i've watched heaps of youtube on how to mtb better, but this video has been the most beneficial. understanding the hinge has changed everything i do on my bike for the better. cheers mate
I watched a lot of bike body positioning videos. And in 3 years of riding MTB, I just couldn't figure it out, until I found this video. You made me a much faster and safer rider. Thank you!
A perfectly clear and concise explanation of a fundamental skill that I never knew I needed, and it explains why my back thigh always becomes fatigued, and I have to frequently ride switch foot to give my legs a rest.
Lee is such a great teacher! This hinge combined with his row/anti-row movement pattern works in all situations. I'm still learning it, but it's already making me a much better rider.
I’m just learning about this for the first time, but I been doing kettlebells for years… this feels so right. Are there books and more about this approach?
You know, I have never, ever, heard about keeping your knees inline with each other, but this makes soooo much sense. I will definitely pay attention to this next time I go out. Maybe it was mention before by Lee but I never took note.
Lee has taught me so much about riding a MTB. Riding bikes with my son is one of the greatest experiences I caught have asked for, Lee is responsible for that. I'll always be indebted to him. @leelikesbikes, if you ever see this message, "thank you".
Aloha from the Big Island - may I suggest that you should always use the " Hang Loose " hand gesture using the pinky finger and the thumb, this is the gesture of the Aloha spirit of Hawaii, it is one of athletic and earthly joy, the other gesture is one of darkness and ancient occult origins, just a thought. I just wanted to add that your incites into proper riding skills and posture are well presented, entertaining and profoundly useful. Carry on Bro and may you always " Hang Loose " Mahalo
Good evening , I’m 62 years old , I have been mountain bike for two years. Still scared of drops I watched some of your vids many times Thanks for your help
Simple rule for staying safe on a mountain bike: When you approach a feature, and you're just not feeling it that day, then don't do it. There's no shame in riding around, or getting off your bike and walking.
Thank you so much for explaining this. My back leg was having such a hard time keeping me in the pedals that it was forcing me to go on the saddle and of course making it very difficult to do the trails and keep progressing. Now I understand why and how to fix it. You are a life saver :)
100% this has been happening to me as well and I thought it meant my legs weren’t strong enough! Glad I know better and have a new skill to practice from now on!
@@theprosclosetand Lee ..thank you so much, you give me hope and inspiration! Saying after a bad otb crash after flying multiple sets of stairs...not just stupid but was riding late, didn't see the first set and then just continued taking sets and getting faster till I was in a maxed out back squatting position. Very soon after that I flew otb.
This is great! make me think back when I broke my Collarbone, I was too far back, felt my rear tire on my rear 😂 Going to watch this video a million times lol.
Butt buzz followed by a collarbone fracture is a mountain biking classic. Thankfully, I've never experienced it, but I've seen enough Friday Fails clips to know it happens with startling frequency.
Hinge!!!! That’s so effective. I also applied to doing deadlifts. Prior to knowing about hinge. I used to apply attack position and I can feel my quad burning.
Since I got a riprow my hinge has improved a lot. I learned a hinge can be done in a chair. Simply place your knees over your arches and lean forward until your chest meets your thighs. It allows me to stretch in insulation.
Great stuff, Lee. Worked on the hinge today on our San Clemente trails. We have lots of loose sandy turns so the nasty front wheel slide out has left some of my DNA on the mountain. This helped a bunch. I need to work on holding the hinge while keeping the outside foot down. 😅 Steve 71.
