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Puncture repair kit,always have one!
Re: cornering with outside foot down - personally, I prefer pedals level with outside foot forward. This keeps your weight spread across the pedals rather than having all your weight on one leg, it helps with "steering from the hips, not the shoulders" (mentioned above) and looking to the exit (also mentioned above). Yes, it's likely to feel a bit weird in one direction as most people tend to feel comfortable with one foot forward but having other foot forward is "just wrong". But it works for me.
As for most helpful tips, I reckon it's elbows in, wrists down, weight on the nose of the saddle when going uphill up.
Look where you're really going (as Jedi says, look to the vanishing point) not where you're just about to be.
And on a related subject, if you're shortsighted, wear contact lenses so you can look ahead but still have your subconscious peripheral vision double-checking the closer detail (without actually looking at it). My biggest gear improvement of recent times was switching from prescription glasses to contacts (and safety glasses when the weather requires).
Look where you want to go, don't look at what you don't want to hit
cornering with outside foot down:
heels down, wrists down (brakes not in line with arms as often said)
got told off by Jedi for not covering brakes
Weight further forward when coming downhill with bent elbows. The so called attack position.
Regarding 'heavy feet light hands', drop outside foot, weight the bars, etc etc it's all rather complicated. Here's how I see it (based on my learnings from Lee McCormack, Tony Doyle and many more). Caveat, I'm a better thinker than I am a rider (but I'm not hideously slow)!
There are two fundamental types of corner:
1. Major corners - drop and weight the outside pedal, turn the hips, look to the vanishing point.
2. Slalom corners - keep your pedals level and your head and body straight and throw the bike from one side to another beneath you.
And two fundamental ways of riding them:
A. MTB style - heavier feet, lean the bike but keep body vertical, get body low, use arms and legs to smoothly suspend torso.
B. Moto style - heavier hands, lean with the bike, keep body more upright, use your suspension heavily.
And then it's a case of mixing and matching 1 and 2 and A and B depending on the corner, the conditions, your bike and your personal riding style, without actually thinking about it at all whilst you're doing it! Simple... 😉
Mastering Mountain Bike Skills book is really good, I keep going back to it to read up on different stuff and it always proves to be spot on.
The below video has been surprisingly useful for me and it’s quite funny from about 2 minutes in, basically point your light saber where you want to go.
The rest of the videos and more of the excellent Fabien Barel techniques and a couple of others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKhkyoOcdg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSSi7n9RlHc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF5K9V2w6W8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6mKqihL_Xo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdTSuq8s-eA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSqkKtnMM_U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkvWp5ypjg0
As a roadie I'd say...
Steer with your hips.
If you're going to get ****ered on special at the Cider House don't go on the tandem was i good tip i recieved from Mrs ssstu. 😆
I have no idea why though.
We rode it perfectly last time...
So cornering on a mountain bike is the opposite of a motorbike. I guess this is mostly to do with weight and centre of gravity. I must stop trying to get my knee down (before I fall off) when riding my mountain bike (not that I ride a motorbike) no matter how cool I think it looks 😛
But apparently the same as a motocross bike.
Here's my (idea from Chris Ball and his Dirt School dvd) take on the heel down cornering thing:
Forget about it for now; when you go into a corner lean the bike bike into the corner whilst moving your hips out, do this with the pedals level.
Now do the same thing again but with the outside foot dropped, you should find that you can move your hips further out and lean your bike more.
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The important thing is to get the bike to lean into the corner and to get your hips (and therefore bodyweight) out. Just dropping the outside pedal does very little.
I also find closely observing the technique of riders in mtb films helps: [url= http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Loose-again-Full-Movie-The-Motion-Circle-2012.html ]Loose again[/url] is a favorite.
- disclaimer I am not an expert, rather just somebody who has tried a few things out and found what works for him.
joat - MemberSo cornering on a mountain bike is the opposite of a motorbike. I guess this is mostly to do with weight and centre of gravity. I must stop trying to get my knee down (before I fall off) when riding my mountain bike (not that I ride a motorbike) no matter how cool I think it looks
It's a total pain in the arris this, frankly. Occasionally it's useful- I've been dusting off some old road-motorbike moves for the snow frinstance, keeping the bike composed and relatively upright can work well sometimes. But most of the time I've got 2 competing sets of reflex and muscle memory. First time i ever got coaching, 5 minutes in I was asked "So how long have you been riding motorbikes"- it's that obvious apparently. Grr.
Jedi said that you should be aiming to drive the side knobs of the tyre into the ground (like a ski edge?), so the outside foot down and leaning bike is part of it.
The 'steering with the hips' thing actually seems to be more beneficial in that it lets you slide more of your body weight (arse end) back out over that pedal.
Relax and let the bike move under you.
I always used to cling on for grim life and clench the saddle with my thighs (must be from horse riding days).
Also look ahead, was another great piece of advice.
ChiefGG -
1. Major corners - drop and weight the outside pedal, turn the hips, look to the vanishing point.
2. Slalom corners - keep your pedals level and your head and body straight and throw the bike from one side to another beneath you.
Some good stuff here. Where would a set of berms like you might find on a 4X track fit in?
Go and see Jedi
A year or more on and I'm still progressing to bigger and bigger stuff after hitting a plateau that lasted a few years
Well I have been riding at AC recently due to quagmires elsewhere. It's got a lot of berm berm berm sections and I have been trying to corner faster with feet more level and squashing into the apex before popping into the next corner. This feels completely different from longer flat corners where I am putting the outer foot down and pushing the bike over to fight for traction. I reckon there are a million graduations of these two approaches depending on the corners. Good fun innit!?
@turnerguy that cornering video has some good stuff in it. I don't understand the idea that anyone would 'lean your body into the turn'. I understand that Fabien B is exaggerating the effect in the video but what he shows would feel awful and even toned down from his example of what not to do it would be horrid.
Sorry, I forgot. Best piece of advice? 'Look well ahead to where you want to go'.
I always used to... ...clench the saddle with my thighs (must be from horse riding days).
That isn't right on horses either, as doing so lifts your seatbones away from the saddle. 😛
Brake less
Look well ahead
Relax
Concentrate on the technique, not the fear.
Maybe not quite in keeping with the rest of the post
But when I was not enjoying my riding
It was suggested to me that fitness and training are not the point of bikeing
But enjoying your ride is
Now much happier and just go out and ride rather having to be first all the time
Ride hard and push yourself.
You will crash, but if you don't push yourself you won't improve.
Never say one more go 😳
Breathing's import
If attempting something new and dangerous. Visualise yourself doing it. If it's not happening up there, walk away.
Rule number one is always: "Ted goes first"
This also applies to snowboarding - in fact any sport where having a Ted incoming at high speed and without any degree of control, is likely.
The most terrifying feeling in the world is getting halfway down a slope and remembering that you have failed to observe rule number one, making a collision almost a certainty.
1. Get some proper 121 coaching. The techniques are all well-known now, and the coaches know how to teach it. It can transform your riding
2. Find a pump track and go and play on it lots
3. Before you go out for a ride, read the bits of the Brian Lopes book you want to practice. Go and do the things he says. Come home and re-read the same bits and remind yourself of the techniques. Do that for every ride over a few months and it all becomes natural and you don't have to think about it so much anymore.
4. Enjoy yourself, MTB is not a competition!
Some really good tips here, how about techniques for really tight corners ( switchbacks) ? Slow in? Fast in? Keep speed up? High, and cut the corner, or middle of trail?
High in, low out. Outside elbow up. Look around the corner.
its a cliche, but Jedi is the tipmaster. Go and see him.