I’ve been riding for about a month now and, I can only go a hundred to
two hundred feet before my quads hurt too bad to continue. I’m
basically just overexerting myself and I don’t know what I’m doing
wrong. After a few of hours of serious riding at the park, I start
getting sharp pains in the sides of my knees, also.
Some things that I thought it could be;
1.Riding with a knobby tire on rough pavement makes it harder to
control and I end up putting more energy than necessary into the
pedals, trying to force it around.
2. Foot placement. I ride with my boots on and so, the only part of my
foot that touches the pedals is the arch and front balls of my foot.
Maybe if I switched shoes, I could ride more on the center of my foot
instead of the front. My boots have a higher heel and it doesn’t touch
the pedals at all so, all of the strain is on the front of my foot.
3. Seat height. I’ve adjusted it a bit and find that higher is much
better for comfort but, lower is easier to hop on. I also feel like I
have more control with a lowered seat.
Probably a combination of all of these things and some more that I
can’t think of.
the most likely culprti is not keeping your weight on the seat. This is caused by low seat hight, and the common urge for beginners to keep the wieght on their feet. You really need to let all your weight rest on the saddle, your feet should feel like they’re putting just enough force to turn the pedals and no more.
All of us have had the same problem in the beginning. There is a tendency to stand in the saddle rather then sitting fully in the seat. So practice sitting in the seat. I can’t emphasize this enough. You need to put 98% of your weight in the saddle. The more you stand instead of sitting, the more workout you give your legs.
You should be able to put in 3-5 miles easily without tiring out your legs. Just practice.
Sitting fully in the seat is one of the primary skills you need to address in most uni skills …
I’m in the same situation. I need to keep my weight in the sit. I can ride about a half mile, but then my legs are screaming. On the plus side, it has helped me ignore the burn when I’m on a climbing on my mountain bike and I stay closer to my “mountain goat” friend. It’ll be a great day when I can beat him to the top of a climb. I already leave him in the dust on the downhill.
It reminds me of the days I use to run the 400 in high school and it would feel like there was concrete in my legs for the last 50.
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Reminds me of reading about a guy who would ride his 2.5 mi commute on a 24" ultimate wheel (UW).He had to take a few short breaks.
Uni has definately improved my mtb handling skills.
O.P.
Your leg burning is a result of too litle weight on the seat and/or too low saddle (as you guessed).
The knee pain could be from too long of cranks, too low seat, or you pushing your knees to the inside (I had that problem and I had to conciously focus on keeping my knees over my feet at all times, for 2-3 weeks, no problems since).
I would forget about freemounting untill you can ride around your neiborhood w/ few UPD’s for an hour and w/o being exhausted. In the meantime use telephone poles, cars, etc. for assisted mounts. (That one took me a while, I think it was mostly from not enough weight in the seat, but I also got stronger.)
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That’s a matter of prefference. Some like a flat sole, like Vans, others like running shoes, or boots, w/ or w/o heals.
Foot position: you will prob preffer whatever you are used to, ie if you mtb or road b*ke w/ clipless you’ll likely have more controll w/ the ball of your foot on the pedal, and if you are used to riding platform pedals, your arch will prob be better.
For climing hills your balls on the pedals will give you more potential power, and for drops you want your arch over the pedal’s axle or you could tear your achilies tendon.
Try a bunch of different shoes and pedal positions and see what works for you.
I preffer boots w/ heels and my arch over the pedal.
The first time I rode to the end of the block (100 yards maybe), I was exhausted when I got there. In my case, the issue is that when you’re learning, you tend to put a lot of pressure on both pedals to maintain control. As you get better, you can get more and more relaxed and put more of your weight on the seat, and ride with a lot less effort. So my theory is that your problem is the “rode just for one month”. Just keep riding and I bet a lot of that will just solve itself.
Also you tend to keep more weight on the pedals when you are in difficult situations. If you’re doing rough riding, try to spend a little more time just riding down the road where you can relax a bit more.
Yeah, I’ve got it now. I was putting too much pressure on my legs and
not putting my weight on the seat.
I’m thinking about switching out the seat now. It’s a stock, Torker DX
so, the seat kinda sucks. It’s kinda small and uncomfortable. It’s
also hard to get back into a comfortable position after a freemount or
hop. I know that those things will change with time but, I’ve heard
several other people on the forums talking about the crappiness of
them.
What kind of seat would you guys recommend? What kind of seat will
fit? Will I have to switch out the seatpost also? I’m a very
large(6’5", 230lbs) guy and plan to learn some trials and flat tricks,
if that helps.
You guys are full of all kinds of helpful information. Thanks alot.
Yeah, I’ve got it now. I was putting too much pressure on my legs and
not putting my weight on the seat.
I’m thinking about switching out the seat now. It’s a stock, Torker DX
so, the seat kinda sucks. It’s kinda small and uncomfortable. It’s
also hard to get back into a comfortable position after a freemount or
hop. I know that those things will change with time but, I’ve heard
several other people on the forums talking about the crappiness of
them.
What kind of seat would you guys recommend? What kind of seat will
fit? Will I have to switch out the seatpost also? I’m a very
large(6’5", 230lbs) guy and plan to learn some trials and flat tricks,
if that helps.
You guys are full of all kinds of helpful information. Thanks alot.
OUCH!
Last Sunday I was riding (well, practicing) out on a old country road (bumpy, extremely crowned both concave and convex, and pitted deeper than Noriega’s face, etc). I was using my 20" and got some great practice and good distance. Most of the time I only get to ride on city streets.
I still have too much weight on the pedals and sure enough the ‘gods of poor form’ got even and I injured one of my butt muscles. Yup, a real pain in the butt. I hurt it because of all the corrections I was doing as I was riding, but I was using my leg muscles to adjust and balance, if you know what I mean.
It’s Thursday and it’s healing slowly but I haven’t been able to ride in 4 days.
This experience is one more motivator to remind me to GET THE WEIGHT ONTO MY SEAT!!!