After a bit of technique advice. I suck at riding uphill switchbacks, not that I’m very good at the downhill ones either mind. I seem to either be unable to steer a tight enough line, or steer too much and my bike kind of folds up underneath me – this happens more the further round the turn I look! I’m approaching as wide as I can and trying to track the front wheel around the very outside of the turns, and looking as far round the corner as I can. I’ve got a fairly short stem (50mm) and narrowish bars (630mm I think) on a trance if this is important.

Any tips on this? Like how to position weight front/back and laterally etc.

Cheers!

I’m OK on left handers but tight right handers often have me dabbing

You mean hairpin turns?

Yup, the 180 degree(ish) hairpin turns you get on a lot of singletrack climbs.

Remebered seeing this on youtube. Hope this helps, guy seems to know what hes talking about.

You tube tutorial

On a personnel note. I used to struggle a bit with left hand switchbacks. Try using 3 sticks and a rock. Put the sticks behind and either side of the rock making a box to ride in and then round (If you see what I mean). Ride round the rock in either direction and then move them closer and closer. Worked for me.

Lean back a bit and unweight the front wheel. It feels a bit unnerving at first, but you get used to it. Also, don’t look all the way round the switchback, just look at where you exit i.e. where you straighten the bike.

I think you have to get the power down as you come through and out of the tight turn, try easing off slightly just before you turn the handlebars then really go for it just after until the bike is straight again.

Seems to work for me anyway.

Sorry – pet hate of mine using Americanisms.

I have to say I find them no real issue on the solo but the tandem is a different matter – then its a case of balancing the bike with power. Nice low gear, easy on the pedals on the way in, get the turn initiated and power out

Stumbled across this a day or so ago, can’t hurt to watch I guess…
How to ride switchbacks from Bikeskills.com

edit-teach me to eat cheese and biscuits when posting, too slow 🙂

One bit of advice is use the full bredth of the trail.

e.g for a right hander use the furthest left line you can take (even if you need to go off the trail a little) and the turn back in to meet the Apex (inside) of the turn. Very similar to what you would do if you were an F1 driver (watch the Stig on Top gear he is excellent at hugging the appex of hairpins)

hope this make scense

There are some fun uphill switchbacks on the whinlatter trail. They were very tight to begin (Especially in winter ice/snow) with but have ‘worn’ now so a bit easier. I found that relaxing made THE biggest difference. Even if your front wheel was scrabling for traction on the bank as long as you were relaxing and in the right gear it was easy enough.

I have got a lot better at this since someone pointed out that dragging the back brake actually makes it easier.

It does!

Ooh switchbacks/hairpins in ice are great fun. Did CV this year in about 3 inches on ice and a light powdering of snow. The 6 hairpins after Kelpies became very interesting. All I can say all those years watching speedway was a benifit lol. went a bit like outside edge, bunk into apex foot down and pray. Was a good few oh s**ts when I hit the first few too fast lol.

If its possible to overcomplicate matters … STW will find the way.

I’d suggest: practice.

Not sure how many of the above posts are actually talking about riding UPHILL switchbacks like what the OP asked 🙂

Practice is definitely on the cards – I think I might go out after work and ride around in very tight circles! Really I’m after a consensus on the following I guess as I’ve read conflicting things on these points (this is for uphill).

Weight forwards or back?
Bike vertical or leaning in?
Body vertical or leaning in?
Cut across the apex or track around the outside?

..and yup, definitely after tips for riding uphill switchbacks/hairpins. Downhill can come later, I’m not quite so bad at that!

Bikes don’t handle like cars, on a tight corner your front will physically have to go round the outside of the corner, while your back wheel will clip the apex. Different people handle their bikes in a different way. If its so slow speed you are stalling, you need to learn to balance better. Try learning to endo.

I tend to throw the bike at the corner, if it all starts to go wrong I slap some power on and try to flick the bike straight. Usually works fine. If the bike is falling or stalling then the reactions you need to stop it or ride out of it are all instinct.

Be patient and don’t try to force it. Practice.

I found putting my head forward over the inside fork stanchion on exiting/power on helped a lot. I had a tendency to lose control of the front as I pedalled uphill out of the turn, and that lean kept the front wheel tracking. For anyone who’s riden whinlatter, that first left hander on the north loop climb is still only 1 out of 5 without a dab for me! Any other tips?

Power. I struggle if going too slow and have learnt to just power out of corners. That sensation of “folding up” is just doing it too slowly. Much like going downhill, it’s a bit of a psychological thing. Once you believes that power/speed makes it easier, it does.

i would say weighting depends more on the gradient of the climb or how compact/lose the terrain is rather than the degree of the turn.

as a few people have mentioned on here, practise riding in tight circles until you can pretty much control your bike with the wheel at 90 degrees to the frame. it’s all about balance so get your trackstands down too!

edit:
oh, and a consistent pedal cadence