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Show August 1997 If your goal is to go faster on a pedal, look mountain bike, there are essentially two _ways to do it. You can work on your up, let up on} _ engine, that is, your lungs and legs. You lean the bike | into the cor- the — brakes, accomplish this by spending countless hours in the saddle, spinning fast and climbing as much as possible. For ner, accelerate out. It made many, this is too much like work; recreational cyclists who don’t race may not perfect sense, | and my cor- [ be interested in the toil. / The second way to speed up your nering instant- | ly improved| fo- wher. | rides is to work on efficient technique and downhill skills. You will find this tactic much less painful, and the improvement is much quicker to develop. The Deer Valley Mountain Biking School can help with your downhill technique, but first you resembled sober the 1a But Denoted ~ | Number aside. As in skiing, most avid mountain Deer one. a cult. Reporter Bresee, tence where Angie McArthur, and myself, who enrolled for a clinic at Deer Valley last Lund felt Friday, all fancied themselves pretty brief lesson on the practice loop exactly mirrored a ski lesson, no surprise as of John busiest days, teaching a clinic or guiding a group on Deer Valley’s vast trail hairy technical trails. None several winters behind him. I had never relaxed and zen-cruisy to white-knuck- cae led and tightly-puckered. I ride Deer Valley pretty frequently, yet all the terrain we covered during the clinic was brand new to me. At the top of Bald Mountain, we were treated to an unparalleled view covering Timpanogas, the Uintas, and in the mid- “The the similarities are uncan- dle of Summit County biking traffic. We pass Valley Mountain some, we get passe’ Biking School SOmMe. When Karl Lund, the eqn help with director of the Mountain Bike School, started us your out on loop,” the we “practice all scoffed downhill technique, but ‘internally. The practice first you loop consisted feet across, must of two tiny turns, about twenty at take an awk- Silver ny, down to actually carv- ing the bike through the turn rather than skidding it. Armed with this new information, we headed up the Sterling Chairlift for the summit. Lift-served booming catering is at Deer Valley, to the casual sightseer and the hard_core downhiller alike. On any given day you will spot several downhill junkies hanging out at the trail with their plastic body armor and futuristic Lund base almost Nineteen thirty miles trails comprise of riding, from the Jordanelle reservoir. “Sometimes I take people up here just to see this, biking Lake Village at Deer war d, yn por. tant Valley, the base of the. step: put your 3 network. network. © of a bike turn like a ski turn, but Deer suc-_ when of Lund’s instructors, “cleaned” it (rode the entire trail © — Lund is a Deer Valley ski instructor with somewhere was Doug Gormley, one decent on a bike. We all ride several times a week, usually seeking some (Angie is the only one who shaves her legs) but we tend to fall They cumbed comfortable taking us up the lift. The of us race Valley first because it was deemed too diffi- bikers think they are much better than they actually are. The Wasatch Canyon team Trail reluctant to open at all reached a f{ level of han- § dling compe- — bike as Seventeen spotted Freestyle from the lift: steep, twisty, gnarly. It is a new trail that few practice | attempts, we | -awkward, important step: put your ego to. distaff _| on the map, we had af with hesitant our companion. list, albeit an | must take an little bring unicy- | unstable eieeaivic trail, where he was of the lift, fiddling wanted to get a preview €Zo aside. a of our bike handling bikes, regaling each other skills. Though he kept a calm facade, he with tales of how they bunny-hopped a must have been busting a gut as we giant sequoia tree before burrowing entered the tight right-hand turn. Trying through a stone wall. Cole Sport to follow the narrow path at molassesnabbed the enviable shop location at slow speed, all three of us bumbled into the base of the lift, and their enthusiasthe field like drunks on unicycles. _ tic staff is quick to offer a spoke Lund then proceeded to explain and wrench or a full-suspension rental bike demonstrate a proper mountain-bike to improve your riding experience. turn: create a level platform with both Lund has nine instructors in his school, pedals, take the wide line into the corner, which has grown to the point that every brake smoothly, then weight the outside instructor might be booked on their Page even if they can’t handle the ride down.” Lund said, acknowledging our awestruck silence on the summit. then led us down He the top of the old downhill course, a series of steep, rut- ted switchbacks where my new cornering technique felt much faster and smoother. Ever since learning that I could slide the ass end through a corner, I’ve done it unfailingly, even though it’s usually slower and detrimental to the trails and the tread life of your tires. Weighting the outside pedal and carving the bike was a superior style, even having only learned it twenty minutes before. We continued down through some rolling, wooded singletrack, stopping occasionally to learn a new technique or receive a gentle critique. At one point we lost Angie, the safest and most methodical of the three of us. A twinkle in his eye, Lund said we could now take 13 without a mistake) even in its unprepared, overgrown state. I took Freestyle to be our finial exam, thinking if we cleaned it our- selves we would graduate cum laude. There was nothing clean about our ride on this section, however. I launched off my bike on several sheer switchbacks, John balked several times, and even Lund left his bike on one occasion. That was before we reached the hard part. The crux of this trail, as Lund described it, was a sharp hairpin followed by a log dropoff and an immediate ninetydegree turn. Hardly a Sequoia, the log was still big enough to send me flying over the bars and into the bramble. “You need to be waaaaay behind your - seat on this one,” Lund explained while I picked dirt out of my elbow wound. I had stuck to my seat like a fat manatee . and suffered the consequences. John then chose next to his wisely and steed. walked down Unofficial exam score: C-, graded on a curve. Whether you want to learn the basics of safe descending, or to beat your kamikaze friends on their fullSuspension missiles, the Mountain Bike School at Deer Valley is a superb education. They offer quality instruction, excellent terrain, and a great overall biking experience. And their lessons are cheaper and less painful than those offered at the School of Hard Knocks that most of us attend. : |
