Wet and rooty and flinty and annoyingly exactly what my local XC circuit comprises of.
I get so nervous that I'm all over the place, cornering wide, over braking just a mess. The last race I did in those conditions the fun lot left me for dead and I'm sure they were all whistling jolly tunes as they did so.
Muds no problem, in fact the opposite I can excell in that.
WTF is my problem?

your problem is that falling off hurts, and the combination of water, roots and flint means falling off is quite likely.

I used to be really worried about riding roots had an off on some once that led to my worst ever accident.

The trick to roots, if there is a trick, is to keep the momentum up and skip over them, the temptation is to brake and try and pick your way through which usually ends in failure. I find that with roots heels down up on the pedals and just go for it seems to work.

If you don't go pass the limit of traction sometimes, it can be hard to know where the limit is.

Roots running perpendicular to the trail in very wet environments, such as 'Hermon' at CyB where I have had a couple of big offs, there is no pleasure in riding them for me…

I'm with you oldgit – roots (esp. when wet) are a nightmare.

I slow down 'cos I'm nervous and then fall off a lot because I've not got enough momentum…

Any type of wet wood did it for me for a long time. I had a very low speed crash due to riding a (untreated) wooden bridge in the wet, broke my humerus, and tore a lot of the rotator cuff. It was the most un-spectacular crash yet had the worst injuries I've ever had (with possible exception of a fractured L2 vertabrae on the Pleney).

I used to go all rigid and nervous, which in itself caused me to crash. 7 years later and I'm sort of over it now.

On a straight track roots aren't too horrible, especially if they are perpendicular to the trail. It's when you are turning, or when the roots are aligned with the direction you are travelling, that the real problems start IME.

You could do worse than find yourself a big drift of roots and just repeatedly freewheel over them. Do a good session of just back and forth over and over, and then come back another day and do the same. Think about one important thing at a time – like looking straight ahead and not down, then do a few goes just thinking about maintaining constant speed, then heels down etc. Eventually you should learn to ignore them and let the bike do the work.

Tyre pressure is a big factor with roots – low enough?

Big tyres and low pressure.

Very guilty of 'ex roadie' high pressures. Just about to try Black Chili tyres and toy with lower pressures.
I certainly tense up to the point of stalling, it goes wrong and I just get worse until I can't ride.

Yes you need the tyre soft enough to deform and grip. High pressure may go a little faster, but not when it's so sketchy you freeze up!

Being tense never helps mtbing, but you know that. Perhaps get as much armour as possible and session a sketchy bit til you can get a feel for the level of traction?

Need a magic pill because the next race is Wednesday and it looks like rain.
I'll probably race road Tuesday night instead rather than torture myself.

Right, since time is a factor, go route-1.

1. Low tyre pressures – don't muck about, go below 30psi. Soft like an orange. Makes much more difference than the compound.

2. Find a section of roots and just ride over them standing on the pedals and not looking at them. Completely ignore them – look through to the next section, not down at the one you're on. Don't bother about picking a line, or unweighting – just drive straight through.

Wet roots on a DH section = I may as well get off and push the bike. No issues if they are dry.

Yup tyre type and pressures myself – makes HUGE difference to confidence and also keep the front light then the front wheel is less likely to go astray 🙂

Trust me, the major reason that some people can ride roots (for example) and some can't is all in the mind. The guy that just blats over them like they aren't there isn't doing something clever – but he isn't overreacting either. Just get a little behind your bike and do not look down.

Ice Spikers seem to help 🙂

Yeah I know, some of the fun guys just looked so at ease. It's like when I took my lad out in the early days. I had to hold back on the warnings so he would just flow happy in his ignorance.

Wet roots have had me off several times – just a sudden "letting go" then my headfirst into a tree/bushes. Hence the caution…

The best way to attack roots I have found is to keep up enough speed so you can roll over them AND attack them at as much of a right angle as possible. That is, straight on. And keep your weight toward the rear so to underweight the front end slightly, so your front wheel glides over them while your rear wheel does the business of keeping traction.

As with most riding, if you don't have enough momentum you will come off.

Wet roots are a bugger especially if they are at the wrong angle but again if you have some momentum and are nice and relaxed the bike usually does OK.

Tyres and pressures can help in the wet but are no substitute for momentum and a deft touch.

I don't like off steep camber rock sections, am fine with roots and wet stuff.

I think a lot of it is down to where you ride the most, my local woods is very rooty, soft and generally wet for most of the year, even when it's dry there's roots everywhere.

There are however not really any rocky sections.

The other thing that helps for "mind over matter" stuff like roots is to take your fingers off the brakes. Once you're on them, you'd better not be braking, so fingers round the bars can help to remove that temptation.

There's an off-camber rooty section with a steep bank falling away to the side that I use this method on whenever it's slippy out.

Wet roots on a DH section = I may as well get off and push the bike.

but i thought you were a riding god?!!

+1 for just letting the bike go and getting a bit back. Hitting roots at right angles helps a lot too.

It's the same sort of technique / riding position as you use for riding on sand & loose rocks. You just need to let the bike do what it wants and make the merest suggestions on the steering. The closest off bike situation I can compare it to is aquaplaning in a car.

Another option for upping your skills would be to nip out for a ride on the wrong tyres. I rode around on semi-slicks in the mud for a while when I first got back into bikes, and whilst I was slithering all over the shop, I got a lot better at catching a sliding bike very quickly. 😆

Maybe that would get you over the fear? If you know you've got a decent chance of catching it, you won't worry so much about sliding, won't tense up so much, and therefore won't slide so much…

i thought you were a riding god?!!

sometimes he's a pushing god, clearly.

I'm going to have a good go at it. Hitting them straight on isn't a problem. The ones on singletrack corners that spread out like fingers are a mare. This is almost like OCD now 😐

In that case I take the line where most of the roots are bunched together, probably toward the tree itself.

At least that way you can treat it as one big root rather than lots of little ones. Its less jarring and you're more likely to maintain grip.

The most obvious line isn't neccesarily the easiest or safest.

One last little thing, oldgit. Don't try and get away from them – if you go up you are moving away from the grip! Plus you are giving them too much respect in that instance too.

Roots are everywhere on our local trails. I'm ok at riding them now.All the above advice is sound and does actually work. However,if in doubt,hop off,it's not worth injuring yourself.

but i thought you were a riding god?!!

And where on earth did you get that impression? Fairly quick uphill, fairly quick on the flat, total muppet on technical/wet DH sections.

I actually enjoy (but am slow at) riding dry rooty DH sections – just hate it when it's wet.

How about lifting the front wheel over them and accepting the fact that the back end will be all over the place?

I find that staying fast and loose and lifting the front wheel over as many of them as you can helps.

We have a long off camber section chock full of roots at our local woods – if any of you could genuinely ride it quickly when it's wet, I'd be very surprised. There is no gap between roots, most are at diagonals to the trail and all slope downhill (which as you ride across and down the hill, means sideways).

Obviously attack most at right angles and "float" over them if you can byu theory doesn't always work in practise.