This Week I Learned to Cycle Up Stairs

i want to learn a new skill today one of the most requested skills on this channel people are constantly asking me mike when are you going to learn to ride a bike upstairs admittedly literally no one has ever requested that but i've seen a video of someone doing it and if i could get the skill down it would be really useful to me because there's a set of stairs in my local trails and if i was able to do that i would be able to do the whole trail loop without coming off the bike at all i hate pushing a bike upstairs and i think it would be really badass if i was able to cycle up them instead so when i was younger me and my friends we discovered that we could cycle downstairs [Music] and it's actually surprisingly easy keep your weight back stay off the brakes and the bike just rolls down the stairs it's really not that difficult so if you go really slow you'll get down the stairs but your bike will fall into each sort of hole between each stair but if you want to really smooth the whole thing out the answer is speed just let the brakes off it really is pretty easy keeping your weight slightly back allow your arms and legs to absorb the bumps and keep off the front brake you really don't want to lock up the front here this skill is really handy for commutes and translates well to the trails so riding down the stairs pretty easy riding up the stairs probably not as easy there's probably a bit of technique in this but i really want to figure it out so here goes i'd like to get up one two three four of these sets of stairs i think that would be good enough so this is day one hour zero right this actually looks quite daunting and i feel that this is puncture city so here we go [Music] let's go more speed bouncing off this all right first gear okay i think i'm actually going to put my seat up because fast as i can in first gear oh when and down flat out if i go too fast it's too rough and i can't pedal so medium speed it is left second gear trying to figure out which gear to use here but it's quite difficult too high a gear and you can't get up it because you can't turn the pedals too light and the back wheel slips close so i'm actually getting up a couple of the stairs but the problem is i'm losing traction in the back the back wheel is slipping on the edge of the stairs if i let pressure out the back wheel i think i'll probably get a puncture i actually run my suspension pretty hard um because i don't like the bike to be too wallowy but i think i can take out a little bit of pressure here and get a bit more grip so i'm going to use the age-old technique off not measuring this at all and just doing it i feel oh that's a lot softer i think that'll give me a bit more grip let's go for a bit more speed here [Music] pedal pedal i just got off it but there's no way there's enough speed left to get up on all the three sets not too much come get into on one legs are already burning ah oh my legs all right okay that that wasn't bad second gear i love this floor okay so i'm suddenly having a bit of success here what's changed well i realized that i tend to lean very far forward on the bike when climbing this is my natural climbing position but if the back wheel loses traction i'll stop dead on the steps so i found that keeping my weight quite centered on the bike was key here if the rear tire has grip you've got a chance of getting up the stairs now to link four stair sets together come on boy all right that's one legs that's two come on going into first last three come on one more yes that's fun five i'm going all the way [Laughter] that's me gone yes i can now cycle upstairs i originally set the milestone an arbitrary four stair sets however at this location there are nine sets it seemed a hollow victory to call it without getting to the top so to really prove i've got this i wanted to get to the top of the ninth set that's 116 stairs i was feeling confident [Music] huh i can't do anymore what's up six nine sets here we go [Music] first set is easy second set a bit more tough start set easy fourth set easy [Music] legs are starting to burn [Music] legs are starting to barn [Music] come on michael two more [Music] one more oh that's me all the way up nine sets in one aside from blowing everyone's minds when you psycho past this is actually a legitimately useful skill in town not having to stop especially for four or five stairs is super convenient learning to climb over rough terrain is actually really useful out on the trails pushing a bike uphill sucks and the more you can ride over the better the key takeaways to do this are to approach at a medium speed too fast and you'll bounce off the back and lose momentum lift the front wheel over the first couple of steps and get pedaling as soon as possible the trick is to keep your weight further back than you might think to maintain traction on the rear wheel you should be able to cycle up any incline you could get up if it were smooth pair this skill with an e-bike and you can get up pretty much anything wow

Channel: Mike Boyd

Views: 3,980,379

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Id: d7RSGVfPC_I

Length: 8min 31sec (511 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020