How to Corner Better On Your Next Ride
How to Corner Better On Your Next Ride
For new riders, corners can be intimidating and scary. For expert riders, corners are so much fun! (And, they’re still sometimes scary.)
Like learning a musical instrument or mastering kung fu, learning to corner is a lifelong pursuit. Here are some basic tips to make you much better right away.
Lee McCormack is a world-renowned mountain bike skills author and instructor who has worked with thousands of riders of all styles and levels. You can learn way more from his books, online school and classes. Check them out at www.leelikesbikes.com.
GET LOW
First of all, we need to position you for cornering success. As you approach every corner, focus on these six keys to correct body position:
1. Hinge at your hips
Push your hips back, and fold your torso so it’s level. This position supports your weight with your hamstrings and glutes rather than your quads. Try this on your next long downhill, and I’ll bet your quads burn less.
2. Bring your shoulders down very low
The closer they are to your handlebars, the more range of motion you have for cornering. If you’re human, when you’re nervous, you push your head away from danger, which means you raise your shoulders and lose control of your bike. Get low—lower than that.
3. Relax your elbows behind your hands
Traditional wisdom, which I once helped spread, was that your elbows should be pointing out like some crazy DH chicken. That’s wrong, and I’m sorry for misleading so many people. Most of the time, for optimal control, your elbows should be directly behind your hands.
4. Hold the bars with “tea-party” fingers
Tension is the enemy of flow, which makes it the enemy of fun. Balance all of your weight on your feet. Keep your hands weightless. If you feel pressure on your palms, you’re too far forward. If you feel pulling on your fingers, you’re too far back. The less tension you have in your hands, the better your bike handles, and the less you get beaten up.
Hinge at the hips and get your shoulders low.
5. Ride with heavy feet and light hands
This is redundant after the last point, but that is on purpose. In order to corner well, you must put all of your weight in your feet and keep your hands weightless. This centers you between your wheels, where you’re safe, and it lets your bike handle as awesomely as it was designed to.
6. Drop your outside foot
When you aggressively pump a corner (e.g., in a perfect and supportive berm), keep your feet level. When you’re trying to survive a sketchy turn (e.g., on off-camber gravel), put all of your weight on your outside pedal. While riding with your outside foot down, it isn’t always the fastest way to turn; it’s a safe way, and you should practice this technique until it’s second nature.
LEAN YOUR BIKE
In order to make your bike change directions safely and reliably, two conditions must be met. Wait, let’s make that three:
1. You must balance on your feet with low shoulders.
2. You must lean your bike independent from your body. Do not let your body lean with the bike.
3. You must be stoked.
Hinge at the hips and get your shoulders low.
Numbers one and three are important! We covered number one in the last section, so here we’ll focus on number two.
When you lean the bike under you, independent of your body, it keeps your weight balanced over your feet and lets you adjust the lean angle of your bike without disrupting your balance.
The tighter the turn, the more you have to lean the bike, and the lower you need to be. When you’re nervous, you’re going to push your head up and you won’t be able to turn—then you’ll get even more nervous. So, get low and lean your bike!
When you’re trying to survive a sketchy turn, put all of your weight on your outside pedal.
LOOK FAR AHEAD
Your brain likes to send your body to wherever you’re looking. If you’ve ridden a bike on densely wooded trails, you know what happens when you stare at a tree—you hit the tree.
There’s an interplay between your technical skills (getting low, balancing on feet, leaning the bike) and your vision. When you look ahead on the trail, you see the big picture. It frees your lizard brain to execute your skills to the best of your ability.
As you start cornering, scan ahead as far as you can. Don’t look at anything—but see everything.
If you’re not comfortable, your lizard brain won’t let you look ahead. This is why you often end up staring at the trail right in front of your front wheel. Your lizard brain isn’t okay with what’s going on, and it’s telling you to slow down.
Here are some good vision habits to practice:
Soft focus.
When you focus intently on a specific object (rock! rock! rock!), that’s hard focus. When you don’t focus on anything in particular and you take in the whole scene, that’s soft focus. Most of the time, you want soft focus. Don’t look at anything but see everything.
Peek ahead.
When you exit a turn, peek ahead to the beginning of the next turn. When you reach that point, peek to the end of that turn. This gives your brain good data to send you where you want to go. I believe that when you reach a point you’ve already looked at, your lizard brain will think, “I remember this spot!” and be cool.
Scan.
As you start cornering, scan as far ahead as you can. If your lizard brain tells you to look at something, look at it quickly, then get back to scanning. The more skilled and experienced you become, the more you’ll scan and the less you’ll stare.
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