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 are between 3 and 9 degrees, these bars are 11 to 37 degrees) hurt your bike handling! I dislike them and they don't like you! I have seen these handle bars recently on a few students bikes and they are scary and dangerous. I suppose if you have a nagging wrist injury or ride for more than 8 hours at a time they may be comfortable (but they are uncomfortable for me as my wrists have to twist outward to hold them) but comfort at the cost of greatly reduced control and risk of injury?! That doesn't sound like a good trade off.

Top to bottom: Origin8 Space Off Road II (37 degree bend), Salsa Bend 2 (23degree), Surly (by Nitto) 1×1 Torsion Bar(15 degree bend).

I got this photo from an interesting blog focused on bike as transportation and adventure (bike packing and long distance rides) check it out if you are into long rides:

http://www.pushingthepedals.com/2012/01/all-about-the-bend/ he likes the bars and for his purpose they are probably fine, he will be a little more twitchy but if they make him more comfortable that might make long rides more fun.

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. This means when you hit a bump that causes the front wheel to swerve (which happens probably once a minute on a mountain bike) the input from the bars will be transferred to your body causing you to swerve. With a more straight bar and arms out from your side more you would; A. be able to resist the bars swerving and B. the movement of your arms would not be transferred to your body so the bump would not cause you to swerve. It is also hard to absorb shock and contour to the terrain as well with elbows in. So if your bike came with these bars switch them out asap! 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!

Check out his new project and his interview with me at http://learningexperienceblog.com/tag/betterride-clinics/

My favorite surf, yoga, Spanish and photography school http://www.schooloftheworld.org/

Coaches:

Checkout this thread: http://www.bikemojo.com/speak/showthread.php?92241-Betterride-net

I love what they are saying about our head coach Andy Winoradsky and Certified Coach Chris Skolnick!

A few highlights:

"I'll write a more detailed review when I'm not exhausted, BUT, I will say that:

1) I am already a better rider after the clinic.

2) I expect with some practice of the skills I learned I will be MUCH better by mid-summer.

3) i only thought I knew how to ride a bike. Halfway through day 3 something clicked and everything felt new and better and totally awesome."

Laura

"I attended the Better Ride clinic at Walnut last year and absolutely loved it. Some of the best $600 I've ever spent. I agree with the others - it totally opened my mind to a new and more effective / efficient way of riding (especially the cornering). It did more for my riding than any bike or component upgrade ever has!"

Jake

Coach Jacqueline Harmony just won the Pan American Championships for the second year in a row!

BetterRide Athlete and Coach Jackie Harmony Wins Pan Am Championships!

more here:

Students:

Student finds mountain biking nirvana:

All the best,
-Tom

More students reaching/exceeding their goals:

If you follow our facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/BetterRide) you know I recently did a Core Skills 2 camp with a select group of our students, two pro racers, Graeme Pitts and Trevor Trinkino, and three 16 year old juniors, Luca Cometti, Dylan Unger and Mckay Vezina. Well the three juniors raced the next weekend at the Fontana National and took 2nd, 3d and 5th in Jr. Ex! At the same race Betteriders swept the women's pro podium with Jackie Harmony winning, Gabriela Williams second and Margaret Gregory earning the bronze medal!

Then Graeme Pitts won the Keysville Classic for the second year in a row! The only other student the Core Skills 2 Camp, Trevor Trinkino has yet to race this season as he is finishing up is second semester as CU Boulder. I expect to see similar results out of Trevor as he is one determined and focused young man.

On the XC side Erica Tingey won the Cactus Hugger and Jen Hanks earned a third place finish! Congratulations to both of you on a great start to the season!

Erica on her way to victory!

Andy thank you so much! The camp far exceeded my expectations. Learned so much. Time to practice. Great group of people. = ]

Cole Johnson

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.

Keenan Charlton

That is the second time students have said that Andy provided the best coaching they have ever had in any sport! I am so fortunate to have such great coaches working for me! Thanks Andy!

