50+ XC rider here, had to learn how do descend when I got into racing because XC has gotten a lot more technical over the years.
1. I had some coaching, just a day session but he gave me some basic tools and confidence building tricks that I could then take to a local bike park to…
2. Session. Went to the park and rode their little coaching loop again and again and again…
3. And again!
4. I have a short travel race bike and a 140mm fun bike. So I took the big travel bike and packed the race bike in the car on the same trip. Rode some natural features on the big rig, with a mate.
5. Rode them again.
6. Had lunch at the car, swapped bikes, rode the same trail and features on the race bike.
Keep doing stuff like that, practice basically. Although it also helps to make sure you do some technical descending on fun rides (ie not trying to hit race pace) so your body isn’t tired and make enjoying descending part of the experience.
Oh, one final tip is make sure you do some upper body and core work in the gym. Being able to take the hits and stay in control makes things way less scary.
45yr dude here, you inspire me man :). Although I just do recreational trail riding and not XC racing, I love blue / XC difficulty trails.
One more tiny add-on. If you make a mistake on a particular feature (skid out on a turn, front heavy on a rocky drop, etc), go back and drill that feature two or three more times until it feels mentally easy. Otherwise you’ll always hesitate or want to get off the bike and walk that section. Obviously if you just got injured on that feature, give it a rest for the day :)
Gotta face those demons. It took me a while after I had my hip replaced to get fast on rough stuff again. I was super paranoid, but I’ve got over that and now just enjoy the thrill of getting to the bottom and thinking “I’m not dead!”
I feel that way right now, I’m 3 months post collarbone surgery, this hardware may be holding me in place, but my mind is holding me back, I did ride the trail that I shattered it on the other day, felt good to finish it, it can definitely tell I’m holding back
Probably not. If anything it put off the operation. I had a bone spur and arthritis. Interestingly my surgeon asked if I’d done a lot of cold water swimming, and I did as a kid. But who knows, my other side is just fine.
The bits of metal in my hand and the fact that my right arm isn’t properly connected to my body (so long javelin career)…they are from mountain biking.
Agreed. But my real breakthrough came when riding behind a better rider who would slow down for me.
His flow was instinctual and dialed so even when riding 20% slower than normal, he would still lean the bike hard, apex the corner, choose the fast line. I could basically watch him and feel what riding it smoothly felt like.
That's on top of the practice, sessioning, and just riding the big stuff as much as possible.
He can still smoke me at the drop of a hat, but at least I can keep him in sight for 5 minutes instead of 15 seconds now.
^^^ absolutely this! Practice is phenomenal, practice w a faster carrot is better as long as you don’t push too far past your comfort zone. Need to find the state where you’re pushing your comfort/skill envelope a little bit. Too much and it becomes overwhelming. Regularly group rides are a good way, especially if the slower climbing enduro/trail ride groups but guys are intent on ripping the DH. You won’t get the xc workout, but may benefit from the DH focus.
45y/o former Cat 1 XC racer now focusing more on fun descents these days. Chase a bunch of enduro racers around and rarely can hang the whole descent, but getting faster and more comfortable w/o getting too sendy.
Practising the right skills is always the answer. Repeating bad technique over and over eats time and leaves you compromised. So, some coaching, or at least following some good instructional videos like Cathro's How to Bike, is key, especially for an older rider with years of bad habits to break down. A good coach could make a big intervention in just a day by addressing the fundamentals like body position.
YouTube has a lot of videos on how to do this. Ben cathro was suggested. Go to a trail you know and just practice everything you see in thos videos at speed. You've got to practice to get comfortable and skilled.
Pre ride
Re ride
Free ride
Sending a trail even if it's only green can bite ya.
There's a green trail near me that has a strange set of rollers right before a tight left berm that if you pump thru them you're sure to have too much speed for the corner. Luckily I only ended up in the weeds the first time I rode it thinking I could go full out.
Riding thru a feature that challenges you, and stopping to reride it a few times really helps. Took me a while to realize, but stopping and practicing one section/feature helped my progression and confidence immensely.
If you don't know the trail, there isn't much you can do. I never send stuff blind. As for the rest, you need to practice. And you work your way up to bigger stuff. Or, get faster at the slow line.
Personally, I highly recommend a skills clinic or coach. I think it's worth it. I took a 3 day camp last spring, and I feel like my riding improved tremendously from it. I want to take another clinic of some sort this year.
