Decending techniques?

jamie 'jammy dodger'

Had a top day out on my bantu,rode over pendle hill..had a shaky exit coming down the rock path,i'm after some tips ie position,braking (was over caucious),habit of looking at my wheel.

cheers jamie

YeehaaMcgee

It's just the same as riding fast on the flat, essentially.
Keep scanning the trail ahead, position yourself low on the bike, stay out of the saddle and loose.
And, the front brake is the one that will slow you down, but the rear brake can be used as a sort of rudder to keep the bike in line.

cooldad

Look at where you want to be, not where you are, relax, and let the bike do the hard work.

MDobs

stay loose and let the bike move around under you, weight should be over the BB/pedals. don't get your weight too far back when descending as the front wheel won't track and turning will be problematic.

don't drag the brakes, only brake when you need to and do it in chunks. push down into the pedals when you brake, get your weight back and dip your heels (i.e. pushing your weight forward and down as you brake), puts more traction through the tyres and gets more bite.


(i actually sound like i know what i'm talking about there... scary)

cooldad

And when you've finished thinking about all of the useful tips, dig yourself out of the bushes and try again.

paul.skibum

Speed is your friend (sometimes!).

If you think about rougher rocky sections, with a bit of speed you are effectively giving your front wheel less time to drop into gaps - a bit of pace and it will skip over the top and keep you out of trouble to some degree - watch the WC from Windham for an example of how to deal with rock gardens.

Otherwise most of what everyone else said is good advice too.

1mancity2

As above, Chin up don't have a lead head, remember the faster your going the further you need to look ahead, also look for spots were you can scrub speed.

i.e not loose gravel but firm ground.

OhAndFour

All great tips.

The best bit of advice Ive been given is to not over think things and just enjoy the ride. Sometimes you'll find that you are over a difficult bit before you've had a chance to over analyse it where as if you try to put into practice everything you've tried to remember you might be in trouble before you've thought about each thing you should be doing.

jt_intheuk

I recently bought Lee McCormack's book "Mastering Mountain Bike Skills"
Made me think of all the things I am doing wrong and all the things I should be doing. One of the thinks he keeps hammering on is "Heavy Feet Light Hands"
I think it is well worth a read to get you going in the right direction.

.blitz

jt_intheuk wrote:

I recently bought Lee McCormack's book "Mastering Mountain Bike Skills"

^^ this although it is often credited to Brain Lopes as well. Great book.

Weight vertically over the BB, don't drag the brakes, look where you want to go, have some faith in your bike and physics it won't crash without a reason try not to make yourself the reason

Build up your grip strength as well. Having an iron grip on the bars and having relaxed arms helps a lot

bluechair84

if you look at a section and think that your speed is correct, consider taking your fingers off of the brake levers and wrapping them around the bars. Feathering the brakes is all well and good but it reduces the amount of control you have of the steering and your body position. It takes a bit of balls and commitment, but roll through a tough section and use the brakes on the other side to give you maximum control when you need it most.

rockmonkeysc

Good advice above.
Drop your heels, keep your arms & legs bent and loose. Relax and enjoy the ride.
Remember thet you will go where you are looking. Never look at something you want to avoid, look at where you want to go.
Don't forget to breathe!

jamie 'jammy dodger'

Great help from everyone..many thanks...Was the first time i'd tried and had cycled many miles to get there,got down ok but far from gracefull!!

bennett_346

That trails nothing to be sniffed at!

bluechair84

looks long... maybe you should be feathering the brakes for that one

paul.skibum

One of my favourite examples for riding was that of following a rabbit - the faster you go the further the rabbit gets ahead of you so the further ahead you are looking to see it including following it to the exit of wider sweeping turns and berms, slower and you get closer to it but for the most part you want to imagine two rabbits - one is running away ahead of you and you need to keep an eye on where it goes the other si darting around near your front wheel so you have to check in on it to make sure you dont hit it - this is called trail scanning back and forward between where you want to be and where your heading and what you are about to hit.

If you only look at the far away rabbit you will misjudge jumps and rolls and lose momentum from those but if you only look at the close to you rabbit you will never know what speed to be going so even though you hit jumps well you may be over or undercooking every landing and every turn.

Play with it on a couple of repeat runs (this is where a bike park comes in handy - you can repeat lines and trails over and over with ease) looking at one then the other then both and see the difference.

That trail in the pic looks a reasonable test of skill!

felix.london

The Twin Rabbit Technique - nice one Paul-san

YeehaaMcgee

Has anyone else NOT smoked enough party tobacco to know what Paul's on about?

1mancity2

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

Has anyone else NOT smoked enough party tobacco to know what Paul's on about?

Yeah and still am :shock:

bluechair84

I'm sure if I research for videos of the twin rabbit technique, I'm going to get something completely unrelated to the 'general' forum, and likely more suitable to the CC...

YeehaaMcgee

bluechair84 wrote:

I'm sure if I research for videos of the twin rabbit technique, I'm going to get something completely unrelated to the 'general' forum, and likely more suitable to the CC...

I don't understand why going faster makes the rabbit go even faster. Surely a rabbit has finite speed. Even if you connect it to the mains, and over-volt it beyond sense.
But that would end up causing damage to the ladybits, methinks.

bluechair84

If you want to go faster, you need the rabbit to go faster too? And if you are a particularly experienced rider, you might very well need one of them mains powered rabbits to handle the amount of speed you require...

lesz42

cooldad wrote:

And when you've finished thinking about all of the useful tips, dig yourself out of the bushes and try again.

LOL made me laugh

paul.skibum

YeehaaMcgee wrote:

bluechair84 wrote:

I'm sure if I research for videos of the twin rabbit technique, I'm going to get something completely unrelated to the 'general' forum, and likely more suitable to the CC...

I don't understand why going faster makes the rabbit go even faster. Surely a rabbit has finite speed. Even if you connect it to the mains, and over-volt it beyond sense.
But that would end up causing damage to the ladybits, methinks.

Methinks you are over thinking what I thought.

The rabbit could become a faster animal if you are going at batty speeds - perhaps a cheetah? But why would you chase a cheetah? that's suicide. Now a rabbits worth catching. You can eat it, **** it or **** it then eat it. :twisted:

YeehaaMcgee

You can do all those things with a cheetah. Except it's also big enough to cuddle.
Cheetas are also renowned at being able to service Renault Clios, so if you drive one of them it might well be worth catching one.

Daz555

Following a friend who is a little bit better than you helps a lot too. It encourages you to look ahead and also gives you confidence about the trail up ahead whichs allows you to relax and gain yet more speed.

dhobiwallah

Putting wd40 on your brake pads will help you go faster on the decents

bennett_346

I actually know someone who did that at the top of scafell.

YeehaaMcgee

bennett_346 wrote:

I actually know someone who did that at the top of scafell.

WHY? :shock:

bennett_346

"i'm just gonna use this to cool my brakes down, they're a bit hot"

*says nothing*

"HOLY SH*TT I CANT STOP"

*we crease at him as he flies off uncontrolably*

YeehaaMcgee

For real?
I can't believe anyone that stupid would have survived long enough in life to eventually arrive at the summit of a mountain.