I’m learning mountain biking and I cannot for the life of me make it around these turns without eating shit. This is a green rated course in my local trails, but these turns make it harder for me than some of the blues with berms in faster areas, but less turn intensity.
Any advice? I’ve tried really forcing myself to lean and trust my bike a couple times without success
by DecentMidLaner
15 Comments
sclarp it with a good scandi
bike body separation is huge for these. need to pitch the bike over without your body leaning over. look up some yt videos
Look up bike body separation. It’s a turning technique that has lots of uses. One being high speed flat turns.
Go to YouTube and look up bike body separation. Fuck ton of videos on cornering with speed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicalmusic/s/zYqSASYgCs
Looks like my local trails Beacon!
It’s about body bike separation. This video really helped my keep speed up on these.
https://youtu.be/8y6ocZHpLoE?si=xNpluVZY0QPWn39g
Switchbacks are hard. Check ben cathro how to bike cornering. Some good videos by him / pinkbike
https://youtu.be/vAq3rBViHss?si=qONt9lS7ZnD0aBY1
Look around the turn way ahead. Seems scary but really helps
Ride them.
I find it helps to look ‘through’ the turn as well! Keep your head and eyes pointed where you want your body and bike to go. Like everyone else mentioned, leaning the bike over and really letting those side knobs on your tires dig in will make a big difference.
Lean the bike, outside foot down and keep your body straight above the leaned bike: look where you want to go!!!
Are you braking in the turn? I hated cornering until I learned to lay off the comfort braking, focus on body separation, and trust my knobbies to catch.
Some things that have helped me :
Lean the bike not your body
Point your knees/hips in the direction of the turn
Lay off the brakes/ do all your braking before entering the corner
Look all the way through, like force your head to turn not just follow it with your eyes, my eyes tend to dart around so forcing my head helps with that!
Good luck 🙂
All I’m going to say is invest in POC’s padded shorts (compression shorts) and knee/elbow pads. IMO they’re the best out there for weight and protection. Worth every damn penny. When I was learning to push my limits, they were a godsend. Before pads I was ruining my knees hips and elbows, I’d have to sit out to heal – no bueno.