How to Shift & Turn a Mountain Bike

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Part of the video series: Mountain Biking for Tips, Techniques & Etiquette

Summary: Learn how to shift and turn smoothly and easily when riding on a mountain bike. Learn more in this free video series on mountain biking.

Views: 2,622 | Tags: mountain, biking, bike, beginning, beginners, mountainbikes, mountain biking


About the Expert

AP Aaron Phillips teaches mountain bike touring at the University of Utah and has logged multiple wins as a cross-country racer. He recently returned from a self... read more

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Video Transcript

How to Shift & Turn a Mountain Bike

Hi! I am Aaron Phillips for Expert Village. You will hear people sometimes when they are mountain biking, trying to do big shifts like lets say on the front chain ring from the middle chain ring to the small ring which is your easier gear. You will hear that happening on a hill and it doesn't sound pretty. You get a lot of kind of gnashing and welling and bad stuff going on. So shift before that hill so that when you hit that hill so that when you hit the hill, your legs are spinning nicely in your nice spinning gear and your revolution from getting on the pedals are pretty high. Cornering is an art as well. A lot of mountain bike trails have switch backs, if I am going toward a switch back, I want to kind of take it wide and I want to sight through the switch back find the apex of the turn. I want to keep that outside foot down. So when you turn always keep your outside foot down. And in mountain biking most important thing to think about when it comes to keeping your balance is use your eyes. I can't stress out enough, look where you want to go and you will go there. If you are worried about an obstacle and you are focusing your vision on it, just guess what happens? You hit it. So, mountain biking is just a sort of, there is cenergy between your sight and your eyes and where you end up going. So, keep that good line in mind with your eyes and you are going to end up going there, it is a beautiful thing.

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