A for Air. Photo from the Mountain Bike Skills Manual, location Les Arcs, France.

Take it away Clive:

A TO Z OF MOUNTAIN BIKING SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES PART 1

Words: Clive Forth
All photos: http://www.frazerwaller.com/

Welcome to the first instalment of the A to Z of mountain biking skills and techniques. I’m going to take you from A to Z looking at skills on and off the bike. We will also look at mountain bike vocabulary, common slang and biking language.

A is for….

Air:  also referred to as “air time”. To take air involves jumping the bike so as there is “air space” between bike and the trail. We will cover catching air in J for jumping later in the series.

Air Pressure:  shock absorbers and tyres are important components on our bikes; by fine-tuning the air pressure we can increase the performance of our machines. From absorbing hits from the trail to increasing grip in the corners, under braking and while accelerating, keep an eye on air pressure and experiment with different settings. There will be more details on both tyres and shock absorbers later in the series, I will also discuss some points in “B” for Bike Set Up.

Anxiety: Roots are a common problem for riders and can cause you to tense up and slide out, stay relaxed and look for the grip between them.

Today’s key word for discussion is Anxiety, an inhibiting factor that stops many riders achieving their true trail potential.

anxiety |a ng ˈzī-itē|

noun ( pl. -ties)

A feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome: he felt a surge of anxiety | anxieties about the moral decline of today’s youth.

• [ with infinitive ] desire to do something, typically accompanied by unease : the housekeeper’s eager anxiety to please.

• Psychiatry a nervous disorder characterized by a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behaviour or panic attacks.

ORIGIN early 16th cent.: from French anxiété or Latin anxietas, from anxius (see anxious ).

My skills sessions usually follow a similar pattern, I meet my clients for a morning coffee where we sit and take care of the formalities, this gives me a chance to get to know them better, discuss past riding experiences and for those I’ve seen before check up on progress. The meet and greet banter is not just about downing some caffeine and having a chat, there is a deeper meaning to my schedule, the ice breaking tea and coffee gives them a chance to relax while I peer into their sub conscious riding mind set.

All of us have had a near miss or off at some point, this is a common theme in why people go to see skills instructors. The icebreaker meet and greet also helps to ease them into the day, they may have had a long drive or been in a rush to get ready, others are slightly apprehensive about what they are in for.

All of us have had a near miss or off at some point, this is a common theme in why people go to see skills instructors.

To ride efficiently and be in control you need to a have a calm mind, my good friend and fellow instructor Ian Warby calls it “still mind, dancing body”.

If you’re wired up in a similar way to myself then you will be looking for an improvement on the bike one way or another, whether it’s getting fitter, riding smoother or mastering a new skill, many of us strive for improvement, a large factor for the growth of Apps like Strava.

When it comes to skills anxiety, our mental state play a huge roll in our ability to progress.

Have you ever asked yourself any or all of the following?

Why do I freak out at a certain sections of trail?

Why can’t I ride that line?

Why am I afraid of getting air?

Why does that drop-off faze me?

What causes us to crash?

Typically the main reason for the above is your not calm, the mind is an amazing tool and can throw up some very interesting scenarios just when you least need it. If your mind goes haywire and neglects to focus on the task in hand then a successful outcome is less likely. Full concentration and commitment is required to ride technical terrain, if you are anxious for some reason and not relaxed you naturally tense up, this is a problem!

We are capable of riding the most technical features so long as we are supple and relaxed, quite often the bike will do its bit below you and you’ll sail out the other side, remember your limbs are suspension and need to respond to the trail input (that’s the hits and slips coming from below).

Full concentration and commitment is required to ride technical terrain, if you are anxious for some reason and not relaxed you naturally tense up, this is a problem!

A lot of people think that they are riding the trail and this is where the problem starts, in actual fact you are riding the bike and the bike is riding the trail. By doing Ian’s funky dance you manoeuvre the bike through the terrain, placing it just where you want it. The bike rides the trail below the tyre. Confidence is everything, if you lack this then you will be tense and every lump and bump the bike is taking you will feel.

