Alex Willie interview on VitalMTB

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Our friend, training partner and pupil Alex Willie is on his way to MTB stardom.

The junior national downhill champion and I have been training hard this winter, and he’s ready for an awesome season in the U.S. and at select World Cups.

Go Alex!

Check out the VitalMTB photos and interview: Exclusive Interview: Alex Willie, U.S. Junior National Downhill Champion

Some of our adventures:

Off season training begins
Alex Willie wins national DH championship
Pinning the DH with Alex Willie
7:1 and stoked
Rocking with the SMBA monkeys – The first time we rode together. August, 2008.


Alex and I have been working with Erin Carson at RallySport Health and Fitness in Boulder, and she’s making us strong like bull.

Know more. Have more fun!

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LLB coaches The crankbrothers Race Club

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STOKED: This season I will be skills-coaching Judy Freeman and Chloe Woodruff of the crankbrothers Race Club.

I’ve been working with Judy for several years, and I’m excited to help her and Chloe develop the skills and confidence to ride at even higher levels (and have even more fun on their bikes).

“To address the increasingly difficult handling skills that riders need at World Cup events, Chloe and Judy will be working with Lee McCormack of LeeLikesBikes.com to improve their technical skills,” said Tim VanGlider, team director and crankbrothers art director.

Check out the full team announcement:

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Practice makes perfect: Even for pros

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Check out this fun cornering session with elite CX racer Brandon Dwight.

Brandon is already a great rider. (He’s the 2012 national masters CX champ and placed 2nd at Worlds.)

He’s even better now.

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Hopping frontsides

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Hey Lee — just read the post Are you pumping too hard?. Great post. It brought up a question for me too.

I just got BMX Skills and read the pump chapter and it got me thinking about trying to hop frontsides altogether since I hadn’t really thought about doing that before. Instead I’ve been trying to absorb them in most/all situations and stay in as much control as possible, which is tough at high speeds.

So I’ve given it a little practice on a couple different pump tracks and haven’t been very successful. On both of these tracks the rollers are fairly close together and it feels like there’s not enough space/time to hop the frontside and like my fork is already compressing into the next roller when I’m trying to hop. Am I just not going fast enough? Is it something where pulling the bike towards me on frontsides will eventually turn into hopping them naturally? Or is this technique better suited for tracks that are a little more wideopen or on the trail when there’s space to set up? Or do I just need to practice more, haha.

One last question: is it always faster to hop the frontside if you can (excluding the suspension issue)?

Sorry for all the questions. Any more detail on this technique in general would be awesome!!

Ps. Got the MTB book for my cousin for Xmas. He has recently got into riding and I know this will get him Riding and hooked…now i’ll have a partner in crime on holidays 🙂

Allen

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Pump Up the Base for a BMXer?

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Lee,

I was browsing your site and saw the book and training program Pump Up the Base. It looks like it is predominantly geared towards MTB but I was wondering if it might be something that I could use for my winter BMX training? From the outline that I’ve read and some of the example pages and the comments it may be useful for some basic skills work on just about any type of riding. I do not ride MTB and I’m a novice in BMX so I also wanted to make sure that it would be something that I could apply to my sport as well.

Thank you,
John V

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Last minute gifts for rippers!

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Here are some quick, easy gifts for the riders in your life. Prices start at $9.99. Electronic delivery makes them perfect for late and/or distant gift-giving.

Remember: Knowledge and skill last forever.

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Jumping straight

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Lee,

When I am jumping my bmx bike I have a tendency to get off balance in the air if I try and push the face of the jump. If I do not push the face of the jump and just let my momentum carry me off the lip I fly straight as an arrow, but I would like to continue to build speed off the lip and also go a little further to clear some of the larger jumps. I am not not sure if I am to tight on take off, or if I am pushing to late on the jump face, etc. Any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

If I can get this together I may see you at Colorado Indoor BMX this year. Thanks.

Greg

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Big bikes are rad, and here’s why

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Lately Mike Levy at Pinkbike and I (Big suspension and big sine waves) have told you that downhill bikes are too unwieldy and gnarly for average riders. That most of us are best served by mid-travel bikes. Well, that might be true, but let’s look at the opposite side of the travel chip:

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Are you pumping too hard?

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Yeah har har.

Most riders are way too passive on their bikes. For most of you I say attack all backsides. Crush them!

If you’re already an aggressive pumper, especially on a suspended bike, consider this:

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Pushing through a BMX double

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Dear Lee,

I bumped onto your site whilst desperately seeking info on a jumping technique that seems to be difficult to find on the web, at least if one doesn’t know the name of it. So in this video that is attached, Mike Day uses it as per text book example in the first jumps after the gate: he pumps the rear wheel mid-air.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsR_TjG_brU

My question then is, what does this achieve: I think that it is to scrub speed so as to allow for taking the lip of the jump with more speed and then scrub off some mid-air so as to not land too far. Am I correct in my thinking?

Yours,

Rauli

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Making a DJ bike feel like a good trail bike

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Hey there, Lee – how are things? I just have a quickie bike question for you. I don’t know much when it comes to DJ bikes, but I do know that I would like to be in the market. I’ve been going to Valmont Bike Park when I can (why is it so addicting?), and I have been annoyed that I can’t get my seatpost any lower on my trailbike. So I went over to The Fix and rented a dj bike for an hour. There was a pretty big difference…the right tool for the terrain I guess. Even though I need a lot of work keeping my weight on the flat pedals. Anyway, I was kind of into the Specialized P.2 pro (I believe, one of the P’s with front susp)….how do you think it compares to the Kona type version?

Not sure if you have any input – the only thing about the bike I rented was it doesn’t corner like my trailbike, it felt slow and wide, unless I just have to get used to the much wider bars or something. My trailbike feels great and sticks hard to those banked corners. I wonder if the Kona would feel any different than the Specialized? Thanks for any info!
Hope all is good –
Dawn

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Big suspension and big sine waves

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Mike Levy at Pinkbike posted a must-read article:
The Argument For Short Travel Bikes – Opinion

Levy speaks a lot of truth. Here’s an additional thought:

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