- Alright, blokes are super
capable out there on the trails,
but there's just two
things that we come across
out on the trails that can make even
the most competent riders struggle.
Gonna be taking a look at a few of those
things today and how to overcome them.
(upbeat music)
(digital whirring)
So, what happens when the
trail becomes too steep?
You can't actually even ride up over it,
these big obstacles in the way,
like rock steps, things like that.
There's a little button on
your bike, the walk button.
It varies on a lot of
different manufacturers
and different motors, but you'll find
somewhere you will have
a button you can press,
which actually activates that motor up to
about three, four miles an hour.
Nice to slow, basically all it does is
just takes that weight away from the bike
when you're pushing it up that hill.
You don't want to be lugging
that 20, 25 kilo bike.
So, what we did is just
activate that walk button
by pressing it or pushing your lever and
that will help that bike
go up the hill slowly
without actually doing anything.
What you do need to watch out for,
is obviously the pedals are going round,
so you don't want that
to clack you in the shin
or your legs, so just make sure you're
keeping an eye on those that are spinning.
And also it helps just
to downshift, I find,
into a slightly harder or higher gear and
it will let that back wheel actually
drive that bike up the hill a bit
faster and get a bit more assist.
So, just using that walk button now,
just getting a good line.
And there's a big step here, so I'm just
going to get into my bottom bracket lift.
Get up this last step and carry on my way.
(upbeat music)
When it comes to lifting your e-bike,
it becomes quite a big thing.
They're quite actually heavy.
A lot of these bikes
are over 20, 25 kilos.
So, getting a good lift technique
can really help out on the trails.
First things first, what I like to do,
just turn that motor down so it's off,
it just means any little
pedal strike on those
pedals when you're lifting the bike or it
clips a tree or the edge of the gate means
sometimes that back wheel can engage and
engage that motor, trapping your fingers
or giving you a big tire
burn off the back wheel.
So, just make sure that motor's off.
The basic lift technique, if you get your
bike up onto anything, fairly low,
is just to get under the bottom bracket.
I like to get down, nice and low on this.
If I pick my e-bike up
just from the top chute,
I can only lift it about that high.
Going down deep, grabbing it underneath
the bottom bracket, gives
me a lot more height
under the back wheel and front wheel
so I can just climb up nicely
onto any size obstacle.
So, with that seat, you can
get that under your shoulder,
lift it up, nice and easy.
And away.
(upbeat music)
So, what we have behind
me here is probably the
biggest nightmare of
an e-bike rider's ride.
It's the five bar gate.
We all hate stairs, gates,
getting stuff our bike
to lifting them over,
but with good technique,
they're not that much of a problem.
The technique I like to use on this
one is the Rampage Style Lift.
All I'm doing is getting my e-bike,
straight away, I'm turning that power off.
Just make sure that power's off.
Just in case you clip a
crank and that motor engages.
You don't want to get your fingers
caught in that chain ring.
Next, I'm moving my
non-driver side pedal up to
12 o'clock, getting a
good handful around the
seat tube and the lower foreleg below us,
giving that a quick lift
up, and aiming to put
that motor up straight onto my shoulder.
So, I'm gonna lift it
up over my head, resting
that motor on my shoulder
and I'm gonna walk
towards the gate, lift it
up high, swift movement,
dump it down, back wheel, hold it
by the stem, balance it on that.
I'm even gonna climb over or
walk round in this instance.
Now, this is an extreme lift where you're
gonna need that bike off of the ground
because sometimes you need the hand free,
sometimes you can even climb
up sheer rock faces with this.
This is an extreme one.
(upbeat music)
At Great Air Climbing,
we all love doing a big
climb on our e-bikes, but
occasionally we all fail.
Sometimes you might hit a root, a rock,
wheels spin, and come to a dead stop.
The bike's quite heavy so
when they do come to a stop,
they do come to a big, big stop.
Getting that momentum going again
can sometimes be an issue.
Sometimes you struggle with grip,
power modes, things like that.
