Common Mountain Bike Riding Mistakes

Although each mountain bike rider rides their mountain bike in a different way - there are common mistakes, which are easy to rectify which most riders have in common. Luckily for most riders, once they become aware of the source of the problem, these issues are pretty easy to fix. Most of these issues affect veteran riders as well as newbie riders to some degree - and the rectifying action varies from small adjustments to your bike's setup, right across to making minor adjustments to how you ride the mountain bike. The good news is, most of the solutions to these problems are free!

Mountain Bike Setup Mistakes

We have covered common mistakes in setting up a mountain bike before, but this topic fits really well into this post. In this post we concentrate on subtle changes you can make to improve riding and handling benefits.

The first setup is really simple - and that’s tyre pressures. If you are riding a MTB from a road riding background - it’s likely that you will want to fill your tyres up towards the top end of the recommended PSI. The issue with this, is that your tires will bounce off obstacles such as roots and rocks - which makes the bike twitchy and difficult to handle. Although tyre pressures are personal preference, try running tyre pressures at the lower end of the tyre manufacturers recommendations.

Brake Lever position changes are another change that can make a massive impact on rider performance. Many riders will benefit from raising their brake levers - allowing them to drop their wrist, allowing the grip on the handlebars to be more relaxed, avoiding an uncomfortable death grip on the handlebars.

Mountain Bike Riding Position Mistakes

One of the best things MTB riders can do is lower their centre of gravity on the bike. Many MTB riders perch themselves on top of the bike, with very little pressure on their feet on the pedals - lowering the centre of gravity and dropping heels and wrists, we become more a part of the bike, making the bike easier to control and accelerate.

If you remain perched on top of the bike when you hit the trails, it can be a real challenge to stay on the bike - at worst, this can result in a trip over the handlebars, at best - fighting to stay on the bike ruins the enjoyment of trail riding.

As well as dropping the wrists and heels, focus on pushing your body mass behind the centre line of the bike - finding what MTB riders call ‘the pocket’ of the bike. In this position, you should instantly feel more in control, with faster and more instant acceleration. The quickest way of finding this position is to lower your MTB saddle by a couple of inches.

Avoid Pulling Up

One of the easiest mistakes to make when riding on a mountain bike, is to pull up on the handlebars when approaching obstacles or tricky terrain. The issue with pulling up on the handlebars, is that the bike slows down - but our body mass continues to accelerate - which is quite unsettling to experience. Although you may get away with this, with just a hard landing - the fix is to unweight the bike.

The best way to unweight the bike is to drive the bike forward using your feet and hands, accelerating the bike with your body mass moving over the rear of the bike, this effectively unweights the bike and allows the front wheel to rise and lift smoothly.

Blaming The Bike

Mountain Bikes are more technologically advanced than ever, and improvements in MTB design and components can certainly help mask poor techniques. If you are struggling on your MTB, don’t be so quick to blame the bike - instead of upgrading parts, have a think about what you can do to improve your skills as a rider.

Smooth Is Fast

Try and review your riding performance, and focus on the smoothness of your ride Vs raw speed. Charging down a trail and somehow not crashing, is not necessarily the sign of a succesful ride, instead - look at riding progress, skills and the smoothness of the ride. The more you focus on riding smooth, the more your speed will improve and increase without focussing specifically on that.