[Closed] UK BIKE SKILLS

Yawn

Yawn

And I'll counter your Yawn with a Yawn at your Yawn...

Seriously, why all the negative vibes when anyone writes anything positive about someone/something on here?

You nay sayers REALLY need to get out (possibly on your bikes!) more, and stop being such miserable c*nts quite frankly...

am i right in thiunking the yawn was implying it gets said all the time? \\\

When you hang around forums long enough EVERYTHING gets said all the time

TBH though, with so many good words said about UKBS I would give it ago.

Too Shy though

And poor

[img] [/img]

Shyness not a problem, Tony is non judgemental and its not expensive. I want to award mboy a prize for his excellent post. How about a gold star?

You nay sayers REALLY need to get out (possibly on your bikes!) more

A touch ironic?

[img] [/img]

Looks like the boys got skills folks.

am i right in thiunking the yawn was implying it gets said all the time? \\\

Correct at least once a week, i have no doubt Jedi is awesome but we dont need to hear it every week.

Where did you do the session? I'm getting more and more tempted the more of these threads I read....

I've been selling the potential spend to the missus on the fact I will be less likely to end up in A&E.

Only thing that puts me off is the distance I will have to travel to do it.

i have no doubt Jedi is awesome but we dont need to hear it every week.

So don't click on the ****ing thread then if you don't wanna read it!

And certainly don't comment if you've got nothing constructive (whether it be praise or criticism) to say...

wassup liftman, jealous?

Sweet Baby Jesus.

The guy has just done course where he's learnt something, been pushed/pushed himself and is probably buzzin with it all. He probably HAS to tell somebody. Man, he might even be [i]stoked[/i]!

Cant you just cut him some slack FFS!

And yeah, if it does get a bit boring, just skip it why don't you.

So don't click on the ****ing thread then if you don't wanna read it!
[u]
And certainly don't comment if you've got nothing constructive[/u] (whether it be praise or criticism) [u]to say[/u]...

Lol

wow serious reaction. DT78 Did the skills day at Woburn Sands then had a little play at Herts Shore, the place blows your mind

Did the skills day at Woburn Sands then had a little play at Herts Shore, the place blows your mind

is that your "local" ? we (4 of us) are thinking of the "he comes to you" route and train locally maybe if we can organise ourselves to actually do it...(and i dont keep coming up with reasons not to)

nah not local to me, about 2 hours away. Was interested at having a look at Woburn and Herts Shore so was worth the travelling

Dancake I am local (ish) to you and would be very interested in the group thing. Cranham woods perhaps?

timpol, glad you enjoyed your session. you're the client of mine to ride the herts skills trail 🙂

first client

The 1-2-1 session I had with Jedi last Thursday was honestly the best money I have ever spent on biking, I went from 1ft drops to landing my first double in 4 hours...drove home with the biggest grin on my face.

he best money I have ever spent on biking

+1

DT78; woburn is 1hr40 from soton and an easy drive.

Jedi is awesome - I am still benefiting on every ride from the session I had with him. He's a sound guy and it makes me happy seeing these kind of threads pop up so regularly.

I can't believe anyone would be negative about

a) people having a good time
b) regular positive recommendations
c) a genuinely nice guy who is lucky enough to have a gift that can help others and thus he can make his living out of it rather than slave away in a job he hates. (I'm insanely jealous of Jedi being able to do that)

We travelled from Devon to [s]the Dagobah System[/s] Woborn for our novice Jedi training, it was worth it as a trip to somewhere new but importantly as a place that Jedi knew well and could take us to relevant patches that he could use as training grounds. Our session was on 6th March and I have progressed massively since then. Jedi rules.

Tony's a sound bloke and seems to have a lot of satisfied customers.

Long may it continue!

+1 for being insanely jealous!

I feel like such a different rider now after a coaching session with jedi - rode the Quantocks recently for the first time in a year and it was nuts how much of a different a riding experience it was - it just flowed (well felt like it did) and I felt so in control - it almost made it too easy. What it did do was allow me to concentrate on riding smoothly which felt rad - proper speeder bike!

