Brake Modulation Tips for Mountain Biking

Video Transcript

"Even though today's brakes are really powerful and lock up quickly, they don't have to be an all or nothing thing. It's not like you just pull on your brakes and lock them up. They're not anti-lock brakes like on a car or whatever like that. So what you need to do is you need to be--you need to feather them, you need to apply just a tiny bit, just as much as you need to, and you need to make sure your application of the brakes is very smooth. If you just clamp on the brakes super hard, like I did earlier with my rear wheel on this loose section where I spun out, you're going to spin out. Same sort of thing in a straight line. It's going to just--you're going to loose traction, you're not going to maintain traction and you're not going to go the way you want to go. So, as I ride through this section, if you want to focus on just the little movements my fingers make. How they're always sort of flittering on the handlebars--I mean, on the brake levers, versus just being on them firmly or dragging them. You'll see that modulation, or feathering--super, super important."