Improve Your Mountain Bike Skills This Off-Season – Paul Howard from ZEP MTB Camps

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Leisure, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Sports, Wilderness, Fitness

4.9 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2023

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today I’m joined by mountain bike skills coach, Paul Howard. Paul has an incredible story of creating his career in mountain biking through coaching, setting up both the PMBIA, which is now the largest provider or mountain bike instructor training courses in the world and ZEP MTB Camps. We sat down to hear about Paul’s journey and to pick his brains on how we can use some basic skills drills to improve our performance on the trails. So while the weather might not be great and trail conditions can be far from perfect, here are some great practical tips for you to improve your mountain bike skills, pretty much just in your driveway. There’s plenty to learn here, so sit back, hit play and listen to this episode with Paul Howard.

Paul’s background – 5:00-33:00

Coaching tips – 33:00-1:33:00

You can find ZEP online at zepmtbcamps.com or on Instagram @zepmtbcamps. Paul has also started a coaching podcast Donuts and bikes which you can find @donutsandbikes or here.

Supporting Partners

Stashed Products

If you want to upgrade your bike storage to something that’s convenient, easy to access, yet still saves you space, then the Stashed SpaceRail is the one for you. Due to it’s incredible popularity, there are no discounts right now, but we do have something special for Downtime Listeners. If you spend £200 or more on a SpaceRail system before the end of February 2023, then Downtime listeners get a free set of pedal wraps in their choice of size, worth up to £20 (or choose a beanie or pedal wrap clip). Just add the pedal wraps to your cart and use the code DOWNTIME at the checkout over on stashedproducts.co.uk. There is also free global shipping until the end of Jan 2023 on orders over £250.

ZEP MTB Camps

ZEP MTB Camps are providing high quality mountain bike skills coaching in the mecca of mountain biking that is Whistler and Okanagan. Young or old, advanced or a complete beginner, ZEP have a crew of PMBIA qualified coaches who will help you reach your goals. You can find out everything you need to know over at zepmtbcamps.com.

Podcast Stuff

Downtime EP

Downtime EP issue 2 is now available at downtimepodcast.com/ep. EP takes inspiration from the guests and topics of the podcast. It expands on them, and takes them into a stunning print-only format. EP is the perfect companion for some quiet time away from the distractions of modern life. Beautiful to have and hold, and a timeless piece of mountain bike history.

Just head over to downtimepodcast.com/ep to save yourself £5 off of the cover price with an annual subscription for just £20 plus postage or you can purchase EP1, or EP2 on their own too.

Merch

If you want to support the podcast, and represent, then my webstore is the place to head. All products are 100% organic, shipped without plastics, and made with a supply chain that’s using renewable energy. So check it out now over at downtimepodcast.com/shop.

If you want a bit more Downtime in your life, then you can join my newsletter where I’ll provide you with a bit of behind the scenes info on the podcast, interesting bits and pieces from around the mountain bike world, some mini-reviews of products that I’ve been using and like, partner offers and more. You can do that over at downtimepodcast.com/newsletter.

Give us a follow on Instagram @downtimepodcast or Facebook @downtimepodcast to keep up to date and chat in the comments.

For everything video, including riding videos, bike checks and more, subscribe over at youtube.com/downtimemountainbikepodcast.

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Our back catalogue of amazing episodes is available at downtimepodcast.com/episodes

Photo – ZEP MTB Camps

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast where we're going to be taking
0:07.8	you deeper than ever into the gravity base side of mountain biking. First up, I want to tell you
0:12.3	a little bit about one of our supporting partners, Stashed products, who make the best garage upgrade
0:17.2	that I have ever had. The Stash Space Rail is the answer to all your bike storage woes. It's basically a ceiling mounted wardrobe rail for your bikes, which means you can store your bikes really close together in a compact space, but you just slide the bikes across until you get to the one that you want and then you can easily lift it out. The space rail is a modular rail system that will allow you to hold between one and 24 bikes,
0:38.3	depending on how many rail sections and hooks you buy. For me and the family, I've put in an
0:42.8	eight bike kit and when I fitted it, the first thing that my wife said was, wow, they take up
0:48.0	way less space. That's because the stash space rail has a hook for each bike which can be spun
0:53.0	360 degrees and sled along the rail. That means you can spin every other bike through 180 degrees so the handlebars are out of the way of each other and slide them up really close. Whichever bike you want to get, it's super easy, you just slide the rest out of the way and grab it down. The system is universal and works for all bikes up to a three inch tire. The space rail is really well designed and made, meaning it should last year a lifetime and it's super easy to fit. It took me about two hours to fit mine, but if your garage ceiling joists are exposed, then I think you could easily do it in less than an hour. So if you want convenient, easy to access, yet still space-saving bike storage, then the stash space rail is the one for
1:28.7	you. Because it's so good it is in insane demand right now, so there aren't any discounts floating
1:34.5	about, but we do have something special for downtime listeners. If you spend 200 pounds or more on a
1:40.0	space rail system, then downtime listeners get a free set of pedal wraps in your choice of size or a pedal wrap
1:46.1	or a stash beanie worth up to 20 pounds just add your choice from those three to your car and use the code
1:51.8	downtime at the checkout you've got until the end of February to make the most of that code and if you want to save more
1:57.4	than there's currently free global shipping on all systems over 250 pounds
2:02.0	until the end of January 2023. Check them out over at stashedproducts.co.uk. That's
2:07.8	s t-a-s-h-ed-d products.co.uk and use the code downtime to get your free pedal wraps, clip
2:14.2	or beanie. Before we get stuck into this week's episode, here are a few ways
2:18.2	that you can support the podcast. Downtime t-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies are available over at
2:23.0	downtimepodcast.com for slash shop. If like I do, you've got a soft spot for print, then for just
2:28.2	£20, you can subscribe to our biannual, Maritime Bike Journal, Downtown EP. Made in collaboration
2:33.6	with the incredible team over at Miss Spent Summers,
2:36.1	downtime EP takes the topics and themes from the podcast
	...

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