Lee is simply one of the best in explaining and at the same time entertaining the audience. Deadlift position and the "hinge - out of the hinge" is key, I really wish we could have more videos like these. Ciao from Italy! 🇮🇹
THANK you for this so simple but useful instruction. I knew before the concept of heavy feet, light hands but obviusly one can (or at least I could) achieve this in different ways. Sticking with the weight lifter terminology my positon was more of a backsquat. Hence alot of tension on my quarts and very tiring, esp on long descends and I often felt not secure on scetchy parts. Yes, Always afraid of OTB (well, you don't heel as fast close to 50 then you do with 25). Now, at the beginning of the descends and always in between, I repeat to myself: deadlift, bend knees. I swear I am alot faster on trails, I feel so much more secure and my riding is so much more controlled. So little things/tips can change so much and the picture of the Deadlift was the one I needed, to correctly distrubete myself and weight and have even more fun 🙂
After years of THINKING I knew about how to hinge, this video made me realize that I was actually CROUCHING. Once I started hinging, my riding took an amazing leap forward that very day. Of course, losing 30 lbs helped me to be able to hinge at all....
Lee , your videos are just great ! As an alpine skier, I totally get the down/up absorption by the legs over bumps. I'm just beginning to get into mountain biking, am I right that i can also use extension / compression to unweight the bike before turns and weight the bike through the turns , like in skiing?
Knees in the middle OF THE BASE!!! I've been struggling trying to understand how to move from "Moto" stance to "Pedal" stance and keep my knees over my ankles (or the middle of my feet). But in Pedal stance, the ankle isn't in the center of the base!!! GOT IT!!
I heard about this about a year ago i think from this guy explaining this on another channel. What i figured out for me, pedal extenders, makes it easier to hindge. Give more stability on downhills and easier to climb. I use 20mm extenders. I know it sounds silly but think about your feet spread further apart as opposed to being to close in
Pedal extenders made a remarkably large improvement for me, too. I installed them to reduce knee pain and that worked. I was pleasantly surprised at the stability and mobility gains.
@@betenoirproductions6062 Pedal strikes area result of operator error. So I see pedal strikes as optional. Pedal extenders have not changed my mind about that because they have not increased pedal strikes. Now if my pedal is further away from my bike, and I lean my bike over to the side of my lower pedal, than that may increase the incidence of pedal strike. But - in which scenario would I ever have my pedal low on the side to which my bike is leaning?
Just a newbie in mtbiking, this is a little to be off topic... Let's say he has only 180 and 203... How should should you modulate brakes in steep rocky corners and what rotor setup shoud you use? A) 180F/203R - front modulation B) 203F/180R - front modulation C) 180F/203R - rear modulation D) 203F/180R - rear modulation
Your premise is flawed because you can't change your bike setup to be optimal with every change along the trail. First, understand that when you are on horizontal terrain, your braking force should be about 60% front/40% rear. There will be people that nitpick my numbers, but they won't argue that the front brake is more important. When descending, the bias toward the front brake is even more, for illustration I'll say 80/20. When braking, modulate both brakes. If the back tire skids, you need more force on the front brake. So to answer one part of your question, the large rotor goes on the front. When riding into corners, you want to slow down before you enter the turn using front and rear modulation. Ideally, you want to ride through the turn without using your brakes. Since we live in the real world, the next best scenario is to get off the front brake and modulate the rear for the so-called 'comfort-braking'.
This is new information for me. I get lower than everyone I ride with so I maybe I'm doing some of it. I will study this. Great video. What's with her helmet straps? The mention of short cranks is worth pointing out. For the last 3 years I've been experimenting with (in order) 153, 140, 130, 137 and 145. I'm much faster on all of them than the 165+ cranks. I'm 6'2". I settled on 145, but anything from the 153 to the 140 I climb 4 gears higher than 165.
"What's with her helmet straps?" You mean her neck strap? It's seems like 90% of girls and women and teenage boys wear their chinstraps too loose. Why? I don't know, but my guess is that it is fashionable among their gender/age groups. It's not fashionable for grown men, so why do some older guys keep their chinstraps too loose?
I went from 175 to 165. I didn't anticipate the amount of difference that 10 cm would make. Mostly, it eliminated my knee pain. OTOH, is also raised my CoG by 10 cm and that is noticeable and detrimental.
