Tight switchbacks

Anyone have advice on riding a tight steep switchback? Close to where I stay we have one trail with about 6 or 8 tight left and right hand corners, and the buggers are steep. Gives me the creeps just pushing down the trail... I can't keep pushing them, I need to ride them.

The advice I got was "lean in to the corner, and trust your tires", but hell it's difficult...(running 2.1's for that trail, though I suppose I could get some WTB 2.3's if I need a wider tyre)

The bike setup is a ATX 890 hard tail, with the usual toys, and don't suggest "lower your seatpost" since I use a allen-key seat bolt, not a skewer type, so adjustment is annoying.

thanx
Fooz

The best thing I've found is to squeeze on the rear brake, take it slow, and then let out on the brake at the bottom of the curve. I know this sounds "New Age", but if you can see yourself at the end of each curve before you get there, and you'll do it. Also, is there a lot of scree in those switch backs? I run on 2.4 tires, and it makes all the difference. Wider tires kind of keep you floating on top, instead of cutting down in.

Good luck!

I have been working on (with limited success) charging hard into switchbacks and then killing a lot of my speed right at the apex and "trying" to sort of a nose wheelie and swinging the rear around leaving me with a straight shot down to the next one. It sounded cool when we were talking about it, but now that I have been trying to "master" it, it's not extremely practical. Now I have it in my head though and must get it down! When I really want to keep speed up (lunch is on the line or something) I just mash into a corner and slide the rear around as much as possible and hammer out of the corner. I know, I know it's bad for the trail to skid around corners and such, but it's something I do a lot when at the ski resorts and trail maintenance is not as much of an as in public forests. It's a good idea to just start making yourself ride around the switches regardless of how slow you go and eventually you can increase your speed with comfort and familiarity. What Julie said is great as well: see yourself carving the corner! It helps, a lot. Looking past the turn to what's next helps as well, it gets you less focused on all of the junk that causes us to "freak" or overthink something (gets you set up for what's next too). Have fun practicing and keep the rubber side down.

K.

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Don't give up, don't ever give up.


Disciples Of Dirt

My reccomendations:

Smooth actions! Just like driving a car, smooth transitions and and actions will help you maintain your balance better

Try to keep your center of gravity as low as possible.

Lay off the brakes! The easiest way to not slide is to lay off the brakes. I have a hard time doing it, but you need to find a way to not rely on your stopping powers of your brakes. Never use your brakes in a corner.

Finally, walk it first, and look it over before you go down that spot. Look over the trail nuances and try to figure out an "optimal" path.

Don't bomb it! Don't lay on the brakes, but don't just stupidly jump into it either.

Unclip, but make sure you have a good hold on the bike too...this is if you have clipless pedals such as egg beaters or SPDs

Finally, use some guts, and maybe alot of padding!

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victor
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Okay, braking too much is not good, especially as you said in the curve itself, but some of us have to go to work the next day, and extreme speed on tight switchbacks is asking for an endo. Unless you're confident about what is around the next turn (and you shouldn't be, unless you're on an unchanging, flat, paved road), taking it a bit slow isn't a bad idea. Once you familiarize yourself with a stretch of trail that intimidates you, you can handle going faster, which can be good because you have less time to overthink things. But what was around the curve yesterday isn't necessarily what is there today....

I believe (hope) he means just not using the brake while you are "in" the turn. You should do all of you braking before the turn, by conventional wisdom, and allow yourself to carve through the turn focusing on balance and line rather than brake modulation. Carving a corner doesn't have to mean hitting it at high speed and railing around it like on a burmed turn. You can be smooth in a switchback and be going pretty slow. Matter of fact the safest way is to go really slow by scrubbing your speed before the turn and releasing the brake right before you turn into the corner. I have been trying different ways to increase speed through tight switchbacks and while some are cool to practice, the truth is I have never crashed when I have done one slowly and scrubbed my speed before the turn. You can practice this by mashing it to each switchback and then over-exaggerating your braking and going through them painfully slow. Soon you can have the whole routine down and picking up pace. Have fun and happy Labor day.

K.

__________________
Don't give up, don't ever give up.


Disciples Of Dirt