Descending breaking the fear

The absolute #1 is to have
The absolute #1 is to have confidence in the bike.
If the brakes are rubbish or it doesn’t fit properly or the tyres have a tendency to slide, it doesn’t matter how good you are, you’ll never be able to give it 100%.

So ensure that the rims are clean, the brakes are as good as you (or a shop!) can get them, all the nuts and bolts are torqued correctly, the tyres are good quality, free from cuts etc and inflated to the correct pressure for your weight, the road conditions etc.

Then find a gentle descent that’s as traffic free as possible and practice flowing down it. Not riding it. Flowing. Don’t go for all out speed, go for smoothness, as little braking as possible, head up, look [b]through[/b] the corners rather than at them. Once you can do that, the speed will come as a by-product of being smooth. Try to go fast and you’ll end up over-braking which isn’t smooth. Outside leg down, weight the bike with the body, don’t try and steer it too much, you steer by leaning, looking where you want to go and using the hips and a bit of weight on the inside of the bar.

Chris Boardman did a very funny video (which I can’t find…) on descending but in the absence of the video, try his tips here: http://www.tamiasoutside.com/2012/07/17/descending-2/

The problem in the UK is that a lot of descents tend to be on rubbish roads, short / steep / twisty where you can’t let the bike go or on busy A-road where you’ve got loads of traffic.

Quote:Don’t think its been

Don’t think its been explicitly mentioned yet – on a bike/motorcycle at speed you countersteer to turn

I know that in discussions about bicycle handling, countersteering usually crops up at some point. It’s not really that important because it’s the way two wheeled things work; if you ride a bike, you can already countersteer.

Don’t think its been
Don’t think its been explicitly mentioned yet – on a bike/motorcycle at speed you countersteer to turn (in).
It’s pretty subtle on a bike, but way more noticeable on a motorcycle.
You push on the bar to the side you want to turn (or pull on the other) – which often feels like pushing the bike down into the corner.

Along with all the other
Along with all the other excellent advice, it may be worth trying to pinpoint exactly what it is about a particular descent that scares you.

For straight, steep drops, the only thing you really need to worry about is the road surface. So long as you can keep the bike in the straight line, there’s only one place gravity’s going to send you, so you can ‘model’ the decent in your head pretty easily. Knowing that, you can ride with the aim of avoiding imperfections; small movements, but not really editing your course. The speed may ‘feel’ scary, but the knowledge that it’s not going to chuck you anywhere unexpected should make it easier to come to terms with. It’s just you, but faster. Speed is not dangerous on its own.

For swoopy descents, then just be cautious as hell, or as cautious as you want, until you can’t be bothered with that level of caution anymore. Try breaking the descent down into shorter, straighter sections so the drop becomes more like a series of the straight ones mentioned earlier. In these circumstances, speed CAN throw you weird places, so try and almost ‘reset’ before every new section by slowing down as much as you want, perhaps almost coming to a standstill (obviously try and find a very quiet and unpressured environment for this).

Like many people have said, a fluid descent requires a fluid body, and that can’t happen if you’re physically and mentally rigid. Therefore, working on breaking descents down into something comfortable, understandable, and not scary pieces comes before anything else.

Compared to most cycling, where you’re wrestling the bike up hills or desperately trying to hold someone’s wheel, descending requires you to ‘do’ almost nothing. It’s not your strength generating the force driving you forwards, but gravity (+ your combined mass). Descending about understanding those forces, knowing what they can and can’t do, and then ‘feeling’ when you can let them take you, and when to dial them back.

If you can, find some of both types of descent (somewhere very quiet), and practice letting gravity ‘take control’ of you on the former, and letting yourself ‘take control’ of gravity on the latter (i.e. brake a lot). Weight distribution, body tension, mental focus etc. should hopefully start to feel like a natural part of something bigger. There are only really ‘gravity, contours, body and bike’ at work, and the first two are already set in stone.

Oh, and obviously, the bike has to be suitable. A heavily laden tourer or not going to handle very responsively compared to a carbon racer.

wellcoordinated wrote:Sounds

wellcoordinated wrote:

Sounds to me like you have the wrong bike. Your bike sounds twitchy. Try the same descent on different bikes and see whether it’s you are the bike. Almost certainly the bike.

+1 for trying this. I use to ride a Planet X Pro Carbon and loved it but anything over 25mph and I was leaving brown stuff over the road and learnt to love the smell of melting pads. Moved over to the Fenix and now hit the same descents a good 10-15mph faster.

I used to descend at speed,
I used to descend at speed, when conditions were safe. After a painful brush with the tarmac at under 20mph, getting stones picked out of knees is painful, I didn’t want to find out what it would be like at 40mph+. Now I take descent easy and put effort into ascents instead.

The bike needs to move around
The bike needs to move around on the road, especially if the surface is not perfect.
A relaxed grip on the bars and relaxed arms and shoulders are essential. Use your body to point you in the right direction and let the bike follow you there. You cannot try to steer the bike all the time.

If you can, get out on a mountain bike. This will help teach you to allow the bike to move around under you and relax your grip.