Fruita and the Better Ride Clinic

April 3-5, 2015 - Fruita, Colorado

I arrived in Fruita, and after a trip to Over the Edge bike shop checked in and set up in a tenting site at the James M Robb State Park campground.

Over the Edge is a true full service shop. I went in for some tweaking of my recently mounted tubeless Continental Mountain Kings. The front at 2.4 was slightly too large for my fork, and was mounted in such a way as to "wobble" a great deal. The rear tire was not holding air. The mechanic, Landon, suggested a 2.35 Kenda for the front. I went with that and as he removed the Conti, he declared it to be faulty- a common problem in his experience. Landon mounted the Kenda and added some Orange to the rear after soaping and detecting quite a few leaks. He tuned the front brake calipers and offered to contact the Continental rep for a warranty swap. (At checkout I left him my contact info and amazingly I had an email from the rep waiting for me after a ride at the Kokopelli area. New Conti on the way! How cool when companies stand behind their products.)  While waiting I talked to the counter guy who drew in the new trail updates in the local guidebook and gave me some invaluable guidance. I was in the shop for about 30 minutes and they had solved a large handful of issues.... The hallmark of a first rate shop!

Riding out west is always humbling the first few days, even more so this early in the season. I am reminded of the universal law of Specificity. Ski fitness is not bike fitness and ski skills are not bike skills and Minnesota trails are not Colorado trails! Rocks, long climbs, switchbacks, steep descents are the rule out here. They make me feel like I have never ridden before.  That in mind, Day one I decided to do multiple loops at Rustlers to wake up the legs and nervous system. This is the easiest trail in the Kokopelli area, and at 3.5 miles is perfect to start with. Loop one was tentative and cautious. Loop two was much more relaxed, and loop three felt groovy and flowy. I'm glad I started there. In spite of the moderate ride I was pretty bushed and looking forward to a bite to eat and crawling inside Big Agnes ( my tent you perverts). The 1200 mile solo drive and lack of sleep was a factor, too. Being 55 is not involved. Really. After a few episodes of Mad Men on the ipad via Netflix, a few beers and some Amys canned Tuscan black bean soup, slumber came easily. 

Good sleep was to be essential for what lie ahead - a three day Better Ride mountain bike skills clinic. I had actually been signed up for this clinic to be held in Anchorage Alaska, in July 2014. Fate knocked me out of that clinic....a bike crash 8 days out left me with 18 stitches in my forearm, a monster hematoma on my quad, and torn ligaments in my foot. The crew at Better Ride was great about it, and issued me a credit for a future camp. So here I was in Fruita, cashing in on the clinic.

We were directed to meet in the Kokopelli parking lot, and in doing so it took some wrangling to find each other...myself and seven other students and our instructor, Andy Winohradsky. Introductions followed as we gathered near Andy's "creeper van", a fully equipped cargo van complete with bunk, parts and tools center, and bay for bike and motorcycle transport. His home away from home. Introductions revealed some differences, but a general theme of seeking to develop confidence on the bike in a wide variety of riding conditions. Experience ranged from roadie pasts to cyclocross focused to nordic skiers who bike to rec mountain bikers.

Andy is a former pro downhill racer who has been in the bike industry his entire life. He is the head coach for Better Ride, a company formed by Gene Hamilton, also a pro downhiller and pro snowboard coach. Gene saw a need for sharing what he had learned via coaching on snow as applied to the bike, using his technique knowledge from riding very fast...with gravity. Starting with pointers on shipping a bike and dealing with airlines who damage them, it became apparent that the depth of bike knowledge Andy has is virtually endless. And that is what was shared over the next three days.

We started in the gravel parking lot, and spent the next 5 hours on the very basics. The Default Athletic Position was taught and demonstrated....from the course outline: "The rider’s body needs to be halfway through a squat, halfway through a push-up; with ALL the rider’s weight on the feet." The foundation of riding in technical terrain. I won't cover all of the cues Andy shared, but "glass of water" on your head is a theme that weaved it's way through the entire 3 days. Ride so the water doesn't spill. Stable core. Head up and level at all times. Huge!

Next was Climbing Position, which covered cadence, position on the seat, chest position relative to the handlebars, and several takeaway drills to bring home.

