CAR PARK SKILLS: PART 1

It’s that time of the year again where the trails are slippery, the weather is offensive, and your bike time is limited. Instead of concentrating on winter skills, or even regular mountain bike technique, we thought it an ideal time to take a fresh approach and encourage you to play. Take a look at any good rider and you’ll see how they are able to flick their bike around with ease and somehow have this innate ability to place it exactly where they want to. Why is that? Are we to assume they are just naturally gifted? Or is there something else going on? Over the next few issues we’re going to encourage you to find a quiet corner and just muck about on your bike. Wheelies, skids, endos and track stands mostly seem like tricks for kids, but they will give you such a hard-wired understanding of how to balance your bike that practising them will undoubtedly make you a better rider on the trails as well. So why do so few of us take time to master these skills?

THE COACH

ANDY BARLOW

Before joining Dirt School Andy liked to win things — races like the Scottish XC Champs and the Scottish Downhill Champs. Since 2009, though, he’s coached some of the world’s best riders with Dirt School and helped