We put women first in everything we do, every frame we build, every component we spec and every piece of gear we design. Liv is the cycling brand dedicated to women.  

Colour the Trails year-round Mountain Biking Mentorship Program aims at supporting Black, Indigenous, and Racialized folks to become confident mountain bike riders realizing their full potential. After about six months of riding with a mentor, Colour the Trails mentees had the opportunity to participate in a five weeks clinic thanks to the generosity of Essential Cycles and Ozmosis Training to improve their skills. Post-ride mentees head back to Essential Cycles where they learn about bike maintenance and repairs with both an educational and hands-on component.

For five weeks our mentee trained on the following skills

  • Turning Corners
    • Generally, trails don’t go in a straight line.  Learning the basics for cornering successfully and with confidence will boost your riding to the next level.  This course takes you on the next steps of riding your mountain bike, for the be intermediate and up rider, we will cover flat and technical corners to help you find your flow through all the turns a trail throws at you.
  • Climb like a machine
    • What goes down generally has to go up first, and not every uphill is a dirt road.  We'll be working on body position and techniques for technical climbing.
  • Skills and drill
    • How to plat around on your bike: front and rear wheel lifts, mini-wheelies, track stands (these all become useful trail skills!)
  • Riding technical trails
    • Once you have the fundamentals dialed it's time to start working on flow over technical terrain. this the course takes you on the next steps of riding your mountain bike, for the Intermediate and up rider, including how to keep stable over rocks and roots and find your flow on technical trails.
  • Drop it Like its Hot
    • This full-day clinic begins with a drops session in the Burnaby Mountain Skills Park. Once we have a solid foundation we will head to the mountain to put these newfound skills into practice. We will spend the afternoon on Burke Mountain challenging ourselves on natural and built drops.  For anyone who has ever wanted to get air, and then keeps getting it post-class, this is the session for you.

WATCH THE FULL REPORT VIDEO BELOW!

Photo credit: 

  • Banner: Pavel Boiko

Video credit: 

  • Colour the Trails
  • Steve Tan