H+I Adventures’ 5 Essential Mountain Biking Tips

These mountain biking tips and tricks will help you make the most of your time on the trails and our tours.

Our top tips and tricks on how to mountain bike

There are so many factors to riding a mountain bike. From your bike and its setup, to your riding style and skill level, and of course the trails and their condition. All these pose different challenges that require you to think on your feet, or rather pedals. We’ve compiled 5 of our essential mountain biking tips to help you get the most out of your riding, making your time on the trails more enjoyable.

1. Mastering the Attack Position

The attack position is one of the core mountain biking techniques that really helps not only your control, but trail speed too.

This is a strong and aggressive position on the bike that sees you bend your elbows, working the bars and bike into the trail in harmony instead of fighting against it, all the while your eyes are searching down the trail for potential obstacles.

BC has the perfect mountain bike trails for those with the skills to handle them. Part of our mountain biking tips blog.

Mountain bike tour New Zealand taking in the trails of Cardrona bike park near Queenstown in New Zealand. Yeti owner Chris Conroy using the attack position as seen in our essential mountain biking tips.

2. Improving your cornering skills

Cornering with confidence is one of the simplest things you can do on a bike, but it can also produce one of the most enjoyable feelings on two wheels.

Getting your technique dialled in will allow you to carry more speed and have more fun. No matter where you live in the world, or where you might be travelling to, you’re going to encounter corners whether they’re flat, steep, rocky, or muddy… The basic ideas is the same.

Marissa keeping her eyes on the prize as she mountain bikes in British Columbia in Canada. As part of our best mountain bike tricks.

H+I Guide Mark Clark in the woods of Torlundy, Fort William. Part of our mtb tips blog.

Yeti EWS race Jubal Davis riding the Porthills of Christchurch, part of our mountain bike tour New Zealand and as seen in our best mtb tricks blog.

3. Negotiating River Crossings

There are, of course, so many diverse landscapes and terrains to ride mountain bikes in. No matter where you find yourself riding, it’s likely you’ll encounter a river crossing somewhere down the line.

Whether it be a raging torrent pouring off the hills in Scotland, or snow melt making a break for freedom somewhere in the Alps, knowing the correct and safe way to approach a river crossing is one of our most important mountain biking tips.

4. Getting a grip of wet trails

Love them or hate them, sometimes you don’t have a choice but to ride wet trails… Especially if you live in Scotland, like us!

Although slipping and sliding in the slop might not be everyone’s idea of fun, there are a few techniques that can help everyone make the most out of the mud and roots.

H+I Guide Mark Clark in the woods of Torlundy, Fort William. Part of our mountain biking tips blog.

How to Ride Wet Trails on a Mountain Bike which is one of our best mountain biking tips blog.

5. Hike ya bike!

There are climbs out there that not even the fittest cross-country whippet will scramble up, meaning it’s time to loft that bike atop your shoulders to access some of the best descents imaginable.

Hike-a-biking, the last of our essential mountain biking tips, features quite heavily on our Scottish and Norwegian adventures. For good reason though, that little bit of extra effort helps access some true trail gold.