How to cross this obstacle?

[JungleBiker]

Hi All,

I have a race on Saturday. I went for a practice last weekend. Attached is a photo of an obstacle that I am not sure how to tackle. I tried riding at an angle across the ditch. I got down the right bank okay but then as I went up the other side my front wheel slid sideways down the side and I ended up sitting on the bank with the bike between my legs. I think I might have made it if there was no water around. I think a dry tyre would not have slipped.

I don't think it's possible (for me at least) to ride across perpendicularly - because the back wheel would still be up on the right bank at the time the front wheel hit the bottom of the left bank.

Unless someone has a better solution I am now planning to dismount and run across and then keep running for another 30 meters because after the ditch there is a boggy patch and then an upward slippery slope. I figure I may as well run the lot.

JB.

 

[alfeng]

FWIW. Almost ALL obstacles should be crossed at 90º to the obstacle ...

You want to unweight the front wheel with a (huge in the case of that ditch) bunny hop [keep the front of the bike UP so you don't do a header into the dirt/mud on the 'left' side of the ditch], wheelie (as with the "ramp" on the LEFT side of the ditch IF you have the energy at that point on the course & are certain you aren't going to get the rear wheel caught on/behind the obstacle! [e.g., a really low barricade]), or by simply carrying the bike.

If you want to wheelie through that ditch, you have to approach it the way a BMX/MTB rider would ... that is, with enough speed to keep the front wheel out of the ditch until the rear wheel is on the flat part of the ditch ... after the rear wheel is in bottom of the ditch, you would drop the front of the bike onto the ground (the better you can match the angle of the bike to the slope the softer the 'landing'). That's probably NOT something you want to try for the first time during a race!

Each rider has to decide for himself/herself whether they can ride through SOFT terrain or if it is better to push/carry the bike.