Mountain Bike Blog - How To...

At Westbrook Cycles we believe that all mountain bikers should have a bit of basic knowledge on how to maintain and repair your MTB or eMTB, after all, you can't just take it to a mechanic if something breaks in the middle of a moor. This page contains our "How To..." blogs, where we impart our knowledge and experience to help you if you ever get caught in a pinch. These blogs aren't all maintenance and repair based, however, you'll also find tips on how to perform various tricks and skills which can be used on the trails or just to impress your mates.

How To Make Your Mountain Bike Lighter

Mountain biking is one of the most thrilling outdoor activities that a lot of people enjoy. However, as exciting and fun as it can be, it can also be quite

How To Clean Your Mountain Bike Brakes

It’s stating the obvious that mountain bike brakes are important - cleaning them is important too. MTB terrain takes you across some gnarly courses,...

How To Clean Mountain Bike Chains

Maintaining your mountain bike chain is essential to ensure a smooth and efficient ride. Dirt, mud, and debris can accumulate on your chain during your outdoor adventures, making it less...

Guide To Cleaning Your Mountain Bike Forks

If you’re an avid mountain biker, you know how important it is to keep your bike in top shape. This includes not only the visible parts like the frame and...

How To Clean Mountain Bike Grips

Mountain Bike Grips can quickly become grotty & dirty - which although is to be expected, as one of the few contact points you have with your bike, it’s a

How To Clean Your Mountain Bike Shock

Mountain biking has evolved massively in recent years, with mountain bikes becoming more capable, more complicated and more expensive too...

How To Clean Mountain Bike Wheels

One of the most crucial components of any mountain bike are its wheels, and keeping them clean is essential to maintaining your bike, allowing your bike to not only perform reliably and look...

Ways To Clean Your Mountain Bike Goggles

Mountain biking is an exhilarating and demanding sport that provides plenty of challenges and rewards. Whether you're flying down a technical trail or taking a...

How To Prevent Sore Forearms When Mountain Biking

Mountain biking is an exhilarating and challenging adventure that requires a great deal of physical stamina and mental fortitude. Unfortunately, many...

How To Service A Mountain Bike Shock

Mountain biking is a thrilling outdoor activity that entails lots of speed and adrenaline. It's a great way to stay fit, explore the outdoors, and create

A Beginner's Guide To Servicing Mountain Bike Forks

If you're an avid mountain biker, you know the importance of taking good care of your bike, and one of the key components that require frequent...

How To Buy Your First Mountain Bike

If you look online for the cheapest possible mountain bikes, you can find something that looks like a mountain bike for as little as £100. Although these...

How To Fall Off A Mountain Bike

Falling off a mountain bike is an inevitable part of the sport. Taking a few steps to prepare for and reduce the chances of hurting yourself and having...

Mountain Bike Forks Servicing Guide

Mountain biking is one of the most exhilarating outdoor activities you can do on two wheels, but it does require regular maintenance to keep your bike in...

How To Replace Your Mountain Bike Disc Brake Pads

If you own a mountain bike, you probably know how important it is to have a reliable braking system, especially when you take into consideration the harsh...

How To Ride Dry And Dusty Trails

Long, warm and balmy summer days are never too far away, but riding trails in dry conditions can create fresh challenges. Trails in dry weather can become...

How To Drift A Mountain Bike

Drifting a mountain bike is one of the most difficult but most rewarding skills to learn. As well as looking and feeling incredibly cool, drifting allows you to ride...

How To Sell Your Mountain Bike For More Money

If you are looking to sell your mountain bike, either to free up some cash - or to fund a new mountain bike, there’s a number of things you can do to maximise...

How To Mountain Bike For Longer

Mountain Biking is best done over longer distances - spending hours and hours out on the mountain bike is how you can access the very best, remote areas, as...

How To Make A Mountain Bike Quicker

The answer to the above question for many mountain bikers, would be to replace as many alloy parts with lightweight carbon fibre parts - but there...

