lessons in mtn biking...

lee mccormack and I - he wrote the book























So I'm on "ok" rider - but I want to get better.
Here are my weakness:

• I can't pop my front wheel with any consistency
• I'm slow on the fast, swoopy, non-technical stuff
• My cornering isn't so great - for example on the FC50 course - I get passed left and right on the twisty parts of the trail thru the trees
• I'm a big wuss on gravel descents - i get scared and tend to ride my brakes.

So instead of spending big bucks on a new blingy lightweight wheelset - I figured I'd actually learn how to ride my bike. I hired Lee McCormack to give me some lessons. Being the bossy person I am - i called him up and told him I know he probably had a "standard" way to teach people - but I don't want to spend a lot of time on stuff I am already good at and know. I laid out my weaknesses and said this is what I want to spend time learning. He was very receptive to this but he pointed out that in order for me to learn certain things I had to show I was proficent at the basics. Fair enough and and we scheduled 3 lessons.

Lesson 1 was basic body position, braking, manuals, and power wheelies.
Wow! I thought I had good body position on the bike - turns out I'm too far forward and heavy on the handlebars. After a few drills it became apparent how the wrong body position made for poor bike handling.

For braking - due to my moto roadrace experience I tend to only use the front brake. Lee showed me the importance of using both brakes and how to use body position to keep from skidding. Pretty eye opening and amazing!

Manuals and wheel popping. Man - this has been so frustrating to me. Dave has been patient in trying to teach me - but I just never could get it. Lee breaks things down and we took baby steps. By the end of lesson 1 - I was confidently manually over curbs and consistently getting my power wheelies down. Friggin' amazing - i'm telling ya! The wheel popping thing was worth the price of admission!

We went to Fruita the following Friday after this lesson and I was totally nailing all the stepups. i was getting 12", 16", 18" steups. things I wouldn't DREAM of getting over last year - i was now easily riding. It was friggin' miracle!


Lesson 2 was cornering
This is all we worked on. It built upon the basic body position in lesson 1. Again this was eye opening and I couldn't wait to try these techniques out in Angel Fire.

Lesson 3 was 4x gate starts, terrian absorption, and pumping.
we met at The Fix and they have a bmx/4x gate setup. We started working on that. At first I'm thinking "there is NO WAY i'm gonna be able to trackstand against this gate". I was all shaky and wobbling and tense. Within 30(!) minutes Lee had me CONFIDENTLY trackstanding on the gate. We practiced starting - it was amazing. I'm so stoked to haven gotten this - I'm itching to try it at the Angel Fire 4x race this weeknd!!!

Then we worked on terrian absorption and pumping. It's unbelieveable how much terrian absorption can keep you from losing speed and then if you combine it with pumping where you GAIN speed without pedaling. It took me a while to get this - my timing was off (too early) and I would get tense and all spazy. But then it FINALLY clicked and holy moly - I was totally rockin' those rollers and tabletops. Dave hung out and watched for about an hour and he said it was cool to see me "get it".

SO OMG - I was so wound up and excited I couldn't sleep last night - I am super stoked to try out my new skills @ the AF 4x race this weekend.

My next lesson with Lee will be working on 2 - 4 ft drops - stay tuned!!! ;)