Mountain Biking - Getting Started

Scott Scudamore: Hi! My name is Scott Scudamore and we are teaching you how to ride a mountain bike with confidence. This clip is going to be getting started, talking to you about your bike a little, about what you should look for and fit and proper fit and making sure that you have a helmet and it is properly fitted and before you go out on a ride, we like to do what, we call the ABC Check, where A is for Air, you are going to make sure that you check the pressure in your tiers, should have between 30 pounds and 50 pounds, depending on the tier size and the weight of the rider. While we are talking about air and wheels, we are going to make sure that wheels get properly set in the dropouts and we check that we call a quick release. We make sure that quick releases are on there properly and not loose and then lastly, we will spin the wheels to make sure that that everything is fine there.

Then B stands for Break and we are going to make sure that both our front and rear brake are properly working. I actually have gone out on a ride and had my front brake disconnected and because I didn't do the ABC check, so make sure you have check that both front and rear.

Then C stands for Chain and chain is everything having to do with your drive training. So, check to make sure your chain is operating properly; you are going to check to make sure that you are shifting, that both shifters are working and I am checking to make sure they are shifting. So when you are talking about the bike fit, there is a couple of things you want to be worrying about and adjusting to make sure that you are saddle is adjusted so that when you are on the bike and you go to the bottom, you want to have just a little bit of a bent in your knee, so you are using the whole leg in every single paddle stroke. You don't want it so far that you are bottoming out, but you do not want to sit down so far that you are not using your whole leg. The second thing that you want to make sure is your seat is adjusted properly, front and back, so that you do not have your arms way up here or a way out here. You should have a nice, your elbow slightly bent and comfortable and that gets into the actual fit of the bike. When you are out shopping for a bike, you should be going to a local bike shop or shop that is actually specialized in bikes because they have the expertise to make sure that when you go out the door, the bike that you that you have does properly fit you. So the other thing you want to be when you are doing, when you are checking your fit, you want to make sure that you have proper stand or if you want at least a couple of inches between the bike and your crotch so that if you get off the bike, you are not jumping down and hitting your crotch in the bad way. So, one of the most important pieces of equipments you have is your helmet; but the helmet is only as good as the way you are wearing it. So, you want to have it so it is straight across; it's not down into your eyes or it is not all the way back. A lot of times we see somebody they have their helmet all the way back and it is really not protecting them. You want to make sure that it fits underneath your ears on either side and it is secure. So, that is what you do before you get started to go on your ride.