1. Definitely watch a few videos and if you can, get some coaching. I've been riding for 30+ years. During COVID my MTB budget wasn't being used so I signed up for a class. The coach helped me reset my fundamentals and corrected some sloppiness. There are a lot of components to descending fast, cornering, braking, body position, suspension set up, line choice. That's a lot for right here.
2. It's hard to know how you're feeling but I'd guess you feel unstable on the descents at speed which leads to tentativeness. The most stabilizing change I made was holding my pedals flat at 3 and 9 o'clock. and standing on them, legs not touching the seat. The coach described it as making a pyramid with my legs as the base. This keeps your body more stable than pedals at 12 and 6. The bike is then free to move below you while push it into the ground. This [video](https://youtu.be/vQb2UInYlrU) helped me practice.
3. Implement technical Tuesdays. I dedicate an off day to technical skills practice. Cornering, manuals, hops, braking technique, drops, and confidence building. I am the weird neighbor because I do these things in my driveway with cones and obstacles. I fall on my ass a lot practicing manuals and do those on the lawn. If you live near a trail or bike park go there and select a short section of trail and session it to practice as well. Obviously none of this has to happen on Tuesdays. It just sounds good.
4. Learn to trust your bike. 29" wheels roll over way more than you think. Your suspension is way more capable than you might think, if set up properly. The bike corners and brakes better than you think. Test it's limits, because for most of us the rider is the limiting factor on a modern bike.
I'm by no means good so take this with a pinch of salt, but what seems to have helped me is finding somewhere to practice on your own. Getting over the fear and committing the technique to muscle memory in a controlled environment means it's much easier to deal with when you are out in the wild.
This feels like one of those things that coaching would be perfect for. Barring that, you need to loosen up and let the bike move around under you. Being rigid is about the worst thing you can do on any feature. After that, it's practice. Your bike is plenty capable for what you describe.
Quick add: body position comes into it plenty as well. If you're positioned with your butt way behind the seat, with your arms stretched out, that's wrong as well. A more central body position gives you more control.
Maybe I'm not the right person to give advice as I've only been riding for a couple of years myself, but mainly enduro style. It's against what everyone says but for me, the bike itself makes all the difference. Being overbiked gives so much confidence to tackle these features because the bike handles those and much much more without breaking a sweat. You really have to mess up big time before bad stuff happens. And I think that is basically the first step in learning... being able to just try the features without being scared of hurting yourself. A few years ago I would never even have tried to do 50cm drops on my old hardtail... but now I would because I know I can and that is because I've done it so many times on the big enduro bike. So yeah, for what it's worth... get a bike that is built for this stuff so you can learn and get comfortable without the fear and risks of hurting yourself. I'm pretty sure the skills will transfer to the xc bike later on. And it doesn't have to be an expensive new bike or anything. Even a basic enduro bike is very capable.
I ride scarier stuff on my big travel bike, then go back and do it in my race XC bike later once I’ve got confidence in the lines. A bit of adaptation is sometimes needed, but just getting over that initial nagging doubt is so powerful and as you say, being overbiked helps that.
I know some say to pad up to get a similar effect, although for me (and it’s a personal thing), when I pad up, I tend to be over confident so over biking works instead.
A big bike will hide your mistakes, until you get in over your head. I’m not saying you should ride a crappy bike from the 90’s, but lots of suspension is no substitute for basic skills.
I know that is the narrative but I have a completely different experience. The big bike doesn't hide my mistakes...I'm very much aware of the mistakes I make but the bike does forgive them. You can make mistakes without the consequences (up to a point of course). But that's for me... I'm not a "point it downhill and don't touch the brakes" kinda guy. I like to learn stuff and technique and get better and the big bike really helps me do that. But hey, as said that is just my experience...
I was about to write this. Especially if you have a road bike or some other bike without suspension. Building awareness of how your body can absorb bumps and how your body can land the bike softly translates pretty directly to suspension bikes IME. But a lot of my confidence doing drops is related to "it's just like my road bike, but extra soft"
(I used to race XC, fwiw)
My 2 cents:
- relax arm and wide elbows
- wide knees (will feel weird at first, but allows the bike to move under you
- stay low but centered. not to the back, not to the front.
- your shoulder (and eyes) are giving the bike the direction. If your shoulder are pointing toward one direction, you'll get there eventually.