Occasionally I still forget a few things I was taught and I have a bad habit of looking at the drops / jumps as I go off them rather than looking where I am going but I think that is more at the amazement of being off the ground that anything else. 😉

Had a session recently at Woburn - Tony reckoned that I was over analysing my riding. Went out for the first time since then - head full of new stuff; promptly fell off! Nobody saw - so that was OK. Few rides since and its coming together. Foot work is better, linking berms better, jumps are better, moving across the trail better. Still plenty to work on but hey if I could do it all I probably wouldn't enjoy it. It feels good to improve a bit.

Bushwacked 'felt so in control '

Except for the car park and the tree eh Barney?

LOL!!! I've not been on Jedi's Driving skills course yet 😉

I am booked in for Fri am. Looking forwards to it as frankly I'm crap.

Dancake I am local (ish) to you and would be very interested in the group thing. Cranham woods perhaps?

Im up for that, mate. Was thinking more toward the end of Summer because (here come the excuses)

* I have just started to use flats for the first time
* I am struggling with [strike]fitness[/strike] fatness

If we decide to do it, might be worth hooking up for a ride one day to discuss what we want to get out of it/ where to go etc.

(Flow is my problem - I dont want to do crazy jumps or stuff, I just dont want to slam the brakes on every time I comne to something I dont like the look of)..(I also would like to do the steeper twisty stuff better)

Also I think you might be quite a lot more skilled than us; we wouldnt want to hold you back!

Dancake I'll send you a mail. It seems I want to get the same out of the course as you. Not sure I deserve the flattery re my skills though.

Don't worry about the fitness angle either. I am off down Salisbury way on Sunday for the forum ride but happy to meet up the weekend after.

What's the deal if it's bloody awful weather?

DT78 - It never rains when Jedi rides 😉

My day was too snowy for a proper lesson, so had a ride with Tony round GT 🙂

http://ukbikeskills.blogspot.com/2010/02/snowy-day-with-kit.html

Jedi, im crap at typing any chance youll be doing a typing skills course in the near future,because if your skills courses are that good, i should be a world class author within a month. 🙂

thanks for your kind words people. 🙂

remember to keep me informed of the riding progress

I was up Cranham earlier and its a great place to practice the theory 🙂

Did a course back in February. Felt immediate benefits, but it was only when I started pushing it on an inners uplift day that loads more Tony taught me seemed to come back and i've been feeling loads more benefits since - just in time for my alps trip in July.

Best money I've spent on biking ever. Seriously recommend it to anyone (and have done since).

Jedi, what level of riding will you be coaching at the new skills area at Herts?

travis, good to hear that it's coming together 🙂

fair play to Jedi for making a living/few quid of out of something he/we enjoy. But to me riding bikes well is.......

riding crappy bikes as kids, everywhere, all the time, you buy a bmx you maybe race it, ride street, park etc, you get a bit older, women kinda get in the way a bit but you still keep riding your bikes, everything else almost becomes secondary to riding bikes after a while-stuff seems to fit around it.
You buy a mountain bike when your knees are too knackered for bmx, you get a hardtail and learn the trade-line choice, corning punch, you get a DH bike and learn to hang it out a bit and jump like you used to jump your bmx all those years ago only faster and further moto style. Forest centres spring up, you go and ride flat out round blind corners knowing there's no horse riders on the other side. You buy a XC and puke on the climbs. You sell the full sus bike knowing your only fooling yourself and you want that mix of wheelie, drift, and punch that only hardtails give outta berms.

You figure out why you cant get thru that berm any quicker, you go back and do it again, and again, and again. You make yourself understand what your weight does. You will crash, if you body dosnt show the scars of crashes you aint learn the hard way. You will hang up on double jumps and send yourself over the bars, fall off logs, and loop out backwards doing wheelies You'll destroy £1000's of bits in the process and buy crap because the ad campaign told you to. You'll covert peices of tube hand welded together in sheds.

You'll get to the bottom of a flat out Alpine descent with smoking brakes and a red hot shock, or ride the steepest loosest rock skree ever, its almost like that Monday morning drive to work on auto pilot. all those thousands of little bike corrections, body movements, subtle weight shifts, line choice, balance. They happened-you didnt think to make them happen......they just did

.....they're in there stored from years of riding.

