Video: Ben Cathro's Practical Guide to Learning New Mountain Bike Skills - How To Bike Season 2 Episode 1

Nov 10, 2022
by Pinkbike Originals  

HOW TO BIKE
SEASON 2 EPISODE 1


Ben Cathro is back with another season of How to Bike. This time he is taking the learning process further with hands-on tips and tricks that will help you get better at mountain biking.

This first episode offers up a basic framework for learning, while the rest of the series will focus on practical applications of individual skills, from vision drills, to suspension setup, to how to get sponsored, to bunny hopping—with some special guest appearances!




Huge thanks to the brands who have helped make How To Bike Season 2 happen.

Continental - tires
Shimano - drivetrain, brakes and pedals
Santa Cruz - frames
Reserve Wheels - wheels
Dharco - clothing
Deity - cockpit & saddle
Bluegrass - helmets and protection
Adidas Five Ten - footwear
Swatch - official timing
Cushcore - inserts
Öhlins - suspension
RideWrap - frame protection
Outside - support
Pinkbike Racing






Cam Zink Outside Learn
Cam Zink's advanced jumps and drops course.

Outside Learn offers courses and lessons from riders like Cam Zink and Joey Schusler for everything from basic trail skills to advanced jumps and drops. Learn more.


Posted In:
Tutorials and Guides How To Bike Pinkbike Originals Continental Dharco Outside Santa Cruz Bicycles Shimano Aimi Kenyon Ben Cathro


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68 Comments
  • 108 2
 1. Stoked to see Ami in this. Watching her progression in PBR was inspiring, looking forward to that energy carrying into this series.

2. Can we just take a minute to appreciate the sheer volume of PB content at the moment? This week we had Field Test, PBA, PBR and now this? An earnest well done team! keep putting those Outside dollars to work and make it all worth it.

3. Autoplay is the devils work. Please stop.
  • 15 1
 4. Bikes!
  • 4 0
 @Dogl0rd: I like bikes.
  • 5 41
flag valrock (Nov 10, 2022 at 14:34) (Below Threshold)
 1. Simp 3. Shut up already
  • 8 0
 @valrock: "stop trying to make simp happen. It's not going to happen."
  • 1 3
 @Robspittler: For those oldies (myself included) who didn't know that "simp" was a thing... www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Simp.

Personally I quite like it but born in the wrong millenium to use it.
  • 1 0
 @Robspittler: saying that I don't agree with its use in this case.
  • 7 0
 @fartymarty: I like "a word that everyone overuses w/out the correct definition. it means a guy that is overly desperate for women, especially if she is a bad person, or has expressed her disinterest in him whom which he continues to obsess over. They're usually just virgins that will accept coochie from anyone regardless of who they are. respec waman ≠ simpery."
But ironically I think it's an insult usually used by incels
  • 2 0
 @Robspittler: that’s so fetch
  • 28 2
 Ben saying he went "too big " in Season 1, followed by an ad at the bottom of the page with an Outside Learn offer of an "Advanced Jumps and Drops course by Cam Zink"...

Marketing needs to coordinate with Publishing...
  • 8 0
 That's not normal progression?
  • 28 1
 Did you not see "learn double backflips" on Ben's calendar? Smile
  • 4 0
 this week...learn to manual! ...next week...double backflips into a canyon gap! I got this! ...seriously, I need to lean to manual. Looking forward to another season of this!
  • 1 0
 * *
  • 1 0
 @brianpark: I thought it said triple?
  • 23 1
 Make it stop PLEASE!!!
  • 31 1
 I mean don’t let it start
  • 12 0
 I feel like the visualization is such a huge thing. Learned it from skateboarding and it has carried over well to mountain biking. If you can't visualize what your body needs to do, how can you expect your body to do it? I used to spend sooo much time watching, analyzing, and "feeling" what it should feel like. Kinda like tricking your mind into thinking you can already do it!
  • 10 1
 Just installed this Chrome extension and it stopped the autoplay (I'm not affiliated w/ the extension and make no promises that it will work for you). chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/autoplaystopper/ejddcgojdblidajhngkogefpkknnebdh/related?hl=en
  • 11 0
 Same. Congrats Pinkbike, you made me install an autoplay stopper extension.

And I am actually going to watch / I watch most videos Pinkbike puts out. I just don't want to see them when I am scrolling Pinkbike.
  • 6 0
 I was expecting a Rickroll or a virus to get installed. All I needed to provide was my 24 word passkey for my crypto wallet and seems to be working for me. Joking aside thanks for that, now I can complain about autoplay but not need to suffer from autoplay.
  • 1 0
 Did you know this extension belongs to outside and is sniffing all your personnal data?
  • 1 0
 Err .. you know that you can turn it off in your settings right?
  • 1 0
 @tneuensc: Did not work just turning it off in your profile for me or in my browser. I needed to use autoplay blocker add in for chrome.
  • 9 1
 To help anyone who thinks they aren’t progressing: In my experience, 1 day a week of practice is nowhere near enough - I only started to see appreciable gains once I committed to 4 days a week. It still took me about six months of that to go from no bunny hop to about 50cm / 18 inches.