By learning the core skills and techniques in a safe environment and in a progressive manner you build muscle memory so the body responds instinctively, this gives you confidence, the confidence will allow you to commit to technical trail features without hesitation. Remember even the professionals get it wrong from time to time; mentally reward yourself for recovery moves and don’t beat yourself up for bailing out and getting it wrong (the ground does a good enough job of that).

Remember, practice makes permanent no one is perfect.

Armchair training: Clive takes a break in his 50 Great British Trail ride project.

A is also for…

Arm pump:  when the muscles are used repeatedly through movement or vibration.

This typically occurs in long rough downhills where high frequency bumps exist.

The muscle burns up all the available oxygen, the ability to remove (flush) lactic acid from the muscle is inhibited and the muscle becomes pumped up and tense. The muscle is basically swollen and movement of the attached limbs becomes reduced while a burning sensation is felt. Solutions to this below in armchair training.

Armchair training:  we can make improvement to our riding without even getting off our butts, from arm workouts, ankle rotations, breathing exercises, playing computer games and stretching it is possible to improve your performance on the bike. You may have a desk job or just loath riding in bad weather! Think about your posture when sat and use various aids like powerballs and Chinese Baoding Iron Balls to help reduce arm pump.

Clive’s book, The Mountain Bike Skills Manual, is available on Amazon and all major book stores, an in depth look into mountain biking.

Clive’s website: www.mtbskills.co.uk

Winter is here. So too is the rain and mud we associate with it. Make sure you prepare your bike properly and you’ll find yourself much more inclined to get out riding. Photo: Billy Thackray

The trouble with riding through the winter, with all that mud, rain and potentially ice and snow, is the damage such conditions can do to your pride and joy. However, with a few precautions there’s nothing to stop you smiling right through the winter and enjoying every muddy mile of it.

Keep it clean!

An obvious one this, but it needs stating. Mechanical parts on a mountain bike don’t take too kindly to being caked in mud and still asked to work flawlessly. Metal and water don’t mix, but regular and thorough cleaning will prevent rapid deterioration.

Use the time cleaning your bike to carefully inspect it. There’s a lot more wear and tear on the many components of your bike in winter. In particular, pay attention chain, cassette and chainring teeth, cables, brake pads, bottom bracket and headset and pivot bearings. Spot any potential problems before they become a bigger issue during a ride.

Tyre choice

Lightly treaded tyres might be great in the summer but show them a bit of mud and they’ll hoist up a white flag and surrender. Now is the time to invest in some tyres better suited to the muddy conditions of the winter. We’re not going to start making tyre recommendations here, we just don’t have the space to get into this debate.

Onza Greina tyre – perfect for muddy trail riding. Click over to our tyres feature to find out more…

So have a look at our roundup of the 13 best mud tyres here.

If you’re still unsure, a good place to start is to see what local riders are using, or ask a club or bike shop in your area. There’s nothing like local knowledge to find the best tyres suited to the particular demands of your nearest trails.

Tyre pressure

Along with tyre choice, tyre pressure is hugely important when tackling inhospitable terrain. Generally you want to go with a little less air pressure to provide you with more traction when it gets muddy. Like tyre choice though, it can be dependent on your local terrain. Do you ride somewhere rocky or rooty? And the tyres you choose will influence the pressure. Our advice is don’t be afraid to experiment until you find a good balance.

Lube your chain

Choose a lube designed for wet weather conditions, as any oil can quickly and easily be washed off the chain when riding through deep snow and slush. To ensure your bike runs smoothly, make sure to lube the chain before and after each ride. There’s a huge choice of lubes but generally a wet lube will be better suited to riding in mud. If it’s dry and frozen a dry lube will work well, but dry lubes need more regular application.

With all the mud and water getting at your drivetrain, it’s more important now than at any other time of the year to keep moving parts well lubed. Photo: Billy Thackray

Mudguards

There will undoubtedly be a lot of mud and crap being thrown up into the air and much of it will land on your body, which (as anyone who has experienced this will know) is very unpleasant. So stay warm and dry with a decent front mudguard. It’ll remove the need to scrape grit out of your eyes on a regular basis if nothing else.

Okay, so we know they’re unfashionable and all, but a rear mudguard can also provide a good first line of defense against the slop coating you from head to toe. We’d certainly always step out with some sort of front guard at the very least.