I just got an email from one of our students about National Trail on South Mountain being rather daunting and it is! However, if you break down each challenging step (which from the beginning of the first climb it keeps throwing at you) and how you can do it seems much more doable.

Remember, to reach any goal there is a series of smaller steps and goals you have to achieve along the way. It is easy to look at the whole trail and say, "wow, 1,400 vertical feet in four miles with a bunch of one to four foot step ups, lots of steep loose sections, turns with step ups in the middle, I will never make it" (wasn't it Gulliver who always said that?)

Instead of taking this negative approach focus more on being in the moment and tackling each step as and when you get to them. Often we are so worried about something coming up on the trail that we mess up on an easy section because we aren't focused on the present! Can you wheelie while climbing, can you shift your weight over an obstacle, can look ahead the entire ride? If you have answered yes to those questions you can ride most trails. You simply need to focus on each challenge as it comes and if you do this before long you will be at the top of the climb or end of your ride.

A great example of this is climbing National Trail at South Mountain in Phoenix. Not only is it steep, it starts with a four foot high steeply slanted rock ledge and then throws tricky up and over moves and twists at you while you heart and lungs are redlining. It also has big rock steps on flat and downhill sections. Here is certified coach Chris Skolnick showing how by using four simple core skills (vision, body position, coaster wheelie/manual and a weight shift) he is able to get over a big rock.

Focus on one section at a time, relax, have fun and soon you will have conquered that Overwhelming trail!

Would you use this slick, Hookworm tire in loose conditions?

Maxxis Hookworm MTB Tire

Why can copying the World Champion's setup sometimes do more harm than good? The World Champ had those tires on for a specific purpose (in Greg Minnaar's case winning a downhill race with the conditions the way they are that hour of race day. The mud spike Greg used in the slick conditions at a rainy wold cup in France would be outright dangerous even in the pouring rain at a rocky hard packed place like Bootleg Canyon (in the Nevada desert). Listening to or mimicking other "experts" (in quotes because they are often not experts) can also have a negative effect on your riding and safety. One, because they might not be experts and two, because their purpose is different than yours. On a technically easy trail like the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo course a racer will be concerned more about rolling resistance than control so she runs a semi-slick tire front and rear. The same racer on a more technical course would likely run a knobbier tire that rolled a little slower but gave her more control.

Some things to look out for:

1. Light weight components, light bars, light wheel sets, light tires, light cranks etc.. Our obsession with shaving weight off our bikes needs to end. Yes, given the exact same performance I would rather have a 22 pound bike than a 32 pound bike, but right now that doesn't exist.

First, what is your purpose? Do want a bike that handles all conditions you may encounter really well or the lightest bike on the market? Often, the two end up being at odds with each other (the lightest bars are narrow, the lightest tires are narrow and have weak sidewalls, light weight seat-posts are not height adjustable on the fly, all compromising control). If you are simply a passionate rider who wants to ride your best, focus on ride quality and control. If you are a cross county or endurance racer you need to really weigh the benefits of weight shaving vs. control, which often means different equipment for different race courses. The more technically challenging the race the more likely you would want to add a dropper post and better tires for more confidence and control. The less technical the course the more you would favor light weight and semi-slick tires.

2. Pedals. Clipless pedals are not an upgrade (see our blog posts on this topic:   http://betterride.net/blog/2010/clipped-in-vs-flat-pedals/ ,  http://betterride.net/blog/2010/interesting-info-on-pedal-stroke-efficiency/) they are simply another way of pedaling. If they cause you to lose ANY confidence on the trail, how can they be an upgrade?!