Here's a few tips to get going on that
climb and make it to the top.
So, I've got quite a tack
climb in front of me here,
lots of rocks, roots, things
like that can cause wheel spin.
If I do come to a stop, I'm gonna show you
how to get my momentum going
again, using a few little tips.
Oh, God.
So, as you can see straight
away, I've stopped,
wheels spin on that
log and I got that big,
heavy bike trying to go
backwards, down that hill.
So, straight away I've got my foot down,
got both brakes on, balancing the weight
of that bike and I'm gonna
move it across that hill
so it doesn't want to try and go down.
That way I've got a lot
more control of that bike
and it isn't wanting to flop straight
down on me and slide backwards.
If it does slide, I can slide with it.
So, just get that bike sideways
straight away, to the hill.
Next step is to get that seat down,
out of your way, drop that dropper.
And what I like to do
is just try and focus,
try and find a nice line
of where I'm gonna go.
Also, a good little tip
now, it's to change up.
If you're not in that turbo mode already,
click it up into turbo
mode or high power boost,
whichever you've got on your system.
And I just like to use that walk button,
just to change it up
into the easiest gear.
I've put my front brake
on, I've lifted that back
wheel up, holding the walk button down,
and I've changed that
into the easiest gear.
That way, I know I've got
as good a chance as any
of getting that momentum going,
of going across the hill.
What I've done, also, to
shallow that gradient out,
I'm not pointing straight
up, so I've shallowed it out.
Let it come towards you and carry
on with my route up that hill.
Hopefully, keeping that momentum.
Gotta be really careful on the power here,
not to get any wheel spin
and try to get a good drive.
Momentum is key.
Gotta keep that momentum and
build it up as you go up that hill.
Let's try and recover
from that messed up ride.
So, just easing on the pedals, nice,
getting on the power,
picking that line, and away.
So, you might be wondering
why we use that walk button
instead of just pushing
through those gears.
The reason I use the walk button to
cruise up is that lower, easier gear.
It's basically just to avoid that risk of
chain snapping, if I pedal off from here,
and crunch from like third to first gear,
from here, it's gonna
mean that chain is under
a lot of load from me and the motor.
It's really gonna increase that chance
of the chain snapping or,
again, the wheels spin.
It's just not gonna be
as smooth as setting off
from a gear that you're
already dialed in and
ready to set up off that climb in.
(upbeat music)
So, e-bikes these days have
some amazing suspension on them.
Some of them up to like 200 mil.
Never gonna match your body for travel.
What I mean about body
travel, I'm on about
the movement in your wrist,
your elbows, your arms,
your upper body, your back,
your knees, your ankles,
every little joint in your
body is actually suspension
and you can use that when you hitting some
rough stuff out on the trails.
If you stand this up and you go all stiff,
your body isn't moving
or you're relying on
your tires, your suspension on your bike,
can be a hell of a rocky ride and you're
not going to be very in control.
So, try and use that
body as much as you can.
So, for example, I'm gonna hit
this part of the trail now,
I'm just literally going to
use the bike's suspension.
I'm gonna be stiff, you know,
not using my arms or my legs
and how out of control this looks.
I'm just nice and stiff...
Okay, so I'm gonna hit the
same bit of trail again,
but I'm gonna utilize good technique.
I'm gonna be using my
arms, elbows and my body's
suspension is gonna be a lot smoother,
just compensating for that bike moving,
every bit of movement I
feel through the suspension,
I'm gonna move my body and match it.
So, just check out how much smoother
this is with good technique.
It just looks a hell of a lot smoother,
I'm not getting bucked around,
I feel a lot more in control,
using my body and using that suspension.
(upbeat music)
So, don't forget to subscribe to
EMBN for more awesome content,
we've got loads of good videos on here.
As well as check out the
epic slab ride video here.
We've got how to ride natural, fast,
up trails faster down here, too.
Don't forget to drop some
comments in the box below,
give us a thumbs up if you like the video.
