How to get smoother and other newbie concerns...

General
1

This is sort of a continuation of my previous thread. I have been riding for about 5 days now and I can ride for well over 100 meters with no worries and freemount. I am however finding myself doing PDs due to thigh exhaustion rather than balance. I still feel like I am not putting enough pressure on the saddle which may help the thighs. I am mainly looking for suggestions to help me “smooth” out my pedaling. I feel like I am “controlling” the pedals a lot which I also feel may be leading to my leg exhaustion. I am a pretty avid MTber and in very good shape and while I am sure the tiredness in the thigh muscles is normal it just seems like it shouldn’t be hitting me as quick as it is. It seems like I would get less tired if I could stop resisting the pedals as much as I am actually pedaling if that makes sense. I appreciate any advice anyone can offer. I am sure more time will also help but I am looking for ideas I can practice while I am out there practicing.

Thanks!

Brian

2

Practise, practise, and some more practise. That’s all it will take to sort out the smoothness.

If you’re fit and getting tired that quickly it will be - as you said - that you’re putting too much weight on your legs. Try raising the saddle, that will force you to put more weight on it and hopefully improve you ride. As you get better, lower that saddle until you’re at your preferred height.

Leaning to ride in 5 days isn’t bad, you just need to give it some more time. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

3

Sit down. When learning, the tendency is to use too much muscle (for nearly any activity) so it takes a while to learn to relax and not use all that extra energy. As you learn to relax you’ll find everything to be getting lots easier. Til then, just concentrate on turning, stopping, stopping and whatever’s fun.