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Your handlebars greatly effect the feel of you bike and how you bike handles. Sometimes bars that are comfortable for long rides aren't the best for bike handling. Mountain Bike Handlebars with a lot of back sweep (back sweep is how the handlebars point slightly back towards you, all mtb handlebars have some back sweep but most ae between 3 and 9 degrees, these bars are 11 to 37 degrees) hurt your bike handling! Have your ever ridden an old 3 speed with bars that bend straight back towards you? They are very twitchy. These new bars are similar. The more back sweep a bar has the more it moves your elbows in, towards your body. This puts you in an nonathletic position (elbows in) where you can not resist side to side bar movement nor can you move quickly or efficiently. If you were thinking these type bars might be an upgrade, they are not! As we have stated before, look for a wide bar, 720mm to 810mm and a short stem, 30-70mm long and you will have much more control (assuming you understand and ride in proper body position). Create you most in control ride yet!
Maybe I should just let our certified coaches do all the coaching! I did my best to only invite riders who I felt were friendly, patient and good communicators to go through our certification process but they all continue to impress me with comments from their students. Checkout these two comments on facebook from Andy's camp last weekend: ... The camp far exceeded my expectations. Learned so much. Time to practice. ... Andy, thanks so much! Me, my dad, Cole, and Chase had so much fun! I'm so much more ready to tackle the race season and put all my new techniques to use on the courses up here! Defiantly the best coach I've ever had in any sport and the most I've ever learned in 3 days.
Is this frustrating thing (that we all experience) holding you back on the mtb trail? Are you letting failure hold you back?! Or worse yet, fear of failure? Dan Millman (World Champion Gymnast, Coach and Author) said, “Failure is natural and necessary part of the learning process.” He is not recommending failing for the sake [...]
While most of the articles that I write for this site are aimed at the average rider – probably a recreational rider or beginner or novice racer – this one is intended more for a higher level, competitive athlete. But even if you’re a Newbie, hopefully the following will show that in order to “succeed”, especially at the higher levels of riding, it takes more then just raw fitness and more then just being extremely skilled; it takes becoming a “whole” or “complete” rider, and obviously the mental aspect plays a very important role in this. The closer I can get to simulating the riding experience, going to the Pain Cave and still getting the job done (and, off the bike, so that I will still be hungry when the season begins), the more prepared I will be to deal with that type of stress, on the bike, when its time to do so. So, in closing, don’t let yourself slip! Stay strong and stay sharp. Be creative, intelligent, and honest with your off-season training and you’ll have fun and still benefit immensely on the bike in the spring.
