Reviews From Passionate Riders 

I just wanted to send a very heartfelt thank you for everything you taught me this weekend. In my short couple of months riding,

I took a class from …… and a few private lessons from local riders and I have to say – I learned more in a half-day spent under a picnic cover than I had from all of the time spent on trails with others.

I’ve not been able to comprehend cornering or gear changes before this weekend and your coaching made it all suddenly click!

I want you to know you, honestly, made me more excited about learning than I thought was possible.

Gene is the zen master of mountain bike fundamentals, and brings a teaching style that is attentive and thoughtful without being overbearing – he grants you the tools to teach and train yourself, which results in a much deeper and internalized understanding of the subject.

Took this class as a real beginner, having only mountain biked about 100 miles of singletrack ever, and found it to be fantastic in all ways.

Gene is great at using stories to illustrate his point, and then follows up with drills/exercises to reinforce. After completing the 3 day MTB Skills Class in Park City, I immediately signed up for a follow up course 8 months down the road, and can’t wait for round two.

I took the skills course from Gene in early April. I’m so glad I did. The course was 3 days and covered all of the basics needed to mountain bike through a variety of situations commonly found out on the trails.

My skill level and confidence went up. Gene is a fantastic instructor – he’s broken the material down into small steps that are relatively easy to understand and experience.

He’s created drills to help work toward mastery. He’s passionate about the sport and one of the things that impressed me most of all is that he continues to learn and he incorporates what he learns into the course.

I love Gene and his BetterRide course! I took the MTB Skills course in Sedona in March 2022 and I have not stopped telling all of my friends about how much I learned in his class.

His teaching philosophy is focused on mastering the basic skills to ultimately become a more confident and overall safer (maybe even faster) mountain bike rider.

I’ve been riding about 3 years now and have been looking to introduce more predictability into my riding especially while attempting technical features or trails. Gene provides an excellent breakdown of MTB fundamentals and is able to differentiate his teaching to accommodate any level of rider.

He is full of stoke, enthusiasm and logic– a true teacher and overall great human. He made the course so fun and inspires you to continue your own learning beyond the class.

Seriously, taking the BetterRide course with Gene is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my mountain biking journey thus far. I have never felt more confident and more secure in my riding after applying the fundamentals I learned in Gene’s class.

Thank you, Gene and BetterRide!

Gene was an amazing instructor! He taught us high level mountain bike skills progressively, which made the skills accessible to all ages, strengths and levels of abilities.

His instruction was more than acquiring skills, but also taught us better ways to approach our own learning curves.

My husband and I left with added confidence and inspiration to tryout our new skills and mindset throughout our lives upon our return home.

Our limiting beliefs about our abilities and aging were appropriately challenged and we are excited for many more years of mountain biking and traveling to cool destinations with our bikes and new skills.

Thanks Gene, you changed our lives! You’re the best!

Gene Hamilton is a superb and experienced MTB rider and coach very well known in the MTB world. No matter how good you think you are, Gene’s skills Course will help you to improve!

Beside all the fundamentals, he provides lots of details and tricks on different aspect of MTB. He also has a number of drills you can bring home to keep practicing after the course!

I am so happy I took his course! Highly recommend!

My son took your camp in winter park at age 14. He is 16 and just completed the Laramie Epic (30 miles) last weekend. He placed 2 in the age bracket 0-29. He continues to use your techniques and tips. Smooth is fast! Your worksheets are worn out and weathered from continued use! Worth it….you bet!!!

We really enjoyed this course and learned so much form Gene. My son, husband and I took the course together. It was helpful to learn drills that we can do on our own between trail rides. I feel more confident riding!

Attending Gene’s camp in Sedona was one of the best decisions that I’ve ever made. You can read skills articles and watch the youtube videos all day, but these will never engrain the skills needed to become a good mountain biker. Gene’s course teaches you all of the primary skills, and then he drills them into you. You repeat these drills under his watchful eye until the become engrained. It’s been about 9 months since I attended the course and I still hear Gene correcting me if I’m going about an obstacle or turn in the wrong position. I still make every ride a learning experience because of what he taught, and my riding has improved immensely as a result. Thanks Gene!

