Mountain Biking - New to mountain biking - need some quick advice

Hi everyone,

I have decided to take up mountain biking as I've discovered sick trials behind my house in san diego. I have a 200 dollar mountain bike (bought for school initially) and am looking into becoming serious in this sport.

can someone please recommend some beginner books/magazines for me to read/learn??

thanks

I have been MTB just under a year - I got one book on skills & one on maintenance when I started.

For maintenance I got 'The art of mountain bike maintenance' by Leornard Zinn - it's excellent and have used it often to fix problems and general maintenance.

For skills I got 'Mountain Bike like a champion' by Ned Overend who is an XC champion - covers skills more geared toward XC riding and racing, which is where my interest lay.

Maybe an idea for you to say what type of riding you will be looking to learn so you can get some advice on books for that area.

As mentioned above, get Ned Overend's book Mountain Bike Like a Champion. You can probably find it on Amazon. Excellent way to learn technique as it's very easy to read/understand and he's won 5 nationals and the first world title. It covers some racing, but the emphasis is on techniques which are the same for just riding for fun.

If you like the book, he's also got a very nice video Performance Mountain Biking, the Basics and Beyond.

Al

Mastering Mountain Bike Skills by Brian Lopes and Lee McCormack.

Besides the books, find a club or stop into the local LBS and hang out, talk, learn. Join the group rides, if they have them. This will really help you practice the techniques you read about in the books and mag. The only way to learn is to ride, IMO.

Mastering Mountain Bike Skills by Brian Lopes and Lee McCormack.


I second this one. Awesome book!!!!!

As mentioned get a skill book like Lopes' and a repair manual like Zinn's. With those two books you cover it.