Sharp As A Marble - Episode #4
This week Scott answers questions from users Pablos, C2crider, and JesseKaplanis about how to be strong without having to go to the gym, getting that explosive power for sprinting out of corners, and being fast enough to justify riding platform pedals without being a fashion victim!![photo]()
I hope that you guys know what I am missing out on while I sit and type. I am in Aptos, dirt jumping with Brendan Fairclough and Christian Wright. Sorry, I had better clarify that... I'm watching them dirt jump because I am so knackered from riding the pump track a million times, and I just had a crack at one of the jumps and toasted my front wheel. Anyways, pump track enduro is such good training. With regards to DH conditioning, four minutes of pump track time is as close to being sport specific as possible without actually downhilling. I'm going to the gym tomorrow with Curtis Keene and Brendan, and I know that what we do in the gym will help them a huge amount for DH, but there is nothing like getting your DH fitness, strength, and conditioning from riding your bike. If you have limited time, and you want to train to improve your riding, then you need to do an exercise on the bike that is skill based, and takes a bit of energy. I.e. pump track. It’s not the only choice, but it is a good choice. I wanted to vomit up my prostate it hurt so much! I did four minutes non-stop, that's eight laps of the Aptos track, and when I finished, not by choice, by sheer exhaustion, I fell into a heap like an invertebrate, similar to a jellyfish. It took all my willpower to keep my body fluids where they belong. Even Turpin did ten smoking hot laps just to demonstrate how fast he is and how he really wants to beat Mitch at the Sea Otter Pump Track World National USA Universal Championships. Yesterday I got to watch Christian Wright, Aaron Chase, Ryan Howard, Greg Watts, Kyle Jamison, Andrew Taylor, Brendan Fairclough DJ at the post office. They rock, they really do. Sooooo smooth and precise. If you ever get the chance, drop in and watch these amazing jumpers do their stuff, it doesn’t get any than better watching the world's best jumpers in action.
Back to the questions...
• Pablos asks:
Besides doing downhill runs, what is the best training that you can do to increase fitness for a three minute race run, i.e. intervals? Also, what exercises in the gym would you recommend to get that explosive power for downhilling?
Wow Pablos, you don’t want much, do you? Do you want to know the meaning of life while we are at it? Without knowing your fitness levels and your training background, it is hard to say what you need the most. Basically, you can’t get the bike fitness required to downhill unless you RIDE YOUR BIKE. I recommend intervals anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 seconds, it is going to hurt like a mother f*cker, like bleeding lungs, fire in your legs, and nails in your chest. Most importantly, you need to spend some time dirtying your chamois (pedaling, not sharting). I know I make it sound bad, it's not really that bad, some people like the feeling of training hard. It brings satisfaction, it sounds very weird - and even a little perverted, but you should learn to enjoy the pain, otherwise you might turn into a jellyfish. The best place to develop explosive power is on the bike, from short explosive efforts, doing a series of leg exercises in the gym will help as well (once you are physically ready), and plyometrics. If you really want to commit to training and do it with the same knowledge - in the gym and on the bike - that helped Sam Hill, Mick Hannah, Bryn Atkinson, and Jill Kintner, contact me through WWW.RACEBRAIN.COM
![photo]()
• C2crider asks:
What are your personal recommendations on increasing core upper body strength, e.g. chest and abs area without having to use a gym?
Hi C2c, there is a lot of strength work that you can do without going to a gym. Push ups with all sorts of variations – you are going to have to do some home work, partially because I don’t want to give away all of my secrets, but mostly because I hate typing out long answers, chin ups, tricep dips on a bench, crunches, bridges, swimming, digging dirt for a pump track, helping dad with the fire wood, monkey bars, climbing up a rope, wax on wax off, surfing, weighted yo-yos, trying to start your lawn mower without any fuel in it, skipping with a boat anchor chain, or even juggling midgets. Get creative!
• JesseKaplanis asks:
Please answer this: Do pros ride with clips? And if so, does it make riding easier or faster?