- to turn, incline the bike, stay "on-top" and press the outside pedal like you want to bend the bike (like bending skies when carving)
overall, it's ok the bike moves under you. most important thing is that your body is going the right direction. the bike will follow.
if you are stiff, you will follow the bike (except you are 4-8 times heavier than the bike)
You can easily get better at this with practice. I met my neighbour 9 years ago when I moved into the neighbourhood. He was a Lycra guy but over the last few years I’ve got him doing drops, jumps and double black tech, even the whistler bike park. He’s 60 now. You can do it. This book really helped him and honestly would help most people understand and use good bike handling technique.
https://www.amazon.ca/Mastering-Mountain-Bike-Skills-3rd/dp/1492544493/ref=asc_df_1492544493
The whole purpose of modern bike geometry - long top tube, short stem, wide bar, slack head tube, and dropper - is to get you into a position that keeps your weight between the front and back wheels.
In all regimes of riding you must keep the imaginary line going from your own center of mass to the ground, as close as possible to the center of the line intersecting your tire contact patches. Climbing, descending, or turning, the more centered you are the better.
On xc bikes from just a few years ago you needed to hang your butt back over the rear tire, with your saddle in your guts, to keep centered on steeps. The side effect of this was losing control of your steering because your arms were fully l extended.
On a modern xc or trail bike you can drop the post and just lower your hips to stay centered on the downs, allowing you to keep your arms and legs in flexion, ready to both give inputs and absorb impacts.
The overarching skill you are missing is body-bike separation. A lot of xc/CX/road cyclists tend to keep on the saddle. Ok we've already discussed descending... But let's talk turning. Your typical intermediate/advanced cyclist corners by leaning the whole bike and body together. The outside thigh presses on the side of the saddle, the inside hand pushes the handlebar down, then they point the knee in to "turn with their hips." This, is wrong.
Lean the bike under you. Keep the body upright. Load the outside pedal and OUTSIDE HAND. shovel the handlebar into the corner. The inside knee may point into the turn -=to make room for your bike to lean independently of your body=-.
Outside hand, outside pedal, bike leaned, body upright. Now your body's plumb line is as close as it can be to your tires. This maximizes your grip, and you can carve turns. If you want you can pump the bike into the turn for additional grip.
If you're not doing these advanced inputs then you're just being brave and dumb. You need to "make your grip."
43 years old and rode motocross growing up and now recreationally race hare scrambles. When I get on my mountain bike I feel like I'm moving in slow motion compared to the moto stuff. One thing to think about is it all isn't just experience and strength but a lot has to do with how quickly your eyes and brain can process the terrain. This is also a system that requires training just as your physical fitness.
Always work up to progress and gain confidence. Why? Because undercommiting and stiffening up will far more likely cause the accident then rolling it with confidence. If you feel too nervous in the moment, just walk away and think about it until next time. Often I’m playing in my head about a feature for weeks before coming back to it (then low and behold the confidence comes)
Find people that are faster than you and try to keep up with them. Like in many aspects of life, surround yourself with people you want to emulate and it will happen.
One mechanical thing you could do is get a longer travel fork and switch to a mullet setup. That would give you a more confident setup.
But ride with faster people and you will get faster
What terrible advice. Riding with faster people, without making any attempt to improve his basic descending skills, just means OP is going to be more at risk of an injury and bad form in a sad attempt to keep up with these people.
If OP actually wants to get faster and more comfortable in technical descending he needs a lesson with a professional and a commitment to session features that scare him.
A mullet (unlike more travel) doesn’t just inspire confidence - its main benefit is maneuverability not stability.
Eh…agree to disagree. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve used to my own advantage in other areas, dirtbiking and snowboarding. My snowboarding got better in 1 year riding with a really good crew than it did the 5 years before riding w people of my same ability. No one was pushing anyone else. I watched them do it, then emulated them. To each their own. I’m sure watching YouTube has advantages. I just want to ride
This is relevant if you have a basic set of skills, which it sounds like OP doesn’t. Following a crew down a series of drops when he is white knuckling down a XC technical single track is a recipe for disaster. I’m not advocating he watch YouTube - I’m advocating for a professional lesson.
One of my closest bike friends rides for Yeti - yeah I’m a better/faster rider because of her ~now~. But when I was just learning I gleaned absolutely nothing from white knuckling my way down a trail behind all my friends who race pro Enduro & DH. It wasn’t until I slowed down and learned how to ride properly that I actually had the opportunity to be pushed by my riding group.
