Go forth and ride, then bring back pics

[grinch]

Plenty o stoke in here lately. New riders , new bikes, groms, dogs not to mention the scenic pics.
X2 on the tuck n roll klar. Before you have to get to the tuck n roll though watch the front brake especially in corners. A lot of new riders, especially athletic ones, will brake late into the corners and grab a fist full of front brake and get thrown on to their shoulder(most common injury). If so, tuck n roll
Stoked for u mtngirl . It could carry over to a great ski season.
Between breaking/dislocating fingers and wisdom teeth out I've had a month off. Nice to get back out

[Danno]

Well, certainly don't jump right into gnarly DH type stuff.

Now you tell me! I could have avoided this if I had known!

[Incompetent Boob]

1. x2 on pads. Get some lightweight ones like GForm that are easy to carry in your pack on the way up.
2. When you do wreck, tuck and roll when possible.
3. Spend some time riding lifts so you can get in lots of descending. Like skiing, most people who are skilled descenders have spent a lot of time on the chairlift or shuttling.
4. Realize that riding a mountain bike downhill on dirt is a lot more like skiing than riding downhill on pavement. A lot the same principles apply; angulation (upright chest, angled bike/lower body), counter-rotation (chest stays more in line with the fall line while the bike moves back and forth across it), initiating turns early with the front wheel (ski tips) then driving the rear wheel (tails) through the finish, quiet upper body/active lower body, etc.
5. Descend out of the saddle. Your mechanical suspension works much better in conjunction with your biological suspension. The compression stroke of your suspension is damped heavily to absorb impacts, but the rebound dampening is necessarily fast so that it can recover between successive hits without packing up. In practice, this means that your suspension can buck you right off the bike if you're sitting on the seat through bumps. If you're standing, you can soak up that rebound force with your arms and legs.
6. Looks like you have a dropper on that thing, use it. Lower seat = more ROM = the bike can move around under you more. Comes back to that quiet upper body/active lower body thing.
7. As much as possible, steer with your body instead of the front wheel.

Really good list. The parallels to skiing/boarding are really appropriate, I'm a hack but once I understood that it really helped me on my bike. Especially keeping a fairly stable torso and letting the bike move below you, as well as learning to drive the bike through the corners.
My additions to the list:
8. Ride with people who are better than you but patient. You'll learn by watching them, you'll see what's possible, you'll feel more comfortable and you'll push yourself more.
9. Be patient about progressing. Crashing hurts your confidence, make sure you're always pushing yourself but small steps and continuous improvement are the key at the start.
10. Ride any kind of bike as often and as much as possible to help feel at home on 2 wheels.

I really have to agree about riding lifts. Especially when you're a bit older when you start (i.e. not 16 or 20), you want to get better as quickly as possible. Riding lifts (and pump-tracks) will help you do that. Especially as you can easily repeat sections getting faster each time. Try Sölden, haven't been yet but have heard really good things from some mates. Great trails which support lots of different skill levels allowing you to gradually buid up your speed. Once you have some more time on the bike Muttereralm is quite good. Lots of roots and line choices but nothing crazy.

[Dantheman]

Now you tell me! I could have avoided this if I had known!

Holy shit, WTF happened there?!

[adrenalated]

Holy shit, WTF happened there?!

Very aggressive fingering?

[grinch]

Damn that's ugly. Bunny do that ?

[Danno]

Very aggressive fingering?

I finger with the best of them!

No, that was the end result of getting overconfident on run #5 of my only DH day ever (Sol Vista), where I attempted one of the small gap jumps at the bottom. Cracked my helmet, badly bruised ribs, shredded skin all over, and one completely crushed knuckle. That pic is from the second surgery, to clean out scar tissue (also had two smaller incisions on the palm). This was the pic after the first surgery. I've probably gotten back to maybe 90% with that finger, but I'll never play the guitar!

Oh, did I mention that the Sol Vista day was part of my bachelor party? And that the paperclip and rubber band setup (in the first surgery pic) became part of my wedding attire? At an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, and I couldn't allow my hand to get wet? Yeah, chalk that all up to not smart things done.

[Dantheman]

Oh man, yeah, pre-wedding/international travel is not a good time to be pushing it. At least you were getting exstream. Criscam has a pretty good story about putting himself in the hospital during his bachelor party. IIRC it involves falling off a second story deck while not so modestly inebriated.

[muted]

Sol Vista for your first time riding lifts? No wonder.

[mogul5480]

Klar, +1 on learning how to fall. Mrs 5480 took her first real mtb fall yesterday, moving at a snails pace on flat terrain without any rocks in site. Just got tired and lazy straightening out after a little decline and endo'd. It's the kind of fall I take at least monthly with no consequences by rolling over my shoulder. She unfortunately braced her arm and ended up with what I think is a hairline fracture of the radius bone.

