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Having scanned the above ideas, no seems to have mentioned a technique I found great for bumpy descents on a hardtail. Basically you lock your thighs midway to the saddle, whilst standing in a crouched position and take 50% of your weight off your feet. You find that your legs become the shock absorbers for the rear wheel and you stay in a great posture too.
Works for me!
Do you mean clamping your thighs around the nose of the saddle? I have never seen anyone do that. Does the bike not just buck about rather than moving freely? How do you go around corners? I can't imagine it being comfortable or fast.
are you choosing the best/racing line or just following your lazy mates choices on full suspensions.
i've seen a mate ride his hardtail down the ladybower beast far easier than bigger rigs.
Ditch the bike and slide down the smoothy grassy but at the side of the track on your arse.
It's worked for me at times
Just relax,
try tensing your legs and running, or swinging a Golf club with tensed arm muscles, its impossible to do either properly, and you can't absorb the bound and rebound of the bike over harsh terrain if you tense up and don't flow with it to some degree.
To help you relax the shock absorbing parts of the body get the stickiest grips and the most grippy pedals you can, this will likely help you have confidence to relax the grip on the bars a bit and be light on your feet. No vice like grip needed with sticky grips and this will help to prevent your forearms and upper arms from becoming tense and refusing to move freely and efficiently imo....
Heels down, get low... lower, and loosen up. Look ahead and anticipate. Learn to manual for absorption and bunny hop to "ride light"... grace is your friend. When you get fast and smooth on a hardtail, you'll really fly on a FS.
are you choosing the best/racing line or just following your lazy mates choices on full suspensions.
Heh, when I ride such things with my lazy mates I tend to have only a short opportunity to see their line choices before they disappear off into the distance 🙂
But generally I'm trying to pick the best line for me rather than just following the leader. I'm sure I could improve my line choices though.
To help you relax the shock absorbing parts of the body get the stickiest grips and the most grippy pedals you can, this will likely help you have confidence to relax the grip on the bars a bit and be light on your feet.
Good points. I recently got some Five Tens (I was riding in Innov8 trail shoes before), and the confidence boost associated with my feet actually staying in place is significant.