about mountain biking. Hey, and if you haven't already, don't forget to subscribe to the channel because we do a plethora of different kinds of mountain biking videos. Don't forget, hit the bell notification to get notified every time we put a video out. Right back to the bike. You bought your brand new bike, you want to make sure it fits you perfectly. If you've got it boxed fresh and it's coming out of the box, hopefully, where you've bought the bike from, the bike shop, hopefully, they will build the bike up for you to make sure it's safe and sound, and they can adjust everything necessarily to fit you perfectly. If you don't have the privilege of a bike shop helping you set up your bike, then we've done a plethora of videos on our YouTube channel to help with setting up your bike. From cockpit setup, to saddle height, to saddle pitch, to tire setup, do you want to run tubes or tubeless, to suspension setup, rear suspension setup, even to drive train setup. We've done all of it on the YouTube. There's a menu there, you can go into it and dive into it to your heart's content so you can get your bike set up perfectly. Saddle height is really important. Too high and you'll find yourself rocking side to side, and that will cause unwanted pressure where you don't want it. Also, won't be able to get all the power down through the pedals. A great trick is to put your heel on the pedal with your legs straightened and then tighten the seatpost up. When you pedal, your foot sits more on the ball as you pedal, and your legs will be perfectly positioned, which is not quite straight. Next up is sorting out your saddle angle. Too low or too high, it will cause short and long-term pain. Here's a little pro tip, if you have a smartphone and a level app on it, use it, this will be helpful. Head out for a short spin and you can tweak it from there. You're looking for no big pressure points downstairs, find a sweet spot. General rule of thumb, if you feel yourself slightly tilted forwards like this, you'll find more pressure on your arms. That's why you want to bring your saddle up a little bit. Make it level so it releases the pressure off your arms and on your wrists, especially when it comes to longer rides. When it comes to the cockpit setup, now this one's a little bit tricky. It all depends on how you like to ride. Are you an aggressive rider? Also, it depends on your physique as well. You want to make sure you can grab everything easily, so your gears, your brakes, your dropper post if you were to have one. You want to make sure it's as ergonomic as possible. The way I like to have my cockpit setup is with my bars, I like to have them in line with my fork brake, so not too far back, not too far forward. Bar width is 760. When it comes to my brakes, I like to have them slightly lower. I don't like them being level, especially when you're going downhill, level is fine because you're leaning over the back, but I'm not doing too much downhill. I like to throw my bike around. When it comes to my dropper, I like to have my thumb right on the tip of it. I don't want to have my full thumb on it. Then the gears as well. I'm perfectly in the rocker of these gears. When it comes to the saddle setup, I like to have it slightly tilted forward, but near dead center. Also, I like to have it on the rails in the middle of the saddle. Like I said, it's all personal preference when it comes to setting up your bike. It takes time to get it perfectly right. Now that your bike's nice and comfy and set up perfect for you, it's time to load up and hit the trail. First, where are the trails? Trails, where are you? I'm going to kick it off with where to ride. There's plenty full of mountain bike trails if you're in the know, but that's not always the case. I've got a few great apps that will help you find trails in your local area or in some new areas that you are looking to explore. My favorites are Strava, Komoot, and Trailforks. These are great apps to specifically show you mountain bike trails on the map. Now, if that's not the case and you are more of an old-school person, then the best place is an OS map. Pick up an OS map, find out your local bridleways, tracks, and all that, and go into more depth the old-school way. Just make sure that you're allowed to ride on those trails before heading out there because you don't want to be caught red-handed riding somewhere where you shouldn't be. Last but not least, there is a wealth of trail centers all over the world from alpine ski resorts to the damp woodland areas of the whales in the United Kingdom to trail centers all over the United States. These places are dedicated to offering an abundance of mountain biking experiences. They come with a few perks when you park up. You've got cafes, you've got bike shops, and if you haven't got a bike and would like to get a good taste of it for someone like a friend that you want to introduce to, then they've got bike hire as well. Now, here's a perfect example of a trail center. This is the Forest of Dean Trails. You can see they're all color-coded. You've got green for easy, blue for moderate, red for difficult, black for severe, and then double black for extreme. These are all depending on what type of riding you want to do and your skill level. I'll talk about skill level. Let's go and find a trail that suits me best. When it comes to riding, before you even hit the trail, make sure your skills are up to level because you don't want to chuck yourself in the deep end. Now, if you're looking to refine those skills, we've done a lot of videos on how-tos in mountain biking on the channel. If you haven't already subscribed, don't forget to hit the subscribe button. If you're unsure about anything, stop and approach a local mountain biker because we're a friendly bunch. Ask them for information, where the trailhead is, for example. Hey, excuse me, sorry. Hi. Am I going the right way for the trails? Speaker 2 Trailhead, just up there. Enjoy. Speaker 1 Thank you very much, sir. Bye. If you find a trail that best suits your abilities or if you're hitting the off-road for your very first time, the best thing is to take it easy. There's no need to rush. The best thing is to ride the trail for the very first time. Do it slowly. Stop when it's safe to on the side of the trail, not in the middle of the trail because there's other trail users as well. Be mindful of that. Look at obstacles. It's better to look before you leap. That's a top tip. When you come to a trail center or a bike park, it's so easy to get caught up watching the fast ones ride, the most confident of riders. It's so easy to fall into that trap. Take it easy. Take it slow. If you're on the trail and there's someone really fast behind you, they'll notify you if they're