I've covered riding up hills offroad and the importance of your approach angle
your momentum the strategies of how to get to the top and how to stay in
control but riding downhill can be absolutely terrifying. in this episode
I'm going to cover the riding techniques and mental processes to ride a large
adventure bike off-road downhill before it can cover the mental techniques and
strategies for riding an adventure bike off-road downhill let's cover the riding
technique now there's two major things riders do wrong right out of the gate so
let me tell you what those are don't look at the ground in front of your
fender and don't put your weight on the bars no death grip here's what we do
that's right. I'm going to start by making sure I'm in a weightless position
that I'm not feeling any energy pushing me forward on the bike I'm going to lean
back I'm gonna move back on the bike and wedge my legs into the seat most seats
come in in an angle and that allows me to come back and use that seat to hold
me into position when I wedge back into the seat like this it keeps me from
being thrown forward on the bike but I don't want to do is squat if you're
squatting down if you move down like this you'll end up burning up a lot of
energy and those muscles in the legs so wedge back I can use the the foot pegs
on the bottom my foot wedges against the back of the peg I wedge into the seat
this is a very relaxed position I'm now behind the handlebars and I'm not being
thrown over the bike my left foot is going to be above and behind the shifter
I'm normally in second gear on a slow technical downhill and if I want
compression braking or more importantly if I need thrust if I need to launch
over a rock or over a ditch I don't want to find myself accidentally bumping into
neutral on the right side I'm gonna have my foot in tight to the bike and it's
going to be hovering over the highest step on the brake lever and that allows
me to still be in this back position and do apply rear brake if I only have a low
step or if I'm not in the right place with my foot I have to move
for word to get down to use that break and that moves me forward on the bike
and does not give me the best balance or the best weightless position on the
machine now that are behind the bars on the left side I'm using two fingers I
pulled my clutch in on a downhill I'm almost always clutch in
I don't compression brake going down hills because it's not as predictable it
can skip and bounce it it it's just not as good all right so I'm gonna be clutch
in that way if I need power again to launch over a rock or over a rut I can
give power and slip that clutch out and it's ready to go on the right side I'm
gonna have one to two fingers resting on my brake lever and I'm apply just enough
pressure that the brake pads are rubbing against the rotor but not necessarily
slowing the bike that means that if I need just a little bit of brake for
going downhill I can just put the lightest pressure and I start getting
just enough slowing if my fingers hover above or if they're wrapped around and I
go for the brake it's much more likely that you'll grab or apply too much
pressure you can lock the front end or tuck it if you have abs or a bike with
street abs it can engage the ABS and you start free rolling down the hill neither
one is what I recommend so those are the techniques knees are in I'm wedged back
against the seat my left foot is behind the shifter right foot is above the rear
brake I'm behind the handlebars so the front end can track naturally and I have
two fingers with the clutch pulled in and two fingers resting on the brake
lever head neither up now let's talk about strategy
often the biggest challenge for going down any Hill off-road is mental it's
our mind it's the way we think is the way we look at things it's fear and when
we end up fearful going down a hill or if we're not committed to the hill
before we begin we end up doing things that get us in trouble we grab the
brakes we tuck the front end we don't accelerate to go over things when we
need to we just get very nervous and we have very poor technique we tense and
grab up begin with a good strategy the steeper the hill the slower the approach
all the way to a near stop if needed get off the bike walk the hill it's more
important to know where you're gonna end up at the bottom your landing area then
it is even the middle of the hill so once you crest that hill tractions gonna
start changing but gravity's in your favorite you're going to the bottom of
the hill one way or the other what you want to do is make sure that your eyes
are looking far enough down and knowing exactly where I land so that I know I
have good traction I can stop I can change the direction that I have control
if I don't have control in the middle of the hill that's okay as long as I have a
good landing and I have to keep my mind all the way at the bottom the farther I
look the more relaxed I am the less fear I have it's very seldom that it's our
physical ability or even our techniques that are really limiting us it's fear
that limits us and it's fear that we need to control the easiest way to
control fear is keep your eyes as far down the trail as possible and make sure
you keep a nice light grip to the handlebars so you have fine motor
control of both the clutch and the front brake. and don't forget to smile. you're
having fun