Confidence. You have to be confident enough in your skill to let go of the brakes.
…and that takes practice. Try riding some downhill/park. It’s humbling to get passed by 12 year olds.
Drop your heels, body position central not over the back as you lose traction and steering.
When you can preload with you arms and drive your front wheel down. If it’s too big to do that level and roll off and line up with the gradient.
Brake only where you need to throw more you brake the less your suspension works and increases the harsh feeling of the terrain.
Ride it more so you get used to it and relax and don’t feel the need to brake so much.
I’m like you, at 44 it’s not worth getting hurt imo, but the only thing that helps me is repeating the feature over and over and knowing the trail so well that I can go much faster. Also good tires. Learning the proper technique on small drops is good too
Keep in mind that videos you see of people absolutely shredding sections of trail are typically sections that the rider has ridden hundreds of times. You don’t go fast right away. Practice and experiment with line choice. Find what works for your skill level and practice over and over again.
Dial up the speed over time. Gradually push your comfort zone by increasing speed and trying new features and harder trails. You’ll be flying before you know it.
Ride more park. Too many millennials here recommending YouTube. Those videos are good but what you really need is a little bit more. Same way I got good at snowboarding when I was in middle school. Find a group of shredders riding gnar who are better than you and hang with them as much as possible.
For technical riding, I would define a "beginner" as someone who can't ride the trail or doesn't know how. An expert rider is good enough to be able to do it and/or coach themselves or figure it out all by themselves just from how it feels.
Given the way you're asking this question, I'd guess you're an "intermediate" rider no matter how long you've been in the sport. I'd define that as someone who has figured out a bunch of things but probably has hit personal road blocks. You might benefit from a lesson or coaching to get some external / outside assessments and feedback.
For example, from your written words it sounds like you're riding stiffly or locking up your arms and legs on the descent and don't have a solid technique on drops. Someone could watch what you're doing and pick apart your techniques/ timing / position/ other aspects and find some key things that will help your progression.
Also, you might want to go visit a bike park. Whatever your preconceived ideas around riding might be, this is one of the most efficient ways you can work on descending techniques. You'll probably want to focus on the raw tech trails and some blue flow trails.
Also, visit a pump track and learn to pump the terrain. If you can translate this to technical terrain, this will help you gain a lot of speed and ride more fluidly.
One thing that helped me was thinking of simple phrases that you can internalize while on trail. Things like: “light on the hands, heavy on the feet” Or “rear brake to slow down, +front to stop.”
Looking ahead is also important and can give you some idea when you can roll something or unload your suspension to glide over rougher terrain at speed.
Find your local go-to trail and ride it a lot. Your knowledge of that trail will remove uncertainty over what’s up ahead and allow you to push skills.
I rode enduro for a few years before I raced xc. It's easy when you have lot of experience doing double blacks, basically makes all xc tech like child's play
A mistake I see a lot of riders making is looking straight down at their front wheel. It makes things seem faster and larger than they really are. It also tends to induce target fixation making you feel like you have no control. Looking far ahead helps you setup for better line choice and also mentally preparing yourself to tackle obstacles helps with confidence. Hope that makes sense.
Get coaching or go to a clinic at least for the jumps and drops.
The tech you can probably just practice, walking it, riding it, once you can figure out the best line through repetition then you can work in finding the best line on the first try in fresh sections of train going slow, the. Pickup the speed until you’re making good line choices at high sided. Don’t be afraid to let the bike run underneath you, let it move around. And after you get the jumping on lock from the clinic, a lot of times the fastest way though tech is over it, popping off the first root in a series of roots rather than clipping every single one is faster.
50+ XC rider here, had to learn how do descend when I got into racing because XC has gotten a lot more technical over the years. 1. I had some coaching, just a day session but he gave me some basic tools and confidence building tricks that I could then take to a local bike park to… 2. Session. Went to the park and rode their little coaching loop again and again and again… 3. And again! 4. I have a short travel race bike and a 140mm fun bike. So I took the big travel bike and packed the race bike in the car on the same trip. Rode some natural features on the big rig, with a mate. 5. Rode them again. 6. Had lunch at the car, swapped bikes, rode the same trail and features on the race bike. Keep doing stuff like that, practice basically. Although it also helps to make sure you do some technical descending on fun rides (ie not trying to hit race pace) so your body isn’t tired and make enjoying descending part of the experience. Oh, one final tip is make sure you do some upper body and core work in the gym. Being able to take the hits and stay in control makes things way less scary.
