The ups and downs of mountain-bike boot camp

During most daylight hours, the elaborate wooden playscape at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore is crawling with kids. Spidering up the rock wall. Running back and forth across the suspension bridge. Climbing the castle-like turrets. Swinging on the swings.

But on an overcast Saturday morning, there's been a break in the action as kids interrupt their games of tag and Lava Monster to figure out just what the heck is going on just down the hill. For there, about 15 mountain bikers are riding as if they were stuck in glue. Gently squeezing their brakes, they pedal maybe a quarter turn, then pedal backwards — ratcheting the pedals, they call it. They squeeze their brakes, give a baby pedal forward, then ratchet backward. And so on. Anything to keep them upright while, at the same time, barely moving forward. It's like watching a bike race for the finish-line-phobic.

Which it kinda is. We're in boot camp here. Mountain-Bike Boot Camp, a Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club skill-building course for mountain-biking newbies and riders wanting to sharpen their skills. This slow-race skill builder works on balance and teaches bike-handling skills, especially those needed for riding through tight, winding, technical trails.

Mixed group

"Not much further," yells Bellevue's Maribeth Evezich, an expert rider and racer who's one of about half a dozen BBTC instructors and/or volunteers helping out here today. "Last one wins!"

 

Mountain-bike instruction

• Seattle's Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club (www.bbtc.org) is the state's largest mountain-bike club and one of the biggest in the country. Its Mountain-Bike Boot Camp is offered three times each month, on Saturday mornings and one Wednesday evening at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore. Cost for the three-hour camp for non-members is $50, which includes a BBTC membership. Current club members pay $25. Sign up online: www.bbtc.org.

• Seattle's FluidRide (www.fluidride.com) offers private mountain-biking instruction as well as camps and clinics for groups of seven or more riders. Instruction can focus on various aspects of riding (i.e. downhill, technical cross-country, dirt jumping, etc.) and include video analysis and mechanical instruction. Rates start at $119 for 90-minute individual lessons; add $20 for each addition person. Information, call 206-499-3469.

• Private and group mountain-bike training is available at Cycle University (www.cycleu.com), a Seattle bicycle-training center. Rates range from $75 per hour for one-on-one lessons to $30 per person for groups of six or more for two-hour sessions. Call 206-938-1091.

There's much laughter as the riders' jittery, herky-jerky movements — anything to keep their forward movement to a minimum — give them the appearance of folks who've just guzzled 18-shot Sumatra Mandheling lattes on an empty stomach. About 30 student riders are here today, from age 7 to 50-plus. They range from total mountain-bike beginners who just want to be able to have fun riding St. Edward's trails without getting lost, to hard-core wannabes (Read: young males) who want to learn how to ride wheelies and land jumps.

"We want to instill a bit of confidence," says instructor Robert Dearen, who also goes by the moniker "Evil Bob," a carryover from 30 years ago and his days as a motocross rider and stunt-bike jumper. "Through the drills we do today, we'll give them the confidence that they can negotiate any kind of trail conditions. Which, of course, helps increase their enjoyment of riding the trails."

The club, which is the largest mountain bike club in the state and one of the largest in the country, began offering boot camps in 1995. In the past 12 months, nearly 170 riders have gone through the camp, and the club hopes to double that number over the next 12 months.

"It's a great way for new riders to meet up with other new riders," says Jon Kennedy, volunteer director of the BBTC. "As well as a great way to increase our membership base."

The one-day course sessions are held about three times each month, usually on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Today's three-hour session starts with an introductory talk, there on the vast lawn by St. Edward's former Catholic seminary building. Included are the rules of the trail — bikers yield to all other trail users, ride under control, don't skid, leave no trace, etc. Then a bike check.

Early shakedown

"Take your front wheel and shake it," Bob Hollander, who heads up the boot camp, tells the riders. "The last thing you want is to pull up on your handlebars and have the front wheel fly off."

Tips from the drill sergeant


When climbing hills on a mountain bike, move slightly forward near the front of your saddle. Lean forward to keep your front wheel from lifting off the ground. Keep your elbows in.

On descents, keep your weight back — even behind the seat on especially steep drops — for better traction and braking ability. Also prevents the dreaded "endo" — that is, flying over the front of the handlebars in the event of a sudden stop.

