Hoping for a bit of guidance,
I struggle to overcome obstacles (wet roots, rocks) etc on technical climbs.
I can usually get my front wheel over, but when I try to pedal over, my back wheel just spins and doesn’t find any traction.
Normally I’m in bottom cog (that’s the granny ring, right?) but I’ve tried in middle cog too. I struggle at Cwmcarn specifically, although I’ve not really ridden at many other places with climbs like this.

are you sat down or stood up?

Bit tricky to advise without seeing you

The above post is valid

Id also consider if you are pedalling through the whole stroke or just mashing on the downs – if you know what I mean

Either way controlled power is more stable so if youre man enough go for middle not granny to avoid peaks and troughs

I’m normally stood up but [/i]try to put a bit of weight to the rear if you know what I mean. I find that if I’m seated, the front wheel lifts too much and I struggle to maintain my course.

Try sitting right on the nose of the saddle. So the nose is poking right up your bum! But do this without standing up.

you shouldn’t try to pedal over wet roots, use momentum to get the bike over

Put a really soft compound tyre on the back.

What i usually do is lift my front wheel over then hop the back wheel over, then you dont have the problem of the back wheel sliding because it wont be touching the roots.

Get momentum before you reach the obstacle, lift front wheel over it and the back will follow.

Thats my problem, I haven’t enough momentum to carry me over. To me, Cwmcarns pretty steep and I’m just not going fast enough to hop/stop pedalling.
Not sure how I feel about the saddle/starfish interface over rocky stuff, but I’ll try almost anything once. I have a High Roller ST on the rear, is that a soft tyre?
Do you try to give the bike a bit of “heft” as you go over? (a bit of a push)

Don’t pedal over, use your body weight and momentum to move the bike up and over.

I just lift the front wheel over, as you described, but then lean forwards and unweight the back wheel and hop it over (once the front wheel is on the ground, timing is crucial)

you can still use momentum to get you over whatever speed you’re going, clever use and timing of bodyweight shift can propel the bike forwards and over obsticles, even up reletively steep climbs.

Yeah a high roller ST is very sticky tyre used alot by downhillers in 2.5″ guise.

Depends on how big the obstacle is, but yeah i tend to give the bike a wee heave once the front wheels over.

I think I see…….lean forwards push the bike forwards and let momentum do what momentum does?
Should I try to blast a little on the approach for some speed? (if I have it in me)?

try sitting down, just up from granny ring, chin on bars, whimper like a little girl.

or, like me, get off and push and swear at yourself for being a lazy unfit git whilst assuring yourself that you’ll do it next time 😀

Well thanks fellers,
You’ve all been a great help and I appreciate you trying to help me out. I was starting to get a bit thredders and wonder if it was possible or if everyone was just laughing at the idiot trying to ride over big roots.
Mr Nutt- you’ve seen me do that, haven’t you?

just noticed, you said you have a supertacky tyre on the rear?, the flip side to all that grip is that they are far too draggy for anything other than DH racing, I’m not surprised you can’t get much speed up on the climbs 😕

nah speaking directly from bitter personal experience! 😀

I often find repeatedly muttering the following manta: “hawfhuk-hawfar-nehlleythah-hwafhuk-bethfathar-hawfhuk-haaa” tends to help not very much 😆

All the above- but the nose of saddle/ chocolate starfish interface REALLY helps. As does having power just before the root and then immediately after it but not actually on it. Speed and momentum are your friends.

If you’re talking rooty ‘step-ups’, you can practice the technique in the car park – you want to be able to push the bike underneath you to generate forward momentum without pedalling. Sounds bizarre but it can be done. Then once you have this sussed you can use the same thrust to throw the back wheel over. Then try it over a kerb at almost stalling pace – lift the front wheel up and then use a bike heft to get the back up and over.

The other factor is obviously momentum. If you are relying on pedalling force once the tyre is on the root, then most times you are going to struggle, once the grip of friction is broken then you’ll just spin the wheel. You need to find the gear that enables you to get a few quick strokes in to build momentum so that you aren’t really relying on the grip of the tyre on the root, it’s already been done by then.

