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A question of balance..
Being able to balance your bike and yourself is essential no matter what type of riding you do. Before you can develop and trail fluidity, you need to know how to stay still. Just balancing there at a standstill. Seems a daft thing to say, but get this right and you'll be amazed how better your riding becomes.
Nobody is born with natural balance, that's why babies thrash about and fall over for years before they suss out how to walk. As far as the bike stuff goes, the best techniques are learnt by trial and error. Take a look at the best trail riders as they shuffle about on the spot, positioning their bodies and pedals before their next surge forward. This is what you are aiming to achieve. Try riding slower and slower, work out what you need to do to keep yourself stable. As you almost reach a standstill, get your arse off the saddle, when your standing up you can shift your weight around more effectively. When you reach a standstill, you'll inevitably lose it, but don't fall off. Release the brakes and pedal off, then try again and keep at it.
The 'stop and check out the obstacles' technique becomes really useful as you start to tackle increasingly radical terrain. Regardless of whether your doing an ultra technical climb or about to pull a wild drop-in, the ability to combine standstills with speed bursts is essential. There are times when you'll have to come to a standstill, assess a situation and then let rip with full power in order to conquer the terrain ahead of you. Concentrate on holding the bike with the brakes and shifting your weight to keep everything stable, set yourself up for the next obstacle, then let rip. The trick is to find the right amount of relaxation and concentration.
You need to think hard about what you trying to do, but not so hard that you freak out and kick shit out of the bike. You'll soon learn how to control the bike in all tricky situations, weight shifts, standstills and trail pumping, making all aspects of your riding more enjoyable. Also, pulling a long steady standstill at the top of a nasty section looks real trick, gives you confidence and gets you loads of respect from your mates.
Article written by April 1999
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