10 ESSENTIAL TIPS TO MAKE A GREAT SALAD

♪ [music] ♪ body position is critical.you want to stand nice and tall, and try not to crouch over the handlebars.this means you'll avoid the amount of space that you have to move around on thebike. also remember to look ahead, so you can see in good time the nextobstacle you're about to tackle. moving around the bike is essential to getyour weight in the right place at the right time. think of your hips being yourweight, going from in the middle of the bike when you're in the ready position, todown and back, right down to the back wheel, until you're almost touching yourbum on the back tire,

and then up and forward a little bit infront of your seat. obviously this is more restricted when you've got your seatreally high, so bear in mind that you should not be able to move quite as far. when you hit the brakes hard, the weight is getting sent forward,towards the bars. countering the braking forces by dropping your weight backbehind the pedals and the bars, is essential to keep your weight goingdown into the bike, rather than up and over. with any relatively new disc brake,you should be able to use just one finger. set your levers up so your one fingerpulls right on the end of the lever.

this will give you maximum leverage. youcan get your finger comfortable, so you can cover them at all times. keeping your head up and scanningthe trail is essential. looking through theturns is a big one. try and look to the exit of the turn. this is especiallyimportant when linking turns together nicely, so therefore your exit becomes theentry of the next turn. try not to focus on the obstacle in frontof you, but look past your front wheel, and down the trail. obviously this getsmore difficult the harder, or more scary the obstacle is in front ofyou. i make a big effort

to remind myself to keep looking up. moving on nicely from looking,let's have a look at line choice. experimental lines can make a bigdifference to how well that trail flows. here we've got a left hand corner with awell-worn outside line or an inside line. the inside line is much shorter, butyou've just got to be careful that when you join the main trail again you don'tslide. so, trying to find a smooth line is going to help with traction, with brakingand cornering, and also playing around with the straighter, shorter line. so i'm coming down a hilland i'm looking for trail

looking like it's going up so i'mchanging gear early. get into a nice, easy gear, smooth cadence on the pedals,i'm spinning nice and smooth, getting really good tractionon that rear tire. cornering. think about lowering yourweight to the outside of the bike. the lower your center of gravity is,the more grip you'll find. so if it's smooth, loweryour chest to the bike and think about dropping your outsidefoot and weighting that foot. also try and do your braking before thecorner so that you can come off the brakes and get maximum grip in the corner. youcan't always do that on steep stuff,

so in that case, just think about comingoff your front brake as much as you can. leaning the bike over and keeping yourweight fairly upright is a great skill to practice when you feel comfortable withthe basics cornering. think about bringing your hips to the outside of the saddle. bike set-up can makea big difference to how easy you find steep descents. shortstem, high bars, lower seat, is all going to help get your weightbehind the bike, essentially maintaining the ready position. because when you dropin to the steep stuff, your center of gravity will head towardsthe front wheel. think about a plumb line

from your hips, to maintain a balancedbike, you'll need to drop back on the bike. lastly, this one isn't really a bikehandling skill, but more of a mental approach to riding. actually try and buildconfidence slowly. know your limits, and actually know what to practice. - [rider] yeah, confidence is reallyimportant with any type of riding. so really look at obstacles that you knowyou can ride, build your confidence slowly, because if you crash, you're goingto have to start again and build that whole process up. - cool. really important, that. so if youwant to check out our 10 tips for riding

single track better, click up here. - and then also is our maintenancepre-ride checks, click down here. - all right. - and on that note, subscribe to us hereat gmbn. see you later, neil. - [inaudible 00:04:31]- see ya, mate.

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