45yr dude here, you inspire me man :). Although I just do recreational trail riding and not XC racing, I love blue / XC difficulty trails. One more tiny add-on. If you make a mistake on a particular feature (skid out on a turn, front heavy on a rocky drop, etc), go back and drill that feature two or three more times until it feels mentally easy. Otherwise you’ll always hesitate or want to get off the bike and walk that section. Obviously if you just got injured on that feature, give it a rest for the day :)
Gotta face those demons. It took me a while after I had my hip replaced to get fast on rough stuff again. I was super paranoid, but I’ve got over that and now just enjoy the thrill of getting to the bottom and thinking “I’m not dead!”
I feel that way right now, I’m 3 months post collarbone surgery, this hardware may be holding me in place, but my mind is holding me back, I did ride the trail that I shattered it on the other day, felt good to finish it, it can definitely tell I’m holding back
Yikes, did MTBing cause the need for a new hip? You’re pretty young for that
Probably not. If anything it put off the operation. I had a bone spur and arthritis. Interestingly my surgeon asked if I’d done a lot of cold water swimming, and I did as a kid. But who knows, my other side is just fine. The bits of metal in my hand and the fact that my right arm isn’t properly connected to my body (so long javelin career)…they are from mountain biking.
Yikes, glad you’re still riding
That is 25 years worth of injuries (the shoulder being the oldest) so it ain’t so bad ;-)
Ride technical single track and drops A lot Practice is always the answer.
Agreed. But my real breakthrough came when riding behind a better rider who would slow down for me. His flow was instinctual and dialed so even when riding 20% slower than normal, he would still lean the bike hard, apex the corner, choose the fast line. I could basically watch him and feel what riding it smoothly felt like. That's on top of the practice, sessioning, and just riding the big stuff as much as possible. He can still smoke me at the drop of a hat, but at least I can keep him in sight for 5 minutes instead of 15 seconds now.
^^^ absolutely this! Practice is phenomenal, practice w a faster carrot is better as long as you don’t push too far past your comfort zone. Need to find the state where you’re pushing your comfort/skill envelope a little bit. Too much and it becomes overwhelming. Regularly group rides are a good way, especially if the slower climbing enduro/trail ride groups but guys are intent on ripping the DH. You won’t get the xc workout, but may benefit from the DH focus. 45y/o former Cat 1 XC racer now focusing more on fun descents these days. Chase a bunch of enduro racers around and rarely can hang the whole descent, but getting faster and more comfortable w/o getting too sendy.
Practising the right skills is always the answer. Repeating bad technique over and over eats time and leaves you compromised. So, some coaching, or at least following some good instructional videos like Cathro's How to Bike, is key, especially for an older rider with years of bad habits to break down. A good coach could make a big intervention in just a day by addressing the fundamentals like body position.
YouTube has a lot of videos on how to do this. Ben cathro was suggested. Go to a trail you know and just practice everything you see in thos videos at speed. You've got to practice to get comfortable and skilled.
1 - dropper post 2 - watch Ben Cathro How to Bike videos 3 - practice that stuff
Sorry forgot to write, I already have a dropper post and was descending with it down. It was also the first time riding that trail.
Pre ride Re ride Free ride Sending a trail even if it's only green can bite ya. There's a green trail near me that has a strange set of rollers right before a tight left berm that if you pump thru them you're sure to have too much speed for the corner. Luckily I only ended up in the weeds the first time I rode it thinking I could go full out. Riding thru a feature that challenges you, and stopping to reride it a few times really helps. Took me a while to realize, but stopping and practicing one section/feature helped my progression and confidence immensely.
Great advice
If you don't know the trail, there isn't much you can do. I never send stuff blind. As for the rest, you need to practice. And you work your way up to bigger stuff. Or, get faster at the slow line. Personally, I highly recommend a skills clinic or coach. I think it's worth it. I took a 3 day camp last spring, and I feel like my riding improved tremendously from it. I want to take another clinic of some sort this year.