Clipless shoes, there are two main different styles of clipped in shoes, softer and wider soled shoes for wide clipless pedals (platform pedals with clipless) and super stiff and light xc racing shoes. If you are an xc racer a carbon soled shoe provides amazing power and light weight, tough to beat. If you like to explore when you ride, ride technically challenging trails and want more support and comfort for your foot the softer soled 5.10 type shoe with the platform clip-in is a better bet. For more on each of these pedal types and shoes see Andy's post: http://betterride.net/blog/2011/betterride-mtb-skills-head-coach-andys-summary-on-pedals-shoes/

3. Seatposts. A light weight non-adjustable seatpost will definitely save a little weight but it isn't worth it! A  "dropper post" will give you more control and allow you to descend with much more confidence, control and help you to descend faster! You CANNOT get into proper descending body position with your seat at full pedal height! So the 3-6 ounce weight penalty of a dropper post is worth it on trails that have steep descents, fast corners, drops, or technical sections! See my article on dropper posts: http://betterride.net/blog/2010/the-4th-thing-you-can-buy-that-will-instanty-improve-your-bike-handling/

My 6 year old Gravity Dropper

Tires, the sport is called mountain biking for a reason, we ride off-road! So I nice knobby tire will give you much more traction than a semi-slick or tire with minimal tread.

Nice tread for more control!

Figure out the goals for your mountain bike riding and then make sure you aren't compromising them by using the wrong equipment for your goals! Of course the number one goal is, having fun!

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 of failing but going for it and when you do fail, learning from it.

Some fear of failure can be good, if more 12-35 year old males with an inflated belief in their skills feared failure a little more there would be a lot less trips to the emergency room! If the fear of failure involves a 40 foot double jump you might want to listen to it. In this case you can use the fear to ask, “why am I afraid to do that” and you might have a great answer, “because I have no idea how to do that in balance and in control”! If the fear of failure is keeping you from doing something less dangerous, such as cornering a little faster when you know proper cornering technique and you have knee pads on, the fear of failure can really hold you back. In this case the answer to “but what if I fail?” is usually, “your pride will be hurt for a moment”.

So let fear of failure protect you when it can, but don’t let it defeat you when there are little or no consequences for failure.

As I was writing this I found this video on you tube, check it out:

A common “failure” in mountain biking is sliding out in a corner. If this happens to you out on the trail, instead of kicking your bike and cursing it, figure out why you slid out and design a plan so that it doesn’t happen again. This exact failure is why I started BetterRide. It went something like this, “Wow, that stinks, my front wheel just slid out and I skinned my knee! It is a loose, gravel corner, maybe I was going to fast. No, Dusty made it through going faster than me, speed wasn’t the issue. 'Hey Dusty, what tires are you using, I think my tires made me slide out.' Dusty replied, 'Dart/smoke combo, same as you.' 'Well how did you go so fast through that corner?', I asked. His reply was something to the effect of, 'let go of your brakes and hang on!' Which made me realize, I really don’t know proper cornering technique, I wonder who can coach me?" I won’t bore you with my struggle to find a coach but that is a great example of failure leading to success in two aspects of my life. I eventually learned to corner correctly and founded a company helping others to corner and ride correctly!

Back to your riding and how to let failure inspire you instead of hold you back. Next time you fail on the trail, before just riding off, or retrying whatever it was that you failed at, stop and analyze what happened. Was it lack of proper technique, loss of focus, tension, panic or fear? Once you figure out why you failed you can design a plan to succeed!

My plan to succeed at cornering was to find a coach to teach me how to corner correctly and then use drills to master cornering technique (I realize that isn’t most people’s thought process, I was a former professional snowboard racer and a snowboard team coach at the time). In my case it was because I was doing nearly everything wrong in corners; my vision was off, my balance was off and I thought to tighten up a turn I needed to steer tighter! Looking back on it the main reason my front wheel slid out was my body position. I was going relatively fast into the corner so I was a little tense and scared (not horrified, just a little worried that I wasn’t going to make it) so instinctively (see this article on instincts: http://betterride.net/?p=1837) I shifted my weight back away from danger which unweighted my front wheel so it slid out. This is something I still work on in fast descending corners, I have to fight the urge to creep back on my bike a bit. I am sure the fact that I was looking at the apex of the corner (not through the corner like I should have been), was leaning with my bike and sticking my knee out didn’t help either! In this case simply being centered over the bottom bracket instead of having my weight back over the rear wheel would have been enough to give the front wheel traction and make the corner.

