I can hear it now, you know you learn from your mistakes. Who ever came up with this concept should be taken outside and beaten severely. Learning from your mistakes is rarely easy and often the mistake maker isn’t aware he or she is actually doing anything wrong. It begs the question. How can you learn from your mistake if you don’t even know you are making one?

Obviously there are mistakes we make that are very clearly mistakes. Like washing your air filter in the dishwasher, clearly a mistake. Don’t do it or even consider trying it. Your filter won’t come clean and you will have a dishwasher to clean as well as a dirty air filter. It seemed like a good idea at the time and you have to give a guy some credit for trying.

Then there are the not so obvious mistakes like using your wife’s eye cream as hand lotion because your hands are dry from cleaning your air filter without wearing rubber gloves, another mistake. As you see one mistake can very easily roll into three or more with very little effort.

If we could only have somebody next to us telling us the right way to do everything while we are doing it… imagine how much we could get done. The trouble here is, as I sit back in my chair and try to visualize this scenario for a minute, I’d probably spend more time arguing than I would doing whatever it was I was trying to do while being told how to do correctly. I don't repond too well when being told what to do. I guess there are some things we just have to learn the hard way.

The following is a list of quotes from riders who have proven what they are saying is the right way to the thing they are talking about. So shut up, listen and learn.

1. LOOK AHEAD
"Don’t get caught staring at the ground in front of your fender. Try to always look ahead when you are riding, as doing so will help you anticipate the obstacles that are approaching." Ryan Hughes

2. DON'T FOLLOW
“You have to plan ahead and try different lines. If the guy you are chasing is cutting to the inside, go wide and try to slingshot past him. If he is railing the outside, try to cut underneath him. The bottom line is that you will never pass someone if you are doing exactly the same thing."
Kevin Windham

3. PRE-RACE CHECKLIST
"The day before the race, I make sure that all of my equipment is in order. If you pack your gear bag the morning of the race, you are bound to forget something. It also helps to load up your truck the night before and park it in the garage, so you don’t forget your gas can or stand." Nick Wey

4. STAY LOOSE
"The looser and more relaxed you can keep your body, the better you will be able to react with body positioning to different things you bike might do. Whether it is shifting your weight to gain better traction or to correct its flight path mid-air, it all comes easier if you are loose." Sebastien Tortelli

5. KEEP YOUR SHOULDERS PARALLEL WITH THE BARS
"When you corner, always keep your shoulders in line with—or parallel with—your handlebars. If you always stay in line with your bars, you will never have a problem in corners, rutted ones, especially." Broc Glover

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