Hi Gene, I took your Asheville camp at the end of September (6’2″ brown hair older guy, kinda uncoordinated, with Santa Cruz you told me was way too small for me). on about 4 of my past 6 rides with my friends I usually ride with I noticed I was keeping up with them for the entire ride, without expending any more effort than usual. I usually struggle to keep up and will typically fall behind for parts of the ride. at first, I thought that they were all taking it easy that day, but after it happened several times, I thought maybe they’re not riding slower, I was riding faster (although it felt like we were all riding slower). I then thought about something I hear a lot of coaches at the college and professional level say about athletes just having made the jump from high school to college, or college to pros–“they’ll be better once the game starts slowing down for them”. I think the mountain biking game has started slowing down for me as a result of focusing on my vision and body position.

I still have a long way to go in terms of mastering the skills you taught us, but am starting to see the signs of becoming a “better rider”. thanks and feel free to edit this email and use as you wish.

Thank you for creating what has been one of the best learning experiences of our lives.  We traveled all the way from Australia to attend your camp in Golden, Colorado and it was worth every penny! Andy was a fantastic teacher with great personal skills. He has our highest commendation for creating a safe, exciting and fun environment for learning.

It is refreshing to find someone who understands their field well enough to be able to deconstruct difficult and often hard to pinpoint concepts. This is a rare talent. We appreciate all of the careful thought that you and Andy have put into creating the mountain bike skills curriculum. The content was well-organized into different sections, and logically progressed from foundational skills (like body position and braking) to more difficult skills (like cornering). It is obvious that you have spent a lot of time not only thinking about how to mountain bike, but also how to teach it to others.

Learning these mountain biking skills has truly made us “betterriders”.  Thank you for the opportunity to attend your camp and we look forward to attending a core skills camp #2 !

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

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.

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!

First of all, I wanted to thank you again for such a super weekend.  One other kudo I think you deserve is your obvious interest in staying current–and not  just on mountain biking.  You shared a wealth of knowledge from other sports, psychology, and just how to live a better life.  But you made it all relate to the task at hand.  You seem to stay aware of pertinent trends both on and off the bike.  Despite your vast experience, you do a great job of sharing the knowledge, experience and research of others as well.  It was never like you presented yourself as “Gene the All-Knowing” but rather became a conduit of valuable information arising both from your personal experience and from others.  It was sometimes like we had access to a whole faculty, not just one person.  Very well done.

Thanks again and best wishes for all your future endeavors.

I found your site by Googling mountain bike body position.  Your mountain bike skill articles, emails, and videos are the best skills coaching that I have found online. Mountain biking is now my favorite hobby and the skills that I have learned from your website and Youtube are part of the reason why it’s my favorite hobby.

Thanks again for putting on the camp in Asheville last weekend.  I definitely have more confidence now and finally know what and how to practice to continue improving.

I went and rode some of my favorite trails today.  Funny thing happened, after going through the camp, those trails are now BORING !!  I can already see I’ll be taking on more challenging trails and enjoying the ride even more.

I’m still “coming down” from the excitement of attending your mountain bike skills camp. Exciting because I have been “winging it” on a mountain bike for the last 20 years. There are no more “gray areas”, it’s now black and white. I will be practicing and implementing the skills that I learned, for the rest of my mountain bike life.  When it comes to constructive criticism, I can’t think of anything that could have been improved on and have nothing to add.
This was a priceless experience that I will never forget.  I’m amazed at how much better of a rider I have already become. With your skills that I learned, I definitely accomplished my goal to become a better and safer mountain bike rider.
The camp location was a 8 hr. drive for me and well worth it.  For people that you have that might be “on the fence” about attending one of your camps, tell them that no matter what it takes (time and money), attend a skills camp ASAP. It will pay dividends every time they get on the bike.

I was just now sitting at my computer thinking of emailing you when this email popped up at the inbox.  (I had just sent him the first follow up email after his camp)

Thanks so much for making available such a great bike skills camp.  Your course has given me the foundational skills and en powered me to be the best rider I can according to the effort I put into practicing and working on the skills taught.  Also thanks for sending the good info with this email, I really like the figure 8 drill and plan on making it a staple of my practice time.

