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Does lowering tyre pressure work for rooty rides or do you need a normal pressure?
Don’t do that ! they have been trying for ages to stop folk riding on the decking. The one outside the cafe is almost destroyed and yet folk still ride on it, even abusing the cafe staff when asked not to.
Is the bike wash working yet ?
Really? I have been riding at Glentress (and everywhere else in the Tweed Valley) regularly since the 'new' facilities were built and have never heard or seen anything suggesting not riding on the decking. All that would be needed is a 'dismount now' sign at Alpine bikes and pretty much everyone would.
The bike wash was definitely working a week ago.
“About hitting the roots at 90 degrees, this sometimes means riding diagonally across the trail, kind like zigzagging.”
The hitting the roots at 90 deg thing is one of those bits of advice that hinders as much as it helps. If you can set up to hit a root at 90 deg that’s better, if you can hop the diagonal ones and only hit the others at 90 deg then that’s good but realistically on natural trials you will encounter a lot of diagonal roots that you can’t avoid.
On my local trails there isn’t a line choice on a lot of the rooty sections, they really are absolute singletrack. And I’ve ridden big root gardens at FoD where there are so many roots that you haven’t a hope of finding a perfect perpendicular line over all of them.
But if you stay loose and unweight over the worst then physics will carry you through. Staying loose requires practice and minimal crashing as you practice!
Yep its exactly like this, some of the roots run parallel with the trail or slightly off and when your front wheel gets caught by it they just tramline and pull you off the bike.
The Wyre was a proper mud fest yesterday, never seen it so boggy and gloopy in the years I've been riding there (Maybe just lucky)
Probably not ideal conditions for a second ride on the ebike and still getting used to it. For instance there is a bit of lag after you start pedaling before the power comes in and when it did it was pushing the straight on instead of going round a bend in the tight twisty singletrack.
Still its all a learning curve.
dont brake.
speed is your friend
if you are going uphill try and keep the motor engaged.
trumpton
Free Member
Does lowering tyre pressure work for rooty rides or do you need a normal pressure?
Lower works best for roots and rocks, lower pressure means more give in the tyres to absorb impacts and shape around the bit you're traversing, but it also means more tread on ground so can be more annoying in muddy stuff, swings and roundabouts unfortunately, but i'd err on the lower pressures in terms of risks over winter months
Keeping my elbows well bent helps me. That way when the front end inevitably slides it won't pull me off balance with it, as I can just extend my arms and wait for the front tire (hopefully) to catch something soft again.
It just occurred to me how this thread title must read to antipodeans.
if there is a big motor push/kick maybe use less assistance? or keep the motor engaged as much as possible. my eeb has shorter cranks and a higher bb than my normal bikes. probably for this reason.
dont bother with standing up climbing as you dont need the mashing pedal power - what you need is a smooth cadence to keep the assistance even and constant.
i found i couldnt ride the eeb like a normal bike uphill - you HAVE to keep pedalling uphill over technical stuff. especially if its steep, muddy and rooty and you need that assistance. it will slide at times - its inevitable - but more time than not it seems to grip or you can catch the slide using your upper body shift (sometimes it just slides too far).
Obvioulsy there are times you need to put in a burst to get over an obsticle then pedal after but for most sections do not need to be ridden like this as you have the motor.
im using recons so basically summer tyres. where we ride its stupidly muddy and rooty. i do slide out at times but more often than not if i keep pedalling i can ride it out. embrace the challenge!
if there is a big motor push/kick maybe use less assistance? or keep the motor engaged as much as possible. my eeb has shorter cranks and a higher bb than my normal bikes. probably for this reason.
dont bother with standing up climbing as you dont need the mashing pedal power – what you need is a smooth cadence to keep the assistance even and constant.
i found i couldnt ride the eeb like a normal bike uphill – you HAVE to keep pedalling uphill over technical stuff. especially if its steep, muddy and rooty and you need that assistance. it will slide at times – its inevitable – but more time than not it seems to grip or you can catch the slide using your upper body shift (sometimes it just slides too far).
Obvioulsy there are times you need to put in a burst to get over an obsticle then pedal after but for most sections do not need to be ridden like this as you have the motor.
im using recons so basically summer tyres. where we ride its stupidly muddy and rooty. i do slide out at times but more often than not if i keep pedalling i can ride it out. embrace the challenge!