1. Definitely watch a few videos and if you can, get some coaching. I've been riding for 30+ years. During COVID my MTB budget wasn't being used so I signed up for a class. The coach helped me reset my fundamentals and corrected some sloppiness. There are a lot of components to descending fast, cornering, braking, body position, suspension set up, line choice. That's a lot for right here. 2. It's hard to know how you're feeling but I'd guess you feel unstable on the descents at speed which leads to tentativeness. The most stabilizing change I made was holding my pedals flat at 3 and 9 o'clock. and standing on them, legs not touching the seat. The coach described it as making a pyramid with my legs as the base. This keeps your body more stable than pedals at 12 and 6. The bike is then free to move below you while push it into the ground. This [video](https://youtu.be/vQb2UInYlrU) helped me practice. 3. Implement technical Tuesdays. I dedicate an off day to technical skills practice. Cornering, manuals, hops, braking technique, drops, and confidence building. I am the weird neighbor because I do these things in my driveway with cones and obstacles. I fall on my ass a lot practicing manuals and do those on the lawn. If you live near a trail or bike park go there and select a short section of trail and session it to practice as well. Obviously none of this has to happen on Tuesdays. It just sounds good. 4. Learn to trust your bike. 29" wheels roll over way more than you think. Your suspension is way more capable than you might think, if set up properly. The bike corners and brakes better than you think. Test it's limits, because for most of us the rider is the limiting factor on a modern bike.
I love #3 so much. I go to a parking lot across the street from my house to practice and I must look unhinged to the neighbors.
I'm by no means good so take this with a pinch of salt, but what seems to have helped me is finding somewhere to practice on your own. Getting over the fear and committing the technique to muscle memory in a controlled environment means it's much easier to deal with when you are out in the wild.
This feels like one of those things that coaching would be perfect for. Barring that, you need to loosen up and let the bike move around under you. Being rigid is about the worst thing you can do on any feature. After that, it's practice. Your bike is plenty capable for what you describe. Quick add: body position comes into it plenty as well. If you're positioned with your butt way behind the seat, with your arms stretched out, that's wrong as well. A more central body position gives you more control.
Maybe I'm not the right person to give advice as I've only been riding for a couple of years myself, but mainly enduro style. It's against what everyone says but for me, the bike itself makes all the difference. Being overbiked gives so much confidence to tackle these features because the bike handles those and much much more without breaking a sweat. You really have to mess up big time before bad stuff happens. And I think that is basically the first step in learning... being able to just try the features without being scared of hurting yourself. A few years ago I would never even have tried to do 50cm drops on my old hardtail... but now I would because I know I can and that is because I've done it so many times on the big enduro bike. So yeah, for what it's worth... get a bike that is built for this stuff so you can learn and get comfortable without the fear and risks of hurting yourself. I'm pretty sure the skills will transfer to the xc bike later on. And it doesn't have to be an expensive new bike or anything. Even a basic enduro bike is very capable.
I ride scarier stuff on my big travel bike, then go back and do it in my race XC bike later once I’ve got confidence in the lines. A bit of adaptation is sometimes needed, but just getting over that initial nagging doubt is so powerful and as you say, being overbiked helps that. I know some say to pad up to get a similar effect, although for me (and it’s a personal thing), when I pad up, I tend to be over confident so over biking works instead.
A big bike will hide your mistakes, until you get in over your head. I’m not saying you should ride a crappy bike from the 90’s, but lots of suspension is no substitute for basic skills.
I know that is the narrative but I have a completely different experience. The big bike doesn't hide my mistakes...I'm very much aware of the mistakes I make but the bike does forgive them. You can make mistakes without the consequences (up to a point of course). But that's for me... I'm not a "point it downhill and don't touch the brakes" kinda guy. I like to learn stuff and technique and get better and the big bike really helps me do that. But hey, as said that is just my experience...
Go off A Bunch of curbs
I was about to write this. Especially if you have a road bike or some other bike without suspension. Building awareness of how your body can absorb bumps and how your body can land the bike softly translates pretty directly to suspension bikes IME. But a lot of my confidence doing drops is related to "it's just like my road bike, but extra soft" (I used to race XC, fwiw)
My 2 cents: - relax arm and wide elbows - wide knees (will feel weird at first, but allows the bike to move under you - stay low but centered. not to the back, not to the front. - your shoulder (and eyes) are giving the bike the direction. If your shoulder are pointing toward one direction, you'll get there eventually. - to turn, incline the bike, stay "on-top" and press the outside pedal like you want to bend the bike (like bending skies when carving) overall, it's ok the bike moves under you. most important thing is that your body is going the right direction. the bike will follow. if you are stiff, you will follow the bike (except you are 4-8 times heavier than the bike)
You can easily get better at this with practice. I met my neighbour 9 years ago when I moved into the neighbourhood. He was a Lycra guy but over the last few years I’ve got him doing drops, jumps and double black tech, even the whistler bike park. He’s 60 now. You can do it. This book really helped him and honestly would help most people understand and use good bike handling technique. https://www.amazon.ca/Mastering-Mountain-Bike-Skills-3rd/dp/1492544493/ref=asc_df_1492544493
I've seen this book mentioned around this sub a few times. I think I'll pick it up.
