Handlebar sweep and roll

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Hi Lee,

I was wondering if you can comment on how handlebar roll affects hand and wrist position while riding. I had a coaching session with a local guy here and he rolled my bar upwards so that I effectively had more stack height. It immediately felt more comfortable, it seemed like the way the bar sweep worked with that angle put my wrists in a more comfortable position. I did not think about it too much until I stripped down my bike and forgot to mark the handle bar to put it back. Obviously the way you roll the bar will also change the reach and stack but do you have any rules of thumb for getting forearms and wrists are in a strong comfortable position. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

Jarred

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Strength training on a RipRow?

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Hi Lee

I am a female rider on the wrong side of 40 with total hip replacement and an arthritic left shoulder just rediscovering the trails again. I have discovered some massive imbalances and what let’s me down is not cardio ( easy to improve) but strength, mobility and skill- I’m looking at the RipRow as a functional tool to learn the movement patterns that I need to nail in safety and then build strength and speed into these movements with less overall impact than smashing trails ( and embedding poor form) and less dislocation risk than heavy deadlifts . My question is do you typically replace traditional strength training with this or would you use in addition to say deadlifts, KB swings etc and how would you incorporate workouts into a training block- ie have you experimented with different sessions targeting strength over speed and visa versa during day a training block and using these to achieve different outcomes?

Would love to know your thoughts.

By the way, i have your latest book and I keep rereading sections all the time. I am still a low intermediate but it’s certainly helped me progress a bit. Unfortunately, my brain steps still steps in and puts the brakes on far too often!

thanks
Anna

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Formula for sweet drops

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Hey Lee,

I enjoy reading through all of your articles on your site, I have a question though that I have yet to find an answer to.

Is there a formula or proper way to figure how many feet away “y” the landing should be from the end of a man made drop that is “x” feet tall? I know that it has many factors such as speed, form, huckability, etc but I was just looking for a general rule of thumb on if it’s best to be 1:2 ratio, or what.  (1’ height drop, landing 2’ from lip)

Thanks!

Jordon Mallett

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Ellipses of Love

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If you’ve been reading this site, you’ve heard me talking about rowing and anti-rowing and how, when you do a good job, your handlebars follow an elliptical path.

Basically, the taller the shape and the more leg action there is, the taller the ellipse. The flatter the shape and the less leg action there is, the flatter the ellipse.

Check this out:

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Pump tracks: simple is good

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Hi Lee

I thought I would get in touch and I hope you are doing ok in these difficult times.

I have been dreaming of a backyard pumptrack for a few years and with the coronavirus lockdown here in the UK I am trying to find the silver lining and so am planning a build!

I bought your great book Welcome to Pump Track Nation v2 and have taken to design package inkscape to try to plan out a track. I have a long but relatively narrow space which is on flat land and currently simple turf. I plan to bring in a mini digger but don’t have access to bring dirt in easily so will dig down to get the dirt and then put in drainage from the low points.

The design is attached and includes a simple oval with an s-bend berm in the middle and a mixture of simple rollers and a couple of bigger ones to try to give the chance for jumps – including in and out of the s-berm. The track will be used by myself (38 and a bmx/mtb rider since a teenager) and my two kids (11 and 5 yr olds).

It would be amazing to get any thoughts you have.

Thanks
Joel

Core training for mountain biking

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Lee, I’ve been focused on legs strength and stamina. My legs are good now. My core feels like a bowl of jelly. What are some of the best exercises for building my core?

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Dangerous jumping advice

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Good video. Good teaching style. Great rider. Some dangerous advice.
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7 common jumping mistakes according to Rich Drew

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Rich Drew is an MTB skills coach.

I think most of his tips are spot on.

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Flying with a Trust fork

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Hey Lee,

Have you ever flown with a trust fork?  Looking at it, it doesn’t look like it would fit into my bike bag so would complicate things for my trips to the mountains.  Any experience/ideas for plane travel with them?

Paul

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Designing a jump for a Slip ‘N SLide

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Hey Lee,

I am thinking about building one of those giant slip n slides that uses a bungee cord to get people up to speed and sends them off a ramp at the end. I was thinking about doing a ramp somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees because I feel like going for more height than distance would be fun but I also don’t want to lose too much distance. Just wanted your opinion on that. Also I don’t have a clue how to do the curve of the ramp so any advice on that would help. At the moment I don’t know how fast we would be hitting the ramp because I can’t find a big enough bungee cord with a spring constant to do some calculations.

Thank you for your time,

Nolan

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Thanks for the cornering skills

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Hi Lee,
A quick ty for the class a couple of months back in Santa Cruz and for the access to the www.llbmtb.com content.  Applied the cornering skills to a high speed uphill turn with not much of a berm that comes at the bottom of a fast decent and I’m now able to carry a ton of speed through the turn. (:
Plus getting the handlebars near vertical feels cool too.  (pic attached)
I know we’re all getting pummeled by the lockdown so wanted to send a ty and wish you well!
Best,
Jere

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