Poll: Descending knee out or in?

nickwill

I've always stuck my inside knee out when cornering quickly on descents. Its always felt right, and I've felt that it gave me more control. Watching a lot of pros descend, I've noticed that many of them do it as well.
However recently a lot of articles on descending have said that the inside knee should be tucked in to the top tube.
Which do you do, and why?

Smokin Joe

I do knee out because it feels better for me, but I don't think it really makes a difference.

aracer

As the poll results suggest, it makes little difference. Knee out comes from motorbike racing, where it is useful as a measure of lean angle - they also have knee sliders to prevent scraping their skin off. On a bicycle your knee gets nowhere near the road, and if it did, ouch! - so it serves no useful purpose, but doing it probably does no harm either.

System_1

I used to be knee out until I read a similar article and was very surprised at the difference it made when I decided to give the knee in option a shot. It feels very unnatural and you do have to make the effort to fight the instinct to hang that knee out, but keep it in and you'll be surprised just how much quicker the bike will turn in.

To see the difference for yourself take a corner at speed then halfway through pull your knee into the toptube. The first time I did it the bike almost doubled back on itself.

Sea_Green_Incorruptible

I do 'knee out'... but shudder when I do so.

When I was a kid (8? 9?) we used to live on a circular estate: a fantastic loop about 1/2 mile long around which to race our bikes. I had an old 'Module 3' kids racing bike (anyone remember those? they were pretty popular in the late 70s early 80s if I remember rightly) and used to take the corners like a superbike racer... with my knee almost grazing the tarmac. Until one day I caught my pedal on the ground that is, flew of and bounced a few times. End result: greenstick break on the arm, concussion (no helmets in those days of course), hospital, pain etc.

As I said, I still wince when I think about it even now... Didn't put me off bikes though

nick hanson

More important is to have the outside leg stretched

nasahapley

Knee out for me too, could be a habit picked up from riding motorbikes but I reckon I'd do it anyway - it just feels right to me. BTW Nickwill, do you have links to any of the articles that say your knee should be tucked in? I'd like to know the rationale behind it, because I can't think how it would make any difference (apart from maybe a tiny bit of aero advantage).

Cheers,
N

lateralus

I've experimented with both - doesn't make a difference. What does make a big difference (for me, anyway) is pushing down on the outside pedal.

nickwill

I certainly agree about the importance of pushing down on the outside pedal.
I think in the end its probably about doing whatever makes you feel relaxed in fast downhill corners.
I think the first reference I came upon to keeping the knee in was in Chris Carmichael's
'Lance Armstrong' training manual. It seems to have become quite a regular piece of advice in various articles I've come across since the. Sorry, I can't track any of them down at the moment. Despite this, I still think that the majority of the pros seem to stick their knee out when cornering on descents.