One of the best things you can do on a mountain bike while riding is keep a loose grip on your handlebars. For a lot of beginning mountain bikers, the temptation is to keep a death grip on the handlebars for fear of loosing your grip and going down. However, this is terrible for your riding and will hurt you worse in the long run. The best thing you can do for your riding is to keep a loose grip on the handlebars to increase your mountain biking efficiency and keep better control of your mountain bike.
Negative Side Effects – The Handlebar Death Grip
So what happens when you hold on tight so you won’t let go?
You expend much needed energy on an action that does not help you move forward. – When you keep that death grip on the handlebars and watch your knuckles turn white, you are using constant energy towards an action that does not improve your riding or help your bike move forward. Your body has to constantly exert more effort to to keep your grip and wastes that energy that could be used elsewhere…like your legs. Often times, you can not feel how much energy you are wasting while on the bike because your mind is focused on so many other things while you ride…like the rocks, roots, tight turns in between trees…so for a quick test, do the following. Go out into your garage (or wherever else you store your mountain bike) and grab the grip as hard as you can for 30 seconds straight. By isolating this situation without any outside influences, you can see exactly how hard it really is to keep that kind of grip at all times. Is that really what you want to be doing while you ride?
You have less control of your mountain bike. – Yes…it is true. While you may think that you have more control by keeping a strong grip on the handlebars, the exact opposite is actually true. When you keep a really tight grip on the handlebars it is harder to react to the ever changing conditions of mountain biking. Almost all of your suspension action is actually in your arms and legs. By stiffening up your arms, you are missing out on your greatest asset as a mountain biker…your body’s natural ability to react quickly and soak up the trail. When you keep a looser grip on the handlebars, you are able to soak up the trail much easier and react to unexpected twists and turns that the bars may take while you ride. If your arms are stiff, they can not bend and react to sudden movements.
You will have increased wear and tear on your hands. – Do you like blisters and calluses? Well…if you keep that handlebar death grip for too long…your hands will eventually take all of the abuse. By keeping a softer grip on the handlebars, you are decreasing the amount of pressure and friction that gets transferred to your palms and fingers. Due to this decreased pressure and friction, you will notice that your hands see a lot less abuse after a ride.
So…how do I keep a softer grip on the handlebars?
For those of you that are used to white knuckling it all the way down the trial, this can be a hard switch to get through your head and to your hands. At first, it will feel like the bike can just leave you at any minute and you will want to grab on tight at the first sign of a rock or root. When I am running through technical sections and fast downhills, my hands barely even touch each other around the bars. The idea is to keep fluid, relaxed motion over the rough stuff to keep your body and the bike working together but moving independently.
Practice keeping a loose grip on the handlebars on sections of trail that you know really well. Once you have gained this confidence on familiar dirt, you will be able to translate that same technique to other areas as you continue to loosen up that grip that you used to hold so tight. Eventually, you will notice that technical trail is easier and you have more energy for that steep climb ahead.