Mountain Biking: How to Handle Ruts

When you're enjoying an adventure in mountain biking, it's inevitable that you'll encounter ruts along back country roadways. You always need to be cognizant of bicycle safety, and one of the skills you should master if you're a mountain bike enthusiast, is how to handle getting out of a rut without sustaining injury. The article that follows provides some very valuable tips.

How to Handle Ruts While Mountain Biking

Every mountain biker will come across ruts occasionally. Ruts are formed when heavy vehicle like trucks, trailers rides across a wet, muddy area or when the same path is used repeatedly by bikers, causing erosion of the soil.

Knowing how to handle ruts will help keep you away from painful crash.

• First decide whether you are going to ride the bike through the rut, or you just want to get away from the rut. If the rut is not very deep and you think you can ride it out, then ride it out. If the rut is very difficult to ride it out, take the path of least resistance to avoid going through the rut.
• If you accidentally get into the rut, then do not panic. Try to stay cool. Some people tend to panic about being in a rut and try to get out immediately, but this could be disastrous.
• If you want to get out of rut, slow down your bike and turn your bike's wheel towards the ruts side to get out. This will allow you to roll out of rut without hitting its wall with the side of your tire.
• Cross the rut instead of falling into it. To do this make a sharp move sideways and across the rut as close to perpendicular to the rut as you can get. You will have to do this act quickly as there is risk of falling into the rut. Doing this takes a long practice and you should first try on the flat surface that has small ruts.
• Opt for shallow, wide established ruts if you have to or want to ride one. Fresh, deep and narrow or muddy ruts often lead to crashes as they are difficult to ride and your tire or pedal has a fairly good chance of hitting the side or slipping into the rut.

Pauline Go, who prepared this article, is an online leading expert in medical industry. She also offers top quality articles like :

Importance of Aerobic Exercise, Diets for Cycling

Tags: Cycling, Mountain Bike, Mountain Bikes, Mountain Biking