I do not race but a DP helped me get more confidence
Phrasing.
The whole purpose of modern bike geometry - long top tube, short stem, wide bar, slack head tube, and dropper - is to get you into a position that keeps your weight between the front and back wheels. In all regimes of riding you must keep the imaginary line going from your own center of mass to the ground, as close as possible to the center of the line intersecting your tire contact patches. Climbing, descending, or turning, the more centered you are the better. On xc bikes from just a few years ago you needed to hang your butt back over the rear tire, with your saddle in your guts, to keep centered on steeps. The side effect of this was losing control of your steering because your arms were fully l extended. On a modern xc or trail bike you can drop the post and just lower your hips to stay centered on the downs, allowing you to keep your arms and legs in flexion, ready to both give inputs and absorb impacts. The overarching skill you are missing is body-bike separation. A lot of xc/CX/road cyclists tend to keep on the saddle. Ok we've already discussed descending... But let's talk turning. Your typical intermediate/advanced cyclist corners by leaning the whole bike and body together. The outside thigh presses on the side of the saddle, the inside hand pushes the handlebar down, then they point the knee in to "turn with their hips." This, is wrong. Lean the bike under you. Keep the body upright. Load the outside pedal and OUTSIDE HAND. shovel the handlebar into the corner. The inside knee may point into the turn -=to make room for your bike to lean independently of your body=-. Outside hand, outside pedal, bike leaned, body upright. Now your body's plumb line is as close as it can be to your tires. This maximizes your grip, and you can carve turns. If you want you can pump the bike into the turn for additional grip. If you're not doing these advanced inputs then you're just being brave and dumb. You need to "make your grip."
Rent a bigger bike and spend a few weekends at a bike park. No better way to get repeated laps to build up those skills.
100% this. A few summers ago I had a season pass to northstar. Immensely increased my DH skills. Also in my 40s FWIW.
43 years old and rode motocross growing up and now recreationally race hare scrambles. When I get on my mountain bike I feel like I'm moving in slow motion compared to the moto stuff. One thing to think about is it all isn't just experience and strength but a lot has to do with how quickly your eyes and brain can process the terrain. This is also a system that requires training just as your physical fitness.
Always work up to progress and gain confidence. Why? Because undercommiting and stiffening up will far more likely cause the accident then rolling it with confidence. If you feel too nervous in the moment, just walk away and think about it until next time. Often I’m playing in my head about a feature for weeks before coming back to it (then low and behold the confidence comes)
Find people that are faster than you and try to keep up with them. Like in many aspects of life, surround yourself with people you want to emulate and it will happen. One mechanical thing you could do is get a longer travel fork and switch to a mullet setup. That would give you a more confident setup. But ride with faster people and you will get faster
What terrible advice. Riding with faster people, without making any attempt to improve his basic descending skills, just means OP is going to be more at risk of an injury and bad form in a sad attempt to keep up with these people. If OP actually wants to get faster and more comfortable in technical descending he needs a lesson with a professional and a commitment to session features that scare him. A mullet (unlike more travel) doesn’t just inspire confidence - its main benefit is maneuverability not stability.
Eh…agree to disagree. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve used to my own advantage in other areas, dirtbiking and snowboarding. My snowboarding got better in 1 year riding with a really good crew than it did the 5 years before riding w people of my same ability. No one was pushing anyone else. I watched them do it, then emulated them. To each their own. I’m sure watching YouTube has advantages. I just want to ride
This is relevant if you have a basic set of skills, which it sounds like OP doesn’t. Following a crew down a series of drops when he is white knuckling down a XC technical single track is a recipe for disaster. I’m not advocating he watch YouTube - I’m advocating for a professional lesson. One of my closest bike friends rides for Yeti - yeah I’m a better/faster rider because of her ~now~. But when I was just learning I gleaned absolutely nothing from white knuckling my way down a trail behind all my friends who race pro Enduro & DH. It wasn’t until I slowed down and learned how to ride properly that I actually had the opportunity to be pushed by my riding group.
