Mountain Bike Pro Tips [Video]

In this article, we will be going over some quick mountain bike pro tips/hacks to help take your bike to the next level! Getting your bike set up properly can improve your body positioning out on the trail and in the end improve your riding. Everyone has more fun riding their bike when they feel more comfortable and in control. Check out these five mountain bike pro tips. Here we go!

Grip Tape On Brake Levers

• For a bit more grip and control over your brakes, cut and stick some skateboard grip tape to the brake levers.

• This will keep your fingers from slipping off the brake levers in those hectic moments on the trail. You will find yourself with more confidence grabbing the brake lever. This works great no matter if you prefer to ride with gloves or not. 

3M Rubber Tape To Reduce Chain Slap Noise

• Most modern bikes now come with built in chainstay protecters, and even though sometimes they do the job, other times they are just an after thought in the design process. 3M 2228 Rubber Mastic Tape works great as a chain slap protector and can be used in a variety of ways to cut down on chain slap noise.

• The tape comes in 1 inch by 10 foot roll and can be cut and manipulated to fit your exact bike. Even if you have a molded chainstay protector on your bike, you can still apply a layer of soft rubber tape on top to cut down noise. 

• When the rubber tape wears out, just replace it with another piece. This is a easy and clean way to get rid of chain slap noise. No more wrapping tubes around the chainstay!

• Make sure you place the rubber tape on both the top and bottom of the chainstay as well as the inside of the seat stay. This will keep your chain from damaging the paint on your bike. Before you stick down any tape, male sure your surface is clean and dry or else the the tape won't stick like it should. This is especially important around the chainstay area where chainlubes and other lubes exist on the bike. 

Maxima SC1 Keeps Mud From Sticking To Your Bike

• Maxima SC1 is a silicone based spray that is predominately used to shine up to your bike after it's been washed. SC1 does a great job polishing your bike, making it look brand new again.

• What some people forget is that SC1 also does a good job of repelling muddy sloppy trail conditions from sticking to your bike. When the trail is super muddy, you can actually collect even 10 pounds of mud that sticks right to the bike. Maxima SC1 will keep as much mud from collecting on your downtube and all those hard to reach spots! 

Moto Foam Keeps Mud Out Of Hard To Reach Places

• Moto foam is a great tool to keep mud from piling up in the hard to reach places on your bike. Start with a block of moto foam and cut out the exact shape and size you need. 

• Usually you can stuff the moto foam in tight places around moving suspension parts on full suspension bikes and the foam will hold itself in place. 

• On really muddy and nasty days, mud can start to pile up on your bike and get in to pivot bearings. The mud won't stick to the foam, so keep that mud out of place you can't easily just wipe off. Get some moto foam and get your bike dialed in. 

BackCountry Research Straps

• Backcountry Research straps are designed to replace the old school seat bags. No more clanking multi tools, or tubes getting holes burned in to them in your seat bag.

• The Backcountry Research strap is a utility strap designed to hold any and everything directly against your frame of seat rails. Most riders prefer the Motherload strap to hold a tube, CO2, tire levers, and some kind of multi tool directly to the down tube of their bikes.

• These utility straps can be used to carry anything, not just tools. Throw a couple snacks along for the ride so your don't have to carry anything in your pockets while riding. This is perfect for those riders who prefer to rider without a backpack. No need to use electrical tape to secure a spare tube to the frame when you have this strap. 

• You can see riders like Richie Rude and Damien Oton carrying the necessities with their Backcountry Research straps at every Enduro World series round.

If you're one strange human and would like to read a transcript of the video above, continue reading below!

What's up guys I'm Jeff the founder
of worldwide Cyclery and a little while

back I asked one of our sponsored
downhill racers Max Morgan to write a

blog for us on the 5 coolest little pro
tips that he has and if you're wondering

who max Morgan, is check out this
clip of him at a World Cup.

You should probably watch that a couple more times

oh and also check out this picture of him

Needless to say Max knows how to take
a fall but he also knows how to race a

bike and it's put in some amazing
results and is a super fast racer, but he

filled me in on some of the awesome
things that he sees out there that all

the other mountain bike professionals
are doing on the enduro scene and the

downhill scene and this is some things
you might already know but some stuff

you probably don't know. So we're gonna
get into sort of the five tips that he

wrote down blog post below if you want
to see them in text rather than watch a

video but to start out one of the things
that's most common that all of these

mountain bike pros are doing is grip
tape on brake levers. So this grip tape I

think this was six bucks at Home Depot
you can also probably buy a skateboard

grip tape very simple and you only need
about this much to cover to brake levers

the idea behind that a lot of
professional mountain bikers are racing

and they don't get to race on sunny days
all the time. A lot of times it's raining and muddy.

