Have you ever thought about what limits you on a mountain bike? I’m not talking about skills that you are or aren’t good at, what are the things that LIMIT you?
A big limiter is TRACTION or lack thereof. With more traction, we could brake faster in less distance, corner faster, ride off-camber fast, climb loose section easier, etc.
Regardless of your skill level, two of the biggest limiters you have as a rider are PROCESSING SPEED and BANDWIDTH. A lot is going on that you need to pay attention to – trail surface, speed, what’s about to happen, where you are going, the skill/s you are going to use to get there, etc.
If you can’t process the trail info quick enough or one task takes up a lot of bandwidth it limits you (by overwhelming you). When bandwidth or processing speed gets overloaded it creates anxiety, stiffening us up, wasting energy, and causing you to ride at less than your best.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed on the trail?
FEAR is another big limiter and I have written multiple articles on fear and mountain biking:
Overcoming Fear When Mountain Biking and Using it to Your Advantage.
Mountain Biking, 10 Ways To Calm Your Fear and Ride at Your Best.
This begs the question: How do you ride your best with limited bandwidth, limited processing speed, and limited traction? Answer: With the proper strategies to minimize the effect of those limiters.
I got this idea from motorcycle coach Keith Code and one of my students taught me a better way of explaining it. Keith Code uses dollars, my student’s motorcycle coach used units of 100. So, at any given moment, you have 100 units of traction, 100 units of bandwidth, and 100 units of processing speed to use as you are riding.
If you are using 60 units of traction to slow down you have 40 traction units left to use at that moment. If you are using 99 units of bandwidth to process that rock garden, you only have 1 unit left for the rest of the trail.
One goal then is to use as few units as possible to get things done. If you exceed 100 units, you will likely crash or at least, make a big mistake.
Another goal is to be aware of how many units you are currently using and/or how many units you are about to need. If you exceed 100 units bad things are going to happen!
I will focus on traction in this article and write a separate article on bandwidth and processing speed for you next week.
The main things you need traction for while descending are breaking, cornering, and slippery surfaces (off-camber, wet roots, ice, etc.). When climbing you need traction for power production and to get through roots, rocks, technical sections, and steering.
If you are using 100 units of traction to get across that off-camber section of trail you have no units left to brake with. Therefore, if you brake on that off-camber you will probably slide out and crash.
Strategy 1.
“DON’T brake on off-camber!” Greg Minnaar yelled during one of my courses with him years ago. He is right, brake BEFORE the off-camber and/or after the off-camber. When you brake on off-camber you are rolling the dice. Do you have enough traction?
You need all 100 units of traction for most corners (if you’re not using approximately 100% you could be cornering faster and more efficiently). Therefore, if you brake hard in that corner you will probably slide out and crash.
Strategy 2.
Brake to slow down before corners. (Once you have cut your speed, dragging your rear brake gently so you don’t accelerate is okay). Watch Greg Minnaar or Mitch Ropelato, they do this so well they often look slow as they have slowed a hair more than their competitors at the entrance of the corner.
They are carving their turns and generating exit speed. Sliding looks cool but it means you either came into the corner too fast (using more than 100 units of traction) causing you to slide and/or you broke too hard.
Strategy 3.
Brake where you have the most traction. If the last 15 feet of the trail leading into the corner is loose or brake bumped, do most of your cutting of speed before the loose or brake bumped section.
You need a lot of traction when climbing, especially when doing “up and over” maneuvers and when it is loose and steep. This is where weight placement is critical as well as power management. When the trail gets loose and/or technical how you use your 100 units of traction is very important.
If you put too much power into your pedals as you go over that wet root you will spin out (as you needed 180 units of traction to power over that root). Sometimes a soft pedal accomplishes more. Learn to manage your power output.
Strategy 4.
Manage your weight placement and power output when climbing technical climbs.
Hinge a little too far forward (to keep your front wheel from lifting) and your rear tire spins out on the climb (front tire was 60 units of traction while rear tire needed 65 units). Manage your weight placement so you have enough traction to apply the needed traction but not so much traction that you loop out (by having your weight too far back).
The timing of your power output is extremely important too. There is a slow, up and over rock move on Amasa Back trail in Moab that requires all of my power and I need as much traction as I can get to not spin that rear tire.
After wheelieing my front wheel halfway up the rock there is a “dead space” before my rear wheel gets traction. First, my rear tire has to contact the rock, then, after contacting the rock which compresses my rear suspension, my suspension rebounds, unweighting the rear wheel for a millisecond. So I pause until my rear wheel is planted before applying power.
When I am in a hurry or thinking about the timing of my power output, I usually don’t make this rock move. When I am in my groove and relaxed it’s actually easy! The timing is so quick you must do it by feel, you can’t think about it.
Going up and over a wet root is similar. Often I need power the whole way, but I can’t power the rear wheel over the root (as I need about 600 units of traction to do that!). In this situation, I stomp on the pedal as I wheelie to give me a little more momentum. Then I back off to 50% power as my wheel is in contact with the wet root and as I feel the rear wheel crest the root I’m back to 100% power!
I love these subtle applications of skill! They challenge me and keep me in the zone.
Please share this article with anyone you think may benefit and feel free to call or e-mail with any questions.
Thanks and create your best ride yet,
Gene
I relaxed, saw the line I wanted to take, found my balance and went through the section very controlled – it was great!
Most of my accidents fall into the “I was spent, but kept riding” category. One was just dumb luck (2′ drop & front wheel landed on a random branch & I went sideways fast). Side impacts to the head hurt w-a-y more than direct impact to the head.
I’ve had too many, “I was spent, but kept on riding” crashes! I feel your pain.
Maintaining weight distribution for the trail situation has been my most Betterride lesson learned from your classes. I’ve practiced figures 8’s before every ride and improved my cornering, but falling back into old bad habits (most falling back off center) by weight misplaced has hindered my cornering. Recently, a friend riding behind me said “just lean the bike instead your weight”. Suddenly, I your drills and coaching snapped to my consciousness and I realized that hadn’t been practicing correctly. I’ve been working on my muscle memory to lean the bike in the corner as your class taught and we practiced and my cornering is finally making big improvement.
Thanks, Gene
Hi Fred, great to hear! Keep practicing and keep improving. Remember how we get the bike to lean. The bike leaning over is the result of counter pressure on your handlebar. Many riders when they think ” lean the bike” simply push the bike down which creates a haphazard lean angle. Counter pressure combined with looking through the corner will result in the perfect lean angle.
I love hearing comments like this from my students! Keep practicing and keep improving!
Cheers,
Gene