Shift your weight, whether in the saddle (like photo #1) or standing. Braking try not to brake while in the corner (brake before) and think of "speeding up" out of the corner, even if that doesnt mean pedaling, you'll start to lean back, sit up, and get ready to power out of the corner, it helps with weight placement.
Not that I'm amazing at cornering, but I also like to spend time in the mountains on my Ducati and the cornering videos and tutorials for motorcycles hold true for mtn bikes too.
I find mountain bike and dirt bike (motorcycle) have similar techniques, but street bike (motorcycle) is the opposite. i.e. pushing the inside bar down vs hanging off the inside of the bike.
Just think of that front wheel like your girl, grab her hair and put it exactly where you want it, High performance riding is all about taking control of the cockpit.
Went for a tiny ride today and tried to pay attention on all the corners. Man it is hard. There's so much going on specially with proper braking and bike weighting.
But it made a boring trail interesting. And I did hear that ripping sound once when I attained maximus traction.
Went for a tiny ride today and tried to pay attention on all the corners. Man it is hard. There's so much going on specially with proper braking and bike weighting.
But it made a boring trail interesting. And I did hear that ripping sound once when I attained maximus traction.
Try picking on element each ride and just thinking about that, elbow, eyes, knees, bar pressure. If you do them one at a time and mix it up, they start to come together. And trying it on a trail you're already confident on. It really helps to learn stuff on corners you already nobrake.
Interesting that this is coming up. I have been studying and working on this stuff for a while.
I bought the first Fluidride DVD about nine months back and have watched/skimmed it at least 30 times. Just got the Flowtonic DVD and have watched it about 3x.
The cornering tech is starting to come together for me, at least some of the time. When I'm groovin' with all the elements of ripping turns correctly it does feel super right.
There are different cornering techniques for different kinds of corners. Don't make the mistake of trying to practice the same body english in all different corners.
Really helpful thread for a noob like me! Went on a ride last night, after looking thru the postings here and worked on applying what I learned. Like others suggested, I started out just concentrating on one element at a time, until it started to feel more natural and not so thought out.
Was on a great fast, flowing track with tons of cornering sections so got to practice A LOT during a single ride. Bike & body positioning came first, followed by pedal positioning, then by heel angle & weight placement. Next came positioning & movement of my knees during the comer. Could really start to feel myself "pulling" the bike thru the corners much more easily. Actually, after awhile it didn't really feel strenuous at all to get the bike where I wanted it to go.
Didn't work on the outside elbow technique, but am excited to throw that in the mix and see how much more I can improve. Only been MTB riding for about 3 months, but last night's ride was a major revelation for me on riding technique. Thnx to everyone for the great info.
How timely... I've just been recently working on cornering too, and taking a lot of tips from those two NSMB guys (the laser shooter and the laser sword pecker dude). It's gonna be a while before it becomes second nature.
thought about it on yesterdays ride.....it felt weird to think my way through, but concentrating on throwing with my inside hand as part of the counter steering felt pretty cool....makes you realize the amount of control you have, and the idea that a 30+/- lb bike is really easy to throw around.......lots to learn!!
thought about it on yesterdays ride.....it felt weird to think my way through, but concentrating on throwing with my inside hand as part of the counter steering felt pretty cool....makes you realize the amount of control you have, and the idea that a 30+/- lb bike is really easy to throw around.......lots to learn!!
Use LOTS of front brake, when cornering. Especially when its loose and steep. Hit the brakes right when you're in the apex of the turn, leaning hard into the corner.
You should grab a handfull, hard - and then to what Francois said, keep your weight on the inside arm.
When you hit the brakes, your weight shifts, creating MORE traction, which of course helps you corner better!
Isnt learning MTB skills on the interwebs great?!?!
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Originally Posted by iheartbicycles
Use LOTS of front brake, when cornering. Especially when its loose and steep. Hit the brakes right when you're in the apex of the turn, leaning hard into the corner.
You should grab a handfull, hard - and then to what Francois said, keep your weight on the inside arm.
When you hit the brakes, your weight shifts, creating MORE traction, which of course helps you corner better!
Isnt learning MTB skills on the interwebs great?!?!
From my auto racing days, I carried over the idea of the traction circle to MTB riding/racing. Your tire only has to much traction, laterally and longitudinally and combinations of the two. If you're braking in a corner, you reduce the amount of traction available to grip laterally (a.k.a. not fall on your arse!). This concept helps explain why you want to brake in a straight line before the corner, then use maximum grip laterally on corner entry and mid-corner.
Worked on technique today. It sure is easy to regress back to old bad habits. Thanks for getting us thinking again. Raising the elbow felt whacky but I like pointing my light stick.
Also read/know to point your hips into the turn (from a Pinkbike vid?)...the exact opposite from skiing, which is why it took me so long to figure it out! Give it a shot...it really helps with the "finding your balance point" thing, i.e, learning how to "drift" the bike while cornering on the loose stuff. Also helpful on snow (both to learn and to apply conering skills)
The first photo really illustrates this point.
Took me a while for the same reason...as a ski racer turned instructor turned patroller, I always had the "counter rotation" thought in my head when I was riding...which of course left me washing out my front wheel and with lots of trail rash.
At least the "weighting the outside pedal" muscle memory translated.
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Originally Posted by digthemlows