Repeated slippery roots / rooty steps. If you suss that, let me know 🙂 Although actually, my advice for that would be to sprint like hell in the run up and hope you have enough momentum to carry you through.

another tip. You say front wheel comes up too easy. Change your grip on the bars so that instead of having your thumbs under the bar and your fingers on top, you actually put them on top of the bars with your fingers. This changes the angle of your grip – pulls the elbows in and lower and when you pull on the bar it pulls it down towards your midriff as opposed to up towards your chest.

Sounds unlikely, but try it, it really makes a difference!

Ever tried the uphill at Golspie- it is the most technical (and fun) climb i’ve ever done. Practice makes prefect follow the advice above and try not to use pedal force but use you momentum and body position to get the rear up.

The momentum technique that others have said is key – you need to trust your bike in some respects. Add in a good balanced cat like stance on the tricky bits and you’ll be set.

Granny is not really helpful on technical climbs unless there’s prolonged and pronounced steepness – you need to get the power down intermittently so just use the middle ring. It’s something of a style thing I guess, but there’s definitely something to be said for opting for the middle ring in general. Where you might want to hang out with granny is a steep, long but smooth climb. Imagine riding up a ski slope, some place you just need to get in a rhythm and turn the pedals. And keep turning them. Not too many really long climbs like this in the UK.

I’ve found the main thing is momentum, as said above, which is related to fitness/strength. As I have got fitter I am more able to maintain momentum on tricky climbs, which means the front wheel doesn’t wander around as much and throw you off. Also, as above, when it comes to little tricky steps, you can just roll over with the front and then kind of hop the back up slightly by unweighting it.

I find it’s often crucial the speed/timing when you transfer weight from back to forwards as you go to hop the back wheel over something.

What bike/fork is it you’re having trouble with?
How long is the stem/wide the bars?
Is the seatpost an inline clamp, or is the clamp set backward a bit?
How far back is the seat clamped in relation to the seatpost?

Though technique will help the most, it could be that any number of these factors are not helping you here if in an ‘extreme’ combination

Why are so many of you questioning his equipment/set-up when even on a badly fitting bike with shit tyres any rider with good skills/technique would still be able to ride over successive uphill roots?

🙄

A few things spring to my mind. One, can you (backhander) track stand? If not then I suggest you learn quick sharp. The ability to stall/pause before tackling the next obstacle will give you confidence to attack the root/rock etc.

Second, dont be afraid to attack it. I’d echo what everyone else has said above regarding momentum but if I can give my own spin on it – use a bit of aggression. Use deliberate but not brutal pedal strokes to propel you towards the obstacle, loft your front wheel over it – at this stage you should really be thinking of the next obstacle in the sequence, not what your rear wheel is doing. There is a little trick here as others have said but it should be automatic.

You’ll want to develop a rhythm too, looking up the trail and planning a route through the obstacles should help you do this. Once you figure out the momentum trick, and you can track stand all you’ll need to climb well will be the ability to put a nice line together. Like any bike skill climbing well is a subconscious combination of lots of other skills.

GW – Member

Why are so many of you questioning his equipment/set-up when even on a badly fitting bike with **** tyres any rider with good skills/technique would still be able to ride over successive uphill roots?

Because throwing money at a problem is easier than actually learning how to ride a bike properly 🙂

Its also worth trying not to dab…if the wheel spins, try and get another pedal stroke in whilst lifting the bike forward through your legs. Often works for me…though being able to trackstand helps enourmously as said above.

I’ll attack individual roots etc but have never found ‘getting a run up’ helps unless there is a big obstacle such as a bank before the main climb. I start the climb at the speed I reckon I can maintain, if I think I’ll need a little extra speed at the obstacle I’ll try and maintain this speed from the bottom on a shortish climb rather than trying to accelarate during the climb.

Why are so many of you questioning his equipment/set-up when even on a badly fitting bike with **** tyres any rider with good skills/technique would still be able to ride over successive uphill roots?

Because it’s much easier to pop down the bike shop for a new tyre than it is to spend years training skills and fitness, obviously. Having good kit certainly makes it easier to do hard stuff, so what are you trying to prove? Showing off about how good you are or something? Or are you just being a miserable git? Not sure. No matter how good you are, riding in say thick mud on semi-slicks is much harder than with trailrakers.

