2020 has been a year very different to any other. There are many negatives to come from it, which don’t need to be reiterated here, so let’s look at one big positive: the number of bike sales during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Friends in the bike industry have told me how many sales they’ve had, so many of them are just so busy. What does this mean? Well, there’s a lot of new people riding bikes. As far as I’m concerned, that is one big fat positive. More people riding bikes is positive in itself, but what about the health benefits – both physical and mental, as well as the environmental benefits, and the potential savings on fuel and public transport costs. I do hope all these newcomers to cycling stick at it, especially the new mountain bikers.
Even after 28 years of mountain biking myself, I still find that there is space to learn and improve. That could be by revisiting old forgotten skills, which happened a lot for us in lockdown as we could only ride in the garden, or simply by pushing the boundaries of our cornering or jumping or even climbing abilities. For me, the fact that you can spend a life-time improving at this fantastic sport is one of the things that has kept me addicted for so long.
To help our new mountain biking friends, I put together 8 tips for beginners and improvers alike, and you can check them out here!