Tips to speed check - Mountain Boarding

Every so often, a thread is started on the ATBsports forums that brings together some really good community knowledge.

In May, 'checkers' asked:

im not a bad rider and want to learn how to speed check so i can handle those faster runs with out having to power slide.
Im not exactly sure to speed check and cant seem to find any info on the web.
i can stand-up slide to a stop slow speeds, is speed checking along the same lines?

Any tips/guides on how to speed check would be much appreciated

Dunstan replied with:

Hey, I think there are 5 ways to control speed on a mountainboard, and if your board has brakes there are 6.

The simplest are letting the tyres down a bit, and powersliding like you said. You obviously want to progress from that, so other ways to speed check are using the terrain, ie riding through any long grass/softer ground that might be on the side of the run.

Scrubbing is a good way, which is usually kicking the back of the board out one way or another, or if you're good sliding it a bit while maintaining an upright stance. If you get really good you'll be able to do full on powerslides standing up, you'll be proper stoked when you get those. The way to scrub is to take you're weight off the part of the board you're going to kick out/slide and then try and drag it along the ground either toeside or heelside, while carrying on riding in the same direction, and bring the board back straight once you've done it. You can do it with the whole board as well, little jumps turning the board a bit and then jumping back straight. Try them starting slowly at first, once you get the hang of them buikd up the speed as you get more confident. For slides, try it on a surface like wet grass or gravel so you can start sliding easier.

If you find yourself faced with super gnarly super steep single track that you think you'll never be able to ride, you probably can, by using falling leaf. Basically the idea is that if you have your board at 90deg to the fall line of the hill, you won't go anywhere, and you'll go faster/slower based on what angle you point the board. So for a really steep run you're not confident to bomb, turning you're board down the hill a tiny bit, say 10-20 degrees, going across a bit and then doing it the other way can make steep stuff possible. The line you take looks like a falling leaf hence the name.

Hope that helps!

Vambo added:

..also at speed get low and try continual tight carving where you're wheels are on the edge sliding so as to keep speed to a maximum but controllable (grip the next bend)....Best used for fire tracks and tarmac lanes/roads.

Tip 8 - go freeriding long fast runs more.

Good point made there, practice makes perfect!

Belac added:

just to add to whats said above, when scrubbing you're best to carve into the slide. a massive mistakea to make is to be packing it along at a huge speed and go to scrub straight away, all the inertia is going forwards and so you genrally catch an edge. if your a regular rider and you wanna do a heelslide, carve out left a little bit, and then as you start coming back in start your scrub, means your weight is over the back of the board and on the effective edge ie your back wheels.
i think one of the best ways to learn is get a skateboard/longboard and find a smooth hill, go slide, then bring those skills back to mountainboarding.

..Which makes the great point of board cross over skills and how we really can learn from other disciplines. EvilC makes the following points:

yeah, caleb is spot on there - I do most of my scrubbing on a heelside carve for that reason. Just do a toeside carve to put you on one side of the track, then lean into the heelside carve quite hard and as you carve, jump your board around against the direction of travel - the faster you are going, the less you should jump, but you can control speed pretty effectively this way.

Good to learn, but if you are finding a run too fast for you and you constantly have to speed check, consider letting some air out of your tyres. On some runs, I will actually do the run faster with less pressure in my tyres, simply because the faster you are going the harder it is to scrub speed, and it can become a full time job controlling the speed. With less air in your tyres, you can just bomb the run and know that you are going to max out on speed earlier, so you don't have to worry about scrubbing speed before it gets out of control.

Hard to explain, but I hope you get what I mean.

Which makes a whole lot of sense. Start at a level you are happy with and work your way up.

Belac elaborates on his earlier post with the following:

re the original thred, the other thing is to not ride the gnarliest runs till your ready, i tried some of the big mountain mtb single track out here and nearly killed myself. if you can't scrub at speed then your not in control, that means not only a danger to yourself, but to others. i notice theres been studies on breaking times in skating/longboarding/freeboarding, would be interested what the break time and distance is at differant speeds on a mountainboard. not trying to be preechy tho, like clive said, just let the tires down.

Sometimes, the best answer is also the easiest. Much credit to all the above posters for taking the time to explain things in easy steps for the rest of us, Cheers!

2009 ATBA-UK National Series

What a plonker, I shouldn't be writing about the 2009 ATBA-UK National Series just after it had already started, but hey ho. Taken directly from http://www.atbauk.org/ is the following info.

Round 1: 17-19 July 2009 – South West Extreme (formerly SWMBC)

Round 2: 14-16 August 2009 – The Edge

Round 3: 4–6 September 2009 – Hales Superbole

However (and the reason for kick-starting this post) it absolutely pissed down Thursday night, and apparently the ATBA-UK tent blew away.

