Foldable Bikes Party: How to track stand on a mountain bike

Friday, 22 July 2016

How to track stand on a mountain bike

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BikeRadar has teamed up with the mountain bike coaching site Ryan Leech Connection to give you the first six parts of its Baseline Balance Skills for Mountain Bikers online course for free.

The full course features 42 progressive video lessons designed to quickly boost your confidence and maneuverability on technical trails. You'll eliminate foot dabs and gain flow. Track stands, hopping and rocking are radically transformative techniques that every rider can learn yet they’re often overlooked and under-utilised. You can learn these even if you're a beginner, and if you're an expert — it's never too late!

Part 1: Track Stand Theory with Ryan Leech

What are your current perceptions about the difficulty of balancing in one spot on your bike? Whatever they are, let me help shape them or at least add some context so that your learning trajectory has no limits.

Even though you’re in one spot, you’re still moving! Movement is key to balance, both in the bike and body! For track stands, you’re actually rolling back and forth utilising gravity or body language (instead of relying on a fixed gear like on a track bike). This is the foundation for quality track stands.

This movement allows much more room for error than most riders initially think! For example, I challenge anyone to balance in one spot on their bike, with their front wheel straight, and their brakes on.

Without the bike moving, your body is left to desperately balance a bike that is fixed on one skinny line, impossible even for a balance master like me! However, simply by turning your front wheel to create a more triangular base of balance and allowing some rolling movement of the wheels makes the track stand a very accessible and do-able skill.

You can read more at BikeRadar.com