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Turns On Downhills


drca
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Hi:

 

Newbie here, and today I started to practices tight turns on a downhill slope.  The drill is going down a slope (20 to 30% I'd say) then initiate a as tight as possible turn to go back up hill.

 

My tendency is to lean the bike "in" the turn (which is toward the uphill side) and that just causes the front wheel to wash out (it's in pretty loose dirt).  So I was wondering what's the right approach in that case?  Try to keep the bike vertical and weigh the outside peg?  I tried and that makes the balancing really difficult.

 

Thanks.

 

DC

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I would suggest experiment yourself!

 

Try the same corner multiple times, and try 1 thing at a time. What happens when I move the weight left or right, front or rear, or both. One thing to remember, as said in previous post, you can also weight the bars!

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In addition to weighting the outside handlebar, actively pulling upwards on the inner bar can help the turn. I learnt that one from a former British champion. It's all about percentage gains in defeating the factors which might make you fail.

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One piece of advice from years ago, the object during the turn is to have as much of the tread on the tyre biting whatever grip is available, so the bike needs to be leaning to try to get the flat of the tyre at right angles to the surface.  Then you need maximum weight acting through that point of contact, so your body needs to be inboard of the bike with your weight acting perpendicularly through the line of contact.

 

Many thought you needed the total weight of bike plus rider acting down through the point of contact, but repeated tries merely set the tyre sliding down the hill instead of gripping - 'cos only the edge of the tyre was in hard contact with the ground...........

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