[url=https://flic.kr/p/FyBBCz]Berms[/url] by WCA!, on Flickr

We have just completed this line of tight berms where one feeds into the other. You are rolling down the hill and they flick left and right.

Do you go high at the start of the berm and then drop in low so you can go high into the next?

I have no idea (yet) but would love someone to tell me what will work so I don’t need to spend so long learning.

I know the guys on here are all hard core gnar riders so thought I would check. Links to vids are welcome.

Joe Barnes to the forum, Joe Barnes please.

Just follow that blue/red line and shriek, it’ll work out OK.

I’d straight-line that. 😉

enter high leave low sounds right
google Mark Wier pump track eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYSH5Fg4M-s
or leelikesbikes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-xVnddnX10
any good?

I am hosting an event at Southampton Bike Park in the next month and want to know more than my guests before I start.

Seriously, how do you link berm to berm sections together. All google will tell me is about how to ride a single berm.

Inside Enduro lines ftw

I may be wrong but I love railing berms high!

Flat out with a gopro running, obvs!

Current fashion dictates, miss start of berm, square of corner with big slide, empty all soil out of corner, ride off smugly having destroyed the berm. 😀

First thing, get rid of the red and purple ribbon as it may get caught in your chain.

Almost a series of hip jumps but unweighting instead of jumping. Outside foot stamping grip into each berm, swapping as you unweight and switch feet for the next. Build up your speed and flow enough and you may be pretty much jumping into each berm and getting pop from the exit.

Same as riding individual berms, you just need to be very quick at flipping the bike side to side and keep looking at your exits

Get a good photographer, hit the first berm at warp speed and crank her right over. With a bit of luck the photographer will get a good pic before you wipe out. Either way you should post the results up here.

Not like you’ve drawn it. IMHO you should be exiting the first berm / entering the second about half way along the first red line. Ditto for the others.

Strava line on the left.

The honest answer for me is ‘too fast to start with followed by lots of braking in the wrong places and muttering for **** sake’.

Like skiing. Compress into the corners, unweight in between.

As an aside I was asking the same question with skicross tracks last week. My natural tendency is to try to keep tight in the corners. However, I also took them high to use the full impact of the berm and go flat out into them. Hard to decide which was quicker but the fast high route was definitely more fun it a wee bit scary at times. Gave me confidence to ride berms better on my bike now instead of creating more braking bumps!!!!

In your case WCA, i’d suggest “carefully” as being the correct way to approach it…… 😆

+1 tillydog

you want to come down/pump-push off the berm early to get the start of the next berm.

they do not seem to get any steeper higher up so about 2/3 of the way up most of the way round till you start to change direction i’d guess depending on speed etc.

When did MTB stop being a fun activitiy we just did to one where some people over analyse every little nuance of riding until there can’t be any fun left, I just don’t get it…..i go to work to get better at my career, the associated stress is an acceptable trade off…but when people are fretting over how to take a series of berms FFS then something has gone amiss and I’d suggest a new hobby for these ‘serious’ mountain bikers as their pastime bears no resemblance to mine.

getting a series of corners sussed on a racetrack or a bike trail is a load of fun IMO

..seriously, give it a go maybe 🙂

Hmm. Difficult, this. I’m not exactly gnarcore but I do ride the same trail centres a lot.

I’ve found that how you ride berms depends a lot on how they are built and chained together. Sometimes you can take the inside line at speed, sometimes you need to stay high, sometimes it’s take the first one high and the second low because that’s how it sets you up.

some people over analyse every little nuance of riding until there can’t be any fun left

Sorry mate – for some people, the analysing ADDS fun. You might not appreciate it, and that’s cool, but don’t denigrate others’ fun.

I’d suggest a new hobby for these ‘serious’ mountain bikers as their pastime bears no resemblance to mine.

Why? Why do we have to do it your way? We can have our own fun can’t we? And you can have yours. No-one’s actually worried or upset about their lines – we’re trying to refine what we do, because we enjoy it. And we can enjoy our biking how we like.

…i go to work to get better at my career, the associated stress is an acceptable trade off…

Exactly the opposite for me. I go to work to earn money with a little stress as possible.
I get my challenge from trying to get better at biking……which I find enjoyable, not stressful.

the entrance to the second berm looks like it should have been built further down the hill…..

