Hey, it’s the pre-New Year’s edition of Mountain Bike Monday! That’s the weekly feature where I drop a great mountain biking tip on you, from gear reviews to technique tips.
To me, the real fun in mountain biking is in the turns. My absolute favorite sort of turn is slight bermed, slightly downhill and a medium radius. I love to enter a turn like this at just a hair below 20 mph, and feel my tires bite into the dirt.
Now, when I see a big, juicy opportunity like this, I use a great steering technique called “countersteering” to get through the corner ever faster, and to really smoosh by bike into the turn. Here’s how you do it – I’ll walk you through step-by-step in a hypothetical sweeping right turn:
1. Just before you enter the turn, put your left (outside) leg at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Put a good chunk of weight on that outside pedal.
2. Point your right (inside) knee into the turn.
3. As you enter the turn, stiffen your right (inside) arm.
4. Hold that position!
5. As you leave the turn, start pedaling.
It’s pretty easy, though kind of counter-intuitive. In fact, there are certain extreme circumstances in which your wheel will be facing the opposite direction of your turn. But give it a try. It works beautifully, and makes fast fun turns even faster – which equals a boatload more fun!
Got a question or suggestion for Mountain Bike Monday? Send it to wandering.justins@gmail.com!