In short, don’t be afraid of failure, make the most of your failures, use them to learn and improve. As Michael Jordan said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. When you do fail, learn from it and use the failure as inspiration to learn and improve!

Balance Bike JoJo takes on Toddler No-Pedal Racing from Balance Bike JoJo on Vimeo.

The following is purposely not very specific or in-depth, but more of something to think about and address on your own. This is mainly because we all have different goals, aspirations, time crunches, athletic endeavors, etc. outside of biking (which is my area of expertise) and the off-season is the time to partake in all kinds of other fun/necessary stuff that we have a tough time doing during the summer because we have other very important things to do… like ride our bikes! I’m also not an expert at pilates, road riding, xc skiing, or many other activities that MTB’ers use for off-season fitness, but I am very aware of how difficult it can be to maintain fitness over the winter. So again, I’ll keep this kind of loose, but these are two things that most of us, as riders, have to deal with in one way or another.

If you’re a fairly serious rider or racer (and you live in an area where it is the off-season) you should currently be enjoying a break from the intensity of training, racing, serious rides, etc. This doesn’t mean that you have to stay off of your bike, but bike rides should be fun and enjoyable at this time. If you’re a cyclocoss racer, or serious skier, or snowboarder, or something of that nature, great, just make sure that you will be able to get enough time to fully recover and then be ready to go again (both mentally and physically) for MTB in the spring.

Just because we don’t have a race right around the corner doesn’t mean that we can completely forget about what our goals are as riders. The off-season can, and should play a very important role in your successes next spring and summer.

First, I’ll address “gym-rat burnout”:

We ride bikes because riding is fun. Even if we take it extremely seriously, even if we make money doing it, we still do it because it’s enjoyable. We get outside. We get to compete (even if its with just ourselves). There’s often a good dose of camaraderie. Often, bikes give us a reason to travel. For most of us, the gym offers nearly none of this. The gym is a means to an end, and therefore, just not a whole lot of fun (for me at least). Ditto with road riding, running… So, it’s often tough to stay motivated to do these things for a long period of time.

Motivation is the key to anything as far as I’m concerned. This winter, if you spend three intense hours per day on your trainer in your basement, putting in thousands of miles and tons of interval work, and also hitting the gym like Lou Ferrigno, and then when you emerge in the spring, you hate your bike and the pain that it represents… well, you’re probably not going to be very motivated to kick the season off correctly. I’m guilty of this myself pretty much every year (kinda). I take about a week off somewhere in November, and after a week off of the bike, I get super motivated!!! I then get in the gym and put a program together, start trail running, start backcountry snowboarding like a banshee, ride my bike in the snow… I feel like an animal all winter long until around March and then I peter-out. I’m over it, over winter, over the gym, over running, over snowboarding… I end up eating like crap and being lazy for a couple of weeks right when I should be ramping up for the riding season to start. This has happened, consistently, for as long as I can remember. Sounds like I need to make some conscious adjustments to my off-season program, huh?

I’m not the only rider guilty of this, it happens to a lot of people. So relax a little and pace yourself. Stay active but do some other things besides road riding and the gym (that are fun, or at least, mix it up a bit). If you are very serious and want to make some fitness gains over the winter, cool, but be conscious of your mental state and put yourself on a pace where you’ll be chomping at the bit and ready to rip out the throats of your fellow competitors’ and/or riding buddies’ in the spring (literally, of course!!!). You want to be hungry when the season starts.

