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My session with Margie far exceeded my expectations. I would recommend this for every level rider. After two years of mountain biking, it was great to have Margie show me new skills which will help me be a better and safer rider. I fully intend to go back for more lessons after I practice and perfect the skills I learned yesterday. Thanks Margie!!!

Great basic skills class. Learned so much. I would recommend for anyone! It's amazing what I learned today about my bike, how to ride differant terrain!

I have been riding for 20+ years and Margie is by far the best coach I have had. If you want to have more fun on the trails Margie is your coach, she taught me how to improve quickly and with less effort. I can't wait to learn more.

This was my first and no means my last clinic with Margie. Lots to learn, great day, coach and group. I’ll be back!

Margie is a great coach! My wife and I took a lesson with her yesterday and we both walked away with a ton more confidence. Wheel lifts, Level Lifts, cornering and climbing. I can't believe the progress we both made. If you want to get better at mountain biking get in touch with Margie. It is well worth it!

I've been a road cyclist for 30 years, & a mountain biker for 5. The 2 are completely different. I chose to take the Core skills class a week before I went on vacation to Kingdom Trails to get the basics down and try to get past some weak areas, like climbing & positioning.

Before I took Margie's class, I couldn't climb well unless seated, after the class, I was confident in getting out of the saddle & getting the right position to climb standing and maintain traction as well as she tweaked my seated climbing position so that it was more effective as well.

I felt I was much better and safer on the black diamond trails & I was remember the basic mental notes on ready position and driving the bike throughout my trip.

Overall it was money well spent & it made my mountain bike vacation more enjoyable, not to mention, safer.

Fabulous clinic! Margie is great! Patient, knowledgeable and fun! Highly recommend!!

My son and I did a 2 hour lesson with Margie. We had a blast and learned a ton. We have been out riding a couple of times since and we both have improved dramatically with one short lesson and are having even more fun on our bikes now. Margie taught us the fundamentals and made us safer and better riders. I am looking forward to another lesson to continue to improve.

I have been mountain biking for over 20 years, but have always focused on endurance rather than technique. I wanted to overcome my fear of obstacles such as skinny bridges and logs that require me to lift my front end. Margie was a tremendous help: she helped me work on body positioning, confidence, and bike handling technique. She also recommended flat pedals because it was pretty clear that part of my problem was my fear of being unable to clip out. Two hours passed much too quickly. I am looking forward to another session!

Margie is great! She was incredibly kind and patient with my 10 year old struggling to ride. I would highly recommend Coach Margie to anyone who has a child that needs some extra help to get riding! We can’t thank you enough!

Great foundation clinic
Couldn’t wait to take Margie's clinic because as we all know there is always room for improvement; I desperately wanted to up my MTBing fun factor and decrease my crash factor . Margie took this small group of 5 and individualized the teaching for each of us. We each reaped expert instruction with hours of skill development and real trail application. This clinic has taught me to shift my body to the front-back-sides and pop it up in order to roll/ hop over roots and rocks smoothly; climb hills and descend them with assurance instead of walking them; visually scan the trail and pick a line; along with a multitude of outstanding tips and tricks. Margie strengthen my skill set and gave me confidence
to challenge myself on the trail- Thank you Margie !

My main focus of booking a private lesson was to become a safer rider and to be more in control of my bike, all of which I achieved with my first lesson. Techniques such as proper body positioning, braking, front wheel lifts, high speed cornering.....have made the trails more fun and has enabled me to keep up with more advanced riders. Learning new skills has changed me as a rider- I no longer avoid logs, rock gardens and other technical sections. Margie's excellent instructions, encouraging words and patience have given me a tremendous amount of confidence!

I recently had my first mountain biking lesson with Margie. What a wonderful way to spend two hours in the woods. I have a lot to practice and much more to learn and I am looking forward to the clinic at the end of the month.

Fundamentals and Maneuvers Clinic at Pittsfield State Forest - Super Day!

What a great day! What a great clinic! What a great coach! In addition to learning so much, my confidence is on it's way back thanks to Margie! I never road with platform pedals and what a difference for an increase of confidence as well! Looking forward to more clinics and rides with Margie. Thanks a bunch Margie.

I'm not brand new to mountain biking but I had a long layoff. What a great refresher. I learned a ton of new stuff too. I'm looking forward to the "maneuvers" class.

So, here's the story. The president of my company takes on a challenge in her 50's of performing aerial acrobatics in front of all of us, after practicing for 10 weeks, 3 times a week. We were absolutely stunned. How could she tackle such a fear? How could she find the time to devote to something for that long that she is terrified of? Well, she turned around and asked us to do the same. What was my fear?? It was mountain biking! Don't ask me why, it just is! Living in East Granby, I have trails all around me. I need to be riding on those trails! So, I took my first 2 hours lesson from Margie. It was worth every penny. She is patient, clear, encouraging, and a fantastic instructor. I am looking forward to one of her clinics in the near future, and I can't wait to share the excitement with my 9 year old son who has a love for the sport already! Thank you, Margie, for opening my eyes up to something that my family will all enjoy together.

Simply extraordinary.

I’m a long-time road bicycle rider who discovered the wonder and beauty of mountain biking when in January of this year I purchases a fat tire bicycle to help me to improve my attitude about winter, cold white stuff on the ground, and the inability to ride my road bicycle. I discovered and fell in love with off road riding. I soon purchased a proper mountain bike and discovered rather quickly that I had none of the skills necessary to enjoy mountain bicycling. Enter Margie Bowen. I found Coach Margie and her site courtesy of Google. After e-chatting with Coach Margie about my learning objectives and my scheduling difficulties, we settled on a three-hour private lesson. What a revelation! Please don’t tell Margie lest she reconsider her rates, but I received a lifetime of instruction in those three hours. Coach Margie is a talented and demanding, but warmhearted taskmaster. She’s also a gifted teacher. I know whereof I speak. I’ve been a teacher for over three decades.

Upon my arrival, Coach Margie assessed my (lack of) skills and, as best I can figure, instantaneously created a perfect mountain biking curriculum for me. She worked me hard for three hours. Those are three hours I’ll long treasure. No, alas, I didn’t master all of the basic of mountain bicycle riding. But, more importantly, I did get very caring and articulate feedback about those skills and will always remember (thanks to Coach Margie’s follow-up email message) her advice.

In three short hours, I emerged a better mountain bicyclist. More importantly, I can’t recall having more fun. A warning to Coach Margie: I’ll be baaaaack. 🙂