Ahhh, Bach!! The hinge - now I have great understanding of the basic mechanics taught so many different ways, but this hinge and isosceles triangle makes perfect sense why the strain has been happening on left side. Thanks, Lee. Just hope my left knee is up for the challenge on the low hinge moments.
Hi Lee, how would dropping your heels interact in the hinge positions? ive been told many times that dropping the heels and really getting the legs straight is an optimum position to try and maintain, which effectively is a high hinge. but not sure how dynamic this is?
Don't drop both your heels! Drop only the front heel and drop the back toes(meaning raise the heel of the back foot by a little) and that lets you stay in a "wedged" position and gives you more control over your position because you can push back and push forward to adjust your position without using your arms and potentially disrupting your bike. If you drop both heels, your bike will try to get away from you and you will be hanging on to your bars and you will lose control over your steering. I don't know why most coaching videos say "heels" yet if you watch them ride they use the "wedged" foot positioning!
I just have a question. I descend steeps with weight back. So why don’t riders just descend with weight over feet since it’s the “safest” place to be on the bike and you will never go OTB?
The shorter the cranks the easier the stance ... why not simply eliminate the cranks altogether and just slap the pedals directly to the bottom bracket and be done with it. Bonus: This would also benefit the the folks that swear by shaving grams off the weight as they eliminate the combined weight of 2 cranks.
Lee, you are the best. You remind me of a crazy physics professor I had in university. I say this with complete admiration and respect.
This is wonderful!!!
“A hunk of meat hurtling to an uncertain fate” sums up my early MTB experience. This video is a game-changer and I thank you for the lesson.
That line killed me, had to stop the vid. lmao
But really, most helpful vid I've seen on mtb theory
Thanks, Lee, for that great advice on the hinge.
Off to try it.
I was at the pump track one day while Lee was training a firefighter to pump. It was amazing the improvement he got in one hour. That said it all.
🙌
i've watched heaps of youtube on how to mtb better, but this video has been the most beneficial. understanding the hinge has changed everything i do on my bike for the better. cheers mate
This technique has saved my riding and has given me way more confidence to take on difficult hills Thank you Lee!
I watched a lot of bike body positioning videos. And in 3 years of riding MTB, I just couldn't figure it out, until I found this video. You made me a much faster and safer rider. Thank you!
A perfectly clear and concise explanation of a fundamental skill that I never knew I needed, and it explains why my back thigh always becomes fatigued, and I have to frequently ride switch foot to give my legs a rest.
Lee is such a great teacher! This hinge combined with his row/anti-row movement pattern works in all situations. I'm still learning it, but it's already making me a much better rider.
I’m just learning about this for the first time, but I been doing kettlebells for years… this feels so right. Are there books and more about this approach?
@@IdrisFashan There's lots more information on lee likes bikes website.
class information . Info is power . Thank you from Ireland.
6:24 “A hunk of meat hurtling to an uncertain fate”. I have been ‘that guy’ many times...had to laugh, as it is so aptly phrased. Bravo!
🙌
I think that line resonated with all of us.
And helped out my skiing at the same time....hmmm! Nice biomechanical lesson. Subscribed
This is a revealing and a breakthrough video, all new MTB riders must watch this video....!
You know, I have never, ever, heard about keeping your knees inline with each other, but this makes soooo much sense. I will definitely pay attention to this next time I go out. Maybe it was mention before by Lee but I never took note.
Lee has dramatically improved my confidence on the bike through his book and videos - thx mate !
Thank you!!
Hope you do more videos with Lee - what an awesome teacher! This is a must-watch video for all riders regardless of skill level.
Just took a 2 hour lesson from Lee… then road a rock garden for the first time that I could not complete. He is amazing
Lee has taught me so much about riding a MTB. Riding bikes with my son is one of the greatest experiences I caught have asked for, Lee is responsible for that. I'll always be indebted to him. @leelikesbikes, if you ever see this message, "thank you".
Excellent explanation.
Absolutely amazing - really wondering how reach nowadays affects hinging :?
