TAKE CONTROL, with Wavecel is a six-part series of articles by one of South Africa’s most experienced skills instructors, Sean Badenhorst. The articles will help you understand key elements of mountain biking better so that you can improve your control when riding. Improved control leads to fewer falls, higher speeds and greater confidence. Part 5 deals with line choice, gearing, traction and pacing up climbs.
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There’s always so much focus on descents and corners when it comes to improving mountain bike skills. But few realise just how important it is to climb with control. And by climbs, we’re talking from uncomplicated, predictable gravel to loose, rocky singletrack. Here’s how to climb with control.
LOOK UP/AHEAD
You must know what is coming at all times when riding a mountain bike, which is why this appears in all of our skills articles. If you are looking up/ahead, you will know what to expect when you reach a climb. You’ll know if it’s long and steady, short and steep, what the surface is like and whether or not it’s likely to have many turns.
COMMIT
This is one of the most common reasons that mountain bikers don’t reach the top of a climb. You need to start the climb with the a positive attitude that includes a commitment to riding over the summit. This commitment comes in equal measure from your head and your heart. Essentially, if you desire to ride the full climb there’s less chance of doubt and fear sneaking in and snubbing you…
FIND A FIRM LINE
If it’s a predictable, stable surface, then line choice isn’t too critical. But if the climb’s surface is broken, rough, rutted, rooty, rocky, loose or any combination of those, just be sure to look 5-8 metres ahead so that you see which is the most firm/stable surface and ride that. Because your bike goes where you look by choosing a line in advance, you essentially sub-consciously guide the bike, not physically steer it. This reduces stress and allows you to focus more on your gearing.
OVER-GEAR RATHER THAN UNDER-GEAR
While it’s tempting to use your easiest gear to pedal up a steep climb, avoid this unless you have absolutely no more strength/power to turn the pedals in a slightly harder gear, especially on a technical or rough-surfaced climb. In order to get over rocks or roots or ruts you need some power and by climbing in a slightly harder gear you are able to accelerate for a few seconds across these sections without shifting. If it’s a long climb or if it gets steeper in places, then you still have at least one or two lighter gears to call on.
INCREASE YOUR TRACTION
On a climb, especially a steep one, you risk your front wheel unweighting, which can result in some instability and even a fall. You need to counter this by putting more weight on it. But this needs to be done without unweighting the rear wheel as this is the wheel that requires constant traction.
The best way to achieve this is to pull back and down on your handlebar (think of pulling you bars towards your rear hub) when the pitch gets steep. Pulling back and down on your grips with both hands moves your torso forward which adds some weight to your front wheel to stop it from lifting. This action also gives you some top-down force to ‘pedal into’, which ensures your back tyre is more consistently in the contact with the trail surface, increasing your traction.
This isn’t possible to do on turns, so use this technique on the straight, steep sections and then concentrate on line choice and consistent pedalling on the turns.Try to maintain some contact with the saddle as this also keeps your rear wheel weighted and reduces the risk of losing traction.Avoid standing too much on climbs unless it’s a very firm, predictable surface and/or not too steep. If you do stand at all, don’t lean forward too much as this unweights your back wheel and you lose traction.
START STEADY, FINISH STEADY
Some people attack the bottom of a climb with heaps of enthusiasm and then run out of steam when their heart rate starts to really elevate and their breathing becomes laboured. Rather start the climb at a more steady pace and try to maintain that all the way up. Or start a little easy – if the climb lends itself to this – and maintain this pace all the way up, increasing slightly for switchbacks and rough sections. Remember, your objective is to ride all the way up the climb, not some of the way up.
SWITCHBACKS
We covered climbing switchbacks comprehensively in Part 1 and Part 4 so refer to those for how best to tacklE switchbacks on climbs.
PRACTISE CLIMBING TECHNIQUE
If you really want to become a more composed climber, spend time practising climbs. Not necessary long climbs, but do repeats up shorter, steeper, technical climbs. You’ll be amazed how much you can improve simply be trying the same ascent a few times and changing something each time you come to a stop or have a light fumble.
If you missed the first four parts of this series, here’s where you can find them:
Part 1: Intended Direction
Part 2: Controlled Momentum
Part 3: Managed Centre of Gravity
Part 4: Corners
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