Why Don't People Tell Me These Things?

This post starts last week. Not the writing per se (the proofreading level alone will I'm sure convince you that this was not a week-long project), but the thought that went into it started last week.

You see, last week I was catching up on some Fat Cyclist reading that I had missed, when I read this little gem of a post: Distilled for Your Convenience: 15+ Years Worth of Acquired Wisdom.  Basically, he, in his unparalleled style describes....

...three things I have learned that I think are worth sharing. It’s entirely possible that my three hard-earned epiphanies may do someone some good.

 I always enjoy these types of articles and blog posts, because inevitably I pick up something from them at some point, though most of the tips are little things that have a nominal impact on my riding.  However, this one was different.

The three (paraphrased) tips that Fatty goes on to share are:

1. Ride with less air in your tires (20-22psi)
2. Slower is not safer - ride faster, particularly on the downhills
   
3. Ride without a camelbak or backpack

After reading this, it was a couple days before I could get back out to the trails (mostly due to rain).  The 2nd and 3rd tip I've heard before.  Sometimes I ride with a camelbak, sometimes I don't.  I always try to ride downhills faster (with varying levels of success), so that wasn't new.

But it was the first tip got me to thinking.  I'm not entirely sure where he lives, but I believe it is in the Redmond area (Washington), which means he's probably getting a lot of similar mix of mud and hardpack that I get here in Michigan.  I ride with tubes and I'm guessing that Fatty rides tubeless, which is why he can run at 20-22psi.  But I was wondering, am I running my tires at too high pressure?  I usually run between 40 and 50psi depending on sand, mud, and whether I remember to check my air level at all.

For yesterday's ride, I decided to try lowering my tire pressure, and ran the front at 30psi and back at 33psi.  I couldn't bring myself to drop all the way to 20, because I wasn't carrying spares and didn't care to find out the hard way that tubes didn't like that low pressure. The trail was a nice mix of intensely muddy with standing water (in the woods) and dry hardpack (in the sun).

Let me tell you...  this made a HUGE difference.  The biggest instant change to my riding I've ever felt.  I would not have believed it if I hadn't ridden it myself.  The ride was smoother (much less bouncing back wheel syndrome - BBW), braking was better, handling was tighter, I think my gut was smaller, and I'm pretty sure I was more attractive to my spouse.

I had no idea how little pressure I should have been running all these years, and just how much difference it would make overall. This also helps me see the attraction of tubeless (which I could never fully understand before yesterday).

When I was running off-road events for Trips for Kids, I used to make sure tires were at about 45-50psi, but now I see that was way too much - particularly for the lighter weight kids.  Sorry to make that so hard on all of you kids over the years.  That'll teach you to trust a guy who self-taught how to mountain bike.

Although I am in no way a expert at mountain biking, in honor of Fatty's post, I thought today, I'd share my top three tips anyway:

Ride lower pressure than you think you should - (yep, just learned it yesterday and its now my top tip.) I'm planning to run at 30-35psi off-road from now on, though I'll probably carry spares with me just to be sure I can ride out.

And my next upgrade will be to tubeless.

Look where you want to go, not where you're going - this sounds counter-intuitive and is probably the hardest thing to do, but it also is the number one tip that improved my biking when I was getting started.

As you are headed off the trail, if you stare at the tree, you'll hit the tree.  I try to look down the trail, pick a path, inevitably, the bike follows my eyes and onto the path.

Sure, at some point I suppose you might want to change where you look as you roll off the edge, but to be honest, I haven't had that happen yet (which means it will probably happen to me the next time I ride).  When I roll off the edge into the woods, its because I forgot to keep my eyes on my desired path and my panicked eyeballs are now glued on the mess of trees, shrubs, river, or dirt that I'm aimed towards.

Important disclaimer - I do still crash more often than I'd like.  But these crashes are usually due to a lack of good judgment or poor riding skills, not because I'm steering myself off into the wilderness.

My final tip isn't really a "skills" tip, but a recommendation: Ride with a group.  There are great group rides out there, and talking to folks is how you'll learn these kind of tips without having to read them on random websites. Plus, this will help with my second tip, because you'll be able to pick a wheel/line to follow (assuming you don't pick a wheel that leads you off a cliff).

I always seem to ride better when I'm with a group.  I don't know if that's because I step up to the challenge, or have examples to follow, or just that I put in more effort to avoid looking silly in front of others.

However, I must admit that I'm terrible at following my own advice on this one. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy riding with folks in group rides, but I find that I can't/don't make many of them. And I'm slow. So, there's been many times when I started with others and ended riding by myself.

Riding by oneself is not a bad thing. But then I'm having to figure out a lot of these simple tips for myself - save yourself the trouble and ride with a group.  And, I guess, that answers the question from the title. People don't tell me these things because I'm not there to ask the question/hear the answer.

How come is it that I usually end up figuring out how to blame myself for my own problems? If TV has taught me one thing, it's that someone else should be to blame....