Anything less is......

cheating?

Or just less painful and much cheaper.... Jedi - are you near / coaching at GT for much longer?

RustyNissanPrairie - Member

cheating?

I disagree with this entirely, I'm nearly 40, started jumping on a chipper (small chopper) when I was 9, went on to bmx, got into MTB when I was 19, and have ridden all the time since then, and my experience is exactly what you describe above. But a day with Jedi opened new doors. Its not cheating, it's using your resources to your advantage.

I agree Toys19 - it ain't cheating. What RNP is saying maybe true for a small percent of riders who are happy with their riding but most people even those on the top of their game use coaches to get the most out of what is possible.

I'd not give a set of skis to someone and say off you go! or give some car keys to someone and say the same.

But each to their own, if you can't see the benefit of coaching then you probably won't benefit, but those with an open mind will find the value and lots of it.

user removed, im at gt til wednesday next week.

coaching isn't for everyone. being happy with your riding is most important.
wether or not that involves coaching is up to the rider.

🙂

RNP - and what happens if you come late to MTB (like me)?

I'd love to have built up years of experience but realistically that isn't going to happen anytime soon (if ever). Meanwhile I don't see the fun in trailing along at the back of the pack due to lack of skills/know how.

Life really is to short not to enjoy it and if a skills course helps fair enough. Cheating doesn't come into it IMO.

bumley, sorry i missed your question.
when i get the herts skills area built fully, it will be for all levels from the ground up 🙂

bumley - I saw the skills area tony is building and had a play on it. It stands to be a very good set-up. As seems with all his creations it has been very well thought of. You also will also get to see Herts Shore which is a sight to behold!!

glad you enjoyed your visit to herts shore tim. 🙂

i can't see what is wrong in sharing the fact you had a good time and it's helped your riding, i've not done a session with Tony but i've met him and his enthusiasm for riding and life comes across massively if he put half of that into his coaching it must be fab

Jedi is one of us, a rider of bikes and a forum member, i say we support him not shout him down for doing something he clearly loves and could benefit many of us

5thumbs - Member

RNP - and what happens if you come late to MTB (like me)?

I'd love to have built up years of experience but realistically that isn't going to happen anytime soon (if ever). Meanwhile I don't see the fun in trailing along at the back of the pack due to lack of skills/know how.

Life really is to short not to enjoy it and if a skills course helps fair enough. Cheating doesn't come into it IMO.

Yup - what he says ^

I only started riding a few years ago. I never had the luxury of a childhood full of riding and have had to learn most stuff from scratch as an adult....so I'm working really hard to catch up with those lucky enough to have started from a young age and need all the help I can get

Even if it is 'cheating' at least I am trying to get the most out of my riding (and life!) before I'm too old to appreciate throwing myself down mountains.

There is very little more frustrating than being limited in what you can ride due to a poor skill set.

In addition - repetition may have been the way you learnt, but I've seen many riders who have been on bikes for decades, but have ingrained bad habits from repeating said habits rather than developing the skills they need. RNP - I guess you're one of the naturally gifted lucky ones.

i can't see how a skills course is cheating, it's learning or topping up, i thought MTBing was a friendly open pastime, this smacks of the roadie thing of "earning" your spot in a club and all the elitism that goes with it and IMO doesn't have a place in MTBing

getting to work by car is cheating if you had a driving lesson 🙂

[old joke]Do you offer skills courses on how to ride down The Beast?[/old joke]

riding with a bust leg didnt help.
washed out rather than crashed dude 🙂

I rode to school until the age of 17 (on a racer and I spent as little time on the bike as possible )Got into a car for the next 15 years.

Fast-forward those 15 years to a fat, seriously unfit me who bought a "Land rover Corazon" to get to work on. After all that time, it was hard work, I can tell you

I was invited out with a few guys from work to go out on the local trails a few months later, and although I broke the bike, I had an ACE time and I have been upgrading (and downgrading) since.

I dont have this wealth of experience to fall back on so a bit of Skills tuition is perfect for me...