Awesome Jesse, you called the pedals ‘Clips’, not clipless. Some drunk pirate who was shopping for a Huffy in K-mart once got his words mixed up from straps to strapless, to clips to clipless, and all of a sudden half the world calls them clipless. Just like Koala bears... They’re not bears. And it’s not a cup of chino... OK! And to answer your question, some do use clips, some don’t, each rider has his or her own preference. Clipping in can be an advantage for the pedaling sections, as well as super rough sections, depending on your style. Most people I know that run flats say that it gives them more cornering confidence at high speed, knowing you can get you foot off easily. If you are going to use clips, practice clipping in and out, and practice a lot. Set your shoes up properly, and keep them in good operating condition. If you are going to use flats, you better learn to corner fast enough to justify the flats. Don’t be a fashion victim.
![photo]()
Scott Sharples has been a professional coach for 10 years now. He has coached a few World Champions, including Sam Hill, and now offers many levels of personalized training depending on your needs. If you are a serious rider who is looking to get faster and more confident you can contact him at sscoach@gmail.com or visit www.RaceBrain.com to sign up. Scott was the Junior Downhill Coach for the Australian National Team and also coached many of the World’s fastest mountain bike athletes. He is currently working with the USA’s Junior MTB Gravity racers.
• Curious about equipment choice?
• Wondering which exercises you should do to get faster on your DH bike?
• Want to have faster and more consistent runs?
Put your questions in the comment section!
I hope that you guys know what I am missing out on while I sit and type. I am in Aptos, dirt jumping with Brendan Fairclough and Christian Wright. Sorry, I had better clarify that... I'm watching them dirt jump because I am so knackered from riding the pump track a million times, and I just had a crack at one of the jumps and toasted my front wheel. Anyways, pump track enduro is such good training. With regards to DH conditioning, four minutes of pump track time is as close to being sport specific as possible without actually downhilling. I'm going to the gym tomorrow with Curtis Keene and Brendan, and I know that what we do in the gym will help them a huge amount for DH, but there is nothing like getting your DH fitness, strength, and conditioning from riding your bike. If you have limited time, and you want to train to improve your riding, then you need to do an exercise on the bike that is skill based, and takes a bit of energy. I.e. pump track. It’s not the only choice, but it is a good choice. I wanted to vomit up my prostate it hurt so much! I did four minutes non-stop, that's eight laps of the Aptos track, and when I finished, not by choice, by sheer exhaustion, I fell into a heap like an invertebrate, similar to a jellyfish. It took all my willpower to keep my body fluids where they belong. Even Turpin did ten smoking hot laps just to demonstrate how fast he is and how he really wants to beat Mitch at the Sea Otter Pump Track World National USA Universal Championships. Yesterday I got to watch Christian Wright, Aaron Chase, Ryan Howard, Greg Watts, Kyle Jamison, Andrew Taylor, Brendan Fairclough DJ at the post office. They rock, they really do. Sooooo smooth and precise. If you ever get the chance, drop in and watch these amazing jumpers do their stuff, it doesn’t get any than better watching the world's best jumpers in action.
Back to the questions...
• Pablos asks:
Besides doing downhill runs, what is the best training that you can do to increase fitness for a three minute race run, i.e. intervals? Also, what exercises in the gym would you recommend to get that explosive power for downhilling?
Wow Pablos, you don’t want much, do you? Do you want to know the meaning of life while we are at it? Without knowing your fitness levels and your training background, it is hard to say what you need the most. Basically, you can’t get the bike fitness required to downhill unless you RIDE YOUR BIKE. I recommend intervals anywhere from 10 minutes to 3 seconds, it is going to hurt like a mother f*cker, like bleeding lungs, fire in your legs, and nails in your chest. Most importantly, you need to spend some time dirtying your chamois (pedaling, not sharting). I know I make it sound bad, it's not really that bad, some people like the feeling of training hard. It brings satisfaction, it sounds very weird - and even a little perverted, but you should learn to enjoy the pain, otherwise you might turn into a jellyfish. The best place to develop explosive power is on the bike, from short explosive efforts, doing a series of leg exercises in the gym will help as well (once you are physically ready), and plyometrics. If you really want to commit to training and do it with the same knowledge - in the gym and on the bike - that helped Sam Hill, Mick Hannah, Bryn Atkinson, and Jill Kintner, contact me through WWW.RACEBRAIN.COM
Scott is answering your questions instead of watching Brendan Fairclough at the jumps... That may explain why he's a touch grumpy today.
• C2crider asks:
What are your personal recommendations on increasing core upper body strength, e.g. chest and abs area without having to use a gym?
