Get me back on the bike

[dovski]

@noobski I wrecked my shoulder down hilling last year at Mt Batchelor. This year I signed up for some clinics to help me rebuild my confidence and improve my technique. This was a great way to get back in the saddle so to speak. Now of course the one day I did not wear elbow pads I crashed going off a drop and scraped up my arm/elbow so need to work on my drops a little more, but it did not stop me from biking. I will say I am a little too cautious these days and likely using my breaks a little too much, but with time I am sure that will fade away. Just like skiing the more you do the better and more confident you feel, so get back out there and enjoy

 

[noobski]

@noobski , your location doesn’t say where in the Midwest you live. I am in Duluth, so if you are (coming though) here, I can give you some trail suggestions.

I would find a pump track or skills park. Those (normally) have great sight lines, and you are doing many reps in one session, so you have taken the ‘dealing with unexpected stuff‘ out of the equition. Then, you can focus on moving well on the bike and relaxing, both of which will pay off in spades once you are back out on ‘regular’ trails.

And the second part, might it help your confidence to wear a full face helmet? Thanks to enduro racing there is now a large selection of lgihtweight, well vented, full face helmets available.

These are great tips, thank you. I live in Southern Wisconsin. I've looked at Enduro's...they're on my list. The problem was the face plant led to whiplash and I'm not sure the helmet would have been material in pain avoidance. Maybe I'm wrong, although also lucky it wasn't more serious.

Cheers.

 

[Smear]

As @Tricia says you are not alone. Had a crash last year, broke my collarbone and fractured the shoulder blade. Shoulder still not ok 1.5 years later, hope to improve function with PT this fall. I can relate to your issues of getting back on the bike. But I really enjoy mountain biking and life is to short to not do the things we enjoy. What worked for me was just walking sections that I didn't feel confident about and getting into a mindset where this didn't bother me or felt like a failure. Confidence very low in beginning but it came gradually back. Scaled back on terrain (to minimize the walking...). Bought a hardtail in addition to the long travel enduro FS and started seeking out less steep terrain where one can ride the trails up and down vs fire road up or pushing up and going down steeper trails. =>More time on actual trail riding and less mind game.

Not pushing things can feel like your not progressing. But there are more ways of improving than pushing the limit on downhill cruxes or speed. Learn to bunny hop, track stand, rear/front wheel lift or improve your cornering doing drills on flat ground. Take the skills to moderate trails, jump over stuff you could have gone around just for the fun of it. Or my favorite at the moment; ride very slowly on something you could have speeded through. Ratchet, track stand, hop and lift your way forward at snails pace.

For learning skills I would recommend joining here: https://www.ryanleech.com/
He brings skills above down into manageable small steps. Unlike most other content on the web/youtube where you are supposed to learn something really difficult and complex in 1-2-3...

I've had 3 crashes involving broken bones during my first 4 years of mountain biking. Don't have much time to ride, so that's a lots of injuries in an embarrassing low number of riding hours. None of them happened while pushing limits. Seems to happen to a lot of us adult newbie mountain bikers. I think it comes down to not having our reflexes sorted. When a wheel slides out or we get bucked in an unexpected way, we stiffen up and/or slam the brakes and crash, instead of staying loose and recovering like more experienced mountain biker would have done. Progress slowly, it takes time to build those reflexes. Trust your instincts when you feel like walking a section or not doing a jump. Trust the fact that more mileage of doing stuff that you are reasonably confident about more and better, will make you better with time.

 

[noobski]

Quick update: I got back on the bike in September with thanks to you folks and a friend of mine. I haven't ridden much, but it's good to be back. Taking it slower now and happy to be riding going into the season end before it snows. The bike I have is so awesome as well that I just love riding it. I went out yesterday and blew a tire (tubeless even), so I'm possibly done for the season depending on reseal turn around...but either way just wanted to thank those of you who chimed in.