Pump tracks, packed with rollers, berms and sometimes even small jumps, are loads of fun to loop on your mountain bike. But what exactly are they, and how can your mountain biking benefit from practicing on one?
What is a pump track?
A pump track is a type of trail or track designed to allow mountain bikers to hone their skills (and have fun while doing so!). They are usually relatively short and form a loop, hence why they are called tracks.
Pump tracks aren’t just ordinary trails, and one thing that sets them apart is the features that all pump tracks normally have specifically designed to help riders improve their skills and better prepare them for what they will face on other MTB trails.
Rollers
Pump tracks typically include rollers, which are small, smoothly contoured bumps that riders use their body position and weight shift to “pump” over. By pumping over rollers, you can maintain and even pick up speed, allowing your momentum to carry you through a lot of the pump track instead of pedaling.
Berms
Berms are another key feature of pump tracks, and they are part of what allow a pump track to be a loop. Berms, also known as banked turns, allow for tighter turns on the pump track and give riders the chance to work on their skills at ripping through berms quickly and under control.
Small jumps
Many pump tracks also include small jumps, designed to allow newer riders or those new to jumping to begin to get a feel for how to jump.
Not all pump tracks have jumps built into them, but those that do normally have tabletop style jumps (instead of gap jumps) which have lower consequences to not executing perfectly. This makes those jumps that are found on pump tracks an excellent place to practice your jumping technique.
How to use a pump track
You ride it, of course! Pump tracks are meant to be ridden and are a great, intuitive way to learn how to use momentum to propel you over obstacles. They’re also excellent practice for executing sharp turns around berms and even learning to get your bike airborne.
What is pumping?
Pumping on a pump track involves using your body weight through the rollers to help you gain momentum and speed.
The best way to think of this is to use your body weight to make your bike heavier on the way down from a roller, and lighter on the way up and on top of the roller.
By using your body position and weighting to make your bike “lighter” on the way up the roller, you lose less momentum from the incline and can maintain your speed. Then by making your bike “heavier” on the way down the roller, you are taking advantage of the decline to actually gain speed.
The act of pumping your mountain bike through a pump track is in fact quite similar to how you want to ride over obstacles out on the trails. In essence, to make your bike lighter on the way up rollers you will de-weight the bike, and then re-weight once you’re past the top of the roller.
The benefits of riding a pump track
Beyond just being a lot of fun, riding a pump track can offer serious benefits to your mountain biking abilities. When you ride pump tracks, you won’t just gain pump track skills but all around mountain bike skills that will benefit your riding on any trail.
Pumping
Pumping, or using your body weight to maintain your momentum over rollers and increase your speed on the back side of them, is a skill that’s very applicable to regular trail riding.
Every time you ride up and over an obstacle like a rock or cluster of roots, you should basically be doing the same movement as you would while pumping over a roller on a pump track.
Learning how to pump through rollers correctly is a great way to learn how to properly use your weight to get through different sections of trail.
Cornering
Pump tracks almost always feature tight berms (banked turns) which are often sharper than what you’d find on most regular trails. This means that by riding a pump track you have a great opportunity to practice hitting berms with speed and taking the correct line and using your weight in a way to exit the berm with as much speed, or more, than you went into it.
This is obviously an excellent skill to have for regular trail riding, and by practicing on a pump track you can work on hitting berms in both directions over and over again until you have them mastered.
Jumping
Pump tracks can be a great place to learn how to jump your mountain bike, or to practice jumping and become more comfortable with getting your bike up in the air.
Some pump tracks have small jumps built into them, which is ideal if your goal is to work on your jumping. However, even if a pump track doesn’t have actual jumps per se, you can still practice catching some air off of rollers.
Rollers don’t have as sharp a lip as normal MTB jumps would, which means you’re unlikely to be able to get as much air. But, in a way this makes rollers better to learn on because your technique needs to be more on point if you’re going to successfully get your bike up in the air.
Body position
Proper body position is of course key to riding a pump track well. Learning to position your body correctly is a big reason to ride a pump track, and getting good at riding a pump track translates to improving your skills out on the mountain bike trails.
After riding a few laps, proper body positioning will become much more intuitive and you should start to feel like the movements you need to make to pump come naturally, meaning you don’t have to think about what you are doing as much, but instead just react.
Ideally you’ll be able to transfer these skills to the trail and feel as though you are just reacting with your body intuitively to obstacles instead of having to think too much.
Warmup
Another great use of pump tracks is to warm up for your trail ride on one. Many pump tracks are found at local trail systems, so you can do a few quick laps to get a feel for proper weight shifts, riding berms and getting some air.
This is a great way to improve your confidence right from the start of your day on the trails.
Frequently asked questions
Pump tracks are normally relatively short, looped mountain bike tracks designed to be ridden by using your momentum to “pump” your way through the track. They have rollers, which are small bumps in the track that allow you to use your body weight to pick up speed as you ride over them. They are fun to ride and also include berms and sometimes have small jumps.
Pump tracks are a great place to practice your MTB skills including pumping, which is a useful skill to ride over obstacles like rocks and roots, and also executing tight turns on berms and even hitting small jumps.
You can absolutely pedal on a pump track, and if you want to get through the track as fast as possible you’ll want to pedal some.
At the same time, you should try to focus on actually pumping and using momentum to maintain and gain speed over rollers. This is one of the things that makes pump tracks more fun, and is a good way to prepare yourself for hitting obstacles when you’re actually out trail riding.
Just about any bike will do when riding a pump track. To maximize the speed while pumping, you’ll actually be better off riding a bike without rear suspension, such as a dirt jump bike or other hardtail, or even a BMX bike.
It’s no problem if you ride a full suspension bike though, and you’ll still be able to pump, just with slightly less power. It’s probably not a great idea to choose your bike solely to maximize your pump track ability, unless that’s all you really want to do on your mountain bike.
Conclusion
There you have it – not only are pump tracks a great way to level up your mountain biking skills, they are also loads of fun to ride. You can improve your ability to ride over obstacles, execute tight turns, hit jumps, and even use them as a way to warm up for your day on the trails. Go give one a try!