Off at the W/E - Classic OTB - Advice please?

Plyphon

Hiya,

Had a great weekend riding some trails this weekend - however one member of our group had a slight off.

It was the classic OTB - riding down quite a steep, fast hillock where at the bottom there was a slight dip - you've enough speed for your wheel to ride over the entrance to the dip - but you then hit the front wheel on the exit, the forks compress, your weight shifts forward and next thing you know you're doing the classic OTB flying through the air with the backwheel high behind chasing your head.

Luckily no bones were broken and she has never been more happy about wearing a helmet in her life. A few cuts and bruises and a sore body the next day - but nothing serious! (Nothing out of line on the bike either.)

We were discussing afterwards what technique you'd use you avoid something like this in the future - but it dawned on me I actually have no idea. So can anyone offer any advice for us, please?

Cheers!

Greer_

I'm not an expert but from the sounds of it, i'd just unweight the front wheel (maybe pull up on the bars) and keep my weight over the rear wheel.

Plyphon

That's what I would think - the time frame you have to do that in is tiny however - so I guess then it comes down to looking further ahead and anticipating the trail more.

benpinnick

Need to learn how to manual, or at least some good weight management. Also, what forks? Some will allow you to tune out the dive to make the bike more stable through the dips.

jairaj

Yep shoulds like its down to weight management. As a minimum unweighting the front as it tries comes up should allow you to roll through most things. But learning to manual would be the proper technique and will allow you to flow through repeated dips too.

Try a few sessions on a pump track to help you learn how to shift your weight back and forwards.

Plyphon

Yeah manualing is something she admits she can't do. It's something I do naturally which is guess is why I made it through first and she didn't!

Some manual training is in order then!

nicklouse

you could also look at bunny hopping.

why? to pre jump things like that. but again that can come with reading further along the trail.

Plyphon

nicklouse wrote:

you could also look at bunny hopping.

why? to pre jump things like that. but again that can come with reading further along the trail.

Yeah I can understand that.

It's hard to explain in words but this particular part of trail was so tight - the thinking gaps you had were tidy - so I guess the main points are learning to read the trail better and anticipate more.

Thanks all.

Northwind

Hard to understand exactly what the trail was like, but it's mostly about preperation. Manualling can work but so can just pushing the front through the dip (what you're actually doing is pushing against the bike, rather than pushing the bike, but it's easier to visualise). This just means that you're already reacting and stabilising your body position before you get chucked forwards.