Hi C2c, there is a lot of strength work that you can do without going to a gym. Push ups with all sorts of variations – you are going to have to do some home work, partially because I don’t want to give away all of my secrets, but mostly because I hate typing out long answers, chin ups, tricep dips on a bench, crunches, bridges, swimming, digging dirt for a pump track, helping dad with the fire wood, monkey bars, climbing up a rope, wax on wax off, surfing, weighted yo-yos, trying to start your lawn mower without any fuel in it, skipping with a boat anchor chain, or even juggling midgets. Get creative!
• JesseKaplanis asks:
Please answer this: Do pros ride with clips? And if so, does it make riding easier or faster?
Awesome Jesse, you called the pedals ‘Clips’, not clipless. Some drunk pirate who was shopping for a Huffy in K-mart once got his words mixed up from straps to strapless, to clips to clipless, and all of a sudden half the world calls them clipless. Just like Koala bears... They’re not bears. And it’s not a cup of chino... OK! And to answer your question, some do use clips, some don’t, each rider has his or her own preference. Clipping in can be an advantage for the pedaling sections, as well as super rough sections, depending on your style. Most people I know that run flats say that it gives them more cornering confidence at high speed, knowing you can get you foot off easily. If you are going to use clips, practice clipping in and out, and practice a lot. Set your shoes up properly, and keep them in good operating condition. If you are going to use flats, you better learn to corner fast enough to justify the flats. Don’t be a fashion victim.
Sharples: clipped in and definitely not a fan of drunk pirates
 | We coach athletes across the spectrum of two wheeled sports. Our methodology encompasses how your entire being relates to the big picture of competition. As such, not only do we coach athletes in any discipline, our athletes are invited to cross train in multiple disciplines. Who do we coach? Anyone. The list includes but is not limited to, downhill, XC racers, 'Crossers, roadies, BMXers, triathletes, motocrossers, ISDE, and rally riders. - Scott Sharples |
Scott Sharples has been a professional coach for 10 years now. He has coached a few World Champions, including Sam Hill, and now offers many levels of personalized training depending on your needs. If you are a serious rider who is looking to get faster and more confident you can contact him at sscoach@gmail.com or visit www.RaceBrain.com to sign up. Scott was the Junior Downhill Coach for the Australian National Team and also coached many of the World’s fastest mountain bike athletes. He is currently working with the USA’s Junior MTB Gravity racers.
• Curious about equipment choice?
• Wondering which exercises you should do to get faster on your DH bike?
• Want to have faster and more consistent runs?
Put your questions in the comment section!
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Member since Dec 20, 2010
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Sponsors! Best way to get them (starting small)? What they want? What do we get? How to know if a company/offer is worth being sponsored for?
starting small meaning that we are national racers who have few or no sponsors and do it for the love of the sport not for money.
thanks in advance
If you want factory sponsorship, you need to get on the podium at a National event or the WC circuit or WC championships. And you should be doing it as a junior. If you are thirty and its taken you fifteen years of racing to finally make fifth, I don't think you'll have much chance - but juniors htat are fast can almost only ever get faster. For example, Troy Brosnan was not the fastest non-factory sponsored rider in Australia when he got factory sponsoship, but he was bloody fast for his age and size and so had more potential than the guys twice his age who were faster. And now he is faster than them.
Many company websites have information about how to get sponsorship. Basically you write to them with your results, what coverage you've had in magazines or videos, what you intend to race, and what you can do for them. You need to show that you will be working hard for them.
i'm no expert but i'm pretty sure braking is never a good way of regaining grip! i just stick my leg out
roost means dirt and stuff kicked up by drifting
Also, the pros that do pay attention to weight don't want to disclose the true weight. There were a few on the pro bike vid that were almost certainly lighter than they were letting on.
Finally, some pros do pay attention to weight and it is pretty common knowledge. Steve Peat for example tunes his bikes to the last alu/ ti bolt and has done for years. Santa Cruz also have considerable weight savings in their sponsers as their low 30lb stock set up demonstrates...
I'd like to know- What are the three most important variables to control to be a faster DH rider? If you can only focus on a few things to ride faster what should they be? Cornering technique, confidence/ mental strength and pedalling power???? What does Sharples think?
I'd like to know if there's any tips to reduce the fingers's pain during dh riding? It's ok for the two first runs but then it's really hard to concentrate on the track and the riding!
