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Intro to Flow at Sandy Ridge: a Case Study of our June 6th Clinic
Sandy Ridge is one of our favorite trails to ride, session and teach at. The wide variety of trails and features offer tons of opportunity to dial in and implement new skills and maneuvers.
The flow trails are packed with bermed turns, rollers and other features, and the best part is the lower trails are often empty, meaning we don’t have to pedal far to get practice time in.
Our “Intro to Flow” program focuses on body position and pressure control, which helps riders increase their balance and stability on the trail. Adding pressure and loading our suspension, bike, wheels and tires helps us stay planted and equals maximum traction and fun in the turns!
We start learning new body movements off the bike, shifting to basic drills on pavement to practicing implementing the new skills. Our focus is on creating good habits and teaching our bodies new movements with the goal of getting them into our muscle memory.
Good form on pavement translates to good form on the trail! And you can never get too low.
Line choice plays a big part into how we have to position ourselves in corners. We avoid preaching a “right or wrong” instead focusing on “cause and effect”. And of course, sometimes it’s fun to take the inside line and practice the lines that are “not as ideal”.
The “attack” or “ready” position is the foundation of our course and everything we teach. It doesn’t just apply to rollers and berms either, as we transition from the ready position to a more rearward implementation to lift the front wheel. While there are a number of ways a rider and lift the front wheel over obstacles, since we only have a few hours to work with you, we focus on building the movements that can scale into the next progression.
For example: Front wheel lift > Manual > J-hop (we’ll save this for a post of it’s own!)
While we cover the manual and j-hop, our focus is on negotiating all the rollers and table top features at Sandy. One of our favorite trails to lead riders down is Little Monkey, which for many riders is new to them. (if you haven’t ridden it yet, check it out, it’s a blast!)
The table tops and rollers offer the opportunities to take to the air. This being our Intro to Flow class, airtime isn’t the goal; (and in fact is discouraged during this session – it’s better to learn to run before you learn to fly) control and negotiating these features safely is. Applying the a low center of gravity and the ready position and adding weight shifts give us the ability to stay centered and in control.
August 14th, 2016 Intro to Flow (Part I) Clinic at Sandy Ridge
Bikeskills Instructors Jason Van Horn and Inga Beck lead an Intro to Flow (Part I) clinic at Sandy Ridge. Clinic focuses on the skills and technique needed to maximize confidence and fun on the trail. [Read more…]
June 21st, 2015 Young Riders Clinic
September 21st, 2014 Girls Trail Riding Clinic
Bikeskills April 27th, 2014 Tamarancho Trail Riding Clinic Gallery
February, 2014 Bikeskills Skills Clinic at Rockville
We’re posting a lot more photos than usual this month, mainly because we love how pretty it is at Rockville Park! What it lacks in overall mileage, it more than makes up for with its landscape and diversity of terrain. Rockville Park serves up some of the most technical and advanced singletrack in the area, perfect for learning, practicing and applying new skills.
April 7th Ladies Only Clinic Recap
Did you know that Bikeskills offers clinics for small groups in addition to our regular trail riding clinics? All you need is yourself and three friends in order to get a personalized clinic that caters to the skills you want to focus and hone in on. In fact, this month’s NorCal clinic was limited to ladies only, and these ladies took advantage of the personalized coaching from our team to work on their skills.
We started off checking everyone’s suspension and cockpit set-up to verify sag was set correctly, tire pressures were set, brake lever placement was good, and riding positions optimized for handling on the trail.
We then moved across the street to focus on dialing our riding positions. Mastering the neutral attack position is a key building block for progression!
Moving on, the group worked on some drills that emphasized working their range of motion, and unweighting their front and rear wheels.
We covered a wide range of skills, both on and off the trail including how to climb and descend switchback turns.
All the ladies were climbing and cleaning the numerous technical switchback turns on the climb up after the drill- success is sweet!
Everyone in the group showed remarkable progression over the course of the day. And the most important part is that everyone had a great time improving their riding safely.
Thanks to Inga Beck for taking all the photos and organizing the clinic for the ladies. See you all on the trail soon!
Going the Distance: Journeys of Recovery
Going the Distance is a film that chronicles the lives of four Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivors. A collaboration between three-time Emmy Award winning filmmaker David L Brown and Epic Way Sports (Bikeskills, Skiskills, Surfskills) Going the Distance’s goal is to raise awareness and critical funding to help those who have survived what is the leading killer and disabling injury affecting those of us 5-45 years of age. You can help by donating and as passing on the URL of the Going the Distance trailer to your friends, family, and colleagues: help us help them.
Superbowl Sunday Coastal Trail Ride
It seems that there’s always a rideable break in the winter. Some of the guys and gals at Trek Bicycles even rode on New Year’s Day… in Wisconsin! And breaks in winter weather often bring the best conditions to capture a great “point of view” video with your GoPro or other wearable camera. Check out Mt Tam’s only legal single track, the Coastal Trail, on Superbowl Sunday.