The Saturday, Nov. 20 free Mountain Bike Clinic in Waimea turned out to be a huge success, as 30 participants were treated to beautiful, sunny skies during a three-hour bike handling and safety skills class held by mountain bike gurus, Grant Matsushige and Grant Miller.
This was the second clinic of the year put on by Matsushige and Miller, whose passion for the outdoors and off-road on two wheels spans nearly four decades.
“First of all, mountain biking is fun,” Matsushige said in regard to hosting the free clinic. “Grant (Miller) and I have been mountain biking for many years now and we found that it’s just a lot of fun to share mountain biking with people of all levels and that’s why we are doing this. We just want to open it to as many people as we can.”
Matsushige, who was born and raised on Oahu, said he saw his first mountain bike when he moved to California 36 years ago at age 21.
“I said I need to get one of those as I used to ride BMX bikes and motor cross and I thought it would be a lot of fun,” he said. “I’ve been riding mountain bikes ever since and it’s allowed me to take mountain bike trips all over the world — Switzerland, New Zealand, and BC Canada. So, every year I’ve been able to go mountain biking with friends from all over the world.”
Now living in Waimea and employed at the Canada France Hawaii Telescope, Matsushige felt it was the perfect venue to host their second clinic. The ages and abilities of Saturday’s participants ranged from six-years-old to those in their upper 60s, and novice riders to veteran triathletes.
The clinic began with Miller providing a few basic bike safety instructions. Miller said the top three necessities for a beginning mountain bike rider are to check your tire pressure, bring the right equipment, and ride a full suspension mountain bike.
“On the Big Island, one of the most important things to making mountain biking fun here, because (the terrain) is so rough, is to check tire pressure so that tires are a little softer,” Miller said. “Part of the deal is trying to find how low you can go without having any negative effects. You want it as soft as you can without getting pinch flats, and my technique is to use both thumbs, push straight down on the tires as hard as you can, and you should get about one-third give of the tire towards the rim. That would be a good starting point.”
Miller added the second necessity would to be to carry the right equipment when heading out for a mountain bike ride.
“You need to stay hydrated and you need to have a bike pump so you can check your air pressure,” he said. “I see this all time when out in the middle of nowhere, someone gets a flat and they are looking for someone to pass by with a tube. If I didn’t have a tube on me, they would be pushing their bike all the way back. So, you want to carry the right equipment to make it safe. And you want gloves!”
Miller said it’s not “if you fall,” but more the reality of, “when you fall,” gloves would help to protect your hands. And if you are looking for a new bike, Miller, who co-owns Bike Works Kona, Bike Works Beach & Sports, Kona Sports Center, and Aloha Sports Kona with his wife, Janet Higa-Miller, said he would recommend getting a full suspension mountain bike.
“You can really have fun on a hard tail, I mean I started out on a rigid bike and thought it was the best thing in the world, but I would never ride a rigid bike anymore because it’s three times as much fun on a cool suspension bike,” Miller said. “A rigid bike means no suspension, and it means there is no suspension on the front fork and no suspension on the rear. But almost every mountain bike has suspension on the front fork now.”
During the three-hour educational bike clinic, the class also learned proper braking techniques, balance and bike-body position, cornering skills, basic front wheel lifts, proper climbing and descending on steep hills, and reading the trail by picking the best line to keep one safe and to preserve momentum.
Miller said the goal is to conduct a free mountain bike clinic at least twice a year and feels it’s rewarding to see the progress of novice riders in a short amount of time.
Just seeing new people doing the clinic, you really get to see their skills progress and it’s really nice to see that,” he said. “And then seeing how far that person progresses six months from now is really cool.”
Matsushige added the big take away from conducting a free mountain bike clinic is “fun, confidence, and a little less fear of falling off a bike.”
“Many of these people here today are avid triathletes so they are in incredible shape but they are not real confident of their bike handling skills,” Matsushige said. “But this also translates to the triathlete because when you get into the scenario where it’s not so perfect, what are you going to do? You don’t want to panic, but as a rider, you realize that you don’t need to slam on the brakes. You can just look where you want to go and what you need to do, and it will become second nature — the bike will just take care of you.”
