Is Mountain Biking Hard?

Mountain biking seems so thrilling yet dangerous from the outside. I know so many people that wish to get started, but feel discouraged by the learning curve. So here’s my quick answer to the question – is mountain biking hard?

While mountain biking is fairly complex, most people can become confident at riding beginner-intermediate level trails within a year of starting mountain biking – assuming they ride at least once or twice a week.

I hope that makes you feel better. It isn’t as hard as most people make it out to be BUT you have to be consistent with it. I recommend doing at least 1-2 rides a week.

What should you be doing on these rides? I’ll tell you very shortly.

You first need to know the challenges of riding a mountain bike, before I lay out what you ought to be doing :

What Makes Mountain Biking Hard?

#1 Mountain Biking Is Physically Demanding

Anyone that has ridden on dirt roads for more than 15 minutes can tell you that it gets uncomfortable after a time. The vibrations of the bike, the constant need to adjust your body position based on the terrain, navigating around obstacles- it all is very physically demanding.

#2 Mountain Biking Requires Technical Skills Along With Fitness

You need to have strong legs as well as a sturdy core and upper body strength in order to do mountain biking. But that’s just the starting point- you’ll also need to have certain technical skills (will detail those in the following section of the post) that ensure you don’t get injured.

#3 Risk Of Injury Is High With MTBs

A steep drop, a bunny hop gone wrong- there’s so many ways you might fall off and get hurt.

I’d say, if you are getting into mountain biking for the first time, just accept that you will fall off and suffer a few scrapes from time to time. That’s completely ok.

It’s part of the experience.

How To Make Mountain Biking (MTB) Easier For You

Like I mentioned earlier, you need to have good all-round fitness to be an optimal MTB rider. Decent cardiovascular conditioning along with upper body, core and leg strength.

But that’s just the start point.

Here are all the skills you need to learn for mountain biking:

#1 Understand Mountain Bike (MTB) Trail Ratings and Ride On The Right Ones For You

Whenever you arrive at a nearby MTB Trail- check it’s rating. Each trail is rated as per the level of it’s difficulty. If you’re a beginner, start at the easiest level and work your way upwards. The ratings are as follows:

Easy Trails- Green color
Intermediate Trails- Blue color
Advanced Trails- Black color
Pro Trails – Double Black/Red

The ratings are done based on how factors like straightforward the terrain may be to negotiate, risk of injury based on tricky features on the trail, etc.

#2 Find Out What’s The Right Protective Equipment For MTB

You need good protective equipment before you even take your first ride. The THREE things you absolutely should be getting as a beginner are:

Helmet
Gloves
Knee Pads

Here are some more details:

Mountain Bike Helmet

MTB helmets come in 4 categories basically- half shell helmets, drop face helmets, full face helmets and breakaway helmets.

1. Half shell MTB helmets are your standard bike helmets that you see, that cover just your head. Note that MTB half shell helmets and road bike helmets (also half shell) are not the same. MTB helmets are sturdier, so don’t try to use a road bike helmet on a dirt trail. These are generally the cheapest and this half shell helmet on Amazon is very popular, with over 3300 reviews and 4.5 stars rating.

2. Drop Face Helmet. Same basic look as the half shell MTB helmets- except that these cover the back of your head much better, and extend down the sides of your head, providing more protection than a standard half shell MTB helmet. They are basically similar to dirt bike helmets like this one on Amazon.

3. Full face helmets, as the name suggests will cover your entire face. They are not really required unless you’re riding on tricky trails, learning new stunts, or are particularly injury prone. While they offer much better protection, they also can get hot and uncomfortable, so you’ll need to take a call. Here’s a nice one I found on Amazon, in case you’d like to check it out.

4. Convertible helmets are a hybrid of half shell and full face helmets. They have a detachable chin bar, which you can remove to convert it into a half shell helmet and then later put back to make it a full face helmet. Of course, these are going to be expensive (in the $200-300 range) but if you intend to keep with mountain biking for a long time, will save you from buying two different helmets. For beginners though- I wouldn’t recommend going for these. If you’re interested anyway- this one on Amazon is the one I would buy.

Padded Gloves

Simply needed because you will likely have multiple falls as you learn mountain biking. The reflex action is to stretch out your hands in front to brace for impact with the ground, which can hurt your hands. Or in the event of a crash, your hands are very exposed, in front of your body. Having a protective pair of gloves like this one is important, in my opinion.

Knee Pads

There are 3 types:

Knee Pad sleeves
Hardshell pads
Shin and Knee cover pads

If you’re going on the first few rides, you’ll probably go on gentle trails- still in my opinion, it’s worth wearing Knee Pad Sleeves like this one on Amazon.

After a few rides, once you feel comfortable- great. Go ahead and remove them if you feel like it.

Again, when you go on a new, more difficult trail, or are learning new skills, start wearing the knee pads again. You don’t HAVE to wear them on every ride, but you should have them.

Few things to keep in mind

Knee pads sleeves are good for rides that don’t have many technical features but tend to slip down your shin. Hard shell knee pads feel heavy and sweatier but offer more protection, shin and knee cover pads are even bulkier, hotter and restrictive but keep you safe.