So......Round 1 will now be held on 10-11 October (the contingency weekend) and further details will be found on the ATBA-UK website as they are confirmed.

Membership forms and 2009 National Series Entry Form can be downloaded from the ATBA website if required.

HOT ACTION!

Just a heads-up to say that 'Hot Action', the brand new film from the One5Media crew is now available to download for the sum of $5US. The review to follow from myself in a few days but will probably conclude that:

a) they can ride much better than me
b) doesn't feature enough downhill footage for my liking
c) is 'worth it' depending on not whether the cost of a city-centre pint is affordable

Take a look here to buy, or click through to view the trailer.

Previous work by the one5media guys 'Shralpdown' can be viewed in full and in glorious HD here.

On a related note, I've got this theory that all mountain board movies can be reviewed by considering the following:

- % of film featuring park riding
- % of film featuring free riding
- choice of tunes - would I have the soundtrack on my generic mp3 player?
- 'fun' nes
- camera proficiency
- % of film featuring AJ Lawson*

* - Nothing against AJ, it's just that he crops up everywhere :)

RIP KMC :*(

Well, thats it, the end of an era, Kelstedge Mountain Board Centre is no more. We rode, we drank, we slept, we rode some more. While there is the temptation to be down about things, we've had some excellent times and met some amazing people.

So what does this mean for the typical middle-aged, midlands-based boarder?

1) Freeriding, and lots of it! We do it all through the winter months, there are woods and natural tracks waiting to be discovered. Plus, there are plenty of bikers doing exactly the same thing so use them for inspiration. Just take the usual precautions if riding alone.

2) Visit other centres! From the midlands the nearest ones are probably Court Farm (Hereford) and The Edge (South of Telford) and Hales Superbole (West of Nantwich). Plus Round 3 of the ATBA-UK National Series is being held at Hales Superbole on the 4th-6th September 2009.

3) Take up a similar sport, for example Snowboarding. Theres a rumour that Tamworth Snowdome is doing 3-hour evening sessions for £16!

So chin-up, make the best of a bad situation, get out there and ride! And if you do, email me and if I can, I'll join you!

KMC Closing? + James’ Birthday = Party!!! - This Weekend

For reasons that I won’t go into (because I’m not the right person to do so), there is a strong possibility that Kelstedge Mountain Board Centre will be closing down for good within a matter of weeks. This makes me a very sad panda.

A good attendance this coming weekend by anyone that can make it, may (though with absolutely no guarantees) allow the centre to stay open at least till the end of July.

What is certain right now is that there will be riding this Saturday, there will be evening drinks at the Old Poets Corner in Ashover, there will be camping Saturday night, and we will be riding Sunday (hangovers dependant).

It’s also local rider James’ birthday (21 again).

I’m only posting this now to give people as much notice as possible. Hopefully more details will be posted by someone soon.
Please don’t contact me directly for details, best off contacting KMC through the details on the website.
http://www.mountainboardingatkmc.co.uk/
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.171944&lon=-1.492909&z=18.3&r=0&src=msa - KMC
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=53.162791&lon=-1.480256&z=18.4&r=0&src=msa - Old Poets

Feel free to add your messages of support below.

Cheers!

New ATBA-UK Website

Just a heads up on the new ATBA-UK website

Linky

Home page to the 'All-Terrain-Boarding-Association', the not for profit, membership organisation set up to administer, represent and promote the sport of mountain boarding.

Website under construction so check in periodically.

MBS Rockstar Pros

After my Rockstar hubs went a bit 50p shaped, decided to upgrade to the Rockstar Pros

Linky

Not a huge amount to say about them, except the ride feels a bit smoother due to less wheel wobble than before.

To give a indication of weight difference, the Pros weighed between 163-165 grams, whilst the Standards weighed 140-141 grams. Weight in both cases did not include spacers, bearings, or tyres, but did include nuts and bolts. This equates to a weight increase of around 94 grams for 4 tyres i.e. not very much really.

Converting the hubs over took around half an hour although most of this was taken hunting round for a correct size spanner and removing the old Rockstars, them being quite a tight fit onto the tyres. One method that worked really well was to pop the really sticky ones into the freezer for 15 minutes. This either causes the hubs to shrink slightly, or the tyre to become rigid enough to come straight off. Tip taken from mbs.com.

The benifits of the Pros are as follows as taken from ATBSports website:

The Extra strength allows them to be run on harder pressures for higher speed and faster accelleration on race tracks. The web design also adds extra side forces strength for kite flying. Available as just hubs or with bearings and also as a single hub for replacements and now in Black and Gold options as well as the chrome standards.

The outer rim edges are the same as a standard hub so they can be run at all normal pressures without breakages they do not need to be run max pressure.

These are also narrower than a standard rockstar making the tyre sit higher and run faster. All in all the top of the line hub that performs as well as it looks.