Top 10 Essential MTB Skills – Ten Mountain Bike Handling Tips

Here are ten super-simple skills that will improve your riding.

Before you progress on to jumps or anything seriously gnarly, there are a few key skills that, if you get them nailed, will improve your riding.

What would you add to this list? Comment below and let us know!

Music:

The Global Mountain Bike Network is the best MTB YouTube channel, with videos for everyone who loves dirt: from the full-faced helmet downhill mountain biker to the lycra-clad cross country rider along with everyone and anyone in between.

With the help of our pro and ex-pro riding team we’re here to inform, entertain and inspire you to become a better mountain biker, including videos on:

- How to ride faster with expert knowledge
- Fix everything with pro know-how
- Ride anything with world-cup winning skills
- Dial in your bike with bike set-up advice
- In-depth entertaining features
- Chat, opinion and interact with us on the Dirt Shed Show

Welcome to the Global Mountain Bike Network | Covering Every Angle

Leave us a comment below!

Music - licensed by Cue Songs

[HenrySylvester]

Bonus tip: if you look at some of the clips you can see they have their peddles level when they are not peddling. This is a good habit to have so your peddle doesn’t get caught on a root or rock.

[wwcj]

My guys accent alone gives him +10 mtb skill points.

[sebastianreddan]

One I think you missed, off the brakes in the gnar and no mention of getting light or heavy on the bike where needed.

[daverd]

build confindence slowly ... best advice ever !!! thank you very much !!!

[scottfox]

Really appreciate the advice guys and I’m sorry to say that it is much needed in my case!

[jasonstewart]

Have you's thought about doing a video on protection?i.e padding, best most essential padding (helmet, shin guards?) and opinions on full face vs normal helmets? would be a really interesting video because a lot of it is a matter of opinion i guess :D love the videos!! just what i needed to fuel my mtb needs when the weather is bad outside ! keep up the good work!!

[jacobolson]

Keeping your head up and keeping focused on what is coming up on the trail is the biggest tip in my opinion. When you start getting hyper focused on the little obstacles and start staring down at your front wheel, that’s when you make the biggest mistakes like running into a tree or whatever lol. I speak from experience, we should all keep our heads up and looking far down the trail

[teirvin]

Good tips and great video production quality. Thanks!

[BeatrizCosta-vvbc]

It's my favourite channel of the bike!

[abisenior]

Really useful and helped me loads in Dalby Forest at the weekend 😄🚵🏼

[Highnoonshred]

Just reading this on the BICP level one manual!!! Thanks for the visual!

[AlejandroVidalesAller]

In my opinion, lower your chest to the bike is one of the most important things. I learned it the hard way. I kept putting one foot on the ground. However, after lowering my chest to the bar when climbing, cornering, and going fast through a lot of small sharp rocks, I enjoy the ride.

[mizsbae]

Very useful. Thanks for the tips ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️👍

[Sandwchs]

Did my first downhill MTB trail today with some friends, it was a blast on the way down and I felt like a pro using all these tips and flying down a rocky mountain (I'm from Arizona) But the uphill was a real task haha

[kilometricchicken]

Riding to your own limits is such a good one i tried to progress way quick and in two weeks of owning a bike was trying the hardest stuff at the local trail centre and ended up doing my ankle in 2 months later my ankles still dodgey and my confidence is back to zero! don't get ahead of yourself :P

[sixstanger]

Something I learned over the past two weeks - wearing elbow/knee pads helps with my confidence. I guess it's because I know that if I crash, I won't get minced like burger meat like I did before.

Also, I had to "teach" myself to remember to position my pedals horizontally to gain ground clearance. For me, I've been teaching myself to make it a habit of putting them in this position during downhill sections, regardless of how steep it is, and regardless of whether there's any obstacles in the path. Since you can see only so far ahead, already having your pedals in this position keeps you better prepared in case you do unexpectedly come up on a large root, log, or other obstacle.

Obviously, the terrain is going to vary widely depending on where you live/ride, but here in the southern US where I ride, the trails snake through dense forests, up & down steep hills that border a lake, and there's simply no escaping exposed roots of every size. Some descents are literally "staircases" of roots which can make for a pretty jarring ride on the way down, if not a bit unnerving.

But your tips have helped me out tremendously - I just remember to keep on that rear brake, tilt my weight back and above all LOL

[Kevin-fjoe]

I go with my friend's in country side in Indonesia, Wonosobo well although the road is like normal road, the road inclined about 10 to 40 degrees 70% of the ride, the total trip is about 20km or more and when declined we got good speed to the way to home of course our home not far from there (i'm live in city but outside the city like literally it's already country-side) so straight to our own home i'm 15 this may btw, and sorry for my english it's not my native language

[ubnaka]

Hey Neil! Love your how to vids! I'm struggling to Manual and think it may be a bike set up issue as I can't get the front up without yanking hard with my arms. Im 5'8" with long upper body, short legs and arms. Have a new Giant Trance SX Medium frame and 60mm stem and fairly flat bars. Thinking shorter stem and bars with a higher rise. Thoughts? Curious how tall you are and your current setup?

[leogeorgewilliamsmith]

Great tips, thank you for sharing guys. My girlfriend and I are looking to improve our skills and looking to get some new bikes. We have to make decisions between titanium and carbon? Hardtail versus soft tail. Also, I'm not liking the single front derailer stuff. How does that make sense? Would love to hear your comments on the above

[scottwilson]

I want to see you take a average rider and apply the skills in your vids with him a step by step kinda thing . let's call the rider IT short for ××it and let's see how he progress. This would be good to see