behind you. It's always good to stop in a safe place, not just turn off the trail because that's not a wise thing to do. You'll find yourself crashing. Make sure you stop in a safe place. The more you ride, the more confidence you'll build. That is the key thing when it comes to riding off-road is confidence. You'll find that you'll start to explore a lot more. Hang on. You're getting out a little bit and you're loving it a hell of a lot. We haven't even mentioned what riding kit to wear or upgrades, which is a big, dark hole. There's things like, do I upgrade my tires? Why has that guy over there got a downhill bike? Do I need a downhill bike? Do I need all the suspension in the whole world to make me a better rider? Don't even get me started on, do I need to color coordinate my valves? The minefield continues. What type of shoes should I be wearing? Am I wearing the right helmet? Why has that person got all of that stuff strapped to his bike? The beauty of mountain biking is you can ride in any kit possible. It is some mountain biking kit that will make a lot of difference and make it a little bit more comfortable out there on this trail. Before heading out on your bike, the first thing you should do is wear a helmet. It is crucial. Don't even head out there with no head protection. It's wise to buy the best helmet you can afford. Make sure it's comfortable and it fits you perfectly. Just remember, in each country, they have safety regulations that a helmet needs to pass. Make sure you buy the helmet in that country that has the safety certificate or stamp in the back of the lid. On top of all of this, not all helmets have the same features. Additional vents, some have peaks, different kinds of fastening systems will all alter depending on budget and description. Next up, what about footwear and clothing? You can wear any shoe you want out there, but mountain biking-specific shoes, like the Shimano shoe right here, will give you a little added protection, especially on the toe end and on the sole. Some flat shoes will come with some really good tacky rubber to keep you more in grip with the pedals. Now, if you venture into the world of the clipless pedal, which is ironic, you're clipped in, but they're called clipless pedals. You'll learn all of this jargon the more you get into your mountain biking. That is a different world. It all depends on what type of riding and style that you want. That all comes down to what kind of shoe you want. If you're starting off, a flat pedal sole shoe would be the perfect shoe for you because it's easier for you to dismount your bike when it comes into a bit of a sticky situation. If you want to learn how to ride clipless pedals, we've done a video exactly about how to learn with clipless pedals. I've linked that in the description down below as well. Whilst I'm here, after talking about the shoes, what kind of kit do you want to ride? It all depends on if you want to go for longer rides, shorter rides, or go for adventurous things. It's all about layering. As you can see, I'm wearing a hoodie, one of our GMBN hoodies here. We've got a shop, head over there, get some of your merch. We got a hoodie. I ride in a hoodie, but then I've got some specific riding trousers, which is going to give me added protection when it comes to abrasions falling off my bike. It's going to protect most of my skin. If you want to head out there and do some more aggressive riding, or you feel like you need a little bit more protection, then elbow pads, knee pads, chest, and back protection is key. When you want to go out for a longer ride on the saddle, then wearing what we like to call a bib short, which is a padded short that goes underneath your clothing. It's going to help protect your nether regions from getting sore on a longer ride, especially from the saddle. When upgrading your bike, don't let all the jargon and the sales gump put you off doing this. We've done a lot of videos on how to upgrade your bike, but another way of doing it is where I started, and that's at your local bike shop. Head into your local bike shop because they have a wealth of knowledge. If you've got a question that you need to ask them about upgrading your bike, then head in there and ask them a few questions because they'll be willing to help. That's what I'm going to do right now. There's something about making your new bike personal, even if it's a second-hand bike, changing things or upgrading things. Everything on your bike is upgradable. Yes, and I mean anything and everything, from cables to bolts. You can make everything different colors, which makes it personal to you. When you have a brand new bike, there's no need to upgrade your parts unless it's broken from a crash from learning or whatever. There is some perishable items on a mountain bike, but the main thing that you would want to upgrade on a new bike is your tires. The tires can make or break your bike. Your bike could be the best in the world, with the wrong tire setup will make it the worst one in the world. That's one thing to consider, is tire choice, probably the first upgrade that you would do on your bike. What if you can't afford a brand spanking new bike, out of the box fresh, but it's new to you and that's a second-hand bike? Then, yes, upgrading a few bits is crucial. You would probably find that the tires are worn. Upgrading your tires, like I said, is the best thing you could upgrade on your bike. Now, the other things like on your brakes or your drivetrain, make sure when you're buying these sort of things that there's a little bit of life left in them. If there's not, you can haggle on the price, obviously, by the time you've bought your bike, but they're the things that you can upgrade. You don't have to go for the most expensive ones. Another common place that people like to upgrade is their suspension. If you have a hardtail, you would like to upgrade your fork, or if you have a full sus, upgrading both, which can be really expensive. When it comes to brands like RockShox, they do do a budget-friendly fork. The best way to upgrade it is to upgrade the internals. You can put in a really nice dampening system within the same fork that you're running, and it will perform a lot better than the stock standard stuff inside. Hopefully, this video has helped you understand when you buy your first bike, what you should do, what you should look out for, and where to ride. Like I said, I've linked all the videos that I've described in the link in the description down below for you to go and watch at your heart's content. Don't forget to subscribe to this channel because we do a lot about mountain biking, from beginners up to experts. I've had enough. I'm going to have a cup of tea, and I'll see you next time.