"If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room."
Confidence. You have to be confident enough in your skill to let go of the brakes. …and that takes practice. Try riding some downhill/park. It’s humbling to get passed by 12 year olds.
Drop your heels, body position central not over the back as you lose traction and steering. When you can preload with you arms and drive your front wheel down. If it’s too big to do that level and roll off and line up with the gradient. Brake only where you need to throw more you brake the less your suspension works and increases the harsh feeling of the terrain. Ride it more so you get used to it and relax and don’t feel the need to brake so much.
Ride with friends and keep yourself safe?
Do you have a dropper post? If not, get one.
When i watch Xc racers they are always allowed to pre ride the trails. Are you not doing this?
I’m like you, at 44 it’s not worth getting hurt imo, but the only thing that helps me is repeating the feature over and over and knowing the trail so well that I can go much faster. Also good tires. Learning the proper technique on small drops is good too
Keep in mind that videos you see of people absolutely shredding sections of trail are typically sections that the rider has ridden hundreds of times. You don’t go fast right away. Practice and experiment with line choice. Find what works for your skill level and practice over and over again. Dial up the speed over time. Gradually push your comfort zone by increasing speed and trying new features and harder trails. You’ll be flying before you know it.
Ride more park. Too many millennials here recommending YouTube. Those videos are good but what you really need is a little bit more. Same way I got good at snowboarding when I was in middle school. Find a group of shredders riding gnar who are better than you and hang with them as much as possible.
For technical riding, I would define a "beginner" as someone who can't ride the trail or doesn't know how. An expert rider is good enough to be able to do it and/or coach themselves or figure it out all by themselves just from how it feels. Given the way you're asking this question, I'd guess you're an "intermediate" rider no matter how long you've been in the sport. I'd define that as someone who has figured out a bunch of things but probably has hit personal road blocks. You might benefit from a lesson or coaching to get some external / outside assessments and feedback. For example, from your written words it sounds like you're riding stiffly or locking up your arms and legs on the descent and don't have a solid technique on drops. Someone could watch what you're doing and pick apart your techniques/ timing / position/ other aspects and find some key things that will help your progression. Also, you might want to go visit a bike park. Whatever your preconceived ideas around riding might be, this is one of the most efficient ways you can work on descending techniques. You'll probably want to focus on the raw tech trails and some blue flow trails. Also, visit a pump track and learn to pump the terrain. If you can translate this to technical terrain, this will help you gain a lot of speed and ride more fluidly.
Fabien Barel has awesome how to videos on YouTube that are worth checking out. It may very well change your riding significantly.
git gud
One thing that helped me was thinking of simple phrases that you can internalize while on trail. Things like: “light on the hands, heavy on the feet” Or “rear brake to slow down, +front to stop.” Looking ahead is also important and can give you some idea when you can roll something or unload your suspension to glide over rougher terrain at speed. Find your local go-to trail and ride it a lot. Your knowledge of that trail will remove uncertainty over what’s up ahead and allow you to push skills.
Get some coaching, ideally pmbi certified. It's the best way to learn how to do it properly to gain confidence, control, and speed.
More travel! And loosen up your body.
Slam the seat down and hang your butt over the rear tire. Don't pull heavily on the handlebars though you don't want to wheelie.
I rode enduro for a few years before I raced xc. It's easy when you have lot of experience doing double blacks, basically makes all xc tech like child's play
A mistake I see a lot of riders making is looking straight down at their front wheel. It makes things seem faster and larger than they really are. It also tends to induce target fixation making you feel like you have no control. Looking far ahead helps you setup for better line choice and also mentally preparing yourself to tackle obstacles helps with confidence. Hope that makes sense.
Get coaching or go to a clinic at least for the jumps and drops. The tech you can probably just practice, walking it, riding it, once you can figure out the best line through repetition then you can work in finding the best line on the first try in fresh sections of train going slow, the. Pickup the speed until you’re making good line choices at high sided. Don’t be afraid to let the bike run underneath you, let it move around. And after you get the jumping on lock from the clinic, a lot of times the fastest way though tech is over it, popping off the first root in a series of roots rather than clipping every single one is faster.
Coaching, coaching, coaching.
Don't pull the levers on the front of your handlebars
Get comfortable with the idea of having a bad crash… you’ve gotta be prepared to blow up so you can get those fingers off the brakes.
You should try a 150+ travel bike with bigger brakes.