Longer reaches make hinging even more essential. Learn more in the book Dialed.
Aloha from the Big Island - may I suggest that you should always use the " Hang Loose " hand gesture using the pinky finger and the thumb, this is the gesture of the Aloha spirit of Hawaii, it is one of athletic and earthly joy, the other gesture is one of darkness and ancient occult origins, just a thought. I just wanted to add that your incites into proper riding skills and posture are well presented, entertaining and profoundly useful. Carry on Bro and may you always " Hang Loose " Mahalo
the crazy low hinge, now i have a name for it! thanks lee!
:)
Watching this video for the third or fourth time. Awesome teaching.
Very well explained! I understood the whole concept. Thanks for making this awesome video!
The most Revealing mtb video tecnique I saw in the last times, for me at 4:19 is the key of the revolution! Thanks
Good evening , I’m 62 years old , I have been mountain bike for two years.
Still scared of drops I watched some of your vids many times
Thanks for your help
That is awesome! Happy to help!
Simple rule for staying safe on a mountain bike: When you approach a feature, and you're just not feeling it that day, then don't do it. There's no shame in riding around, or getting off your bike and walking.
great video
Very good explanation. Love the crazy low hinge. You have helped me find balance thru awkward places.
Saw it was Lee and hit like right away.
The hinge brought incredible flow! Thank you so much!
You are so welcome!
Thank you so much for explaining this. My back leg was having such a hard time keeping me in the pedals that it was forcing me to go on the saddle and of course making it very difficult to do the trails and keep progressing. Now I understand why and how to fix it. You are a life saver :)
You're so welcome!
100% this has been happening to me as well and I thought it meant my legs weren’t strong enough! Glad I know better and have a new skill to practice from now on!
@@theprosclosetand Lee ..thank you so much, you give me hope and inspiration! Saying after a bad otb crash after flying multiple sets of stairs...not just stupid but was riding late, didn't see the first set and then just continued taking sets and getting faster till I was in a maxed out back squatting position. Very soon after that I flew otb.
This is great! make me think back when I broke my Collarbone, I was too far back, felt my rear tire on my rear 😂 Going to watch this video a million times lol.
🙌
Butt buzz followed by a collarbone fracture is a mountain biking classic. Thankfully, I've never experienced it, but I've seen enough Friday Fails clips to know it happens with startling frequency.
Hinge!!!! That’s so effective. I also applied to doing deadlifts. Prior to knowing about hinge. I used to apply attack position and I can feel my quad burning.
🙌
Since I got a riprow my hinge has improved a lot. I learned a hinge can be done in a chair. Simply place your knees over your arches and lean forward until your chest meets your thighs. It allows me to stretch in insulation.
Oddly enough, that is one of the few positions people suffering from lumbar pain and sciatica can find relief in (child’s pose the other).
Great stuff, Lee. Worked on the hinge today on our San Clemente trails. We have lots of loose sandy turns so the nasty front wheel slide out has left some of my DNA on the mountain. This helped a bunch. I need to work on holding the hinge while keeping the outside foot down. 😅 Steve 71.
🙌
Lee is simply one of the best in explaining and at the same time entertaining the audience. Deadlift position and the "hinge - out of the hinge" is key, I really wish we could have more videos like these. Ciao from Italy! 🇮🇹
Thank you!
THANK you for this so simple but useful instruction. I knew before the concept of heavy feet, light hands but obviusly one can (or at least I could) achieve this in different ways. Sticking with the weight lifter terminology my positon was more of a backsquat. Hence alot of tension on my quarts and very tiring, esp on long descends and I often felt not secure on scetchy parts. Yes, Always afraid of OTB (well, you don't heel as fast close to 50 then you do with 25). Now, at the beginning of the descends and always in between, I repeat to myself: deadlift, bend knees. I swear I am alot faster on trails, I feel so much more secure and my riding is so much more controlled. So little things/tips can change so much and the picture of the Deadlift was the one I needed, to correctly distrubete myself and weight and have even more fun 🙂
Love the detailed explanation. You gained a sub!
