Comments on: Mountain Bike Magazine’s Complete Guide To Mountain Biking Skills: Expert Tips On Conquering Curves, Corners, Dips, Descents, Hills, Water Hazards, And Other All-Terrain Challenges

By: Victoria E. Tully

Victoria E. Tully — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:35:06 +0000

This book is a collection of articles from Mountain Bike Magazine dating from the early to mid 1990′s. As such, the illustrations depict the ridiculous bikes and outfits that were high fashion at that time (A painful memory for me personally). This gripe aside, the instructional quality of this book is just lackluster. The topics are not organized in a logical manner. The reader must wade through the banal prose of magazine filler to get to any useful tips. There is a dearth of practical illustrations and the instruction is just generally unhelpful. A novice rider might make some use of this book, but for all abilities there are much better instructional resources out there. I would strongly recommend Brian Lopes’s book, Mastering Mountain Bike Skills, over this one.
Rating: 2 / 5

By: dorsalis

dorsalis — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 13:16:19 +0000

I wish there was a more helpful review from this website before I purchased the book, the only reason i am looking at the book on amazon right now is to check how much money i wasted. 10 dollars which is alright iwth me. i'll still read it, thru the course of the yeaer maybe.

honestly, this book cant be applied to me. It is written by a road biker gone mountain biking and maybe it will be more suitable for the same type of ppl. He starts off really dry and comparing everything to the feel and how its done in the flip side of road biking.

the book contains this ridiculous 3 month day by day guideline of how you should approach the mountain biking and the sectoin about choosing ur mountain bike and etc is just plain ambiguous and unhelpful.

i dont mean to bag on this book but after reading other books (like lee/lopez's mtb skills) i was blown away at literary style along with EXCELlent application to beginners and pros. and its downright fun to read. makes me not wanna go back to this purple book but i will after i finsih lee's.

i know this wasnt a helpful review either but please consider reading INSIDE the book before purchasing. i learned my lesson. Rating: 1 / 5

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:56:26 +0000

This book is not for the absolute begginer mountain biker. This book has helped me refine my skills. Maybe every other night I’ll plop down in bed and reach past the Mists of Avalon to a slightly lighter piece of paper. Within two minuets I am pumped to go try to pop a wheelie or climb a hill. This book is filled with wit, insperation, and great little tips that we don’t all do naturally.
Rating: 5 / 5

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:15:13 +0000

I was suprised to see that this was the book that matches the title – I already own it! Since I’m here, I’ll give you the scoop: it’s great for beginners, and some of the techniques are solid. However, the anecdotal section is completely boring, and absolutely useless for technical info.I give it a “6″, so it’s back to searching for me…
Rating: 5 / 5

By: G. peck

G. peck — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 10:35:13 +0000

uninspiring, superficial, low level. Better to get Zinn or Nealy.
Rating: 2 / 5