Just wanted to express to you and your staff my gratitude and give props. I was one of the last ones to sign up because I was skeptical of what I could learn in the time frame for the price. Luckily I did foot the bill and was able to attend the camp in Conyers, GA (April 8 – 10).. I came away from the camp with a lot of knowledge and understanding of why the basic simple techniques are so important. Most of all I learned you have to go slow to go fast, vision is the key. I now have a greater appreciation when out riding and see many old trails as a new trail to explore and practice my skills.  I could spend all day on an easy trail and have more fun than riding several trails…riding is no longer a measure of how fast I can get from point A to B.  I’m gonna keep practicing what I learned and am looking forward to attending the second camp! Thanks again for all you and your staff do!

I want to thank you for a great camp; you’re a great coach with the ability to explain and demonstrate skills for easy learning.
When anyone asks how the camp was they get an earful. I was so excited afterwards; it’s like being a kid learning to ride your bike for the first time and wanting to tell everyone they knew. I’m 43 and when was the last time I learned so much about something that I loved to do? I can’t remember when and that’s what was so great about your camp. I’m glad you made it to Bend and I’m sure it will become a regular stop on the Better Ride Tour. I look forward to your next visit.

The before and after camp riding experience has been truly transformational in raising significantly our MTB skills, confidence and pure enjoyment of riding.  We are spreading the word that riders need to go your Better Ride Camp as soon as possible to experience this transformation.  I recently met a friend in the middle of a single track course in the Minnesota woods.  He mentioned that he had the good fortune in May of being with a group that hired you for private coaching in Moab.  He was also singing high praise for how you improved his riding performance to an advanced level.

Incredible! It’s like night and day. I took my first ride after your clinic, it’s like taking your favorite challenging singletrack and it becomes a four lane highway; you see your favorite trail in a whole new light. Gene, I’m totally serious. I went out this morning, my purpose being to work on your vision techniques. I was amazed at how it helped me in my climbing. I make it up stuff that I know I would of walked up before talking the clinic.

GET SMART: Gene Hamilton’s BetterRide mountain bike camps are all about vision: opening your eyes and mind to become a faster and more graceful rider. In his three-day clinics, Hamilton will re-wire your bike brain with skill drills that help you see the trails like a pro, milking terrain for momentum and carving high-speed turns with confidence and a huge smile on your face. We took a three-day camp earlier this year and immediately felt a difference on the bike. By practicing the drills before every ride and completing his e-mail homework assignments, we were able to keep improving week after week. Hamilton also brings in some of the world’s best riders — we had world champion Marla Streb on hand — to share their tips and secrets on and off the trails.
–USA TODAY adventure sports reporter and 2007 Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inductee Sal Ruibal

Thanks for the homework!  I think I’ll take you up on a couple of these books.

I thought your “camp” was awesome.  I don’t know when I’ve experienced so many emotions and thoughts all in three days!  The camp was like a microcosm of Life itself.  Fun, challenging,  frustrating … overwhelming, exhilirating…you name it.

I went out the Wednesday following the camp, did the drills then rode the Sport loop out at McDowell three times.  Do you remember that darned hill at the end?  I had NO PROBLEM making it up the hill every time.  Funny because I watched a couple guys struggle and pop off as they practiced for the race!  HA!  They got to watch me use technique and easily make it up the hill.

On Saturday, I met Celia and we practiced the drills…then rode the Pemberton trail.  It was great.  We used each other to remind ourselves of the skills you taught us!
On Sunday…..I rode with a couple of my friends who have been riding awhile.  They took me to a new park called F.I.N.S. (Fantasy Island North Singletrack).  It is located at the base of the Estrella mountains.  Let me tell you…it was challenging.  Lots of exposure, switchbacks and climbing.  While some of the switchbacks took me out…I climbed every hill great!  I even made it up what they call Grunt Hill and shocked my friends.  They couldn’t make it up the hill.  What an awesome day.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  My riding has improved 100%.  I am grateful for your patience with us…and me.  I look forward to taking another camp from you as I’m sure it will truly “sink in” the concepts and techniques.

