Bike handling skills

As we have learned that bikepacking refers to the more off-road side of bicycle touring, so bike handling skills and the level at which you can control your bike is going to be a crucial skill you need to understand. Different routes require different levels of bike handling skills, but we will get into route choices later. The UK is very diverse the trails you will encounter can vary from flat, hilly, vertically steep, rocky, muddy, chalk, gravel, narrow. Through farmers fields with crops growing or cows or bulls roaming, horses, sheep. Luckily, you don’t really have to worry about anything too deadly in the UK. The trails can be vastly different from month to month, so understanding your level of bike handling skill is going to help give you the best possibility of having an enjoyable trip. And the simple answer to understanding your own level of bike handling skills is to spend time riding, spend time riding off-road. But there are some things you can do to improve and get a better understanding of your own level of bike handling skills.

• If you can ride with someone who you know is better than you riding there bike off-road then personally I think this is the number one way of just becoming a better rider, you will naturally improve as you are able to visually and in real time see how something should be ridden, whether that is just getting a better idea of line choice, or just being able to see how a bike will react to going over or through and given obstacle.

• If you don’t have anyone you can ride with, then. A great place to head to, is your local MTB bike, if you are lucky enough to have one. They will have all different levels of trails, where you can start on the easier trials and work on your bike handling skills as you progress through the different difficulty levels of trails. Also, the benefit of heading to the MTB parks is that you will often meet other people that are better than you, so you will be able to learn of others around you. MTB parks will often have a lot of different types of riding where you will be able to learn to skills and understand what you are comfortable riding and more importantly what you are not. A lot of MTB parks will also have coaches or at least connections to local coaches that you can get real professional training if that something you would like to do.

• If you don’t have any local MTB parks, and you don’t have anyone to ride then your best option is to find the nearest bridalways to you and start discovering your local area, go explore around your local area, if you have been putting in some training miles on the paved surfaces see if you can make that same route have some off-road sections, riding on your local trails will at least give you some idea of what you are likely to come up against when you go on a UK bikepacking trip.

• By investing time in improving or at least understanding your bike handling skills and limitations, you can significantly reduce the risk of injury and enhance the enjoyment of your bikepacking adventure. Especially when embarking on a solo bikepacking journey, it’s important to recognise and respect your limitations. The time to push your skills is before the adventure, not during it. If you encounter a trail beyond your abilities, it's perfectly acceptable to choose not to ride it—there’s no shame in hiking your bike. And with the ever-changing conditions of the trails in the UK, it is often a good idea to air on the side of caution.