Something else that many of us need to deal with in the off-season is weight. And I’m not talking about shaving grams off your bike! The off-season is the time to make adjustments in body weight, or, at the very least, keep weight gain (or loss, for some people) under control. In my own case, I would like to slim down and improve my power to weight ratio (o.k., keep it under control, also!). While I’m not necessarily a fat-ass, 5’6” and 165 isn’t really ideal for getting from point A to point B (got some great ‘short-and-stocky’ genes from my mom). I do have a nice layer of beer and pizza induced baby-fat that I can rid myself of, but also, I can lose a bunch of muscle (especially upper body) that actually hinders me, speed-wise, on the bike. But in order to do this correctly, I need to maintain a calorie deficit. During the season -- though I definitely don’t get to race as much as I’d like to -- I do a lot of hard riding. This includes a lot of intense trail riding, motocross, dirt jumping MTB’s, stuff that I could easily get hurt doing if things go wrong (which, of course, they do from time to time), and often, on back-to-back-to-back days, whenever I have the opportunity. So during the season, recovery with adequate food intake, and being strong and fit is more important then focusing on losing weight (and doing it correctly, which is difficult). The time for me to do this is now (please don’t ask how its going!).

On the other side of this is simply not gaining unwanted weight. We all know how the wintertime, football season (obligatory beer drinking), the holidays, etc, can be a fat-laden kiss of death for keeping weight in check. Let’s be realistic about this: ideally, we’d all get down to our perfect “fighting weight”, during Nov, Dec and be on our way with our off-season training (and if you’re serious, you need to do this). But sometimes real-life does get in the way for real people. However, there’s no excuse for coming into the riding season 10-15 lbs heavier (fat wise – bad heavier) then you were at the end of the previous season. Five lbs.…? O.k., I’ll give you that… But, trying to dial in weight while you’re also trying to get stronger is a difficult thing to do and you’re starting in a hole if you begin your fitness and race training overweight.

A great way to help you keep things in check weight-wise? Keep a food journal. Especially over the holidays! Write down absolutely everything that you eat. Make sure that this is a small notebook or something that can be kept conveniently on you, so that you WILL actually do this! Every cheese sample at Whole Foods, every stray piece of Halloween candy, the dressing that you put on the salad… EVERYTHING! If you have to write it down, you’re conscious of it, you can’t simply “pretend it didn’t happen”. You won’t be saying, “man how’d I get so fat… I thought I was doing pretty good…”

So, a little advice on two things that most of us wrestle with during the off-season…

Good luck!!!

Challenge, like crossing a raging creek in January!

As I agonize over which house to buy in Tempe (the really cool little zen like house that is going to stretch my budget or the nice but boring house that is a great deal) I have to laugh at all the energy, time and stress I am spending worrying about something that really doesn’t matter! My house doesn’t bring me joy nor does it define me, it is simply a place to rest, recover, store my stuff (that is a whole ‘nother rant) and prepare for my next adventure in. I grew up in a 1,200 square foot house with only 1.5 baths! While four people using the same shower every morning was a struggle we managed to get by just fine. Of the thousands of great memories I have from growing up none of them were limited by that house and none could have been enhanced if we had grown up in a 7,000 square foot custom home (although skateboarding through a 7,000 sqf home at 12 would have been fun!).

A whole crew of dirt bags riding the best trail in Moab

Life is so much better with passion and challenge than simply trying to get by. We (mountain bikers) are fortunate to have found something that we love so much that we will give up the “necessities” that so many people can’t do without to chase our passion. Next to spending quality time with my family and loved ones the happiest, most rewarding and most fun times of my life have been spent out there, often on the edge, not in front of a TV set.

A big thank you to all the dirt bag* mountain bikers, skiers, snowboarders, surfers, river rats, skaters and climbers that I have met along the way! It is easy to get caught up in our culture of more, bigger, better, NOW when it is constantly in your face. Thankfully, when my priorities get a little askew, it seems like there is always a soul brother or sister there to remind me that life isn’t about “things”. For those I have met along the way thanks for living the dream and helping me keep perspective.

In short, go for a ride, or hike, or climb, get out and enjoy yourself. Spend less time worrying and more time living!

*”Dirt Bag” is an affectionate term used by my friends