Im certainly embracing the challenge that's for sure.
It was great to be able to not feel blown after a hill so then I can concentrate on the downs or the xc.
It was the ebb and flow single-track that I found the lag a bit of a hinderance but I'm sure I'll get used to planning my pedaling a bit better.
if you are going uphill try and keep the motor engaged.
This is a useful tip. Rather than stop pedaling if you're going to fast for an uphill corner just feather the rear brake to control the speed. That way you can keep a nice steady power going to the rear and not upset the bike mid corner.
Also use the motor over run to help boost the bike through uphill rock sections where you can't pedal.
A quick stab/quarter turn of the crank can give you enough momentum to get up a rock/root step without smashing the pedal into the ground.
Anyone that can't unweight on a eeb doesn't know how to unweight. Same technique just more so.
You can unweight an MX/Trials/Enduro bike so a couple more KG's of an eeb make little difference.
Oh ans what GC said about the Wyre, don't bother in the winter. the place is a mess.
You don't have grip on wet roots. It makes no difference if you are 'relaxed' or not. There just isn't any.
You need to think of yourself as a ballistic entity, like a marble rolling down the trail - following your momentum. You have to give some nudges where you can. The thing with roots is that the nudges can't be where the roots are.
There's a gulley in my local woods that I call pinball alley. You can't ride straight down the middle as it's narrow, and you can't ride along one side cos the sides are too steep and you'll slide. So you have to ride as if you were a marble rolling down a gutter - drop in at an angle, roll up one side, then lean the other way and you roll down again and cross to the other side. This way you hardly need any lateral grip cos you aren't really turning as such, just following your momentum.
There's a wide flat corner into a downhill on another trail that is completely strewn with roots. The way to ride this is to lean over, expect slippage and drift outwards, because at the outer edge the roots rise up towards a tree and the edge of the trail, and this forms a mini berm that will guide you around the corner.
Sometimes in mud or roots you are going to slide sideways - anticipate it as it happens, or even before - look at the trail and think 'those roots are going to force me over there, so that's my line wether I like it or not' and then plan your next move from that point.
Also unweight. This is an essential technique of MTBing in any conditions.
2.6 hillbilly running around 18 psi works for me on my ebike.
+1 for Magic Mary, she may scream and complain on the road but she loves a bit of root 😂😂😂
Then go to BPW and do root manoeuvres in the wet, it forces you to move your weight around which helps take advantage of grip at either end and get the unweighted end over the root. Might be harder when the bike is much heavier?
Worked for me, although I still tanked it on the gravel bike recently over a root that appeared through the leaves and slid the back wheel to horizontal 👍
Have been out the last two weekends and I’ve got Verdict wets front and rear
Aye they sip a bit on the roots but my mate was in front of me on a 2.6 magic Mary and he slipped on the same roots
Rubber v wet wood ain’t ever going to end well!!!
As said about trying to hit the roots at the right angle and not sideways or off camber and will give a fighting chance
All that would be needed is a ‘dismount now’ sign at Alpine bikes and pretty much everyone would.
There is a massive dismount sign and yet the staff still get abuse for asking folk not to ride on the decking.
Mostly at the cafe as its now breaking up.
Anyhoo.
@bout time that wash was up and running again, my van is maukit.
thols2
It just occurred to me how this thread title must read to antipodeans.
Yes, it makes perfect sense like that. After all dry roots ... nah, I'd better not go there. 🙂
The faster you go, the less time you're on the root. 👍🏻
I’ve got Verdict wets front and rear
Are you on an ebike? I really hope you are.
Lots of good advice but with a thick carpet of leaves over a lot of trails, I'm not sure what the answer is.
Luckily the sniper that took me down a couple of weeks ago wasn't shooting to kill as he shot the bike clean out from under me. On the bike one minute, sliding on my side through the leaves a nanosecond later. Luckily nothing solid or lumpy on the bit I ended up sliding along...
Are you on an ebike? I really hope you are.
@chakaping didn’t the OP say he was on Eeb??
Aye I’m riding an Eeb too
Thought you must have been, it's murderous work just pedaling around with one of them on the front, let alone both ends.
I used to ride with a front wild enduro front and rear on my Bird Aeris
Wanted the grip so put up wae the Drag
If you close your eyes they can't see you