All that mud build up isn’t going to help matters. Wash your bike regularly to at least get the big chunks of mud off – it’ll save weight on the bike and make the ride more fun. Be careful though: viciously blasting at bearings with a jet-wash will flush all the grease out. Photo: Chris Jackson

Avoid rust

Treating those components likely to rust quickly with a corrosion preventative such as ACF50 will make sure your bike lasts the winter, and that under the encrusted dirt lies a gleaming, unsullied machine just waiting for the restorative flush of hot, water and a decent, bike-specific, cleaning agent.

Carry your essentials

Having a mechanical is bad enough at the best of times, but when it’s pouring with rain and your toes are frozen, it’s the last thing you want to deal with. Make sure to carry all the essential tools and spares you need to keep your bike rolling on a ride. At the very least carry a spare tube, decent pump, tyre levers if you need them, and a high quality multitool with a chain breaker. Other things to consider are spare brake pads, as all that grit and water will wear through quickly. A spare mech hanger and a few spare chain links can be a good move too; mud has a tendency to crunch drivetrains…

Feeling the cold? Check out our recent Essential Guide to base layers here.

There’s no need to stop riding just because it’s winter. Image by Yann Ropars via Flickr.

Mountain biking through the British winter isn’t easy, but you can either put the bike away in the shed and go into hibernation, or just tough it out. If you’re going with the latter option, good on you. There’s a few steps you can take to ensure riding through the winter is a little less pleasant.

Minimise working parts that wear out

A singlespeed has a lot less to go wrong. Image by Anthony DeLorenzo via Flickr

Get a winter bike with fewer valuable working parts to wear out. A rigid singlespeed bike is the perfect low-maintenance companion for piling on the winter miles, with no gears to wear out and high-tech suspension to go wrong.

Regular serving and maintenance

Get the mud off as soon as possible after a ride, and use a low-pressure hose if possible. Image by Tom Jenkins via Flickr.

Whichever bike you ride in the winter, all that gloop, mud and sand is going to accelerate the wear on vital parts of the bike. Make sure to thoroughly wash your bike after every ride (avoid the jet wash if you can, your bearings will thank you) and lube moving parts well. Pay close attention to the condition of the brake pads, gear cables, chain and sprockets to identify worn components before they cause you trouble out on the trail.

Go night riding

Good lights massively extend your riding options. Image by Darren Smith via Flickr

It’s the most fun thing in the world and is really good for enhancing your riding skills because you have a lot less time to react to stuff on the trail. And let’s face it, if you only ride when it’s daylight you’re not going to get much riding in. Good lights aren’t cheap (though lights that simply pump out lots of lumens but lack bells and whistles are now amazing value) but they’re cheaper than new wheels or some other upgrades you could buy for your bike.

Switch to winter tyres.

Tailor your tyres to your local trail conditions. If it’s like this, you need narrow mud tyres. Image by Jason Rogers via Flickr.

We don’t necessarily mean mud tyres here, but depending on the type of trails near you and how much rainfall we have this winter, specific mud tyres could be the best investment you ever make. The best way to find a good tyre for your local trails is to ask local riders and shops. Whatever tyres you run, it’s worth experimenting with the tyre pressure. Try running them a little lower to get some extra traction.

Keep yourself warm and dry

The right clothing makes the difference between having fun and being miserable. Image by Jordan via Flickr

There’s no quicker route to misery than losing the feeling in your extremities so get yourself some bike-specific warm winter clothing. You don’t need to spend a fortune either as there’s some very good value for money clothing that will cut it just fine. The basics of a good winter outfit are a long sleeve base layer, a decent jacket, three-quarter-length pants shorts or tights (to cover your knees up), gloves and a helmet liner or head band to protect your head and ears.
Insulated, waterproof winter boots are a luxury you won’t regret; overshoes run them a close second. Wear the thickest merino socks that will fit easily inside your shoes, but don’t pile the layers in there. Too thick or too many socks will cut off the circulation to your toes and make things worse.

Waterproof overshorts are the bomb.

We discovered this a few years ago and they transformed our riding. You should discover them too.

Get your mates out

Get your mates out so you’ve got company, banter and back-up. Image by Yann Ropars via Flickr.