Awesome, thank you!
Nice video and presentation.
100% foot loading well, that made us a bike jockey.
Could this be the answer to my beginner-ass having to peel away my fingers from the grips painfully after descening ?
Lee, your explanations help me understand visualize and Ride! Thank you, you make the world better.
Thank you Art! Namastoke to you, Sir.
Thanks mate , so we’ll explain as per usual 👍🤟
Lee is the best🎉🎉
This is awesome. It also puts you in a great position to pedal in control when in technical areas. Thanks for the vid.
After years of THINKING I knew about how to hinge, this video made me realize that I was actually CROUCHING. Once I started hinging, my riding took an amazing leap forward that very day. Of course, losing 30 lbs helped me to be able to hinge at all....
Standing up and getting your but off the seat is something I see less of. Great info and well recieved
Amazing video.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow dude-amazing!
Awesome coaching! Thanks.
You're welcome!
Lee , your videos are just great ! As an alpine skier, I totally get the down/up absorption by the legs over bumps. I'm just beginning to get into mountain biking, am I right that i can also use extension / compression to unweight the bike before turns and weight the bike through the turns , like in skiing?
YES!!
Thank you for making this video.
Glad it was helpful!
Knees in the middle OF THE BASE!!! I've been struggling trying to understand how to move from "Moto" stance to "Pedal" stance and keep my knees over my ankles (or the middle of my feet). But in Pedal stance, the ankle isn't in the center of the base!!! GOT IT!!
Masterclass. God damn.
I love your videos❤ please make a video „how to ride steep trails“. I don’t know how is the right position of my crank 😢
Your cranks should be level.
I heard about this about a year ago i think from this guy explaining this on another channel. What i figured out for me, pedal extenders, makes it easier to hindge. Give more stability on downhills and easier to climb. I use 20mm extenders. I know it sounds silly but think about your feet spread further apart as opposed to being to close in
Interesting, I'd like to give this a try. Do you get more pedal strikes, though?
Pedal extenders made a remarkably large improvement for me, too. I installed them to reduce knee pain and that worked. I was pleasantly surprised at the stability and mobility gains.
@@betenoirproductions6062 Pedal strikes area result of operator error. So I see pedal strikes as optional. Pedal extenders have not changed my mind about that because they have not increased pedal strikes. Now if my pedal is further away from my bike, and I lean my bike over to the side of my lower pedal, than that may increase the incidence of pedal strike. But - in which scenario would I ever have my pedal low on the side to which my bike is leaning?
Just a newbie in mtbiking, this is a little to be off topic...
Let's say he has only 180 and 203...
How should should you modulate brakes in steep rocky corners and what rotor setup shoud you use?
A) 180F/203R - front modulation
B) 203F/180R - front modulation
C) 180F/203R - rear modulation
D) 203F/180R - rear modulation
Your premise is flawed because you can't change your bike setup to be optimal with every change along the trail. First, understand that when you are on horizontal terrain, your braking force should be about 60% front/40% rear. There will be people that nitpick my numbers, but they won't argue that the front brake is more important. When descending, the bias toward the front brake is even more, for illustration I'll say 80/20. When braking, modulate both brakes. If the back tire skids, you need more force on the front brake. So to answer one part of your question, the large rotor goes on the front.
When riding into corners, you want to slow down before you enter the turn using front and rear modulation. Ideally, you want to ride through the turn without using your brakes. Since we live in the real world, the next best scenario is to get off the front brake and modulate the rear for the so-called 'comfort-braking'.
I'VE GOTTEN SO MUCH VALUE OUT OF HIS WEBSITE AND BOOK HE TRULY CHANGED THE GAME OF RIDING MTB FOR ME ..
yes i really had to shout that out ! :D
What are those additional grips in the middle of his bike handlebar? Does anyone know?
