Basic Tips on Steep Terrain Downhill Mountain Biking

Series Summary

You got a great ride going, speeding down the mountainside, your adrenaline pumping, your confidence high after jumping over a log and racing through a creek, going good, going great, but suddenly a big ditch shows up right in front of you. You need to stop right away, and I mean ten feet before now. Just applying the brakes is not going to cut it in this situation. What you need is one of the advanced stopping techniques as demonstrated in these mountain biking videos. Then you wouldn't have to worry about the hurt that ditch will cause you because you'll know how to avoid it.

In this free series of free extreme sports videos, our expert mountain biker will explain and demonstrate braking techniques for downhill mountain biking. He will show you the proper body position and braking techniques for slowing down or stopping when you need to. Mickey Denoncourt demonstrates how to brake on steep rolldowns and how to position your feet for cornering. Our expert even discusses brake modulation and theories on how to look ahead to anticipate when you will have to slow down. When you want the whole story on the right way to do things, you'll find the information you need at Expert Village.

Video Transcript

"Many people are intimidated by riding on really steep terrain. All of your movements are exaggerated. Your braking, everything, is all exaggerated because it's so steep that your bike already want to break traction when you do anything. Your center of gravity is in a completely different place than what you're used to and stuff like that. So, being really familiar with just the basics of riding on flat ground helps you ride steep terrain better. And then when you take that stuff and you apply it towards riding on the steeps that helps a lot too. So what we have is we have a section of trail that comes up over some rocks, some more rocks, little G out, rocks again, and the trail goes down off into the distance there. So, there are some slight turns in the trail. As you're going down the rocks, there's places where you can't brake because it's mossy or leafy. The rocks themselves are pretty wet, which make braking technique a lot more important. So, we have to think about where our weight distribution is on the bike to make sure that the tires stay hooked up. We need to think about how we use our brakes. How we apply them, why we're using the front brake, why we're using the rear brake. Mostly, on steep stuff, we're going to use the rear brake to control the direction that the rear wheel is going. When you think about it, when it's really steep and really loose, hitting the rear brake and locking it up basically makes the brake want to come around--like, the bike just wants to come around, pivot around the front wheel, and the back wheel is going to be pulling downhill if you're not careful. So, how you move left to right is going to determine which way the wheel goes. Your front brake, you can get it nearly locked up going down really steep stuff. And you're not going to go over the bars if you have your weight position good. Starting on a steep hill, stopping on a steep hill. Those are also things that you need to be aware of so you have the confidence that you need to really ride quickly and safely and effectively in steep terrain."