How To Choose Mountain Bike Handlebars

Handlebars are the most important contact point between you and your mountain bike, so it’s important to get them right, taking into account a number of different factors before choosing the...

How To Get Ready For MTB Season

It never takes long for the excellent weather and lighter nights to roll around, opening up dry rideable trails and more hours than ever before to tackle the trail...

How To Improve Mountain Bike Grip

One of the essential parts of mountain biking is finding grip when riding off-road terrain. You need to find grip across a wide range of terrain and obstacles to...

How To Brake On A MTB

Braking correctly on a mountain bike is one of the biggest learning challenges, and braking efficiently represents one of the leading problems for new and...

How To Wheelie A MTB And When You Should

Pulling a wheelie on a mountain bike is a pretty well desired skill set, with one of the main reasons being that pulling a wheelie is really cool. Being able to pull a...

How To Make A Mountain Bike Faster

Speed is the name of the game, and if you are looking to make your mountain bike quicker & faster - read on for some tips. The saying ‘smooth is fast’ certainly...

How To Improve Your Mountain Biking

There are many reasons why you may want to improve your mountain bike skill set - it may be that you want to improve your race times, getting on the podium, it...

How To Manual A Mountain Bike

Performing a manual on a mountain bike is a key skill to have. In this post, we look at how to manual a mountain bike and some of the reasons you should be able...

How To Choose A Mountain Bike

There are so many mountain bikes available on the market, and one of the trickiest things about choosing the right mountain bike for your requirements - is...

How To Corner On A MTB

If you are a MTB Rider looking to maximise speed and pace on trails, whether that’s during competitive racing or simply wanting to improve your...

How To Whip A Mountain Bike

Whipping a Mountain Bike is one of the most stylish ways you can ride the trials, and whilst a ‘starter whip’ can be quite a simple trick, perfecting this move takes a

How To Ride A MTB Over Rocks

Rocks are one of the most exciting and variable challenges when it comes to riding across MTB terrain. Rocks are exciting, they are a feature of most trails...

How To Generate Flow On A Mountain Bike

If you are finding yourself lagging behind your mates on the trails, it’s likely that you are not generating enough pump & flow from your mountain bike, this is...

How To Find New MTB Trails

One of the most challenging and demorailising things for many gravel and mountain bike riders - is finding new trails to ride and enjoy. For many riders,...

How To Upgrade Your Mountain Bike

At Westbrook Cycles, the mountain bike side of our business is split into a couple of different parts - mainly the sales of full and ready to ride mountain bikes, and...

How to Improve Singletrack MTB Performance

Singletracks are one of the most rewarding types of mountain bike terrain - not only do singletracks test the mountain biker across the fastest and

How To Ride Steep MTB Trails

If you have ever sat at the top of the trail and thought "That looks very, very steep!" then this article will be well worth reading, because in it - the mountain...

How To Ride Faster On Your Mountain Bike

Riding your mountain bike is usually the name of the game if you are a recreational rider, it’s most definitely the name of the game if you ride...

How To Increase E-MTB Range

Those among us who ride an electric mountain bike, will probably be aware of the term - electric mountain bike range anxiety. We have all experienced it, you...

How To Ride Over Wet Roots

Mountain biking throws up all kinds of obstacles and terrain to cross, with wet roots being one of a long list of obstacles that require concentration and skills to...

How To Make A Mountain Bike More Comfortable

At Westbrook Cycles, we stock and supply a massive range of new mountain bikes - encompassing both full suspension and hardtail mountain bikes...

Dirt Jump Bike Guide

Riding a dirt jump bike is one of the most exhilarating and challenging areas in the world of cycling. Dirt Jump Bike riding is a growing sport in the UK, and at Westbrook Cycles, we are finding more and more customers asking for us to supply them with dirt jump bikes. In this post, we look in depth at the sport, what sort of bike it requires and what the key skill set is.