Your Balance Depends On It

I was halfway down a local trail last weekend. Rain from the days before made the path treacherous, so when my front wheel caught on an exposed rock, I almost lost control. I stopped completely, suspended in that impossible space between motion and fall.

In that frozen second before gravity claimed me, I remembered one important rule of mountain biking: keep moving.

I pushed forward, regained momentum, and stayed upright. Barely. That moment crystallized something I've felt for years when riding my bike.

On a mountain bike, balance is dynamic. Try to perform a track stand (balancing your bike while stationary) and unless you've spent years mastering it, you'll topple over. The physics are clear. A bike in motion stays balanced. A bike at rest falls. You need to keep going. You need to keep moving forward.