Occoured to me yesterday on the Swinley pootle how much easier most of the trails are when your not pushing it, berms and corners were where you expected them rather than exiting the previous one and being at right angles to the apex of the next one, and the tabletops on deer stalker are a whole lot less intimidating when not approached at mach3.

Anyone else find this? Is there a speed beyond which a trail just looses its flow and becomes so much more hard work that you actualy lose speed?

Just treat those lines at swinley like a slightly inclined pump trail, no need to crank like a bastard just pump and scrub as required, you’ll get faster the more you ride and learn them…

I think what most people get wrong is braking points and input; hauling on the anchors too hard halfway through a berm is an indicator that you probably should have scrubbed a little bit of speed off 2 corners back, most mistakes are made 15-30Ft further back up the trail from the actual point of impact…

Your new tactic of “feet up” relaxed single track riding will probably actually make you quicker over time than a frenzied attack on each run… Have fun…

You mean “optimal velocity” 🙂

Terminal velocity would mean the “flat out unhindered speed.

[pedant mode off]

There’s an optimal velocity for your skill + trail.

The really good folk can get round corners etc. inhumanly fast. You watch them ride and wonder how on earth they do it. Elites/world cup riders really do seem to be on another level to even “fast” folk. They’d manage to flow down the trail whilst making it look like you’re stood still at your “flat out” pace.

There’s an optimal velocity for your skill + trail.

Is probably a better way of phraseing it. Deerstalker seems to work at any speed once you know it. I’m thinking more of the trail that runs down in a series of berms to the manhole cover above jump gulley. There just seems a point at which the trail loses all flow.

Do most of us reach a point of less haste more speed? Yes I think so

I’ve been moving from pedal to pump and it feels better. No knowledge of whether its actually faster

Definately-the blacks at llandegla have a speed range in which they ‘work’.Beyond that you have to start pre-jumping and squashing everything and it all becomes a bit stop/start and this is’nt just me.I’ve followed-at a distance-some wc standard lads down them.Designing a trail that works for all levels/speeds is insanely difficult.

I think when racing there is definitely a point when your pedalling to put in more power but barely going faster than if you were just standing and pumping.

You’d therefore be better saving you energy to pedal when the trail flattens out or goes up hill.

Time to get the stopwatch out methinks!

Its odd, because other sections although you get sketchier the faster you go, you definatley go faster, and these are usualy the more ‘natural’ sections that feel like you can push harder on.

Its a concept similar to what could be called ‘in the zone’….

Jedi would explain it a lot better (he introduced the concept to me) but its about how when your skills improve, the trail starts to come at you ‘slower’.
obviously if you’re going too fast for your skill set the trail ‘comes at you’ too fast. (although its not the trail’s fault of course).

Now, there’s gonna be a point relating to skills/speed whereby the trail stops coming at you too fast and begins to slow down but in between it being neither too fast nor too slow you are at the ‘optimum’ or on the edge of your ability….
if we all could tap into that and isolate it we’d all head off into the sunset or perhaps the world would stop spinning. possibly.
I guess DH racers try to tap into this and end up going too far eg Sam Hill crashing… 😀

I can think of a few trails where if you stop trying to sprint down the straights you stop having to yank on the brakes into the corners; which lets you ride a lot smoother; which in turn makes you smoother and more balanced into the corner and faster out.

This years SITS course was an interesting one in terms of riding fast. Putting in a huge amount of extra effort resulted in a very slight speed increase over the lap, because there were many ultra tight twisty sections. Powering in between haripin bends didn’t make much difference to your lap time but took it out of you.

Definatly a speed trails are designed for, e.g the last decent of Brechfa, Rowan designed it to work at a certain speed to clear everything maintain ‘flow’.
He did some runs for testing a few bikes against the clock and said that you could only go so fast before you were over jumping things e.t.c
Not that this particular issue has affected me on that bit of trail 😳

I like this – finding just a nice sweet enjoyable speed. Ever faster is not necessarily better (beyond a certain point), if you define better in terms of more fun. When you get the flow so you don’t need to pedal, and indeed very seldom need to brake, then I think the enjoyment is maximised.

Of course this sweet speed might be a lot faster than you once thought possible, but that doesn’t mean that adding speed continues to be better ad-infinitum.

I consider it more of a challenge to go as fast as possible. On the last descent of Cwmcarn for instance the only thing holding you back is your cojones and your ability to keep the bike on the ground over the whoops on the very last bit.

You don’t double them? 😉

I think too many people concentrate on all-out speed rather than smoothness. You see people going flat out on sections but then hauling on the brakes, skidding, losing control etc on a tricky bit before cranking it up again.

I really need another skills course but the last one I went on the coach was saying about being smooth and he demonstrated it as well, riding sections without touching the brakes or pedalling but still faster than any of us lot!

Be smooth and speed comes naturally – try and be fast and you just end up going beyond your limits and crashing. 😳

riding whilst in the moment is where the trail slows dwon as you’re looking at a point where the trail moves away from you. feels like you are traveling slower but are in fact shifting.
think about where you look driving along a country lane, the bends open up away from you not come at you.

make sense?

Yar.. you need to plan a few moves ahead. Like chess 🙂

Yea since coming back from Spain there’s been a definate shift in speed perception, everything now seems very slow and pre planned, and I’ve stoped focusing on drops/jumps/corners it now more of a ‘noted, drop coming up’ then ignore it and focus on the next thing. That and I’ve gotten better at prioritising features as I’ve a much clearer idea of what the bike will handle on it own which leaves a lot more time for concentrating on bigger stuff.

“you don’t need to pedal, and indeed very seldom need to brake, then I think the enjoyment is maximised- but that doesn’t mean that adding speed continues to be better ad-infinitum.”
If I did’nt know better I’d say that was advocating single speeding!!!!

If I did’nt know better I’d say that was advocating single speeding!!!!

Actually yes, but not in the way you mean! One sweet speed – not too fast, not too slow. Goldilocks speed.

One sweet speed – not too fast, not too slow. Goldilocks speed.

Fine if you have one sweet gradient 😉