Riding on your own when it’s cold and wet can be a soul destroying experience, so rope your mates into a regular ride and stick to it. Whether it’s every Sunday morning at the café or a Thursday night evening ride, having a regular ride in the diary is great for your motivation and gives you something to look forward to. If something goes qwrong, there’s safety in numbers benefit, and it’s just a lot more fun to race your mates through the puddles.

Set goals and aims

It can help to have some purpose to your riding sometimes, whether it’s just being fitter for the following spring, or targeting an event like Mountain Mayhem or Megavalanche. Having a goal in mind will help you make the transition from the warm and comfortable sofa to the trail.

Carry all the tools and spares you’ll need to fix your bike

The last thing you want is a long walk home if you have a mechanical on a very wet or very cold ride. So ensure you can fix your bike in any of the likely eventualities We’re talking a chain tool and quick link, zip ties, spare tube, a good pump, patches and glue just in case, some money for a cab home and a charged mobile phone. Just in case.

Mudguards

Even a simple set of mudguards like good old Crud Catchers will help keep the flith under control. Image by Wooly Matt via Flickr.

Yes, yes we know a lot of you don’t like mudguards. But the truth is that front and rear mudguards can keep so much of the mud and spray off you that you’ll avoid getting quite as wet through as you would without them.

As chores go, cleaning your chain ranks right up there alongside unblocking the toilet or creasoting the shed for sheer unwelcomingness.

But it’s one of those things that has to be done – a clean chain is a smooth-running, long lasting chain and nothing spoils a ride like a chain that sticks and slips and won’t shift and then breaks. There are a few different approaches to chain cleaning, so pick the effectiveness/time compromise that suits you best…

1. If you happen to have a chain with a quicklink magic joining doofer than you can undo by hand, the most effective method is just to take the chain off and dump it in a container of suitable degreaser. You’ll probably want to use a large, shallow container rather than, say, an empty tuna tin – if you can coil the chain up so it lies flat you don’t need much degreaser.

2. If you don’t have a quicklink, splitting and rejoining the chain just to clean it is a bit of a performance, so you’ll have to deal with it in situ. Shift into the gear with the straightest chainline you can find (middle chainring and fifth sprocket on 27 speed setups) so you can spin the cranks backwards without the chain wandering around the place. Use degreaser and a stiff-bristled brush to work it into the chain. It’s a good idea to set aside a brush just for chain cleaning – they get pretty oily and tend not to get anything else very clean…

3. If that seems a bit longwinded, the slightly easier (and certainly less messy) option is a chain cleaner. There are loads out there, all essentially similar – the chain runs through a load of whirly brushes sat in a bath of degreaser and comes out nice and shiny.

4. Whichever method you choose, give the chain a good wipe down with a suitable rag (impossibly faded bike race t-shirts from the early 90s are a good choice). With a bit of practise you can hold the rag around the chain and wind the pedals backwards to run the chain through.

5. If you’ve used degreaser and a brush you may find it more effective to rinse the stuff off with some water. If you’ve done this, spray the chain with some thin water-displacing stuff like WD-40, GT85 or X-Lube. It won’t be hefty enough to actually lube the chain, but it’ll stop it going rusty.

6. Once the chain’s nice and shiny and dry, reapply a proper chain lube. If you’re in a hurry to start eating toast, you can lube it up just before the next ride. But if you can, doing it before you put the bike away gives the stuff time to get everywhere it needs to be and puts you one step nearer to ride readiness next time. We like lubes that come in squeezy bottles – they’re more time-consuming to apply but it all goes where you need it. Putting the lube on over the cassette ensures that any that does wander at least ends up somewhere semi-useful.

More maintenance

There’s hundreds of top maintenance tips in the BM archive.

No one really likes riding in the rain. Riding in the mud, now that’s another thing, but there’s few people that will readily admit to happily venturing out onto the trails when the rain is coming down like stair rods.

However, with Britain enjoying the unique climate it does, it’s inevitable that you’re going to have to ride in the rain on more than a few occasions. Even in the summer.

But it’s not all bad; some of our best rides have been during such conditions. With a few careful kit choices, riding in the rain needn’t be the unpleasant experience you might expect it to be.