It’s not just learning the skill either, if you’re older, work in front of a desk and only ride weekends at the moment you’ll need to commit to daily stretching to develop the flexibility to get that beautiful slightly convex back riding position or else you’ll throw your back out.

The other reason it takes ages if you’re older is overcoming the fear is hard, especially the fear of looping out and blowing through corners. Our brains generally become naturally more risk averse when we leave our twenties and more risk averse again once we have kids.

Young riders will read this and laugh and fair play, I wish I’d got these skills then! I’ve seen a lot of new older riders though and all of the above is pretty standard.
  • 2 0
 I am all of these negative points.
  • 2 0
 @VWsurfbum: it’s been great for me, I knew I should be stretching and doing strength work as I got older but never made the time. Having the goal of getting better on the bike finally ingrained the habit. I feel so much better for it!
  • 3 0
 I totally agree this fear thing gets way worse as we get older
  • 4 0
 I've started stretching before each ride. It definitely makes a difference.
  • 7 0
 I commit to doing exactly what I did last year which was enjoy watching the videos but noit actually implementing any of it on the trails. Key to hapiness is setting the bar really low! Please let me know when you plan to release them so I can put it in my calendar! Visualizing the next video autoplaying as we speak!
  • 9 0
 I watched this and somehow learned to manual. Damn, he's good.
  • 5 0
 Yay !!! Actually, I did find a couple of juicy nuggets that I could apply on the trail, which made a real difference in spite of watching a ton of other videos, which simply did not cut it ! Looking forward to the series !
  • 5 0
 It took 2 minutes to read the article and comments, I know this because I scrolled back up and the auto-play had made it 2 minutes. Guess I found a use for autoplay!
  • 6 0
 You WILL learn to love autoplay!
  • 1 3
 That's what Russia says to basketballers about prison camp
  • 2 0
 We had a saying in the telecommunications world...good technicians make crappy teachers. Cathro is the exception to that rule. He is a truly great instructor. Now, if only he could teach this 73 year old to be young again.
  • 2 0
 I just wanna say I really appreciate what you guys are doing. Mountain biking is not that common in my country so videos and tutorials like this are extremely helpful. Also, the video player on the page is really useful for us because Youtube and almost all the internet is censored here but Pinkbike still works.
  • 5 0
 I'm so happy to see that these are back!
  • 2 0
 Consistent quality! Ben's easy-going delivery in some way belies how meticulous, thorough, and self-critical a person has to be to create the pure quality he's been doing. Bravo!!!
  • 4 0
 This is the best series ever. Ben is the best instructor ever.
  • 1 0
 Yes, Ben is probably one of the best instructor, also because he's such a lovely person and it's always a pleasure to watch him, whatever he's doing. Looking forwards...
  • 3 0
 "Aimi can't act" Well good job she got the bike riding skills that 95% of pinkbike readers wish they had....
  • 2 0
 there is something to be said for how learning things like this on mountain bikes is WAY HARDER than trying them on a bmx bike.
  • 3 0
 I actually bought a used BMX just for the Pumptrack and...to learn nanuals, it's closer to the ground and a lot easier to shift weight made it a point to go at least 30min every day during confinement, did make some progresses, after a month could hold it for a few seconds, then confinement ended and so did my resolve. Let's go Aimi, this time will work.
  • 2 0
 Was really looking forward to see this new season. Thanks Ben and all the team!
(Subtitles are welcome for non English native speakers like me, please keep them)
  • 4 0
 Can't wait for 2037.
  • 2 0
 Took me way too long to stop it at the right time to read that
  • 1 0
 I missed that one but I did see a text message at 4:20am. It's the little things that make it special.
  • 3 0
 This series was my favorite last year, excited for another one
  • 3 0
 thanks for the closed caption! #accessibility
  • 2 0
 Take a look at Pivo. Nice way of filming yourself moving as it tracks you.

uk.pivo.ai
  • 2 0
 Always happy to watch how to’s from someone who doesn’t base their self worth on numbers of subscribers
  • 1 0
 Best tutorial on manuals to date is the one from "Useless Trials" (www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cUTakfZT00). Let's see if you can one up that one.
  • 2 0
 Yay! and Aimi is the best side kick for Ben.
  • 2 0
 How do you split the screen on the iphone? Don't know that trick!
  • 1 0
 Seriously! I wanna know how to do that!
  • 2 0
 I'm pretty sure he's just loading up the two clips in the iMovie app and scrubbing through them. Works well for this.
  • 1 0
 Was this done with an app?
  • 1 0
 @thurston217: Had an app called coach's eye that was good for this. Was free, but has been discontinued.
  • 2 0
 Steve the sender always txts me at 4:20 am
  • 1 0
 Ok, now I know that I can continue sucking at manuals and still become a world class racer.
  • 1 0
 The hardest working man in mountain biking? Hope Ben gets to take some time off this off-season. He's been going like mad!
  • 1 0
 Never had an autoplay issue with PB, might be the Firefox browser
  • 1 0
 Ben's content is always fantastic; autoplay, not so much.
  • 1 0
 So excited for this!
  • 1 0
 i'm in love.
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