You don’t have to get the hardshell variants to start off with, but at some point, once you become a serious rider- you should.

Few Other OPTIONAL MTB Accessories You Might Consider

Polarized googles or Polarized Sunglasses.

If you’re riding in sunny weather- you’ll need these. Why not regular goggles/glasses? Because when on a trail, you’ll likely go through stretches which are covered by trees and some uncovered stretches – both. You’ll need polarized glasses that give you visibility in both conditions.

Elbow pads

If you want a bit more safety while riding- get the elbow pads. They aren’t mandatory in my book though.

Padded shorts.

Getting padded shorts makes your rides more comfortable. That’s about it. You could also consider getting long riding pants which will save your shins from cuts and scratches on the trail.

MTB Shoes

Beginners usually start off with flat sole shoes (regular activewear shoes) and over time graduate to clipless MTB shoes. The advantage of clipless shoes is that they offer more protection for your feet as the shoe is quite stiff, offer more foot support (less fatigue) and bring about better pedalling efficiency. It can be a bit scary for beginners to be physically attached to the pedal, however.

#3 Maintain Your Mountain Bike Before Each Ride

Mountain bikes need much more maintenance than a standard bike. They get dirty after every ride and should be properly maintained. The basic 3 step maintenance you should do after every ride:

You should wash the entire bike with soapy water, hose off all the dirt and wipe down the bike.
Next, apply a de-greaser on the chain, derailleur, gear cassette and chainring. Let it settle.
Lastly, lube the chain, derailleur, gear sprocket and chainring. Let it all settle in and wipe down any excess lube.

#4 Get Into The Right Riding Positions

Rather than I ramble on- here’s a great video that explains how to get into proper riding positions for MTB. Watch this:

#5 Change MTB Gears At The Right Time

The aim is to be able to anticipate and change gears before you need to. That comes with a bit of practice and skill. However, people that don’t do this, at times you can hear them change the gear incorrectly – and you can hear a loud CLICK sound coming from their bikes. This wears down your drivetrain and you want to avoid that if you don’t want your chain to slip off the gear cassette, or worse, snap.

Few pointers to remember on how to change your MTB’s gears:

Keep your bike maintained and serviced properly.
Understand gear ratios (read this article if you don’t). Jumps in low gears will be much more stressful on the bike than shifting between high gears.
Anticipate the gear shifts when climbing and do it a bit in advance. Shifting multiple gears while climbing can put a lot of stress on the bike which causes that CLICK sound.
Don’t pedal too hard when shifting. This can cause your chain to snap. Too many MTB riders forget this while going downhill- that is when you should ease up just a bit at the moment you want to shift gears.

#6 Learn To Brake Your MTB Correctly

Have one index finger on the brake at all times- that is sufficient.

Understand that the rear brake and front brake don’t have the same braking powers. The front brake shouldn’t be pressed as hard as the rear brake or you may be dislodged from the bike. In fact, I recommend going on a few short rides just to get used to the braking power of your MTB, initially.

Timing the brakes is also super important so that you maintain adequate traction on the trail.

Here are TWO important tips to remember:

Body position. Every time you brake, your body shouldn’t be seated, rather crouched with your weight towards the back wheel (your butt should be above the rear derailleur), knees and elbows bent softly, both feet at roughly the same level with heels pointing down (toes slightly up). This body position ensures you maintain your form while braking and don’t fall off.
Learn to modulate the brakes. If you press both brakes hard while navigating a turn or a corner, you’ll have no traction and are likely going to fall off. You want to press both brakes lightly together, then modulate the rear brake so that you can keep going forward.

The video below gives a nice demonstration of these two points:

How Much Harder Is Mountain Biking Vs Road Bike?

Generally speaking mountain biking (mtb) is quite tough compared to riding a road bike because:

Mountain biking requires a combination of fitness and technical skills whereas anyone who knows how to ride a cycle can start with a road bike.
MTB requires shorter bursts of high power, eg: when climbing up and navigating a tricky piece of terrain. Road bikes require sustained cycling effort over time.
Mountain biking engages the complete body whereas road biking engages mostly the legs only. Riding a MTB requires cardiovascular fitness coupled with full body strength. Riding a road bike primarily only requires cardiovascular strength.
Mountain bikes require much higher maintenance than road bikes.
Lastly- MTB is much harder on the body than road biking. You ride in much rougher terrain and tend to get many more cuts/scrapes than on a road bike.

Conclusion

If you choose to get into mountain biking, it’s very important that you choose a good mtb carefully. Ask your friends, any experienced MTB riders in your circle for advice. For beginners, I don’t recommend buying the high end versions at all. Get an entry level bike like this one on Amazon, and think about an upgrade only after spending 1 year riding it regularly (2-3 times a week).

And if you are seriously looking at mtb’s, you might wonder about the differences between a hardtail and full suspension mountain bike. For that, I recommend reading this article which answers the exact same question.

Happy riding- and if you have any questions- don’t hesitate to comment below.