talk to me about the attack position in relaction to arm position/ bar height

I’m not convinced my 10mm rise ‘flat-bar’ on my 29 Enduro is right for me and can’t afford to buy a whole load of bars till I find the right one. I feel that my current body position might suit a xc rig as my weight seems to be Too much over the front and hoping a higher rise will put my weight rearward. So with heavy feet & light hands where should my elbows be. I currently have no room for arm extension if the front wheel dips.

Any pointers?

How long is the reach on your bike, how long is your stem, how wide are your bars and how long are your back and arms? I’d have thought you’d want the lowest possible bars on an Enduro 29 unless you’re really tall.

If your back is parallel to top tube, as it should be , your arms will be at correct angle surely

If your back is parallel to top tube

?

Attack position on a TT bike ? 😆

😉

For me it is more about feet-bar ‘shape’ and distance, when stood in attack position. My back is low, but not parallel to top tube…I dont think…

talk to me about the attack position in relaction to arm position/ bar height

?

Matt – probably but the parallel thing was in a skills course I did with Dirtschool so it has to be right 😛

its not attack. its passive and centered

its not attack. its passive and centered

????????

Pictures please

@ Jedi…whatever it’s called..my passive centered position for when I’m in a position to attack the trail…

I’ve a medium Enduro 29, 60mm stem 6 deg. rise, 750mm bars 10deg back 10mm rise

I’m 178cm so 5′ 10, my knuckles don’t drag on the ground when I walk nor am I built like a Tyrannisaur rex.

you should be evenly distributed through the middle of your bike.

We can’t really guess how you look and fit your bike!

So,

Find a wall, lean your bike against it, set up a camera parallel to the wall, get into your fav position (attack, defense, ying yang, ting tong, the choice is yours 😉 take picture and then see what it shows.

jedi
you should be evenly distributed through the middle of your bike.

Something Ratty seemed to be on Sunday arvo:

Any harder and he might actually have become part of his V10 😉

You need to be able to move your body in all directions and react to the terrain. So if your arms are too stretched so you are unable to react to the front wheel dropping into dips then something is not correct. You either need to shift your body forwards so the arms are less stretched or reduce the reach either with a smaller stem or bars with more backsweep. I guess photos of you on the bike might help.

Also arms being stretched doesn’t necessarily mean you have too much weight over the front. You can have a long and high front end which means your arms are extended but your weighted isn’t over front.

I’ll try and get a pic or two sorted tomorrow.

We also need to know if you have long hair and/or a pony tail cos that was clearly what unbalanced Ratboy

I went to wider bars, 780mm from 720 about 6 years ago. Completely whacked my handling, persevered and found that I was running my bars to low for that width. The wider you go, the taller you have to run the bars to keep your back in a similar position.

Beyond a certain point lower bars don’t help you weight up the front wheel more, it’s just a lazy way of forcing yourself to all the bloody time.

I’ll going to go to wider bars as I had wider (780mm) on my previous bike but I need to get the rise right. Previous bike was a Bfe running 160mm travel with quite a few spacers under a 50mm stem and a 25mm rise.

Someone has emptied their moon cup all over your bike.

Elbows out, not back. They should be fairly close to 90 degrees when looked at from the front which probably brings your chest closer to the bars than you usually ride. That means you can move the bike left and right with minimal movement and you are ready fr the bike to move both up and down. You should still be able to ‘float’ your hands and maintain the position.

This is why every child should be given a bmx! Shirley you quickly learn this after you hurtle yourself down a few hills as a 7 year old? 😆

Fwiw, stand up, arse back a bit, heels dipped, arms and legs slightly bent ready to absord the bumps!

You must have a short torso to be so stretched. I would go with a 30 or 40mm stem.

Blue frame with red anodized bits? I would be riding that with my eyes shut.

How tall is the front of that BFE?….the height at the front of my hardtail bothers me and i ‘only’ have a 150mm fork in it!….so much so that i dont have a spacer under the stem and use a fairly flat 10mm rise bar to get me a bit lower.