So here are some of our recommendations for kit that will help you enjoy any ride in the rain. Even if it’s only by a small margin, that’s enough in our books to make it worthy of consideration. Perhaps we’ve missed something out or you don’t agree with some of our suggestions, if so let us know in the talkback box below.

Waterproof jacket

An absolute essential, and yes an obvious one to go on this list. But there are jackets and then there are good jackets. A jacket shouldn’t be an area to skimp on, after spending the best part of a couple of grand on a mountain bike; you really should invest in a decent jacket.

One that boasts high levels of water resistance and high breathability are a must, and extra features like pockets and vents push the price up, but don’t let them stray you away from investing in a jacket made from decent fabrics.

Mudguards

We’ll be the first to admit that we’re challenged by the aesthetics of fitting mudguards to our pride and joy, but having experienced just how nice it is to ride without that continuous spray of water up your back and bum and flicked up from the front wheel into the face, mudguards just can’t be beaten when it’s really horrible out there. There’s plenty of choice and many are lot more stylish than 10 years ago.

Waterproof socks

When we first discovered the absolute joy of wearing waterproof socks, it literally changed our view on riding in the wet. Get some, you won’t regret it. I’ve been wearing the same pair for nearly all my winter riding and the socks are always the first item of winter clobber that comes out of the depths of the wardrobe at this time of year.

Gloves

Once you loose the feeling in your hands on a cold or wet (or both) ride there’s no getting the warmth back in them quickly without seeking refuge in a warm cosy café with a large mug of hot chocolate. Waterproof gloves, usually with some sort of membrane inside the fabric, will keep the worst of the rain from turning your hands into shrivelled prunes.

Clear glasses

As contact lenses wearers, there’s nothing more painful than getting mud splattered in the eye when slamming through a deep puddle. Even without contact lenses, it’s a good idea to stop all that mud, rain and grit from getting anywhere near your eyes (you’ve only got the one pair after all) so a pair of inexpensive sunglasses with clear lenses – or yellow for low light riding – are a really useful bit of kit to remember on your next ride.

Headwear

A woolly hat or beanie underneath your helmet acts as a good defence against all that cold air that your wind tunnel designed lid does so well to channel across your scalp – all well and good when it’s hot but in the winter that’s not really what you want. A thin hat, ear warmer band or Buff is a must (even if you have a good head of hair).

What’s your essential wet weather gear? Let us know in the comments box below.

Mike Hall won the perilous Strathpuffer 24-hour race solo in 2011, cementing his name in the great hall of UK enduro racers with a performance bordering on insane.

Unfortunately he won’t be defending his title when the event goes ahead this weekend, with bigger goals on the horizon, but took the time out to share his top tips with riding the event solo. And even if you’re not riding solo, or the Strathpuffer, there’s some good tips in there.

1. Its all about the brakes

The abrasive mica at Strathpuffer is famous for eating brake pads quicker than anywhere else but there are ways to make them last.  Fit box-fresh pads in the middle of the race without burning them in and you can expect to be repeating the procedure every lap.

Most brake pads rely on the heat and pressure of braking to complete the cure cycle and harden the  friction material to withstand the rigours of use.  This is fine for most people and most types of riding but start them off in cold, wet abrasive conditions and the relatively softer material will be wiped out before its had chance to harden up.  They could do this at the factory for you but then your pads would cost twice, if not three times, as much.  Generally speaking more expensive pads get a longer cycle but its still not enough to ready them for the kind of conditions you can see in a UK winter but there are a few ways you can do this yourself.

To start off with you’ll need some sintered metal pads (I used Clarks with Avid Elixir brakes for last years event and had exceptional results).  Make sure you have ones with the friction material keyed into the backing plate, rather than just stuck on.  You can tell they are keyed together if you look at the back of the pad and there’s holes in it and the friction material pokes through. This gives a mechanical joint between the two and reduces the chances of them separating.

No.1: The Blowtorch

The first way you can prepare the pads is to expose the braking surface to some heat.  A minute or two under a blow torch will do the trick and your looking to see a change in colour of the pad material (a sort of rainbow pattern will appear like oil in water).  This is good for ‘in the field’ prep with limited tools but it’ll only prepare the surface rather than all the way through the material so the results may be less effective.  However a hard outer surface should give you time to get some heat into the brakes before they disappear and they can harden as you go.

