- 22 hours ago
It’s long been known that us road cyclists may not have the greatest abilities on the bike, and those of us that do may have learnt it off the tarmac. The most likely is from riding off-road. So, with the support of a Lapierre ambassador, Grant ‘Chopper’ Fielder showed me what I should be doing off road and how it can benefit my road riding. Maybe a mountain bike should be the next bike that we all buy as it clearly has a lot of benefits to our road cycling.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:05Are you missing out on a whole other world of cycling? It's long been known that leaving the
00:09road bike in the shed and taking out a mountain bike does have quite a few benefits to us roadies,
00:14but what are they and how can your road riding benefit from mountain biking? Well, I've been
00:19joined out on the trail by Chop, who, if you don't know, is a Lapierre ambassador and has
00:24been at the forefront of the UK free riding scene for nearly two decades. A long time.
00:29That's not too bad. So with the help of Lapierre, Chop is going to give me all of his tips
00:34and
00:34tricks. He's going to teach me about mountain biking, and I'm going to see how that can help
00:38my road riding. And hopefully I'll be able to answer the question, should a mountain bike be the next
00:43bike I buy? So Chop, what's your first tip? I would go with technique. So for example, the road is
00:51always
00:51consistent. It's super flat, but with mountain biking, you do need a lot of techniques. The
00:57terrain is forever changing. There's a lot of loose surfaces. So learning how to brake and
01:01understand your grip, you can take these techniques to the road, which is going to make your road
01:05riding a lot easier. So for example, it's also last minute decisions as well. So there could be a
01:11pothole there, there could be a vehicle, or there could be a curb where you need to jump up. And
01:15with
01:15mountain biking, you will learn all of these different techniques to be able to overcome all
01:19those problems. So I guess one of the key things you're going to be able to do when you're out
01:22here on
01:22the trails is actually learn the limits of the grip and what the tires are capable of, right?
01:26Exactly that. So with my mountain bike, compared to a road bike, the pressure is more than half
01:31less. Yeah. So there's going to be a lot more softer grip. So you can go into these corners a
01:37lot harder,
01:38and you can really put your trust into the tires. And this is where it's going to benefit your road
01:43biking. So I guess another really important thing is braking as well, because that is, again,
01:47it's very different to how you brake on the road than as you do out here, right? So how does
01:53that
01:53differ and how could we learn from mountain biking into the road world? So with road, you have a lot
01:58of time to decide when to brake. You know, there's lots of things coming out and there's cars going
02:02past you, not coming towards you. With mountain biking, you've got a tree right there. You've got
02:07endless amounts of corners. So it's nonstop split second decisions, and you need to brake a lot. But the
02:13more you learn about braking, the better your riding becomes. Yeah, because I guess what it's
02:18going to allow you to do is make sure that you're not going to lock up. You're going to be
02:21making
02:21sure that you're coming to a controlled stop. And basically, that's what you want, because that's
02:25going to keep you safe. Exactly. So like, if you are out on the trails, the last thing you want
02:29to do is
02:29go too heavy with your front brake, because there's loose ground. And the main thing that we do need to
02:34know is that we've got good tyre pressure, and we're relying on how our bike is set up in order
02:39to
02:39brake better as well, if that makes sense. Absolutely. I think one of the key differences
02:45that I've noticed straight away, though, actually being a roadie is this is a lot quieter than the
02:50roads. Oh, it's amazing. It is pretty good. So again, tell me about that, because actually,
02:56this is quite nice, isn't it? It is really nice. That's the whole reason why I love mountain biking
03:01is because you're in the woods. It's dead quiet. The only thing that you've got to contend with is maybe
03:07a
03:07dog walker. Exactly. So yeah, I mean, this is nice and chill. I mean, it's what eight o'clock at
03:11the
03:11moment, the roads are packed. And here, absolutely dead, we've got the place to ourselves. So I mean,
03:16I think, really, the dream. Exactly. If you want to avoid the roads, come here. I guess actually,
03:23in a bike park like this, you're not just stuck to one route, are you? You've got so many different
03:27ways you can ride this place, right? Oh, absolutely. That's what I love about it. Like, if you're bored of
03:31one line, you've only got to aim that way, and you're on a total different line, and you're out in
03:35the woods,
03:35you've got to worry about absolutely nothing apart from your bike handling skills. Absolutely. And I
03:40guess that's, I mean, it's always going to be good for the mind after a long, hard day at work,
03:44or even before work. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Like, the whole reason why I come out,
03:48and why I'm into mountain biking in general is because no matter if I've had a good day or a
03:51bad day,
03:52if I go out on my bike, I'm going to have fun and I'm going to clear my mind. What's
03:57better than that?
