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I do recall you talking about the licensing class now. I was thinking about the dirt riding school. A lot of them are race oriented, but a fundamemtals class starts out the same. Hands down best teacher I have seen for new ones is Mercedes Gonzales, but I don't have any idea if she is still giving courses. Gary Semics and Gary Bailey both had some good tapes available. They are a good place to start. I encourage anyone to video themselves though as in any sport and see if you are actually doing the prescribed moves. It makes the learning faster. The most basic drill I know, and it works to gain confidence is doing repeated figure 8's. You do them on "everything". You do them at different speeds. When you want to start going faster you turn up the intensity and the amount of gears shifted between the turns. If you do them until you sweat you wont believe how much better you get at braking, turning, and shifting. Add some drills on starting out on different grades and side hills and you will have a great set of skills that will easily adapt to a lot of what you are going to do on trails.I am sure y ou were told to look far ahead when you ride. For dirt lots do well if they scan out to a point in the distance and then back in to the front of the bike. We share trails, so looking side to side and being aware all the time of your surroundings is something everyone should constantly remind themselves to do.
I do recall you talking about the licensing class now. I was thinking about the dirt riding school. A lot of them are race oriented, but a fundamemtals class starts out the same. Hands down best teacher I have seen for new ones is Mercedes Gonzales, but I don't have any idea if she is still giving courses. Gary Semics and Gary Bailey both had some good tapes available. They are a good place to start. I encourage anyone to video themselves though as in any sport and see if you are actually doing the prescribed moves. It makes the learning faster.
The most basic drill I know, and it works to gain confidence is doing repeated figure 8's. You do them on "everything". You do them at different speeds. When you want to start going faster you turn up the intensity and the amount of gears shifted between the turns. If you do them until you sweat you wont believe how much better you get at braking, turning, and shifting. Add some drills on starting out on different grades and side hills and you will have a great set of skills that will easily adapt to a lot of what you are going to do on trails.
I am sure y ou were told to look far ahead when you ride. For dirt lots do well if they scan out to a point in the distance and then back in to the front of the bike. We share trails, so looking side to side and being aware all the time of your surroundings is something everyone should constantly remind themselves to do.
