Read this article from MTB Guru... Useful stuff: Momentum is your friend Pedaling is hard work so you want to do as little as you can get away with. Look at that a little differently; if you want to get as much speed as possible from your efforts in the engine room, momentum is your friend. Once your bike is rolling you want to do all you can to maintain that speed and that means using your momentum. http://gallery.mailchimp.com/88ca9c3dbbe35ff6efc5284eb/images/momentum_friend.gif Confused?... It’s all about planning ahead. For example, there is a steep rise on the trail a few meters ahead (Point C), and it’s too steep and too long to simply freewheel over. Most riders will freewheel till they start running out of momentum (Point B) and then scratch around in their gearbox to find the correct gear [you can hear this in most races when riders are caught out; crunch crunch as they powershift and tiny little pieces of their drive train brake off and lighten their bikes ;-)] and then start pedaling from the bottom, crunching down through the gears plodding and grinding to the top in a low gear. Or You could boost your speed (Point A) before you hit the rise then stay in the higher gear speed up (Point B) and pedal out of the saddle maintaining your speed over the top (Point C). There are no prizes for guessing which is the faster way up and over, BUT the most surprising part is that the faster out the saddle effort is far more energy efficient than the low slow approach. By maintaining your speed you will hit the next section of the tail faster, giving you more forward momentum to attack whatever’s coming up next, this enables you to carry your speed on and on…….. Getting this approach right takes concentration and practice, but when you clear a fast section of single-track this way you will be able to feel the “flow”. There are two keys to using momentum effectively: 1.) Looking well ahead 2.)Pre-selecting the right gear. Finding yourself in the wrong gear wastes time, energy and forward momentum as you struggle to find the right gear – and crunching gearshifts aren’t great for your drive trains health either. Shift lightly when you’re not putting the power down and shift early by choosing your line and making decisions before the trail changes again. (Click here to read how to shift correctly) Next time we will chat about fork set-up "The best mountain biker out there is the one having the most fun" ~MTB Guru~
