Mastering Mountain Bike Skills | 
 enlarge | Authors: Brian Lopes, Lee Mccormack
Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $22.95
Buy New: $14.62
You Save: $8.33 (36%)
New (37) Used (14) from $13.29
Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 5864
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0736056246
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.63
EAN: 9780736056243
ASIN: 0736056246
Publication Date: March 13, 2005
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| Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
Increase your speed, control, and versatility on the bike. Mastering Mountain Bike Skills provides detailed technical instruction for all mountain biking disciplines: Cross-country
Downhill
Mountain cross
Free riding
Dirt jumping
Urban terrain With top pro mountain biker Brian Lopes as your teacher, you'll learn how to handle the bike better than ever, in any conditions, across all types of terrain. Key tips and special photo sequences throughout the book add insight to Lopes' world-class instruction.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
Great Book April 5, 2008
Great book you can find everything you want to know about mountain biking and is even fun to read.
Excellent book April 2, 2008
This book is quite excellent. I had never been mountain biking before, and read this book. When I finally went out on the trail with experienced riders, I was able to keep up, not injure myself, and generally know what was going on around me. I will say, though, that in reading the book, it seemed like all mountain bike riders were able to do the flashy stuff that was described, when in fact, I found that was not the case. However, it is good to know about. The writing style is very easy to read. There could have been a glossary, and I had to Google terms a number of times, but overall, an excellent book.
 Excellent February 23, 2008
A fantastic source of information for anyone wanting to improve their mountain bike riding skills.
Great book of use for all mountain bikers February 13, 2008
I found this to be an excellent book on mountain bike techniques. There are illustrated examples of all the skills you would want to know for all styles of mountain bike riding.
This is a book to work through. For example it starts with the basics like wheelies and manuals and progresses to bunny hops showing how they are related and why you want to know one technique before progressing to another.
Whereas Ned Overend's book is XC race oriented, the techniques in this book as just as applicable for downhilling and freeriding as they are to XC and will help you whether you race or just like to ride for fun.
There is also a short section in the front covering the basics of choosing and maintaining your bike(s).
Good but could be better January 23, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I think this is a great book for a visual perspective.
Things that are hard to describe in words are often given good visual treatment. I especially liked it when they showed multiple frames to illustrate a technique that might have changes across time.
For example, they illustrate performing a jump by showing you various frames including hen the rider enters the jump (showing body position, etc), while he's in the jump, and what he looks like when exiting.
This alone puts this book above others I have read on the same topic.
I also liked the treatment of many different topics. There's a really good cross-section of useful information covered, so it seems like just about anyone in the sport would benefit from the content.
There are a couple of things that I think need to be improved on to make this book better.
First and foremost, the book either needs to dispense with all the flowery, colorful jargon, and stick closer to simple English, or it needs to provide a glossary up front.
I am a beginning rider (supposedly one of the people this book is aimed at) and there were many times I did not understand a section perfectly clearly because of the specialized language they used.
Here's an example, taken from early on in the book:
"Pump backsides. Any time the trail turns downward, press down for some free speed".
That probably makes perfect sense to someone who understands these terms, but it did not help be as a beginner.
What does "pump" mean? Does it mean to "pedal hard"? Does it mean to quickly raise and then lower your body on the bike to "pump it"? And how about "press down" - press down on what? The pedals? The handlebars? The saddle?
I've read the whole book and I'm still not 100% sure if "pump" means "pedal", or something else.
This problem occurs throughout the book, in some places worse than others. There were spots where the language was so flowery that I actually laughed out loud.
I remember one paragraph talking about pimping and nailing and lips and rhino horns. I wasn't sure if somehow a chapter from Alice in Wonderland had ended up in this book about Mountain Biking.
The other thing I found confusing about the book was some of the conflicting advice given.
I found this especially true in areas related to braking. If one just listed all the sentences related to braking you might see something like this: "Stay off the brakes, speed is the key to smoothness", "Use the brakes to remain in control", "Only brake when you really mean to", "Braking is one of the most important skills", "People rely too much on the brakes", and so on.
This all reminds me of an out-take from the movie Poltergeist in which the main characters are giving Carol-Ann advice about how to come home: "Go into the light!", "Get away from the light!", "The light is your salvation!", "The light is the enemy!".
I'm afraid that after reading this book I am as confused about braking as poor Carol-Ann is about whether or not she should go into the light.
Apart from these gripes, I have spent many hours with this book and feel that I will become a better rider for it.
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