Hope my english isn't too bad!
thanx
www.pinkbike.com/news/technical-tuesday-bar-setup-2010.html
Yet the bikes of world fastest downhillers tend to be considerably heavier than bikes of world fastest forumers...
light object is easier to accelerate as well as decelerate. Though brakes are not the only things decelrating your bike, think of roots, stones, mud pools. Better rider you are, further away can you keep your wheels from them. However not all of us are such swift cats as PRO DHers and momentum is our friend. Having that in mind consider the fact that too light bike is adding seconds to your clock or limits your fun levels, as well as too heavy one. And that doesn't apply only to DH bikes, that is physics so it works for all kinds of biking from roadies through XCers, Amers to DH-illers, thing differing those sports in that matter is only where lies that thin red line between too light and too heavy.
As for psychological attitude, take something weighing 100g to your hand, being equivalent of Ti bolt set - then think about it - is that what's really holding me back on those races?
momentum is your friend.
I am pretty sick of all the weight weening on here but I think every one has done it..
(including myself)
Pro bikes are usually not the lightest because they ride very hard. In many cases they just can't get away with very light rims, single ply tires or light (or no) tubes. Pro bikes are also often limited by sponsors and they may not be able to put on the latest and greatest.
In a straight plow fest of a course a heavy bike might give you a hair of an advantage but such differences can easily be compensated for in suspension set up and ride technique. A lighter bike can be pumped easier and is more responsive to body language. The disadvantages of a bike being lighter (with strength and performance compromise) are tiny compared to the advantages. Don't be surprised if in a few years if average weight of bikes in general starts to come down a few pounds.
Now mark my words (woohooo a gospel is coming!!!), soon the speculations dream of many forumers will come true, and that is: mah they ride crispy stuff just because they get plenty of spare ones, so when they break it they just swap in a new one. I am pretty sure that if 29er revolution won't "dazzle" DH crowd, soon PROs will be forced to ride unreliable sub 32lbs DH bikes (no matter the sponsoring costs) and the bike sites will be spawned with Podcasts showing Ti bolts, carbon bars and stuff on PROs rigs.
We will see more of ridiculous stuff like Fox Ti monoblock steerer and crown. It already happens just look at Trek Session 88, only Martin Whiteley can convince me that each rider of WTR team didn't go through more than one or even two last season (it also shows that alu Dh bike frame development has hit the wall, you just can' make it lighter, material by it's nature has no more to offer -> the only way to go forward in the way industry used to roll is to go 29er or carbon)
All we can do is vote with our money and don't buy that crap, there's enough used stuff on ebay to keep wheels roling fo some time, without the need of buying these completely unnecessary brain-candy products. One of the principles of PROs of any sports is to fuel the hype - otherwise they wouldn't be there. They inspire us, entertain us, that's all good but don't forget about the flip side.
you can go as light with your bike as your skills allow you to.
Sure everyone has to learn that by testing stuff, but well staying a bit heavy sounds like money saving wise. This is where I am coming to thing that i don't agree with you which is your first sentence: "Lighter is always better if it doesn't compromise strength and performance". All of that costs money and is liable to the law of dimishing returns. Life is not only about passion whether it is bikes or cars, surfing whatever... repeatedly ask yourself a question is it worth it, and don't think only about "performance". Because performance can be winded up by skills clinics, or simply a mental break from biking and cleaning your mind from unnecessary stuff like... would i be faster in that corner if I had lighter wheels?
So where was I... They use Maxtal material to make the rims of Ulties, the same stuff that goes to EX721s. Now 721 beauties are have damn great weight to strength ratio, with still pretty decent price. Taking these three factors together, possibly makes them the best DH rim on the market. Yet many riders manage to bust them every now and then, so we can honestly say - this is where the border lies. 580g 721s - light yet comfortably sitting on the edge of DH element durability. Now Dmax-Ulties have rims weighing at around 500g to meet that 1960g weight - it's like 20% less material and they are narrower, additonaly with lower spoke count - you like to believe in miracles made of alumiNUM please do in the sanctuary of wherever you are, but don't tell me that I need to ride them before I bash them as being not strong enough for DH-forumers bike.
As long as we live in this world with these rules of physics, a 500g alu rim and sub 4kg alu DH frames are impossible to resist forces thrown at them by a person riding them on a Dh track. Just the same as these ridiculous around 100g direct mount stems, crispy cranks, alu bolts and many more things throwed at a "customer".