Do you love your new Mountain Bike? perhaps, but not more than Yourself. When it comes to mountain biking, continuing to improve upon your existing skills by trying different terrains, is always a good thing for your continued progress and skill improvement. However, always keeping your safety in mind is more essential than we think since we all know mountain biking is an extreme sport after-all. Let’s dig a bit deeper into this discussion, as better understanding and clarity is a must have to achieve this.
So you’re out there fully motivated to ride a challenging trail for the first time, and come across a steep drop with rocks hard enough to surpass your skill level, then don’t ever be ashamed of getting off the bike, walking the patch, and getting back on to continue riding the trail. Just because you will be facing such sections, don’t be deterred with it to completely put off the idea of even trying, as only trying it out will give you an exposure to feel what the trail is like and it’s challenges to get better at handling it. Therefore, trying and aiming for something challenging isn’t a bad thing at all, as long as you have your safety measures and discipline intact, then it’s all worth it.
Excitement?
We, as humans, always get carried away with excitement, that is why I stated the discipline plays a key role. Speaking of safety on the trails, one thought that crossed my mind and that I wanted to share with you is really about the bike we own. Let’s face it, we spend hours and hours of research, talking to people, reading reviews to find the best possible bike for ourselves, that fits our needs and skill and then finally go for it to become a proud owner of that bike. Here is the kicker, unlike buying a new car that just we drive on the roads with minimal wear, only get a bit of dirt that needs a wash, (the irony is) mountain bikes are built to take the beat to prove how well built or functional they are as you ride the trails on.
With that in mind, on one side we absolutely love the bike to make sure it doesn’t break, while on the other hand YOU are the rider it is supposed to offer a safer ride. So, on trickier section, too much care for the bike so it doesn’t take the beat up can lead to poor handling and potentially result in you getting hurt, which you absolutely don’t want. Instead, trusting your bike can result in an improve handling of the very same technical section and build your confidence as well. Point to remember is, you’ll always have another take at it if you come out of the trail safely.
How prepared are you for a long trail?
The other day during my ride, I got a call for help and someone was in need of a hand-pump as his tire gotten flat due to sharp object affecting the tire to retain air. As I was finding my way to reach there as he was on the other side of the trail, someone stopped by to help out before I get there and am glad it was on a weekend where many riders were on the trails. Imagine this happens to you when there are not many riders, you’ll be pretty much out of luck and be carrying your bike all the way through the trails or just leave it. In both cases, it’s a huge problem to deal with, if you are half way through a 6 km ride. Your best bet would be either wait for someone to show up, or walking away from your bike to get some help. So a quick lesson here is that, in the excitement of getting on the trails quick, we tend to forget our essential items we need and a mini hand-pump is definitely one of those. If possible, better to have tubeless tires, otherwise you definitely need to have a patch kit, a spare tube and should know how to repair or replace the tube yourself with the tools required for it with you as well. It’s best to have that practised at least once at home in a non-stressed environment so out on the trails it’s only second nature to you. Also wanted to mention the importance of players to carry, as usually a fall on the rocks can cause some deformation of the drive train elements resulting in chain not sit or move properly. These drive train elements are very hard to fix by hand, so a player comes in handy in this case to get things going and get back on the bike to return safely. I’ve covered some of the other essential items in one of my posts you should check for more details.
Conclusion
End of the day, you have to decide who is more important, the bike or yourself? It better be yourself. Recommendation is to invest in a good quality mountain bike, that can sustain the terrain you intend to ride. Stay safe!!!