Lots of arm pump, but I made it out alive and only walked a couple features despite the trail being pretty steep and technical. White ranch Colorado btw. From my understanding I just need to ‘ride more’ but if there’s anything specific I’m missing out that you can notice please let me know!
Did my first black trail yesterday. Any advice?
byu/thedopeness313 inMTB
by thedopeness313
4 Comments
Nice! How well is your suspension set up? I used to get a lot of arm pump on trails, but after setting my sag properly, it’s long gone. Small things such as a better fitting grips and angle of your brake lever setup and stiffness of handlebars can also help as well.
It’s hard to tell without seeing your body, but my guess from watching this is that your arms are too stiff. The reading your arm pump comments confirmed that.
Tough to grasp without a coach critiquing you while you ride, but especially on technical downhill, you want to keep your arms and legs very loose with your torso staying in about the same position. Let the bike bounce around under you, while you bend at the elbows and knees to use your joints as suspension. On a trail like the one in the video, you’ll know you are doing it right if your chest almost hits your handlebars a few times.
I rode for years thinking I was doing this and was not. Did a 3 hour session with a private couch and it totally changed my riding. Once you get this down, you won’t get arm pump on downhill ever again. I get more arm pump now when I find myself death griping on a strenuous climb than on a long descent.
Once you go black… Wear a fullface.
put the pedals under the balls of your feet, and put your front foot heel down and rear foot heel up, creating a “V” with your feet. Being on the balls of your feet gives you a bit of extra feet of the bike under your feet, and a bit of extra suspension/ movement. Creating the “V” with your feet will help your feet lock into the bike and give you a bif of extra grip.
Next thing I would look at is maybe putting your levers a little lower, and work on moving the bike around under you a little more.
Thats my advice, but your already killing it!