No.2: The Turbo

Fitting the pads to the rear calliper and pedalling against the brake on a turbo-trainer (you won’t need the resistance roller applied) is a great way to achieve this too and it’ll give you a little last minute resistance training!  Like the blowtorch you’ll only be preparing the surface here but the advantage is you’ll be applying heat and pressure so you should get slightly better results.  You’ll know when they’re up to temperature by the lovely warm brake smell.  Around 3 minutes or more per set should do the trick.

No.3: The Oven

This is potentially the best way to achieve the longest possible life for your pads by heating them all the way through. Before I tried this method (in combination with the turbo method actually) for the ‘puffer last year a few people told me it wouldn’t work and friction material would fall off the pad, however in 24 laps I only replaced pads 3 times and that was because I thought I should. Only one set of those actually needed replacing, the others were about half worn, so I don’t need any more convincing.

I also took a few extra precautions in my method though, borrowed from my one time day-job ‘shaking and baking’ high integrity aerospace electronics, to minimise the chances of disrupting the bond between friction material and backing plate.

First up household ovens aren’t great at accurate temperature regulation but you can give yourself a fighting chance of repeatability by removing any ‘thermal mass’ from the oven as this will all require heating up and can cause a significant difference between the temperature setting of the oven and the actual air temperature around the pads.

That means get rid of all the baking trays and grill pans you keep in there.  Next you want to try and hang the pads in a cold oven. Avoid laying them on a baking tray as it may act as a heat sink on the backing plate side. You are trying to bring the pads up to temperature in a steady, uniform, manner so there’s less differential expansion in the two types of material.

Bring the temperature up to 200^oC (the bond on sintered pads is typically made using copper, which has a melting point of around 1000^oC so you should be comfortably inside temperatures that would weaken it) over a period of around 15 minutes and keep it there for a further 15-20 minutes before switching the oven off and opening the door, allowing them to cool slowly.  If you want some extra confidence you can give them a spin on the turbo too before/after as this has the benefit of adding pressure to the bond.

I should make a disclaimer though about hardening your pads in this way.  Using them over long periods and especially in the warmer weather could lead to you overheating the brakes more often and damaging them (depending on the type of brake you have).  Having said that the pads I had in my rear brake at the end of last year’s ‘puffer went on to complete a ride across the continental divide, ending in New Mexico in 100^oF heat before the seals on the brake finally died a few weeks later and I’m not really sure the pads were to blame.

2. No really, it’s all about the brakes

So, you’ve prepared your pads well but you can still help them last (or not) with your braking habits? In a cold mucky race like the ‘Puffer dragging the brakes, or better just one brake, down a descent can be better than repeatedly applying both brakes or feathering them. This can seem counter-intuitive but hear me out:

By doing the majority of breaking on one wheel, one brake takes all the energy and converts it to heat, rather than sharing the load and having two brakes heat up half as much. Also when you first apply the brake the pad/disc interface will be gritty and dirty. With a few revolutions the interface between pad and disc will be cleaned and if contact is maintained, it becomes very difficult for mud and water to get between the two again.

Pad and disc also get warmer and evaporate moisture. You can also gauge the feel of the one brake you are using and still have the other to fall back on. For the first 4 laps of last years race I used the rear brake exclusively knowing that I could switch to the front and get roughly the same number of laps in before I needed a pit-stop.

3. Take a little time to look after your bike

As well as wearing brake pads at an alarming rate the Strathpuffer’s soil is equally ruthless in trashing transmissions.  Use a fraction of that time you saved by not replacing your brake pads as often to rinse down the gears and re-lube. Thankfully while the puffer’s mud is abrasive, it also washes off quickly under a hose. If you have pit help (and if there’s anywhere you need it, its here) then this is where they are most valuable.

You can stuff your face with hot pasta and sugary tea while they give your machine a mini-service. Avoid extremes of chainline as this will wear your teeth from the side. I used XX last year which was an expensive mistake as it chain sucked in the smaller ring meaning I was in big-big a lot and wore the large chainring out. I’d consider using fitting a cheap cassette, chainrings and jockey wheels and a 1×10 or 1×9 set up with a steel chainring would work pretty well on that course too.

