Big Mountain Riding

“Single speeds make you work smarter. Even if you’re a geared rider at heart, riding a single-speed occasionally makes you a better, more efficient rider. Being efficient is key to single-speed and why I’ve been able to compete with geared riders.”

- Fuzzy Mylne, Single Speed champion

Setting up for Single Speed Success

- Excerpts from the Mountain Bike Action interview with 29er’s John “Fuzzy” Mylne

Vic Armijo interviews Fuzzy Mylne, a single-speed racer who has been posting some impressive finishes out west in the epic race scene. Taking 6th place overall at the 2008 Sierra-Tahoe 100 pitted him against such epic race champions as Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough, Tinker Juarez and Josh Tostado. The man knows a few things about racing single-speeds, and he shares his top tips to help you become a better rider.

Fuzzy rides single-speeds fast ... So can you!

1. Work your way up to being a single-speed maestro. “Take it easy in the beginning and avoid steep or long hills until you get the rhythm of it and learn how to climb without overdoing yourself every time,” advised Fuzzy. This will help you prevent the much-discussed strain on your knees that can come along with single-speeding.

2. Get the most out of your guns. “Strong arms and overall upper body strength is a definite advantage for getting a little extra power for getting up a hill by working the bike back and forth like a sprinter out of the seat, but in slow motion. Wide riser bars will give you more leverage for working the bike. And I’m big on bar-ends—just pull on those as hard as you can to help leverage the cranks around.”

3. Keep the front end weighted. Yanking on the bars and lunging with each pedal stroke while climbing can make it challenging to keep the front wheel planted. Fuzzy counteracts that by using a lower front end, “I put fewer headset spacers and a flatter stem to help me to keep my weight forward when I’m climbing and standing.”

4. Momentum is your amigo. With gears, many riders make speed by powering into corners, scrub speed late and forcefully, roll the corner and then put the power down to speed out of the corner. However, Fuzzy observes, “On a single-speed you might find that your gear is too low to really accelerate out, so instead keep your speed up and stay off the brakes.” He adds, “Momentum’s key for a single-speeder in other ways; keep your momentum on the rolling hills, especially the short steep ones. And truly I’m only working half the time compared to the geared guys. I work on climbs, but every where else I’m drafting off of them and recovering.”

5. Spin more, bonk less. Many elite SS riders push big gears, but Fuzzy, a former roadie, chooses lower ones comparably. “I like to keep a higher cadence. You’ve got to put the miles in at a high cadence for your body to get used to that.” And he gears down even more for real epics, “I want to be able to sit and climb as much as I can to save energy.” He generally makes his gearing variations on the rear, “I use the same chain-ring, a 32 tooth on my 29er, and I used 34 when I was riding 26-inch wheels, then use anything from 17 tooth cog to maybe a 21 or even a 22 if the course is really, really steep.”

Read the whole interview with Fuzzy Mylne at Mountain Bike Action online.

© 2009 Big Mountain Riding

Countin' Coup

Why do we like all mountain riding? Because there’s something simple and pleasing about trying to ride everything the mountain throws at us. Flow doesn’t come naturally in big mountain riding; the skilled all mountain rider has to make it himself. Here are 5 tips for turning common adverse trail conditions into a challenge and the opportunity for creating big mountain riding flow.

1. Count Coup on fallen trees or low hanging branches. Often the all mountain rider comes across partially-downed trees hanging over the trail. Remember that you have a wide range of motion aboard your bike, so practice this move to clear low overhangs. I call it Counting Coup, because my inspiration was the horseback warriors of old who would lean down beside their saddles at full gallop to count coup on their enemies. Start slowly – miscalculating this move will hurt more if you are moving fast. Move forward, in front of the saddle. Then swing your body down beside the bike, moving your center of gravity back beside the saddle as you do. Now, as you approach the overhang, make a call on your clearance. If the overhang is too low for the bike to pass through while vertical, lean the bike over away from your body, using your center of gravity as a counterbalance. On the other side of the overhang, swing back into pedaling position, and hit the gas to the next challenge.

2. Keep the front end light in sketchy conditions. Here’s how to have more success dropping steep sketchy sections and riding in shifty surfaces. Say you are dropping an eroded steep laced with roots and maybe even stair steps. Lighten up your front wheel by shifting your weight back to the back of the saddle or even further back. The last thing you want in these conditions is for the front wheel to plant against a root or a rut and stop. Let the front end float loosely and keep the rear end tracking. The steeper the section, or the bigger the obstacles, the further back you should place your weight.

3. Hit logs / roots head-on. If you’re riding deep in the woods and the trail is crossed by roots or a downed log, use the space you have to line up and come at the log at a 90-degree angle. Especially when wet, this makes for a much higher rate of successful crossings than just approaching the obstacle at whatever angle it crosses the trail. Additionally, try lifting the front wheel and lightening the back wheel as much as you can as it crosses the obstacle. “It’s almost like a bunny hop, but you’re not really taking off. You’re just going light,” says pro Steve Peat in BriLo’s Mastering Mountain Bike Skills.

4. Look where you want to go. I love the simplicity of this tip. However, it makes a big difference in rider confidence and success. Not only will you know where to focus when you’re flying down a singletrack descent, but as you gain confidence, you can eliminate much of the other “noise” from your field of vision. Basically, it’s a simple principle that you will tend to go where you are looking. Think of learning to drive a car, or when you started riding. So, look at the line you want to flow, largely ignoring all else. The more you practice this, the less you will let anything distract you from the eternal line. This really pays off on technical features, like log rides and bridges, and on extremely narrow, hillside singletrack.

5. Use gravity to flow over big obstacles. Overgrown and unmaintained trails can throw sudden surprises at the rider like downed trees, big rocks/drops, or bridges and log crossings with missing approach ramps. If you encounter these obstacles while descending, remember your old friend gravity. The little bit of extra momentum supplied by the earth’s pull can get you over that unexpected bigger-than-you-thought-it-was surprise.

As always, these tricks and tips require practice and some good karma to work every time. But oh the satisfaction when you ride something none of your riding buddies can!

©BigMountainRiding