MOUNTAIN BIKING: THE MANUAL Paperback – February 25, 2015

an entertaining read. great for people that are new to the sport. I've been riding for years, so I have mastered many, but not all, of the moves.. but there's always room to improve too..I have some buddies with kids and a nephew that I think this would be great for.. Perhaps not the best book for you if you can already rock black diamonds at Whistler. but, there's still great info in there to learn.. (it covers 360's and back flips too.. have you got those down yet?? No? me either..)a fun / light read. great for people getting into mountain biking and younger riders.

Not quite what I expectedGood info,but I would have liked more graphic and visual pictures explaining the skills etc

Very high quality pictures, a good coffe table book, lots of great tips. I like the book, but I don't think it's intended for the beginner bike rider. If you want to learn skills there are better books that are better organized.

I own a few "how to" MTB books and I bought this book thinking "new book, new insights" and also input from some of todays finest riders.Well, this one is more of a coffee table MTBing book. The contents were fairly vage and the insight/comments from the Pros, were 90% common sense.IMO, Buy "the Bible" from Brian Lopez. This is a great book AND costs alot less!!

I would say that this is only an average book with which to learn MTB skills. The main problem it has is that it tries to cover too much and doesn't do it in enough detail. It's written in that supposedly slick magazine style with pun filled titles and tedious use of the word "dialled" etc. I found that boring but if the rest of the content was "dialled" then I wouldn't mind so much but it isn't. Much of the book is taken up with photos of world champion riders doing down Red Bull runs and catching 50 foot of air. All very inspiring stuff I'm sure but not remotely relevant to 99% of normal riders. The book even covers how to do loops whilst jumping. This is pretty idiotic because anyone who is close to being able to do that is never going to be buying a book like this.There IS some useful content in here but it just tells you what these world class riders do and doesn't attempt to help you learn it. Knowing something is one thing but being able to actually do it is another and a Manual like this should teach rather than tell in my opinion.

I love Dirt School, I love the DVD and I love the way Chris Ball teaches so I really wanted to love this book, but I don't. My second hobby is photography and I have to say, the pictures in this book are amazing. Frankly, I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. Much is made of the pro contributions, so maybe it's aimed at aspiring pros, but the techniques discussed are aimed at beginner/intermediates, but with almost no explanation of the details. If you are a beginner/intermediate, Brian Lopes book does a much better job.