Second the advice about position. Forks wound down (if they do), drops your wrists and elbows, nose of the saddle where the sun don’t shine, etc. (Baggies help here as the material isn’t stretchy and stops the tip of the saddle from intruding *too* far. 😉 )

You need the right gear – not too low, not too high, and personally I go for keeping a steady cadence going no matter what – all the hopping and thrusting etc will just upset the balance of the bike. Remeber the Pirelli ads – “Power is nothing without control”. Whatever you decide to do, do it smoothly.

Oh, and practice!

I’d go with Practice and the technique suggested on here….I also struggle on things like this and i think it is partly to do with fitness. The fitter you are, the easier it is to maintain you momentum and put in a little ‘boost’ before an obstacle that you know that you can’t pedal over. The problem I find is that I am only just about able to ride up the hills, and then don’t have much in reserve for short sharp efforts.

In my case it’s down to not riding enough and not getting enough experience in these situations. Living in the flattest part of the country is definately a disadvantage!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WwVKKCwg18&feature=PlayList&p=57F7597E8442C629&playnext=1&index=49

technique is the same as this but less pronounced; watch how they throw the weight forward and then pull the bike through.

stumpy01 – Member
I’d go with Practice and the technique suggested on here….I also struggle on things like this and i think it is partly to do with fitness. The fitter you are, the easier it is to maintain you momentum and put in a little ‘boost’ before an obstacle that you know that you can’t pedal over. The problem I find is that I am only just about able to ride up the hills, and then don’t have much in reserve for short sharp efforts.

In my case it’s down to not riding enough and not getting enough experience in these situations. Living in the flattest part of the country is definately a disadvantage!

Disagree, while fitness is important in overall enjoyment of your ride it’s not essential to mastering any one technique. You can practice this technique on a kerb or some steps. Dont go putting obstacles in your way before you even start.

The better your techniques, the less energy you’ll expend and the more fun you’ll have.

Oh and take heart from the fact that the Cwmcarn climb is quite hard to do all in one go, because it’s so sustained. Each bit isn’t all that hard (apart from the bit near the top that’s really eroded) but together they are a challenge – you’re more tired and full of lactate with each obstacle.

For the willy wavers – of course there are much harder climbs on natural trails, but Cwmcarn is definitely non trivial and for beginners/trail centre riders, it’s a challenge.

molgrips – learning a new skill can take just an afternoon if approached properly (which incidently is about how much time a round trip to the nearest decent bike shop would take from where I live). maybe you prefer shopping to riding? I don’t! 🙄
I actually do happen to ride semi slicks (BlingBlings) all year round and as you say they may be harder work in thick mud but can be way more fun! 😀
😉

GNARGNAR……I have the technique as there are other trail centres with trickier obstacles that i can get over with no problem, probably on steeper gradients…..

But, at CwmCarn I am knackered when I approach certain bits on the climb and can’t generate the power to maintain momentum and snap over things. Perhaps I should have made it clearer in my original thread that I was referring to the OPs reference to struggling with obstacles on technical climbs, having specifically mentioned CwmCarn.

And yes, I am aware that most techniques can be praticed at the local park – indeed only 2 weeks ago I did a skills course at Llandegla and have lots of things to be practicing/improving.

No suprise, but no one has mentioned that failing a tech section of climb is more often down to losing bottle than lacking ability. It’s really easy to imagine stalling, not unclipping and toppling over, or worse, unclipping at the last moment and snapping an ankle as you land awkwardly. IME, that’s made me fail more climbs than any other reason. At Cwmcarn, you’ve got the added spice of toppling over the side if you get it wrong. I found on Saturday that if you take the line right on the edge of the trail, next to the drop, then the final techy bit of the Cwmcarn climb isn’t really that difficult, it’s just scary.
That fear also leads to indecision as you approach the tech sections and more often than not, you’ll talk yourself out of the only available line and try something that looks safer but will never be achievable.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, it’s not only descending where it pays for us all to MTFU sometimes.

trailmonkey – very true.