and that is precisely where
having grip tape on your brake levers

and then on your shift lever on either
your shift levers or your dropper post

lever can really come in handy because
if your gloves are wet or you're not

using gloves and you just have wet
fingers the grip tape is awesome to keep

your fingers planted on those brake
levers and also have helped you just get

traction if you're shifting or hitting
that drop or postal lever so that is an

amazing tip that you see out there and
again really common for wet riding so if

you've ever had that problem where your
fingers are slippery grip tape on those

levers is a really good thing to do
and like I said this is six bucks cut a

couple pieces out, boom them slap it on
there easy. The next one is 3m rubber

mastic tape. So you can buy this stuff I
think it's ten bucks on Amazon and I'm

not exactly sure what it's for probably
some air conditioning stuff but what it

does this was a lot more commonly used
when bikes didn't come with really cool

sort of molded chain stay and seat stay
protectors but it's still really useful

for a lot of places on the bike so Yeti
for example like a lot of other brands

these days has built in from the factory
really well done molded rubber pieces to

just cut down on the noise of chain slap
but they don't always get every spot.

Yeti does a pretty good job
some do worse some don't even come with

it and that's where the 3m rubber mastic
tape comes in handy. You can put that on

little places like this or under here or
anywhere where you think your chain

might be hitting and making noise or
direct contact with the frame so this

stuff is kind of a thick and spongy tape
and it really cuts down on the noise and

is pretty much if you don't have a chain
stay protector this is the way to go if

you do have one and there's a couple
more spots where you want it some

coverage this is the stuff a ton of pros
use this and again you can buy it on

Amazon for ten bucks and Home Depot
sells it as well when you go into Home

Depot good luck finding it it's probably
in the you know HVAC area but it's

really it's a nightmare finding the
stuff so probably buy it on Amazon

Next up, Maxima SC One so this stuff has
been sort of iconic and the most popular

polish in the motorcycle world and the
motocross world for ages and maxima has

been breaking in the mountain bike scene
a little bit these days but this polish

it actually has a really good scent to
it like almost all maxima products which

is pretty cool and it's an incredible
high gloss coating slash polish and

obviously you don't want to get this
stuff near your brakes or your chain or

cassette or anything like that but on
your frame on your stanchions

on your rims, this stuff is amazing not
only does it work as a polish but it

works as a coating which sort of helps
mud not want to stick to it and dust not

want to stick to it so, a phenomenal
product

you can buy this anywhere on the
internet and it's not too expensive and

it lasts a long time and it is aerosol
so be careful when you're spraying it to

not get any on your rotors or your brake
pads because you don't want to

contaminate those so because it's
aerosol watch out for that. Next up moto

foam. This is basically just foam you can
buy this at a craft store or you might

have some laying around sometimes it's
in just you know packaging when you open

a box and you just bought a camera or
something and you might not need it but

this foam you can again this is sort of
a muddy tip because you can stuff this

foam and things like the spindle of your
crank you can put it inside of your

steer tube there's a lot of different
places where you can stuff this foam and

what it does is it just prevents mud and
dust and dirt from collecting in those

areas so especially if you're riding in
muddy terrain if you have this stuffed

in your spindle or in the steer tube of
your fork it's going to prevent all that

mud from getting stuck in there and you
can just pull it out and shake it off

and put it back in. A really cool little
thing to have on your bike and again

really helps out when you're in muddy
conditions it also probably helps do

some sound deadening as well but it's
really just more for keeping mud out of

those spots. The last thing which if you
guys pay attention to any of the Enduro

World Series racing that's really common
is one of these straps. So there's a

company called backcountry research that
makes them a whole bunch of other

companies that make them. Race Face has a
really cool one as well you can honestly

just get like velcro straps if you want
to kind of jerry-rigged it. These ones

are sort of purpose-built and they're
pretty big and they have grippy rubber

in the middle really strong velcro but
you can see on this bike right here this

right here is going to sort of allow you
to not use a hydration pack we also have

a video is using a hydration pack lame?
Where we talked about the pros and cons

of hydration packs and these straps but
if you have one of these straps like you

can see on this bike right here, there's
a tube in there, there's a co2 head

there's two co2 s, a tire lever, and on
the other side there's a multi-tool so

all of that stuff that is essential to
have with you during a ride you can

strap right on your bike and a ton of
pros are doing this that are racing

enduro very convenient way to go because
if you have all of your Central's right

here and you've got a water bottle on
your bike you don't

pack and you can still fix a flat and if
anything else breaks you got your

multi-tool etc pretty cool little thing
to do and not have to worry about having

a hydration pack with you so that's
another thing pros are doing that you

could possibly adopt to your bike if
you're not doing it yet.

So let us know if you guys have any
other pro mountain biker tips you think

or if we miss something hit that
subscribe button and we'll see you guys

in the next one