Downhill Mountain Biking Techniques

Video Transcript

"Hi, I’m Debbie. I’ve been teaching informal mountain biking for over ten years. Today we’re going to learn how to descend properly. The first thing in descending is you wan to keep your feet level. You want your pedals level to the ground, one foot in front of the other. What you don’t want is one foot down and one foot up. One foot down, one foot up means you’re off balance. If your pedals are level then you have good balance and you’re centered on your bike. The second aspect of descending is you want to be behind your saddle. You want your behind behind the saddle so that you don’t go over your handlebars. If you’re up above your saddle when you are descending then you’re in risk of going over your handlebars. The third aspect of descending is to always use your rear brake. Right hand, rear brake…left hand, don’t use your front brake or you’ll go over your handlebars. Alright, here we’re gonna go down the hill. Level pedals, butt back. Ok, that’s how you descend a hill. Remember, level pedals and butt back. Rear brake only no front brake should keep you from going over the handlebars when descending. "