I did my first race a couple of days ago and ended up not doing so well as I went off course (see below video). I went down the optional steeper sections but found myself losing control as I went down these sections, you can even see me start to 'fish tail' down the first section. I felt like I was gripping my brakes so hard but my brakes weren't fully stopping me. I am running Sram Code R's with pretty fresh metallic pads and HS2 rotors, and thought I need to upgrade my brakes but was bummed to see a brake upgrade to Maven, TRP, or Hayes would be a $500-600 upgrade. I started thinking though that this could've been more a grip issue with my tires. I am running an Assegai/Dissector EXO combo that are nearing the end of their life. I have some new Continental Kryptotal FR/RE Enduro casing sitting in my garage that I may throw on to see if this fixes my 'out of control' feeling on the steeps. What are your thoughts?
Video: https://youtu.be/zy-8K30rmro
by Mattman8879
6 Comments
honestly dude, it really looks to me like you just didn’t commit to the turn which is all technique rather than brake quality. this kind of terrain at these kind of speeds, there is a certain level of being out of control that you just sort of have to accept and enjoy and that you adapt to largely by moving the bike around more.
if your tires are worn, though, that’s your first thing to replace and it will have a major impact. after that look at sizing up rotors. I have a set of Code Rs on my park bike and going to 220 front/203 rear (I think, they might both be 203) was a major upgrade, like night and day for those brakes.
It’s hard to tell from the video, but it felt like your front tire had good traction, while your rear was slipping. Possibly you were break balancing a bit to the right brake / had a lot of weight on the front?
In really steep terrain, there is sometimes not a lot you can do except for let go off the breaks slightly in favor of the turn. There seems to be a lot of potential for you to lean steeper into corners (judging purely from this short clip, so please take with a grain of salt), offsetting this speed.
In car racing, they refer to this:
[https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s53693cea971c989e/image/ie9f09420ac30f5d2/version/1595626580/image.png](https://image.jimcdn.com/app/cms/image/transf/none/path/s53693cea971c989e/image/ie9f09420ac30f5d2/version/1595626580/image.png)
Which shows easily, that you can’t break hard and steer into corners at the same time.
I doubt brakes will help here. Tires and technique will both help. On steeper stuff the rear tire ends up doing a lot of the braking so a dhr-ii or Kryptotal RE will do much better than a worn dissector.
Overall technique matters more than anything. If you are braking as hard as you can then you are likely fully locking the rear tire (which you can hear a bunch in the video) which gives you less control than modulating your braking right up to the point where you start to lose traction. Also body position, keeping heels down, using more front brake when you can will also help with control on the steeps.
All that said, even with improved tires,skills and brakes you can still easily over-ride a section like this in a race. It’s easy to get carried away in a race situation but ultimately riding within your limits is both safer and faster than crashing or going off course.
As others have said… it’s all about technique and getting better at riding your bike. Brake control, ass up, heels down, chin over your bar, leaning your bike, bike body separation, steering with the rear, etc, etc. Honestly, not trying to be a dick or anything, but if you’re able to get away with using EXO casing tires in this terrain, you’re just not riding very fast or hard, which is all skill and experience. Once you unlock some additional skill and speed you’ll need to upgrade to at least EXO+ and probably a DoubleDown casing in the rear.
1. If you feel your tires are worn, switch them out. How much do you weigh and what pressures do you run? At 185, I run 22 up front with an EXO+ and 24 out back with a DoubleDown.
2. Were your brake pads and rotors properly bedded in? Codes are more than powerful enough. If not, sand down your pads and rotors and look up proper bedding procedures.
3. Get better… lessons, online tutorials etc.
4. In steep terrain, stand a little higher, shift your weight forward over your bars and push your heels down. All of that will help a huge amount with grip. Look way and ahead and through the corner, it helps take you through it. If you stare at the apex, or the edge, that’s where you’ll go, lean your bike a lot more through the corner and depending on the situation and speed your outside foot may need to be down and pushing through the corner for max grip (along with a leaned bike. Aim your belly button and knees around the corner or towards the exit.
Assegai’s are some of the grippiest tires out there and Code R’s ain’t that bad. An easy upgrade would be to get bigger rotors but you’re probably running 200mm on the front right? From the video it looks as if your arms are pretty stiff, making you lose the ability to read the terrain and, therefore, grip. Hard to tell from that angle though…
If your rear is fishtailing because the rear wheel is locked up theres only one way to help with that and its using less rear brake, when your rear is trying to come around that means the front is doing almost all the braking anyways so you might as well brake less in the rear.
You dont need more braking power, you need a better feel for the modulation.
Honestly i cant really judge it well from a video but it kinda sounds like youre too passive on your brakes and kinda just holding them at more or less the same strength through entire sections. If you actually open up and push down the little steps and brake hard in the compressions you will be able to control your speed a lot better.
On terrain like this your rear tyre will always have a little slip under hard braking but you shouldnt be braking hard enough to lock it up so constantly, its doing nothing to slow you down, especially on rocks. In dirt you can at least kinda get away with it because the tyres can dig in a little, but you’re still better of being more active with your brakes.
Again hard to judge from the video and im not a racer by any means, but thats just what it looks like to me.