Top 6 Reasons Road Cyclists Should Ride A Mountain Bike

Cycling Weekly

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.

Transcript

00:00Are 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 and

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

00:42be the next bike I buy? So Chop, what's your first tip?

00:47I would go with technique. So for example, the road is always consistent. It's super flat,

00:53but with mountain biking, you do need a lot of techniques. The terrain is forever changing.

00:59There's a lot of loose surfaces. So learning how to brake and understand your grip, you

01:02can take these techniques to the road, which is going to make your road riding a lot easier.

01:07So for example, it's also last minute decisions as well. So there could be a pothole there.

01:11There could be a vehicle or there could be a curb where you need to jump up and with mountain

01:16biking, you will learn all of these different techniques to be able to overcome all those

01:19problems. So I guess one of the key things you're going to be able to do when you're out

01:22here on the 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

01:31half less. Yeah. So there's going to be a lot more softer grip. So you can go into these

01:37corners a lot harder and you can really put your trust into the tires. And this is where

01:42it's going to benefit your road biking. So I guess another really important thing is

01:46braking as well, because that is, again, it's very different to how you brake on the road than

01:51as you do out here. Right? So how does that differ and how could we learn from mountain

01:55biking into the road world?

01:56So with road, you have a lot of time to decide when to brake. You know, there's lots of things

02:01coming out and there's cars going past you, not coming towards you. With mountain biking,

02:05you've got a tree right there. You've got endless amounts of corners. So it's nonstop split second

02:10decisions and you need to brake a lot. But the more you learn about braking, the better your

02:15riding becomes. Yeah. Cause I guess what it's going to allow you to do is make sure that you're not

02:19going to lock up. You're going to be making sure that you're coming to a controlled stop.

02:23And basically that's what you want because that's going to keep you safe.

02:25Exactly. So like if you are out on the trails, the last thing you want to do is go too heavy

02:30with 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 tire pressure and we're relying on how our bike is set up in order

02:39to brake better as well, if that makes sense. Absolutely. I think one of the key differences that

02:45I've noticed straight away though, actually being a roadie is this is a lot, this is a lot quieter

02:49than the roads. Oh, it's amazing. It is pretty good. So again, tell me about that because

02:55actually this is quite nice, isn't it? It is really nice. Like that's the whole reason why

03:00I love mountain biking is because you're in the woods. It's dead quiet. The only thing that

03:05you've got to contend with is maybe a dog walker. Exactly. So yeah, I mean, this is nice and chill.

03:09I mean, it's what eight o'clock at the moment, the roads are packed and here absolutely dead.

03:14We've got the place to ourselves. So I mean, I think really. The dream. Exactly. If you want to

03:19avoid the roads, come here. I guess actually in a bike park like this, you're not just stuck to one

03:25route, are you? You've got so many different ways you can ride this place, right? Oh, absolutely.

03:29That's what I love about it. Like if you're bored of one line, you've only got to aim that way and

03:33you're on a total different line and you're out in the woods. You've got to worry about absolutely

03:37nothing apart from your bike handling skills. Absolutely. And I guess that's, I mean, it's always going to be good for

03:42the mind after a long, hard day at work or even before work. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Like the whole

03:47reason why I come out and why I'm into mountain biking in general is because no matter if I've had

03:51a good day or a bad day, if I go out on my bike, I'm going to have fun and I'm going to clear my mind.

03:56What's better than that? Now, there was one thing as we were coming out here, there were some pretty

04:01steep ramps that we had to ride up or I had to ride up to get out here. I imagine and I really hope

04:07I must have seen some power benefits there, right? Absolutely. So with mountain bike parks,

04:12they always tend to be on the side of a hill. So you let gravity take you, but most of the starts

04:17are at the top. So you have to look for a lot of different ways up there and that's also very fun

04:22in itself. But the main thing I like about mountain biking is flow and there's lots of trails where you

04:27will need to go uphill every now and again, and you'll need to go up there pretty quick and you're going

04:31to have to get these beefed up as well. And the benefits from this is explosive power,

04:36which you can then replicate on the road. So say for example, you're at the traffic lights and you

04:41want to get up to speed as quick as possible, you can use that technique. Absolutely. And I guess on

04:47the flip side though, having a good high-end power is going to help me in sprints, attacking on climbs,

04:52there'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

05:05on in a 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 robot. Yeah, too right. But with mountain biking, you can't. So whatever's in your vision,

05:19your 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, I'm talking about

05:28the trees, your bike setup. What line did I choose before? Is that still going to be available?

05:34Because it could have been blown out from the previous rider. So it's forever changing.

05:37And I guess there's one other thing, which is actually gearing as well. Because that's one thing

05:42that I've been able to learn from today is actually just being able to prepare myself with my gears.

05:47And 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. So you need to

05:56start thinking about sinking your gears for that section. With mountain biking, you're off road,

06:01so there's going to be a lot of bouncy terrain as well. So that's when you need to start thinking

06:04about having your chain nice and tight to avoid any slap and things like that. So there's lots to

06:09take in with gears. So Chop, what's the next tip? The next tip would be give something else a try.

06:17There's so much variety with mountain biking. You know, you've got dirt jump, slope style, free ride,

06:23enduro, e-biking, gravel. That's listing only a few things to do. And that's all off road.

06:29So there's there's lots of things that you can try. There's bike parks all around the world. And

06:33especially in the UK, there's loads. So within a couple of hours of a journey, go with your mates,

06:38enjoy yourself and push yourself. Because if you don't push yourself, you don't learn those extra

06:44I almost crashed skills. And that's what I thrive off living on the edge. If you just look at what we've got in

06:50the UK, there is quite a good variety of different types of riding at all these different bike parks,

06:55which we can learn a lot from. I think it'd be very easy for us roadies to ride the same routes

07:00over and over again. Yeah. And actually just fall into a bit of a love of just doing the same thing

07:05constantly. Whereas here, you're really pushing yourself and actually you're taking yourself out

07:09of your comfort zone, aren't you? And that forces you to learn those valuable new skills.

07:13Exactly. So you've got places like Swinley, for example, where you can do a nice gentle loop and then push the

07:18edge a little bit, you know, go out of bounds there. But then you could go to the complete opposite

07:23and you can go up to Wales, where it's full of sharp, big rocks everywhere. So test yourself.

07:28Absolutely. All right then, Chop, any more tips? So more tips. When I look at a road rider,

07:34they'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 a

07:58bike 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 that

08:13position to be in those aero positions and whilst your legs are acting as the motor.

08:18Yeah. So being in that position is very key for road as well.

08:21And I guess actually, I know from experience that having a strong core actually really helps

08:25with climbing as well, because it means you can kind of keep your upper body kind of fairly relaxed.

08:30And again, just let the legs do their thing, be the motor of the bike.

08:32Yeah, let the body do the work and let your core just be the structure.

08:35Yeah, exactly. Exactly that.

08:37So there we have it. I hope you found loads of those tips really useful. I know that I did.

08:42And if you've got any tips or tricks that you found in mountain biking that have benefited

08:46your road 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.

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