This is new information for me. I get lower than everyone I ride with so I maybe I'm doing some of it. I will study this. Great video. What's with her helmet straps? The mention of short cranks is worth pointing out. For the last 3 years I've been experimenting with (in order) 153, 140, 130, 137 and 145. I'm much faster on all of them than the 165+ cranks. I'm 6'2". I settled on 145, but anything from the 153 to the 140 I climb 4 gears higher than 165.
"What's with her helmet straps?" You mean her neck strap? It's seems like 90% of girls and women and teenage boys wear their chinstraps too loose. Why? I don't know, but my guess is that it is fashionable among their gender/age groups. It's not fashionable for grown men, so why do some older guys keep their chinstraps too loose?
I went from 175 to 165. I didn't anticipate the amount of difference that 10 cm would make. Mostly, it eliminated my knee pain. OTOH, is also raised my CoG by 10 cm and that is noticeable and detrimental.
Can you identify where you picked up the expression of pressing your palms together in front of your chin, finger tips up, and what it means to you?
Namaste.
Ahhh, Bach!! The hinge - now I have great understanding of the basic mechanics taught so many different ways, but this hinge and isosceles triangle makes perfect sense why the strain has been happening on left side. Thanks, Lee. Just hope my left knee is up for the challenge on the low hinge moments.
Glad to help!
The Eleventh commandment "Thou Shalt Hinge"
Getting Ryan Hughes vibes.
Guru level tips.
That's the Flatirons behind you right? and that tall white building is the sugar beet silo in Longmont? So where was this taken?!
Erie CO
Hi Lee, how would dropping your heels interact in the hinge positions? ive been told many times that dropping the heels and really getting the legs straight is an optimum position to try and maintain, which effectively is a high hinge. but not sure how dynamic this is?
If the terrain is dynamic, it seems your body should also be dynamic. In my world we've transcended positions in favor of dynamics.
when you get the position right and you have all your weight in your feet, your heels will drop almost naturally
Don't drop both your heels! Drop only the front heel and drop the back toes(meaning raise the heel of the back foot by a little) and that lets you stay in a "wedged" position and gives you more control over your position because you can push back and push forward to adjust your position without using your arms and potentially disrupting your bike. If you drop both heels, your bike will try to get away from you and you will be hanging on to your bars and you will lose control over your steering. I don't know why most coaching videos say "heels" yet if you watch them ride they use the "wedged" foot positioning!
Super!!
Thank you!
How van you be so much bene forward and still have 0 weight on the handlebar?
I just have a question. I descend steeps with weight back. So why don’t riders just descend with weight over feet since it’s the “safest” place to be on the bike and you will never go OTB?
This is the shit, and it's well-explained. Bravo!
Hi everyone. My name is George and I like bikes.
Hi George
Does anybody use this for mx/ enduro? 🙂
yes! watch 'em in the whoops.
It applies to any descent..
Great
Thanks!
how is this not taught more often ???
I need a helmet sticker that says "Isosceles Triangle of Awesomeness!"
🔥
Hamstring and booty!
Nice kameleon pants :D
🤘
I don't think I can hold the handles and have 0% weight on them
More anterior pelvic tilt than not.
lol I clicked on this because I was like what's that b... "the hinge?!"
Ha. Ok, I'd name that the:
"every dude who has worked in a warehouse move"
"riding with both asses"😂
The shorter the cranks the easier the stance ... why not simply eliminate the cranks altogether and just slap the pedals directly to the bottom bracket and be done with it. Bonus: This would also benefit the the folks that swear by shaving grams off the weight as they eliminate the combined weight of 2 cranks.
There are people that smoke weed and people that don’t. I have labeled u sir😁
deadlifts
Fax
All I got out of this video is I need to smoke weed before every ride... (so that I'm properly loose...)
Both assess…😂
That "hinge" is wrong position,keep your back up and bottom low.
Awesome advice. Big thanks! - AB @ Sea Dragon Adventures - Borneo, hinging on a Spec Epic Expert EVO, :)