Keep sharing your knowledge, it truly is a gift!

I have to say a big THANKS for the great camp a couple weeks ago.  I’ve been practicing my drills, and this past weekend I hit two of my favorite trails (Hall Ranch and Walker Ranch).  I was able to wheelie up stuff that I’d never even tried before!  The cornering skills were amazing in the swoopy section on Walker.  And I *finally* made it up a hard technical climb that has confounded me for years …

First off thank you for an excellent training experience. I have to tell you I woke up this morning and felt like I was missing something not heading to camp this morning.  Here are a couple of quick thoughts I had on the way back about the camp.

1) 3 days is the perfect amount of time, it allowed me to shut out the rest of the world and focus on biking, by the third day I really felt a clear focus and as I mentioned above, I was bummed out this morning when I got up and realized camp was over.

2) You did a great job of getting to know everyone by first name, that was very important to me for a number of reasons
– Each time you called out my name to tell me I did something right I felt really good inside and it allowed me to stamp that feeling in my head. Also the excitement and happiness in your voice when you noticed one of us doing something right was very noticeable. Thinking back right now I can clearly remember you telling me I nailed the rear wheel lift or how smooth and calm I was on the downhill switchback. Oh yea and I remember seeing the fear in your eyes when I almost went over the handlebars during the braking section…

– Since you were continually calling out our names, it was easy for me to remember the other students names. Which made the camp even more fun because I was able to connect with the other riders easier.

This was by far the best use of both money and time in regards to my mountain bike training. Its 3 days of my life I will never forget…

I just wanted to let you know that I’ve had big improvements in my racing this year after taking the betteride course (about 10 minutes improvement from last year).  I got 2nd place in the beginner category at Eldora, then placed 15th out of 35 in the Sport category at Winterpark in my first ‘sport race’.   I passed people on the downhill for the first time in these two races, and am feeling much more confident on the downhills (I hit 31.5 mph max on a tight singletrack in the Eldora race).

I wish I could tell you I was sent to test your teaching skills by “acting” difficult but then I wouldn’t be telling the truth. I have always been a difficult person to teach because, not only am I impatient, but I expect to be an expert immediately. I also am horribly competitive, so if I have a “team” of people, I want to kick their asses and be the best. (Believe me; you do not want to play Charades with me…ever). However, I was really impressed with your coaching skills and your ability to put humor into my attitude. You have a unique ability to explain technique to a diverse group of people and keep it interesting and clear. As you said, every group is different, but it is easy to tell that you have no problem meshing random people together to make them feel like a real “team”. I also thought your use of stories and personal experiences were good tools that you utilized when everyone started thinking too hard about the task at hand.
I really feel that the core of your program lies in all the drills you taught. Already I feel more confident on my bike and understand some ridiculous mistakes I had been making in the past. I think that everyone who even considers MTB should really take your clinic, and I can also see how there is great potential for repeat customers and further training. You have a lot to offer riders and your energy and enthusiasm creates a wicked inspirational atmosphere that makes me personally want to challenge myself and realize my potential.

I wish you all the best and hope I do get the chance to study under you again

Over the past month I haven’t had as much time to ride as I would like (because I’m working on another goal – to become a published novelist- woot!) so my improvements have been small, but I am riding better.

A few notes from my recent rides:

On my first ride after camp, I focused on body position and vision for the descent. Normally my Wed night ride buddy is ahead of me, but this time I passed her and when I turned around to check on her she was nowhere in sight. She said that I took off about twice as fast as I normally do, but the great thing is, I felt completely smooth and in control. I used to think I was looking ahead all the time, but now that I focus on it, I see that that was not the case – now when I do, it makes a huge difference.

This weekend I was on some unfamiliar trail and came across a spot where the trail zigzags down into a deep ravine then immediately zigzags back out of it. This was a great place to practice both climbing and descending switchbacks.