4. Look after yourself too

Hands and feet are going to take some serious abuse at this race and this year’s edition looks like its going to be a decidedly wet one. Despite the claims of waterproof shoes and gloves it’s inevitable that the water will eventually get in. At last years event my feet were in water soaked winter boots for over 20 hours and the skin on my toes was like tissue paper. Think about pre-treating your skin with Vaseline or similar and have a few pairs of dry gloves on hand. Avoid gloves with a liner that comes out with your hand when you take them off, they’re hell to get back on with cold wet hands.

5. Well fed is well fast

Remember to eat well. The Strathpuffer lap starts with a long steady climb which is perfect for eating on.  Fill your feed-bag, pockets or hands with plenty of energy goodness and munch your way to the top. If you’re cold you need the calories for central heating as well as pedal turning.  Hot food is great; being cold and tired is not.

6. Ice Tyres

Ice tyres are a big help for staying upright but they needn’t be the difference between winning and losing if you take it easy and keep your wits about you. It looks like these aren’t going to be deployed en mass this year anyway but if you wake to sheet ice covering the fire-road and your not packing spikes; fear not.

Rideable lines eventually appear and as a soloist you’ll know every inch of the course before long and how it changes subtly as the race goes on. Even in the iciest conditions ice tyres were only a significant advantage for a few laps. After that lugging around an extra kilo of tyre starts to become tedious.

7. Don’t Panic

Things happen at races and that’s never more true at the ‘Puffer, but they can and do happen to everyone. So if mechanicals and other bad things happen to you, just keep at it as you never know what might happen.

In all endurance races keeping the mind stress free, going with the flow and staying relaxed helps you delay the effects of fatigue whereas getting tense when thing aren’t going to plan is a short cut to feeling worn out early on. I ran for half a lap after my tyre shredded but it still didn’t cost the race. Try not to think about how much your bike is disintegrating beneath you and enjoy the madness for what it is. Sunrise and the scenery at the ‘puffer is a feast for the eyes after so much darkness and absolutely worth waiting for. It also means that the end is only an hour or two away!

More info about the mad event here www.strathpuffer.co.uk/home

Keeping your bike running in tip top mechanical order at this time of year can be far from easy, what with all that mud, crap and ice threatening to derail your best efforts at every opportunity.

We decided to ask owner of a company specialising in lubes and maintenance products to share some advice for us mountain bikers. Luckily Green Oil’s Simon Nash thought this was splendid idea and thoroughly agreed, and gave us the great advice you can read below.

Seven mountain bike maintenance top tips

Snow means salt so coat it in oil

Generally, its not a good thing to put on too much lube on your chain. However, when it snows, that salt on the road changes things. For snowy weather, we recommend a thick layer of wet lube to coat your whole chain. This will protect from salt flinging up from the road, thereby preventing rust.

Lube those gaps

You need oil mainly between the links of the bicycle chain – this is where friction occurs, and oil is needed. Excess lube on the outside of the chain can attract dirt and dust. Therefore, lube the inside of the chain for one length, spin the cranks to work it in, then wipe off excess with a rag.

Cable rub

Cables can rub against your frame, and if aluminium, wear it away. This can be solved cheaply by putting a sticker or plaster over the affected area. Then just replace these as they wear out. Purpose- made patches can purchased at your local bike shop. Or you can use nail vanish, to keep covering the rubbing area (see tip below).

Too lazy to wash?

If you are lazy, at least lube up the chain every three weeks, wiping off excess with a rag – this is the most basic aspect of bike maintenance

Inflate your tyres

Pumping up tyres to the correct level is a second most basic step to keep your bike running swiftly.

Rejuvenate your saddle

Tarnished or plastic fabric saddle looking grey and old? This can be brought back to new with a bit of chain oil! This maintenance secret is mainly for aesthetic purposes, if for example you are hoping to sell that old bike that’s been in the shed for a few years. It will make the saddle look shiny and new.

First, dab some biodegradable chain lube onto a cloth – you probably don’t want petrochemicals on your rear. Wipe the oil all over the saddle fabric, applying more oil until the saddle is shiny. Wipe over again with a fresh rag to remove excess. It will go from a light dull grey, to a dark shiny black. This also works on aged tyres, though of course watch out loss of grip caused.

