Thread: I suck at downhilling

Originally Posted by Hott Butt Mud

This vid is the shit.

i think boob has some experience on that course from last week.


it's pretty crazy when dry and just pure insanity when muddy like that. 2010 was a little dryer...but not much:

Originally Posted by Particle

Ehhh, that's OK in certain situations but you should really get your legs/knees OUT and away from the bike. Otherwise the seat-grab-steer-with-thighs thing gets to be a crutch, and forces you out of a better riding position.

Actually, the aha moment for me was when Karl told me that turning a bike is a lot like skiing. Think about it for a sec:

Angulate to the inside of a turn - check
Weight the outside leg/foot in a turn - check
Drive your hips - check
Keep your upper body separate from your lower body - check

It's all the same shit with some subtle differences. The one big difference is where your upper body goes. In skiing, it's pointing fall line; in biking, it's pointing in the direction of the turn. Having seat awareness can help you with all of this. The point of the drill wasn't so much to grab the seat as it was to learn to angulate and point my hips in the direction of the turn. Now when I'm turning, I don't so much grip the seat as use it as a kind of stop when I'm laid out in a turn. I still suck at turning, but not nearly as much as I used to. Now it's just a matter of losing weight so that Newton's First Law doesn't have quite as much effect on me while trying to change direction...

Originally Posted by Arty50

Now when I'm turning, I don't so much grip the seat as use it as a kind of stop when I'm laid out in a turn. I still suck at turning, but not nearly as much as I used to.

OK, so you are using your inside leg in the turn as a stop, right?

Originally Posted by Particle

OK, so you are using your inside leg in the turn as a stop, right?

Si, senor.

Originally Posted by Arty50

Si, senor.

Roger. Carry on. Nothing to see here.

Some of the tips in this thread really improved my riding.

Sent from my TI-89

finesse with brakes,experiment a bit...small back brake tap will help torque your turns naturally. Approaching steepest trails at a slower pace will allow better traction at a critical turn.My fav tip is to stabalize the bike,by clenching your thighs around the seat while standing on pedals.Also ,if ya wanna rip loose rock,sand,gravel..wear elboy and knee protection(everyone wrecks n that stuff)Learning the trails before letting the speed go ,is fairly important!

Originally Posted by bagtagley

I don't know, maybe it's years on a motorcycle, but at the track we'd do brake drills in corners. A handful of brake would straighten the bike right up, not to mention robbing your traction. That's transferred directly over to bikes for me. I'm not saying I never brake in corners, but I make it a point to scrub speed before the corner, and lay off the brakes unless I've fucked something up. You're telling me that, at the exit of a high speed, bike laid over, g-pulling corner, you grab some front brake? I don't see it.

I like this comment;brake Before the corner!Keep it SIMPLE ! work on one tip at a time...many mtn bike tires are soft & inferior !Soft tires are for mud and thier knobs suck at holding a turn !

For some really steep technical straight sections, I have taken the habit of taking my fingers off the front brake and using lots of back brake for speed control. It seems to work pretty well and avoid the danger of finger-fucking the front brake or accidentally squeezing it on a hit.

Good idea, bad idea?

With a Juicy 7 front and Code R rear, I guess there is about 0% chance that I can lock the front up... Juicy 7 is somewhere between endo-proof-weak and useless-weak. But I think I'm going to put another Code R on the front.

If i just use my rear brake in the steeps I usually end up skidding and in less control.

If you can control your speed with your back brake only, It is probably to really steep. Work on better from brake modulation and get your weight back.

Originally Posted by knumbskull

If i just use my rear brake in the steeps I usually end up skidding and in less control.

On the really steep shit if I just back brake I end up fishtailing like hell and out of control in no time flat. I try to evenly brake between the two modulating the actual ratio between the two depending on the terrain. There is no particular ratio that works for all terrains.

And the comment about stabilizing the bike by gripping with your thighs, that works when it is not really rooty and rocky. Try that when the bike bounces sideways off of a root or rock (sometimes your best line or the fun line involves a shitload of them) at high speed. Not going to work well. To me that also kind of makes me feel like I am slightly backseating it.

Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles

Work on better from brake modulation

Avid Codes are pretty on-off IMHO

the seat -thigh grip style ,is an on and off thing;I use it in the slippery loose rocks ,sandstone straightaways.

Originally Posted by Summit

For some really steep technical straight sections,.

That's exactly where your front brake works the best.

Originally Posted by Summit
For some really steep technical straight sections,.


That's exactly where your front brake works the best.

Exactly sir.

Feather the front brake,just enough to give a little xtra feel to the bikes contact to the trail(on any hill to steep to pedal down fast) i like the front into the corners ,and switch to a back tap thru the crux....bike will zip around turn!

gonna go try that all 3 eyes thing.
If I hurt myself it's your guys' fault.

Originally Posted by kidwoo

That's exactly where your front brake works the best.

No, no. You're doing it all wrong. In that situation, you want to start by locking up your rear brake and feathering the front just enough so that you can slide down that bastard sideways and shout out "YEEHAAAAWWWW BITCHES!!!" while performing said move.

Originally Posted by creaky fossil

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/iXS-Ger...ideo-2012.html

Think the guy with the frying pans is super jealous of the dude with the frame and bars?

So, it kinda helped on switchbacks. I think I was already kinda doing it anyway.
Hardest thing is to keep myself looking ahead. At a certain speed, I think I'm just along for the ride and trying to stay upright.

Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

At a certain speed, I think I'm just along for the ride and trying to stay upright.

That pretty much describes every single day I'm on a bike. I do my best to pretty much always stay just above that speed.

Originally Posted by stuckathuntermtn

So, it kinda helped on switchbacks. I think I was already kinda doing it anyway.
Hardest thing is to keep myself looking ahead. At a certain speed, I think I'm just along for the ride and trying to stay upright.

if traction is not an issue,a slight front/back will give great contact,and feel of the trail.ON loose traction ,ride totally changes...all speed control,as the trail dictates when braking is possible!

Skimmed the thread. Lots of good, some weird...

If you have trouble with flat corners, Dropping a foot should be pretty far up the road of skills to learn. Here's why: If you take a foot off the pedals, most people will have a VERY hard time leaning the bike independently of their body angle, because the outside foot is placing all their body weight on the outside of the bike. The result is an upright bike, and a corner taken too slowly.

Here's what you practice: Find a stretch of road that is at a sufficient grade to carve some turns down. You're at the top? Good. Start rolling downhill and carve some turns by leaning the bike, but here's the trick. Do it by weighting your outside hand. Put another way, push the bike over with your outside hand. This should generate an AH HA moment for a few. The bike should hook up noticeably and really turn. Just shove the thing. Now do it until it becomes second nature, then take it to the trail.

Once you master PUSHING the bike over rather than pulling or leaning your body, then you can start thinking about dropping a foot, because you have the technique to back it up, to still get the bike at an aggressive angle, and also maximize traction. Traction without lean angle to use it is worthless.

Originally Posted by nickel

Skimmed the thread. Lots of good, some weird...

If you have trouble with flat corners, Dropping a foot should be pretty far up the road of skills to learn. Here's why: If you take a foot off the pedals, most people will have a VERY hard time leaning the bike independently of their body angle, because the outside foot is placing all their body weight on the outside of the bike. The result is an upright bike, and a corner taken too slowly.

Here's what you practice: Find a stretch of road that is at a sufficient grade to carve some turns down. You're at the top? Good. Start rolling downhill and carve some turns by leaning the bike, but here's the trick. Do it by weighting your outside hand. Put another way, push the bike over with your outside hand. This should generate an AH HA moment for a few. The bike should hook up noticeably and really turn. Just shove the thing. Now do it until it becomes second nature, then take it to the trail.

Once you master PUSHING the bike over rather than pulling or leaning your body, then you can start thinking about dropping a foot, because you have the technique to back it up, to still get the bike at an aggressive angle, and also maximize traction. Traction without lean angle to use it is worthless.

You meant to type inside hand, right? Or am I completely confused?