I have always thought I was a decent descender because I could force myself to white-knuckle my way through stuff, but I never had fun that way. And I realize  that I would always push my bike out in front of me, like we were two kids going into a haunted house and I was trying to make my bike go first. This weekend while I was practicing the skills you showed us I was amazed at how SMOOTH I felt. I wasn’t pushing my bike out in front of me  I was in position and looking ahead and everything just worked. No skidding, no stiff arms, no terror.

The climb was more of a struggle – there was one moderate switchback then two really steep ones. I am proud to say that I eventually rode all three of them. Whenever I didn’t make one I realized that I had stopped with my eyes on the trail right in front of me. When I would remember to “look to victory” I would make it. It’s so interesting that when I would stop, I would THINK I was stopping because I had run out of steam and momentum, but that wasn’t the case – I had just convinced myself I was out of steam … when I looked to victory, I had enough left to get there.

I spend some time on drills every time I ride and I can see that the new skills are starting to burn in. I haven’t been on some of my favorites recently but can’t wait to get out and see how they feel.

I hope this message finds you doing well and on your way to a speedy and complete recovery. I am thankful you were willing to continue with our class despite the challenge of your broken foot.

It has been nearly a month since I finished your camp in Fruita, Colo. You were absolutely right when you said if we practiced your drills off the trail, we would notice the difference on the trail. I have spent the last couple of weeks practicing the drills here on the streets in my neighborhood. The drills returned my best dividend today when my mountain bike camp classmate, Jerry and I went for a two hour ride on the trails here in Sedona. I was amazed at the difference in my riding ability. Today’s ride was the best ride I have ever had since I first bought my mountain bike two years ago. Your superb instruction in teaching how a bike turns made the ride fun and exhilarating. I rode faster, smoother, relaxed, in control, and had fun.

The confidence in my ability to handle the trail and its features was the highest I have ever experienced to date.  It was great fun to enjoy steeps and drops that had previously intimidated me into the hike-a-bike mode. I am absolutely thrilled with the new found confidence in my riding ability. The best thing about all this is that I have even more room for improvement. You have made a believer out of me with all you taught us. Am I perfect in my riding? Absolutely not. Can I become a better rider? You bet, thanks to you, your coaches, and the superb course.

As you can tell, I am very grateful for all your class did for me. I wish I would have taken the course before I even thought about taking a bike on the trail, but it is never too late to do the right thing. A classmate struck up a conversation with me last week while we were attending IMBA’s trail building class. She said she had moved to Sedona recently and was having a difficult time riding our trails compared to where she had come from. I immediately referred her to BetterRide.

The mini-camp in Richmond VA exceeded my expectations.  After not riding for many years, I felt the need to develop proper skills and good habits, and you succeeded.

When I used to ride years ago, my number one focus was preventing the loss momentum on a climb, through a corner, or over obstacles.  I would ride harder and faster each time I went out on the trails in order to improve my ability to maintaining momentum.

I now plan on getting to all my destinations early to practice drills in a slow controlled and repeatable manner. I also plan on dedicating entire rides to working on specific skills.  It is amazing that I have years of martial arts training experience that concentrated on slow deliberate skill practice and I never translated that over to MTB.

I already feel my biking skills and confidence are much greater as a result of your instruction and I look forward to building on them.  In addition, despite the weather, it was really fun.

Wow, what a great class, my son and I had a great time and learned so much.  We went riding this weekend and I was amazed at how much I have already integrated into my ride habits.  I feel like a new rider!   Thanks so much for all your help!

I have been smiling all day long today, thinking about our rad weekend together! I taught 4 of my kids how to do wheelies today and they thought I was super cool for a solid 5 minutes until they had it completely mastered and were smoking past my on their rear wheels.
Thank you forever, Gene, for sharing your passion and deciding to teach. An empowering, motivating, completely exhilarating weekend. I feel like a little kid on Christmas morning with my new toy. It was a total honor to cross paths with you all!

The Camp was completely awesome. Thank you so much, I can feel my skills improving and every day I ride I practice something you taught.

Looking forward to taking it again, maybe in Fairfax or Richmond.