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.
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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.
00:58There'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.
01:06So 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 problems.
01:19So I guess one of the key things you're going to be able to do when you're out here on the
01:22trails 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
01:32less. Yeah. So there's going to be a lot more softer grip. So you can go into these corners a
01:37lot harder and you can really put your trust into the tires and this is where it's going to benefit
01:43your road biking. So I guess another really important thing is braking as well, because that is,
01:47again, it's very different to how you brake on the road than as you do out here, right? So how does that
01:53differ and how could we learn from mountain biking into the road world?
01:57So 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 non-stop split second
02:10decisions and you need to brake a lot. But the more you learn about braking, the better your riding
02:16becomes. Yeah, because I guess what it's going to allow you to do is make sure that you're not going to
02:20lock up. You're going to be making sure that you're coming to a controlled stop and basically that's
02:24what you want because that's going to keep you safe. Exactly. So like if you are out on the trails,
02:28the last thing you want to do is go too heavy with your front brake because there's loose ground
02:33and the main thing that we do need to know is that we've got good tyre pressure and we're relying on
02:37how our bike is set up in order to brake better as well, if that makes sense. Absolutely.
02:44I think one of the key differences that I've noticed straight away though actually being a roadie is
02:47this is a lot, this is a lot quieter than the roads. Oh, it's amazing. It is pretty good. So again,
02:53tell me about that because actually this is quite nice, isn't it? It is really nice. That's the whole
02:59reason why I 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. You've got so many different ways you can ride this place, right? Oh, absolutely. That's what
03:29I love about it. Like if you're bored of one line, you've only got to aim that way and you're on a
03:34total different line and you're out in the woods, you've got to worry about absolutely nothing apart
03:38from your bike handling skills. Absolutely. And I guess that's, I mean, it's always going to be good for the mind
03:43after a long, hard day at work or even before work. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Like the whole reason
03:47why I come out and why I'm into mountain biking in general is because no matter if I've had a good
03:51day 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.
03:57What's better than that? Now, there was one thing as we were coming out here,
04:00there were some pretty steep ramps that we had to ride up or I had to ride up to get out here.
04:05I imagine and I really hope I must have seen some power benefits there, right? Absolutely. So
04:11with mountain bike parks, they always tend to be on the side of a hill. So you let gravity
04:16take you, but most of the starts are at the top. So you have to look for a lot of different ways
04:20up there and that's also very fun in itself. But the main thing I like about mountain biking is flow.
04:25And there's lots of trails where you will need to go uphill every now and again, and you'll need
04:29to go up there pretty quick and you're going to have to get these beefed up as well. And the benefits
04:34from this is explosive power, which you can then replicate on the road. So say for example,
04:40you're at the traffic lights and you want to get up to speed as quick as possible.
04:43Yeah. You can use that technique.
04:45Absolutely. And I guess on the flip side though,
04:48having 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 on in the mountain
05:06bike 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? Because it could have been
05:34blown out from the previous rider. So it's forever changing. And I guess there's one other thing,
05:39which is actually gearing as well, because that's one thing that I've been able to learn from today
05:44is actually just being able to prepare myself with my gears. And actually, that's directly
05:49applicable to the road, isn't it? Yeah, exactly that. So with biking in general,
05:52you 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
06:09to take in with kids. 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. So there's
06:30lots of things that you can try. There's bike parks all around the world. And especially in the
06:34UK, there's loads. So within a couple of hours of a journey, go with your mates, enjoy yourself and
06:40push 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.
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 easy for
06:58us roadies to ride the same routes over and over again and actually just fall into a bit of a love
07:04of just doing the same thing constantly. Whereas here, you're really pushing yourself and actually,
07:09you'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 a
07:59bike around. Yeah. And that is, that's great. Well, absolutely. And are there any sort of kind of
08:05position 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. 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 your
08:28upper body kind of fairly relaxed. And 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. Yeah, 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 your
08:47road riding, then do drop them down in the comments. I want to say a big thanks to you, Chop.
08:50Thank you very much for all your knowledge. Big thanks to Lapierre as well for supporting this one.
08:55And if you enjoyed the video, drop a like, subscribe to the channel for more content,
08:58and we will see you again very soon.