Descending Tips

[christian]

Patch asked for descending tips in the thread about Robert Hyndman's passing. I didn't feel it was appropriate to discuss there, so here's a new thread.

When we speak of descending on a bicycle, we generally mean "cornering swiftly but safely while descending." My descending tips are pretty simple, but they stem from 15 years of motorcycle riding primarily:

1) On the street, brake before the turn, set a safe entry speed, and enter the turn off the brakes (on a motorcycle, you'd have a bit of maintenance throttle to set the suspension, but on a bicycle, gravity's your only engine here). Come off your brakes gently so you don't get a sudden rush of speed from gravity just as you enter the corner (this is typically not dangerous, but it scares people).

2) Make sure you have assessed the appropriate line for the corner (and the subsequent one, if you can see it). Enter the corner 12"-16" from the outside, apex 12-16" from the inside, and exit 12"-16" from the outside, to give yourself room from oncoming traffic and gravel or other debris at the apex.

3) Trust your tires. If you've come in too hot, remember that your bike can lean over further than you think possible, easily 45 degrees. Breathe out sharply, stay loose, and push on the inside handlebar, and you'll generally make it.

4) For corners where the apex and/or exit are obscured (common in the mountains), slow to a point where you could reasonably negotiate most unseen obstacles in the corner. (Common sense would say 100%, but cornering at rates where you could stop 100% of the time for a flock of sheep or parked tractor insn't always practicable.)

Proficient Motorcycling by David Hough is a good book on motorcycle dynamics and cornering. Much of it applies to cycling on descents as well.

[zank]

Christian, great points. I think your first point applies equally well to cornering on all surfaces and not just on descents either. My cross cornering and trail cornering improved a lot after I took some advice from Mickey and just started going along for the ride with my hands off the brakes while in the corner. I got a real sense of flow in the tight and twisty singletrack now. Fun stuff.

[jitahs]

These are good points but I'd like to point out the outside-inside-outside line works but if the road contains debris that piles up in the middle of the lane and spills onto the shoulder, as happens in a mountainous area, it's best to maintain the line on the cars' inside wheel track due to clean pavement and keeping away from the center line which the guy coming up is going to cross probably holy cow that was a long sentence.

[Too Tall]

Or you can follow Tom Kellogg.
Tom and I have a thing going on when it comes to scarey fast descents. T.K. is much better than me and I almost always take the hindmost or risk slowing him down. By following Tom's lines and relaxing my enjoyment and appreciation for taking reasoned risk soars.
This is one way to learn and get better.

[jitahs]

Also, know the road if you're going to bomb it. Blind corners, hidden driveways, schools, compression bumps, parallel tar snakes, off camber corners.
Get your mind into it, don't la-de-da It's a Beautiful Day it.
Practice, then practice some more.
Ride sticky rubber.
Use your brakes like a rheostat, not a toggle switch. Both of them.

[WayneJ]

Never ever ever Freak out!
Turn an "Oh Shit" moment into a "I can do this" moment.

[monadnocky]

Seconding the Proficient Motorcyling read. Hough is sort of a legend in many motorcyling communities, and it is very pertinent for cycling, especially at higher (decending) speeds.

[krthornton]

This may not be a tip per se, but I always take a new descent slowly the first time. Basically, recon the course. I don't ride the brakes all the way down, but I focus on relaxing instead of flying down.

There's one that I do here rather often (Glendora Ridge Road from Baldy Village, then down Glendora Mtn Road). It isn't particularly technical, but it has blind cliffside corners, the final miles down GMR contain variable-radius switchbacks, and the debris on the road is different every time. If I haven't been there in a few months, I have to slow right down--my descending mojo is rusty and usually doesn't come back until I'm 1/2-way down.

[the bottle ride]

Keep your eyes as far down the road/trail as far as possible- it helps to make descions when you have the time to make them.

[jitahs]

Get relaxed and don't fight the bike. Release tension from your body, relax your ankles.
Absorb the bumps, think flow.

[christian]

Oh yeah, this should be obvious, but - hands in the drops, a finger or two on each of the brake levers.

[jitahs]

Ride mtb or cross.
It'll serve you on the road.

[Jas0n]

One of the simplest suggestions: RELAX. Don't tense up, flow with the bike.

[Dorman]

Applying pressure to the outside pedal will help plant the tires.

[jitahs]

One of the simplest suggestions: RELAX. Don't tense up, flow with the bike.

Um. Or you can relax and let it flow.

[DougS]

riding motos taught me to not to brake in a corner. brake before, eyeball your line and commit.
braking in a corner will try and stand the bike up and transfer downforce into sideways forces aka not goodtimes

i always point my inside knee into the corner but thats just habit i think.

other than that just the standard stuff.
boxer grip in the drops,
stay low, weight the bike kinda neutral but get comfortable pushing your weight around.

just doing a lot of it helps. i was a pretty poor descender, but doing it a lot over the past couple years now i can hang with pretty much anyone except the big heavy nutcases

[Bob Ross]

Use your brakes like a rheostat, not a toggle switch.

That's some great imagery there.

[christian]

just doing a lot of it helps.

This is a good point, and also reinforces why riding motorcycles probably helps with descending. When you're taking curves at 50 mph on a motorcycle daily, doing the same on a bicycle just becomes more of a inside-the-envelope experience.

[El Chaba]

10-15 years ago, one of the British mags was doing a preview of a couple of new climbs to be featured in the next year's Vuelta....It was November, and they commandeered Fernado Escartin to ride (portions of) the climbs and offer his assessments. The journalists followed in a car. They noted how slowly Fernando descended and asked him about it. He responded that they were paying him for his assessment of the climbs, not the descents.....and that he had a family. He never risked ANYTHING on a descent unless it was a race. Interesting. The guy could descend with the best in the sport when it was time, but in training rode very conservatively. There is an important lesson there.

[chasea]

I'm a pretty bad descender. Or, rather, a really great chicken shit. More to do with nerves than technique. In college I was great!

But I'm a big dude, spent most of my life riding bikes on dirt. Dirt don't hurt. When I ride with others, I let it be known that I'm going to fall back.

As a certified pussy, one way I keep from cooking my rims is to use my body as a sail on straight sections. I'll get up on the hoods (when its sensible), puff up my chest, bend my elbows, and stick a knee out in the wind. It doesn't do much, but just enough to make me feel like I can correct something or come to a stop if need be.

Is there a cure for what ails me?