Steep Terrain Braking Techniques for Mountain Biking

Video Transcript

"So, what I was trying to say about the back brake, is that when you're on a steep section of trail, especially something that's slippery like these rocks, it changes direction. It doesn't slow you down. As I got slightly off of straight on those rocks there, and hit the back brake, tried to come around. So, that's an exaggerated circumstance--about the least amount of traction you're ever going to have. But it's the same thing any other time you're braking going down something steep. The back wheel, when you lock it up, just wants to come around. So, what you want to do, to use the back brake appropriately and to your advantage on steep stuff like this, is lock it up for a little bit of a second just to get it to break loose and go around a corner or un-weight over something, then let loose and all of a sudden you have more traction and you go straight. But, using your back brake too much because you're afraid of going over the handlebars using your front brake is going to make it impossible to ride a section."