03:58Now, there was one thing, as we were coming out here, there were some pretty steep rams that we had
04:02to ride
04:02up or I had to ride up to get out here. I imagine, and I really hope, I must have
04:08seen some power
04:09benefits there, right? Absolutely. So with mountain bike parks, they always tend to be on the side of
04:14a hill. So you let gravity take you, but most of the starts are at the top. So you have
04:19to look for a
04:20lot of different ways up there. And that's also very fun in itself. But the main thing I like about
04:24mountain biking is flow. And there's lots of trails where you will need to go uphill every now and
04:29again, and you'll need to go up there pretty quick and you're going to have to get these beefed up
04:32as
04:33well. And the benefits from this is explosive power, which you can then replicate on the road.
04:39So say, for example, you're at the traffic lights and you want to get up to speed as quick as
04:42possible.
04:43Yeah. You can use that technique.
04:46Absolutely. And I guess on the flip side, though, having a good high-end power is going to help me
04:49in
04:50sprints, attacking on climbs. There's basically no end of benefits to just having a high-end power.
04:58So Chop, what's your next tip? I would say anticipation. There is so much going on in
05:05a mountain bike trail that you can take to the road. So when you're riding on a road bike,
05:11you can be a bit complacent and you just take it for granted and you just find yourself just being
05:15a
05:15robot. Yeah, do right. But with mountain biking, you can't. So whatever's in your vision,
05:20your peripheral vision, you've constantly got things constantly going. So you need to take in
05:24every small detail. So I'm talking about the weather, I'm talking about the ground,
05:28I'm talking about the trees, your bike setup. What line did I choose before? Is that still
05:33going to be available? Because it could have been blown out from the previous rider. So it's forever
05:37changing. And I guess there's one other thing, which is actually gearing as well, because that's
05:42one thing that I've been able to learn from today is actually just being able to prepare myself with
05:47my gears. And actually that's directly applicable to the road, isn't it? Yeah, exactly that. So with biking in
05:52general, you always need to look forward. So whatever's coming up, there could be a hill.
05:55So you need to start thinking about sinking your gears for that section. With mountain biking,
06:00you're off road. So there's going to be a lot of bouncy terrain as well. So that's when you need
06:04to start thinking about having your chain nice and tight to avoid any slap and things like that. So
06:08there's lots to take in with gears. So Chop, what's the next tip? The next tip would be give
06:16something else a try. There's so much variety with mountain biking, you know, you've got dirt jump,
06:22slope style, free ride, enduro, e-biking, gravel, that's listing only a few things to do. And that's
06:28all off road. So there's lots of things that you can try. There's bike parks all around the world.
06:33And especially in the UK, there's loads. So within a couple of hours of a journey,
06:37go with your mates, enjoy yourself and push yourself. Because if you don't push yourself,
06:42you don't learn those extra, I almost crashed skills. And that's what I thrive off living on the edge.
06:49If you just look at what we've got in the UK, there is quite a good variety of different types
06:53of riding at all these different bike parks, which we can learn a lot from. I think it'd be very
06:57easy
06:58for us roadies to ride the same routes over and over again, and actually just fall into a bit of
07:04a
07:04lull of just doing the same thing constantly. Whereas here, you're really pushing yourself and
07:08actually, you're taking yourself out of your comfort zone, aren't you? And that forces you to learn those
07:12valuable new skills. Exactly. So you've got places like Swinley, for example, where you can do a nice,
07:17gentle loop and then push the edge a little bit, you know, go out of bounds there. But then you
07:22could go to the complete opposite and you can go up to Wales, where it's full of sharp, big rocks
07:26everywhere. So test yourself. Absolutely. All right then, Chop, any more tips? So more tips. When I look
07:32at a road rider, they're shaped like a Dorito. So huge legs, small torso. However, with mountain biking,
07:40it's the opposite way. So bigger shoulders and a more stronger core. And the reason why mountain
07:45bikers have a stronger core is because the amount of pulling and pushing and manhandling the bike,
07:50these skills you can use on the road. So going back to what I was saying earlier,
07:54having to hop up a curb in a split second, it's much easier to do when you can actually move
07:58a
07:59bike around. Yeah. And that is, that's great. Well, absolutely. And are there any sort of kind
08:05of position benefits or power benefits? What about that? Because having a strong core is pretty key.
08:09Yeah, absolutely. So with road, you're going to be over the front of the bike and you need to hold
08:13that
08:13position to be in those aero positions and whilst your legs are acting as the motor. So being in
08:19that position is very key for road as well. And I guess actually, I know from experience that having
08:24a strong core actually really helps with climbing as well, because it means you can kind of keep
08:28your upper body kind of fairly relaxed. And again, just let the legs do their thing, be the motor of
08:33the
08:33bike. Yeah, let the body do the work and let your core just be the structure. Yeah, exactly.
08:36Exactly. So there we have it. I hope you found loads of those tips really useful. I know that I
08:41did.
08:42And if you've got any tips or tricks that you've found in mountain biking that have benefited your
08:47road riding, then do drop them down in the comments. I want to say a big thanks to you,
08:50Chop. Thank you very much for all your knowledge. Big thanks to Lapierre as well for supporting this
08:54one. And if you enjoyed the video, drop a like, subscribe to the channel for more content,
08:58and we will see you again very soon.
Comments