Scenic, relaxing ride with views and wine tasting. Had a fantastic day out. Great scenery, lovely riding, saw some wildlife and then enjoyed a scenic wine tasting lunch. Also found an ice cream at the orchard to finish the day.
Mountain Bike Training with Renowned Teaching Principles
Hone Your Skills to Conquer Any Terrain
Do you want to learn to ride smoother, faster, and with more confidence? What about learning to tackle more technical terrain or harder obstacles with Adelaide’s #1 leader in mountain bike skills training. The best value and smallest group sizes guaranteed!
Our mountain biking lessons use the teaching principles developed by British Cycling and now being adopted by AusCycling. This framework is one of the world’s most recognised training models for mountain bike skills development and will guarantee to see your riding skills improve, no matter what level you are at. We also use video analysis to allow you to see and critique yourself, when applicable.
These courses are suited to almost all standards of rider. It is recommended that you have at least tried some firetrack riding and are comfortable on your bike before commencing the course.
Take a look at the mountain bike skills training options available below. And please feel free to contact us(opens in a new tab) if you have any questions.
Core MTB Skills Day
Let's go back to basics. We will focus on some of the most important skills you can ever learn. This begins with us briefly covering bike set-up and your body position and stance on your bike, so you are totally comfortable on your bike before we start getting too technical. We cover techniques such as track stands, manuals and wheel lifts, and we will also go riding to attempt these skills ‘on the trail’. You may be surprised what bad habits you had picked up, or how much your riding improves by going back to basics.
When: Next courses: TBC
Price: $149 for the day per person
Duration: 5 hours
What this course covers: Bike checks and set-up, correct balance, weight shift and movement on your bike, braking, climbing and descending techniques, the four key MTB skills- Manual front wheel lifts, Power-assisted Front wheel lifts, Rear wheel lifts, and track stand and more.
Options: Bike rental is an additional $40 for hardtail or $60 for dually
Start: 10:00am
Finish: 3:00pm
Group size: Max size 7 students per instructor – get hands on training
Training facility: Craigburn Farm MTB trails or Fox Creek Bike Park
Intermediate MTB Skills Day
These courses are aimed at those riders already competent in the core skills and are ready to take their riding to a new level. While it is not compulsory we do recommend you have already completed our core skills course to get the most out of these days. We start off by building on the core skills and looking at how you can use those skills and techniques to tackle much harder and more difficult obstacles and terrain. You may be amazed how you can use what you already know to ride things you thought impossible. These days will involve much more riding on actual trails, and sessioning and practising out on the dirt. We will also use video analysis to help improve your riding.
When: Next courses: TBC
Price: $149 for the day per person
Duration: 5 hours
What this course covers: The actual content of the day will vary depending on the group but expect some/all of the following: Learn Step overs, step ups, and drop offs, pump and grind on the trails, and discover the key to utilising momentum in riding, high speed cornering and how to attack berms and flowing single-track with confidence. Riding up and down switchbacks, technical climbing and descending techniques, attacking tricky trails, and bunny hops.
Options: Bike rental is an additional $40 for hardtail or $60 for dually
Start: 10:00am
Finish: 3:00pm
Group size: Max size 7 per instructor – get hands on training
Training facility: Craigburn Farm MTB trails or Fox Creek Bike Park
Why Take Our MTB Skills Courses?
Since 2008, EscapeGoat has helped improve the riding skills of hundreds of mountain bikers in South Australia. Our skills training will help improve the skills of all levels of riders, from the brand new novice just getting out on a mountain bike for the first time, through to the more confident, advanced rider who wants to hone their skills and look at improving their riding ability and get the edge in races.
MTB Courses FAQs
If your question is not answered here, please contact us at info@escapegoat.com.au(opens in a new tab) and we’ll get back to you quickly.
Absolutely! In fact the earlier you learn the basics the better, and the less likely you are to pick up any bad habits. As long as you are comfortable on a bike, are happy riding on firetracks and a little ‘off-road’ and know the front wheel from the back wheel you should be fine- we can help you with the rest. More experienced riders need not worry though, as we will keep the discussions relevant to all participants.
Of course, we have no problem with taking anyone on our courses (within reason). However, please bear in mind most of our customers are between 20 and 60 years of age. The skills day also is a full day of riding, starting at 10am and running until about 4pm, and there are a lot of activities and riding to be done. If that sounds like the thing they are into, then drop us a line.
Ok, if you have got used to riding ‘clipped-in’ we appreciate it can be annoying to revert to flat pedals. However, we find it is much easier to learn new skills on ‘flats’, and it also means you need to learn skills like wheel-lifts properly.
Indeed, if you can ride well with flats, this just makes it easier when you switch back to cleats. Its worth remembering some of the most skilled riders (Downhillers, and BMX riders) all use flat pedals and still have amazing control of their bikes.
By all means go back to cleats after the course (We do) but we do recommend everyone has flats for at least the afternoon skills session. If you don’t have flat pedals let us know, and we will see what we can do. If you are going to borrow pedals from us PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU CAN REMOVE YOUR CURRENT PEDALS BEFORE YOU ATTEND THE COURSE.
We recommend against this. The courses are not ‘beginners’ and ‘advanced’ courses, but are parts of the same skills course- we just couldn’t fit it all into one day, and we find it helps to practise things learnt on the core skills day before going on to more complicated stuff. So, we start off on core skills day dealing with the correct positioning on a bike, getting the basics right, and teaching key skills properly first, and then use these as building blocks on the Intermediate skills days.
However, if you feel you are already able to perform front wheel manuals, power-assisted lifts, rear wheel lifts, trackstands and the other core skills, then feel free to sign up on one of the intermediate days.
Yes, we do. We have a number of good quality hardtails and duallies which we are happy to provide for our clients at a cost from $20 per day. This covers wear and tear, and also our time to clean and service the bikes after use.