THE MTB MINUTE

Learn how to be a master of rock gardens

What’s the secret to going fast on the trail? Well, the truth is there is no one quick fix to make you ‘fast’, but there are lots of techniques and tips that will always help to increase your speed.

During your riding lifetime you are going to come across unexpected rock gardens when you are out riding your mountain bike. One of the hardest parts of coming across an unexpected rock garden is keeping calm, focused on the outcome, not the problem.

Perfecting this technique will take some time, but in this episode of the #MTBminute our lead Scottish guide Chris Gibbs gives you the basics to get you on your way to finding some real smooth trail speed.

7 easy steps to mastering how to ride rock gardens

1. As you spot a rock garden on the trail, keep your body in neutral attack position
2. Scrub speed in the smoother sections of trail before the rock garden
3. Spot your line through the rock garden, remembering that the obvious line may not be the best – don’t be a sheep!
4. Aim to regain traction in the smoother sections of the rock garden and go light/unweight over the rougher sections
5. Maintain as much speed as possible through the rock garden, skipping over the rocks will be much smoother than tracking the profile of each individual rock
6. If required, use short sharp pedal kicks to produce extra speed/momentum
7. Reduce any unwanted excess speed on the smoother section after the feature

Tick, tick, tick, tick…

What can you learn in a minute? Well, quite a lot as it turns out…

From crossing a river to single speeding your bike on the trail, in the #MTBminute we take on some of the most pressing questions around your mountain bike life and attempt to show you the key stages in just 60 seconds!

Using decades of collective guiding, riding and mechanical experience we’ve carefully created each minute-long video to give easy-to-follow, practical tips that will instantly demystify skills and techniques. They might still take a lifetime to master but with the #MTBminute at least you’ll be off to a solid start.