YouTuber Mike Boyd attempts to learn how to mountain bike in one weekend. He has some expert help from Ben Cathro but can it be done?

>>> One simple way to get better at riding

Mike Boyd is one of those YouTubers. You know the sort. You’ve never heard of them and you stumble across one of their videos and then clock that they’ve got half a million subscribers. That weird sort of secretly famous status that is very 2017.

Mike’s YouTube channel is entitled This Week I Learned (or TWIL for short). As the name suggests, each week he tries to learn something new. And he tries to learn it as quickly as possible.

This week’s TWIL is mountain biking. Downhill mountain biking top be precise. To help him in his endeavours he’s enlisted Scottish Downhill Champs – and fellow YouTuber – Ben Cathro.

The place where Mike and Ben go to learn is Comrie Croft. Which may not be a full-on Downhill track but it is a singletrack trail with more than its fair share of tricky obstacles and tight turns.

Mike’s first run down – with no help from Ben – takes him 2 min 20 secs. Mike has actually mountain biked before but not for an awful long time (over a decade). The goal is set to try and knock ten seconds off this time. Mike actually clearly wants to get under two minutes.

Watch the vid to see how he gets on. If you want the nutshelled result we’re not going to give you the timings BUT we will say that the main point that this video gets across is the power of sessioning sections.

After you’ve watched Mike’s vid you can then watch Ben’s version of the experience in the vid above.