An aspect of mountain biking that I am currently finding most challenging is the mounting of a log on an uphill slope.
Typically because the trails I ride have a build up of dirt on the uphill side making them quite easy to roll over on the downhill journey but have most of the dirt washed away from them on the bottom of the step. Usually when climbing the hill I have my body weighted low over the bars and I’m pedalling at a constant pace to maintain traction but when faced with the log I attempt to unweight the bars which causes the front wheel to lift which either has one of two results.
1) I lift the front of the bike too fast and too far leaving me in a situation where I have to quickly unclip from the bike before I end up on my back or
2)I clear the log with my front wheel but then I have difficulty geting my rear wheel to power over the log. If I attempt to roll over the log using momentum I can sometimes roll over it but other times it will stop my rear wheel dead. If I attempt to pedal over thhe log I often clash pedals with the log or I spin up the rear tyre on the wood leaving me stuck.
I believe the correct technique is to unweight the front to clear at the front then as the rear wheel is approaching to throw my weight further forward so the rear wheel can easily climb the log.
However if I unweight the rear wheel I find it difficult to pedal over the log because it increases the chance of spinning the tyres.
The obvious solution is to go much much faster so I don’t need to pedal over logs but unfortunately I’m not that fast at climbing hills yet and I’d prefer to get a good climbing technique that would have me bouncing over logs like a mountain goat. 