Looking at the BFE i guess its a completely personal thing, as others have said; if you can move around freely then you’re probably not far off.
If you feel that your weight is pitched forward onto your wrists then raise the bars, shorten the stem etc to move you back on the bike….if you feel like a sack of spuds on the saddle then move forward by dropping the bars, longer stem etc.
Your weight should be evenly spread through the pedals, saddle and bars.

What Jedi says reflects what I do – yet was told was ‘wrong’ on a L2 coaching course last week.
I suggested that centred, moving lower and back what I did / saw many do – but the suggestion was it was weight back. Going lower = more bend at joints = able to move around more and absorb Bumps more.
But moving lower or back is not the “attack” position – moving around means you are responding to something on the trail ahead or below.

Matt – I’ve just been through IMBA training here in the US and it’s basically ‘heavy pedals, light hands’ for the ‘ready’ position (we call it neutral and ready). If your weight is mostly on the 9flat, horizontal) pedals then you are centered on the bike. Weight would go back or forward if the terrain (or braking) required it.

I’m fairly sure the generally erroneous “get your weight back” std advice comes from very basic level coaching to “nervy” beginners. Afterall, i’d say most people who are new and uncomfortable on a bike are more worried about not going OTB and much less worried about proper cornering or “carrying speed”. For these people, “getting back” on the bike would seem like a sensible, easy, and “correct” thing to do.

Of course, the more, er enlightened Mountain biker quickly realises that this approach is not the universal panacea it might seem to be!

Slate away…

tymbian – Member
Slate away…

1. X-type 🙄

2. First photo shows nothing, sitting doesn’t come into it.

3. Second photo….. if you actually ride like that you’ll have problems any time your front wheel drops into anything as your arms are already full extended. tbh I find that the position you use when static doesn’t actually equate to what you do when riding.

S-type…

Difficult to model when not out on a trail..

Difficult to model when not out on a trail..

I think you may have hit on an answer. Get a riding buddy to video/photo you on a proper trail to see where you really are on the bike. Maybe a skills course with similar analysis.

I guess the bigger question is whether this is affecting your enjoyment of riding(?)

If not, and you don’t keep ending up in A&E, then maybe chill out a bit and enjoy just being out.

Drop your heels more, bend more at the knees and hips, which will lower your shoulders, allowing your arms to be more bent at the elbow. Elbows up and out. All your weight on your feet not on your hands.
I reckon you are just stood up too much.

When riding I feel I’m pitched forward and get sore hands due to too much weight on my bars. Somethings not right or I wouldn’t of started the thread.

Drop your heels. Hips back more. If the static picture is actually your moving position you are much too upright and your arms are too straight. You need to get more weight on the pedals while at the same time relaxing your elbows.

^^^ Elbows are too far back. Get them forward and get a bit lower as well.

Elbows out, not back. They should be fairly close to 90 degrees when looked at from the front which probably brings your chest closer to the bars than you usually ride. That means you can move the bike left and right with minimal movement and you are ready fr the bike to move both up and down. You should still be able to ‘float’ your hands and maintain the position.

That’s the position im in when im taking the piss out of doddy/that mbuk style of mtber. 😆

doesnt look the best position to me.

looks more like it, more like jedi’s calm and centred too.

I don’t think one photo of a DHer is the best guidance for body position. Stick “Jared Graves” into google image search – he’s raced everything (DH, 4X, BMX, Enduro) and is bloody good at riding a bike. His body position changes constantly but the fundamental thing is that his shoulders are low enough to give him enough arm range and his hips hinge to get his shoulders into the right place and to let his body move forwards and back as required.

The better you are at riding, the less exaggerated your default position tends to be but the better your timing and power is so what look subtle movements have far more effect on the bike than with an average rider like me who has to move more. You might want to try some hip stretches so you can get down and back and low – I haven’t done any stretching in a while and have noticed that getting tight is a v bad thing which stops me riding as well as I can.

^ hamming it up lets you look better on the bike in pictures while rolling along at 10mph for a picture )
The best riders I know look very relaxed, smooth and as if they’re putting in little effort. They don’t look like they’re ‘aggressive’ or ‘attacking’ anything. Words like that sound like advice that will make you tense or try too hard. Jedi’s description is much better. When things flow well and you’re going quick it all feels very smooth.