The next one, which took over an hour, was trail vision. "Macro, Process, Trust." This is perhaps the most valuable concept in the class....stop micromanaging the trail, and see it in a macro way....process what you saw on the trail ahead....and trust your brain to use that info and make adjustments. Andy's explanations and demonstrations of this concept were very in depth and gave me a whole new way to see the trail...this is where he really revealed himself to be a master teacher.

With a degree in physical education and coaching, I like to think I have an eye for good instruction of physical skills, (and bad!) and this was simply the best I have ever seen! It is one thing to have knowledge, another to have skills, yet another to share that with words and demonstration of a skill in an expert manner. Andy has them all.

Our next skill was Braking, or Momentum Management. Andy went into detail on front brake, rear brake, body position and discussed traction, and again gave take home drills to practice the concepts we had tried. Remember, we had not yet left the parking lot.

Most of us in the class, I will say, had that feeling of a full brain as we then rode up the road and out onto the beginner Rustler's trail to put all of this to practice. We rode slow, as a group, taking turns behind Andy, beginning to Macro, Process, Trust on the trail. We experimented with the exaggerated Default Athletic Position, drilled ourselves on climbing, descending, braking. It was a truckload of information for one day...but very well presented and very practical in terms of takeaway. That evening we all got the course outline via email, which I studied each night after class and happen to be referring to as I write this.

Day two was conducted mostly in the paved parking lot of the local elementary school. We began with a gathering around the creeper van for a session on bike setup. We learned about shifter and brake placement, seat position and height, handlebar length, a little on tires, and safety checks before riding. 

Coming from the downhill world, Andy has a unique perspective on a few things. The most apparent and insistent was the utilization of a dropper seatpost. As revealed in the coming Wheelies, Cornering, and Manipulating the rear wheel, the value of getting the seat out of the way to effectively stay in position and manipulate the bike became really obvious. He runs a 1x 11, eliminating the front derailleur as well as shifter, allowing room for the dropper control lever. I never really considered a dropper seatpost, but when we headed over to the full parking lot at 18 Road and I started looking at other's bikes, I would say 90 percent of them sported the dropper posts. After the parking lot session in which those with droppers practiced with the seat down, and those without lowering the seat manually, I saw the value of getting that seat out of the way. And as we descended the screaming fun yet technical sections of these trails, it really made a ton of sense. So much so that the Yeti I just ordered will have a dropper as well as a 1 x 11.

Further trail instruction included some very technical challenges(optional) that included climbing a huge and steep boulder as well as manipulating through a seemingly impossible rock section with drops, obstacles and turns.

Day three began in the same paved school lot, and we were thankful for a really sunny and warm morning in which to learn and practice. I have taken a lot of classes, but have never felt more excited to learn on the final day as I was on the first. The group had loosened up and gotten familiar, and I felt fortunate to now know some really cool and like minded people.

The topics were Switchbacks, Bump Jumping, and J Hops, the latter two delving into the "highest level of riding", when the wheels leave the ground. I can't say I can do either of these, but I can say that with the foundational skills I learned, I could with practice advance to this level. We again moved from the lot to the Rustler trail, and took parking lot practice to a downhill switchback covered in loose gravel over slickrock. Line choice and looking ahead were the two takeaways.....as well as "a boring switchback is a good switchback". (one you get through smoothly, both feet on the pedals, upright).

We did a little bump jumping, but were discouraged from doing much of that without more foundational practice. Foundation is probably the key word of the entire clinic. The clinic was not only sequential, but building. Each skill and concept was built on the platform of the one previous.

There was always plenty of time for questions and clarification, and Andy met each rider where they were at with both honest feedback as well as encouragement. All in all, this clinic was worth every dime and then some. I have been trying to add value to my time spent with regular practice on skills and drills both before and during each ride. My riding has improved (maybe not visibly to anyone but me) and I have a lot more confidence.  In this day and age of marginal service, I am left encouraged. Better Ride honored the clinic spot I crashed out of, Over The Edge proved that service is not a lost art, and there was a brand new Continental Mountain King tire on my front step when I returned home to Burnsville.

Life is grand.

To contact Andy Winohradsky if you are interested in a clinic in your area: [email protected]