I’d aim for going in high and dropping down about 3/4 of the way round. 1/4 pedal turn to come off the top, flat in the transition, then another 1/4 turn as you climb the next bend shifting weight as you go. I reckon I’d be out of shape by about turn 3 but it’d be fun to try.

Leave him to have his ‘fun’ molgrips, he can’t even understand the concept of people adjusting their forks to make them perform better. Back in his day this was all fields 😀

thegreatape – Member
The honest answer for me is ‘too fast to start with followed by lots of braking in the wrong places and muttering for **** sake’.

+1 😆

followed by looking at the net at a new bike that would make it easier to do and ignoring the fact that I’m rubbish technically

the entrance to the second berm looks like it should have been built further down the hill…..

Wot he said.

First two berms look like the overlap is too great to flow but that might be the image. Ideally the exit / entrance should be nearly aligned so as you exit the first berm and are transferring your weight from leaning right (pushing in to the berm to the left) to leaning left as you transfer and you naturally start pushing in to the berm to the right and it catches your wheels. Ideally it sould be that the exit of the first can be used as a lip and the entrance of the second as a landing.

As it is it looks like as you exit the first berm it sets you up towards the apex of the second where you’ll have to the do a sharp turn in to the face of the berm rather than flowing from one to the other.

But as I said without seeing it in the dirt the photo may just not be doing it justice.

Where abouts in soton is this? I was down last week and might be down in a week or two so if its open I’ll borrow Demon Frameworks’ Jump Bike and come and have a look!

+1 to deviant… 😀

Sorry kids, but he does have a point, much as some of you might disagree. Sure there is some fun in learning how to do some things better, sometimes. But FWIW I find that waaaaay too much emphasis is placed on this side of our sport, sometimes. Particularly here, on STW, and the mags.

Make 2016 your fastest/bestest/ever yet! (delete as appropriate)

Strava line on the left.

and

The honest answer for me is ‘too fast to start with followed by lots of braking in the wrong places and muttering for **** sake’.

I reckon the best way to ‘hit’ it is with a smile on your face, your saddle lowered and and your fingers well away from the brakes. Have some fun.

in all likelihood, no matter what anyone says or types in reply, the way to get natural and fast at the course is to ride it as many times as possible – once you’ve ridden it a few hundred times you’ll know how to do it!

no_eyed_deer – too much emphasis for your liking you mean 🙂

First two berms look like the overlap is too great to flow but that might be the image. Ideally the exit / entrance should be nearly aligned so as you exit the first berm and are transferring your weight from leaning right (pushing in to the berm to the left) to leaning left as you transfer and you naturally start pushing in to the berm to the right and it catches your wheels. Ideally it sould be that the exit of the first can be used as a lip and the entrance of the second as a landing.

As it is it looks like as you exit the first berm it sets you up towards the apex of the second where you’ll have to the do a sharp turn in to the face of the berm rather than flowing from one to the other.

Yes, exactly.

At the minute it looks as if you’ll exit the first berm and plough straight into the middle of the second berm, loosing any flow/speed.

Any chance you can take an aerial photo as it’ll give a better representation of the distances and radii involved….

Photo does make the berms look too overlapped but in reality they aren’t.

Southampton Bike Park is the main sport centre near Lordswood and the General Hospital. Always open and free to ride.

Not trying to over analyse anything. This post is:

1 Part – Wondering how I can get through these berms in a swoopy stylish manner instead of a panicked flurry of brakes, turns and dust

1 Part – Shamelessly promoting the Southampton Bike Park to gain a wider audience

I always ride with a smile, it is why I ride 🙂

Not trying to over analyse anything. This post is:

1 Part – Wondering how I can get through these berms in a swoopy stylish manner instead of a panicked flurry of brakes, turns and dust

Start slow and increase speed gradually, pretty much like most biking.

Try and roll through them at a speed where you can keep your hands off the brakes and concentrate on getting the body position right. Practice pushing in to the berm as you would pumping jump.

The speed will gradually increase as you get more confident in trusting the berms to hold you.

Yeh, death grip FTW.

learn to ‘pump’ them and Always look at the exit, lean in and learn to drag yer bars 😉 Lol

if you are struggling you probably need to bring your weight forward a bit, think about ‘sliding’ along the toptube. and point your hips where you are going.

i’m sure there are some local ‘groms’ to show you. Aren’t you the Fagin character in all this anyway? I’m sure you used to drive around with a pick up full of ‘youths’ to do your digging/ berms/ bidding 😉