Nail those chips

If you want to cover scratches and chips on your frame, nail varnish can work a treat, protecting the metal underneath. It won’t look great, but that can be a good thing to stop the bike getting stolen! Old bottles of nail varnish can often be found at charity shops or Christmas boot sales very cheaply, and even come with their own brush.

Written by Simon Nash, Director of Green Oil UK Limited. See the full range of products at www.Green-Oil.net

Let us know what you think of these tips in the comments box below.

A mountain bike chain is prone to rust; even the mildest of watery conditions can bring about that familiar (to us) mucky brown appearance.

The steel used for the chain is, of course, prone to rust in even the mildest of watery conditions and brine is a much more aggressive agent of corrosion. Chain lube, besides providing a lubricating film between sliding surfaces, might be expected to coat them and thereby hinder the corrosion process. Which does a better job: wet or dry lube?

There are, of course, various wet and dry lubes of differing composition and, presumably, effectiveness. For the purposes of comparison we applied Muc-Off wet lube and Squirt dry lube to two chains prior to riding in especially challenging conditions. The former is the kind of thick, slow-flowing stuff that sticks to everything and might be expected to keep salt water at bay; the latter is a water-soluble dry lube with a fine reputation.

We ran two chains for a short period of time, one lubed with dry wax and the other with a wet lube. The results were eye-opening.

The rollers of the dry lube-treated chain have plenty of visible surface rust on an otherwise shiny surface where no lube remains, while the sideplates appear unaffected by corrosion. Contrastingly, the wet lube-treated chain has surface rust on the outside of the plates while the rollers appear to be oily and dirty if relatively rust-free.

Importantly, both chains have stiff links, those of the dry lubed chain being less obvious  and cannot articulate to the same degree between sprocket and chainwheel. However, the dry-lubed chain ran much more smoothly afterwards with no “gritty” feel and even without the further application of lube soon freed off. The wet-lubed chain felt awful and needed a good clean before it would run smoothly.

The wax contained in the dry lube made a more effective barrier to corrosion than the oil of the wet lube. Although the sideplates of the wet lubed chain retained some oil coverage, they rusted slightly. Those of the dry-lubed chain did not.

This test also showed that the wet lube, as generally believed, attracted and held grit. It also failed to prevent rust attacking the inside surfaces of the chain, the stiff links indicating that they have begun to corrode despite the fact that the chain visibly retains a film of oil. The dry lube did not attract grit to anything like the same degree, meaning that a new application of lube is all that is needed to get it running nicely again.

So, for severe winter use a dry lube - and this one on particular – not only keeps the chain running more smoothly but staves off corrosion and, since it does not attract abrasive grit, should ensure a longer service life for chain and sprockets.

We’ll conduct another deeper into the winter. What sort of chain oil/lube do you currently use, and recommend?

This article first appeared on RoadCyclingUK.com.

On earlier jaunts, the approach to small to medium logs had me hauling on the anchors and carefully bumping over it. Trouble is, doing that kills all my speed -pure sacrilege! I’m discovering it is way more fun to stay smooth and thus faster, plus it’s a lot more effortless.

How I learnt to manual

I started first by rolling up to speed bumps on a quiet residential road and lofting my front wheel up onto it. Then I moved on to doing it off taller curbs.

On approach, I compressed my arms with my weight forward, then rocked back and un-weighted the front wheel, pulling on the bars, locking out my arms at the same time as rocking my hips backward and lifting my front wheel.

I found I was able to balance when my inner thighs were touching the widest part of the saddle.

I thought that a manual was just a wheelie, but it’s not. The difference is that you don’t pedal when you manual – the greater your speed, the longer you can manual. Currently I can just manual enough to get me over a small drop, log and ditch. It was scary to begin with and when I transferred my manual skills to the trail I did have to concentrate, but by the end of the ride it became something I didn’t think about so much.

Getting it right took a fair bit of patience, I saw some neighbours twitching their curtains as they saw a girl on a mountain riding up and down over a bump.

Who cares, this weekend I’m going for a five second record.