- Riding corners fast on a mountain bike
can be quite hard, a little bit risky,
but it is a lot of fun when you know them.
This is how to ride corners fast.
(upbeat music)
The conditions you ride in,
like today, it's rainin',
and also the dirt is actually make a big difference
how much grip you have.
On a hard-packed surface, a tyre with a big, soft knob
is gonna find the biggest amount of grip,
also a wide tyre.
However in softer conditions, like today,
maybe a thinner tyre with slightly taller knobs
is gonna dig in that much better,
so tyre choice and conditions
are actually gonna make a massive difference
how fast you can ride that turn.
Judging the corner and the amount of grip you've got
is gonna be key for getting around that corner fast.
We're gonna split this video into two parts.
The first one being flat turns.
(upbeat music)
Flat corners are probably the hardest corners
to try and ride fast,
because a slide can easily turn into a crash.
Therefore, the fundamentals are really important first,
so think about those things I always talk about
in cornering techniques videos,
so outside foot down, tryin' to get
your centre of gravity low into the outside the bike,
angling the bike over, looking to the exit
if you can, but no corner is the same.
Here, I've got a root that runs diagonally
across the trail, probably the worst direction
it can be goin' in, so I might need to just do
a slight bunny hop over that,
even though I'm still looking around that corner.
To get fast 'round this corner
is gonna take confidence, commitment,
but also a very good line choice.
It's always good to try and open up the corner
as much as possible by entering the corner
as wide as you can.
You see in this corner, I can actually go really wide,
and use this part of a berm on the right hand side
to square off the first part of the corner.
However, to me, that doesn't look any better
because I'm gonna end up going too far
to the inside on the (mumbles) corner,
where it's really off camera.
I'm gonna stick to the inside,
I'm gonna open up as much as I can,
and make one big, smooth curve.
(upbeat music)
A berm is gonna give you much more support
than a flat corner, so you should be able
to be more aggressive, firing the bike
around the corner.
Also, if it's quite a nice, tall berm
like this, you can get up and high into the corner.
You're probably gonna find the steepest part
of the berm is up there, for extra support,
but also then with that height,
you can then drop down and out of the corner
on the way out to carry speed into the next section.
The fast berms are ones that you really squash into.
Softer beds will actually keep your feet
much more level than you would do on a flat corner.
In this example, I've just droppin'
my outside foot outward slightly,
just to try to get a little bit of weight
to the outside and low, but I'm really thikin' about
tryin' to control my weight on the bike.
If my outside foot was all the way down,
it'd be very easy to compress hard,
and actually lose my stability.
(upbeat music)
(tyres hitting gravel)
In this berm, I can afford to be really aggressive.
It's hard-pack, and I've got really big,
grippy tyres on, so I will have a lot of grip.
Also, I've got this big bank here
that's gonna support me, so I'm actually tryin'
to go a little bit inside that,
really throw the bike around
to get through this corner fast.
If it slides a little bit too much,
I've got all this rest of the bank
to then support me, but it's really important
I still keep my head up,
'cause I've got to get around
that right hand corner after this.
(upbeat music)
Here you can see we've got a really big berm,
but it's got some massive braking bumps in the bottom.
You can see on the outside
where everyone's tryin' to get up and outside
of these braking bumps, which is definitely
gonna be smoother, but to be honest,
I think what I'm gonna do
is just stick it in the middle of those bumps.
Yes, it's gonna be rough, so I'm gonna have to try
and stay up my pedals levels, tryin' to absorb
those as best as possible, but it's still actually
really steep, so I've got loads of support in there,
and remember, I still need to look around the berm.
The reason I'm not gonna try and get too high
is because there's a chance you might slide off it,
and to be honest, I don't think it's worth the risk.
I'm just gonna leave it in the bottom of those ruts.
(tyres hitting gravel)
(brakes squealing)
With the extra support you get from a berm,
you can actually lean your body weight
over much further, so that's gonna get you
cornering harder, and therefore, faster.
Two points I always talk about
in cornering techniques videos
is tryin' to get off your brakes if you can,
to give your tyres as much grip as possible,
and also lookin' to where you want to come out the turn.
It makes a massive difference.
(tyres hitting gravel)
(brakes squealing)
That is how to ride corners faster.
I think it's fair to say
that you never really master the skill.
You just get better and better,
and you probably have a few spills along the way.
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If you wanna see more videos to help you get faster
in the corners, click over there
for how to choose your tyre pressure,
or over there to ride smoother and faster.
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