[gravitylover]

Oh, and going faster actually reduces the chances of crashing.

Except when...

[Danno]

Sol Vista for your first time riding lifts? No wonder.

Where were you when I needed sound advice?

[muted]

Where were you when I needed sound advice?

Next time you get married I'll be your best man and we will go to Winter Park.

[panchosdad]

For me, I needed to crash a couple of times, to realize that ok, yeah, it hurts but also ok, yeah, I'm still alive and functioning. The fear of crashing on a mountain bike (for most people new to a mt bike) far outstrips the actual consequences of crashing on a mt bike. Once you crash, you realize that your fears were overblown.

Oh, and going faster actually reduces the chances of crashing.

I crashed at high speed, going too fast, and the results weren't good. 6 broken bones. Those of you saying that crashing is just part of it probably have never wrecked like that. And you're probably younger.

My advice is to learn slowly and try very hard not to crash.

[rideit]

Paging Beaterdit...

[mcski]

Is that a new steed for you too?

I wish. Just Demo'd. Still waiting for you to upgrade and sell me yours!

[WaistDeepGroomers]

MTB feels to me like more scrapes and bruises and less catastrophic injuries vs skiing. Nobody's blowing an ACL riding bikes which is nice. Have fun klar it's addicting!

[joetron]

Paging Beaterdit...

Oh dang!

That's what I was thinking. Lol. Sorry Sam!

[Bronic]

Where is this bronic?

Love the tom blake trail.

This was a ride out to the top of Red peak (Benchmark, or the top of east vail chutes). The first pic was on a little portion of trail that's called the commando run connector on MTB project and the second was from the grand traverse trail closer to the top of the gondola

[klar]

Big thank you to everyone for the tips and encouragement. Will attempt to do something with it once the weather stops being unpleasant. Took me a long while of complaining about not having a good summer sport before I finally bought a bike so I'm pretty stoked on it, hoping it fills the summer void eventually. Just a little worried by all the trees and rocks in my way!

At the moment I am having some difficulties figuring out good trail options but figuring out new ski zones also takes a while, so yeah... Almost all the single track (i.e. hiking trails) is technically illegal, with the notable exception of the Nordkette trail, which I want to be very far away from. Sölden sounds good, will try to splurge on a lift ticket occasionally.

Crazy cool kid stoke DTM!

[grskier]

Love the tom blake trail.

This was a ride out to the top of Red peak (Benchmark, or the top of east vail chutes). The first pic was on a little portion of trail that's called the commando run connector on MTB project and the second was from the grand traverse trail closer to the top of the gondola

That's sort of what I was guessing, I want to hit that up my next trip east.... Can you pm me some ride details?

[Touring_Sedan]

Oh dang!

That's what I was thinking. Lol. Sorry Sam!

I here he's good at matching his kit to whatever brand of Razor he's gonna finish his ride in.

[Dantheman]

I crashed at high speed, going too fast, and the results weren't good. 6 broken bones. Those of you saying that crashing is just part of it probably have never wrecked like that. And you're probably younger.

My advice is to learn slowly and try very hard not to crash.

I don't think Danno was referring to true "high speed" riding, i.e. 20+ mph. I think his post was referring to the fact that at very low speeds your suspension can work against you and make some obstacles harder than if you were carrying momentum.

[evdog]

Nobody's blowing an ACL riding bikes which is nice.

Don't speak too soon. I tore my ACL in a bike crash.

[Danno]

Next time you get married I'll be your best man and we will go to Winter Park.

deal. Wait, what?

I crashed at high speed, going too fast, and the results weren't good. 6 broken bones. Those of you saying that crashing is just part of it probably have never wrecked like that. And you're probably younger.

My advice is to learn slowly and try very hard not to crash.

I'd certainly agree with not trying to crash! But IME, a person who is new to the sport and trying hard not to crash will a) like the sport less, and more importantly b) be more likely to crash. (see my response to dantheman below).

MTB feels to me like more scrapes and bruises and less catastrophic injuries vs skiing. Nobody's blowing an ACL riding bikes which is nice. Have fun klar it's addicting!

Agree (but sorry evdog, there's always an exception). This was my point in post #2194.

I don't think Danno was referring to true "high speed" riding, i.e. 20+ mph. I think his post was referring to the fact that at very low speeds your suspension can work against you and make some obstacles harder than if you were carrying momentum.

Exactly. "Speed is your friend" is something I have been told since I started biking. That doesn't mean mach 10, and nobody in this thread would say that it's impossible to injure yourself biking (see my pics upthread). Because crashing is part of riding, and if you are not willing to crash on a mt bike you should just not ride a mt bike. It doesn't mean liking the crashes or seeking them out, just that riding fearfully of crashing is not helpful to avoiding crashing.