When riding, keep your upper body relaxed. Your arms should be loose and flexible, acting somewhat as a front suspension system.

Brake before corners, letting up on brakes (or slightly feathering them) through the corner. Hard braking through corners results in skidding, verboten in mountain biking because it damages trails.

Source: Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club

Yeah, that's not a good thing.

Bolts tightened, brakes checked, it's on to the balance drill, wherein instructors manhandle students' bikes with them aboard, trying to shake riders off their seats. Not really, but that's what it looks like.

"You want to be able to move freely all around your bike while still keeping your feet on the pedals," says volunteer Mike Biddle, who demonstrates while fellow volunteer Kurt Falkenberg holds Biddle's bike in place.

Still in a sitting position, Biddle leans so far back he's practically sitting on his back wheel — a position that's good for steep descents down slippery terrain — to standing upright and leaning so far forward his eyes are almost directly above the front wheel hub. This position is useful for getting his back wheel over logs and obstacles. He leans way out to the sides, too.

"Balance is one of the most critical things in mountain biking," Falkenberg says, while working to keep Biddle's bike steady.

With students on their bikes, instructors go from rider to rider shaking things up while having riders try the same poses Biddle demonstrated. It looks a little like those bad sci-fi TV shows where the actors have to lean from side-to-side, front-to-back pretending that their spaceship is being bombarded by meteors.

"You stand with most of your weight on the pedals, not the handlebars," Dearen advises. "Keep pressure off the handlebars, counter with your hips if you have to."

From there it's on to the slow race, which leads to a braking-shifting exercise. Here, students hit the trails and take turns slowing down a hill. They brake at a pair of set cones (without skidding; in mountain biking, skidding on the trails is a major no-no), then downshift at cones placed farther along the trail to climb a short, steep pitch.

"Pedal! Pedal! Pedal!" bark boot-camp instructors while riders follow orders with varying degrees of success.

Pedals spinning quickly, they all make it to just about the top of the hill, where some run out of gas, put a foot down and walk their bikes up the last little bit. Others, with a final grunt and grind, are able to power up and over. All — the didn't-make-its as well as the made-its — are rewarded with cheers and encouraging words from both instructors and fellow students.

Challenging obstacles

Now it's time for perhaps the most — and for a few, least — anticipated portion of today's class: riding over obstacles. Back on the lawn, three logs of increasing size, from about 6 inches- to a foot-high, are set up. But first, to get the feel of what they'll be doing, a stick is tossed on the ground and students ride over it, lifting their front wheel up and pushing it down on the stick as if smashing a cockroach.

Then it's on to the logs, small log first. With spotters to help on either side, riders approach the small stunt and hope for the best.

"Keep pedaling and when you come to the log, pretend you're pushing your foot through the bottom of a box, while at the same time lifting up a little on the handlebars," Dearen says.

Like magic, most are up and over with little help from the instructors. Even those couple of riders who were dreading it, approaching the log with eyes closed, make it up and over, their faces beaming at what they've done.

Watching them, I can't help but think of my own mountain biking experience. And the oh, say, 45 million logs I tried negotiating over the years on my own, using the trial-and-error method. And the oh, say, 45 million cuts and bruises I endured over the years before I finally got the hang of it. But when I did, and mountain biking began to have the flow of trail running, or even snowboarding, it felt like wondrous new worlds were opened to me. These students were experiencing that now.

Moving on

With time running short, instead of graduating to bigger logs, the class breaks up into three groups and heads out for guided rides to practice what they've learned.

We roller coaster through steep ups and downs, cross narrow bridges — look forward, where you want to go, not where you are — and roll over various obstacles. When we come upon a triangular pile of logs a couple feet high, Evezich, Dearen and a few of the more hearty riders go up and over it a few times, demonstrating how it's done.

Dominic Evezich, a seemingly fearless 11-year-old from Sammamish, and Maribeth's nephew, gives it a shot but doesn't quite make it. He kind of stalls at the top and jams his leg against his bike as he topples down. It's an ow-ee, but not a major one.

"Shake it off. Shake it off," the others tell by way of encouragement.

Hopping back on his bike and eager to give it another shot, he'll have none of that.

Says Dominic: "Why shake it off, when I can ride it off?"

Ah yes. Words to live by.