Has anyone got over their fear of going downhill?

Cyclax Maximus wrote:

………..imagining your next door neighbour was trying to steal your girlfriend through the cat flap…

Thank you for such a wonderfully surreal Leauge of Gentelmenesque notion  

Might seem a bit silly this

Might seem a bit silly this but ……. Glasses/sunglasses that provide decent wind protection. 

When your eyes are steaming & your vision is blurred things can feel very fraught very quickly. Some decent protection that holds the wind off & allows you to clearly see what’s coming up leads to things feeling a bit ‘slower’ and rather more controllable.

matthewn5 wrote:

levermonkey wrote:

Try to regard your back brake for speed control and your front brake for stopping.

Isn’t it exactly the opposite? Front brake for speed control, rear brake if stopping completely. That’s the way I was always taught. The front brake is much more powerful, so you only use the rear at the end when you’re nearly at a dead stop, because it doesn’t have as much effect.

Ideally we’d all finish our braking in a straight line before turn-in. Tires have a finite amount of grip, and they work best if they are asked to handle one task (acceleration, braking, or cornering) at a time. Trying to combine two tasks means the tire can’t do them as well.

As an example, if I were to overcook a corner and carry too much entry speed, mid-corner I’d much rather feather the back brake lever to scrub some speed and get back in line. Because the back brake isn’t as strong, it can be used for speed control and line adjustment in cases like this – and it’s arguably easier to recover from a loss of rear grip than it is from the front. Doing so with the front lever will have a greater likelihood of me hitting the deck; the front tire is already loaded up with cornering forces. 

In just about every other situation though, I’d rely on my front brake more. I would bias just a little more to the rear for wet rides. I’m not sure I agree with dedicating one brake for one duty, because most of the available braking power on any vehicle is on the front wheel(s). The only reason why bicycles and motorcycles flip over when the front brake is too clumsily applied is because these have only one front wheel to handle braking loads and weight shifting. For us cyclists, we have to do the weight shifting by hanging our bums over the saddle to compensate.

JonD wrote:

JonD wrote:

Some good advice above, tho I’m not convinced the ‘cancellara knee out’ makes much difference to weight distribution since you’ll be putting a lot of your weight through the outside pedal (which will be at its low point). Tho what it may do is help point the riders shoulders (and hence view point) around the corner – ie look where you want to go.

At the higher end of the performance spectrum, weight on the outside pedal is exactly where you want it, and on the inside handle bar…. try it sometime. Hanging the knee out seeems to be fairly natural, though according to Jobst Brandt is not actually helpful.

At some point going down hill is about the adrenalin thrill. If you’re not an adrenalin junkie you’re probably going to hit your ceiling fairly early on. For those that enjoy their adrenalin buzz it is about the thrill of going fast. For me, I regularly top 50mph and only consider fast to be above 60 mph.

General tips…. 

Going fast:

• Find an open, straight down hill with few obstructions and just get used to going quicker and quicker down it
• Initially on the hoods, as you can brake reasonably effectively from there, and after a while moving to the drops
• Look far ahead
• Relax.

On handling:

• Be on the drops
• Lose your speed before a corner, but often some braking through the corner is necessary to control / stop you building up speed through the corner
• Weight on the outside pedal, and then the inside handle bar
• Weight distribution cornering about 40% outside pedal, 40% saddle,20 % inside handle bar.
• Look where you want to go, not at what you’re afraid of hitting
• Practise for cornering by going into street corners fast and getting used to the sensation of the speed.
• Remember that a washout (sliding off the bike) is generally a lot less painful than a tumble (hitting sh*t). I used to practice leaning the bike over around corners on a grass field to get over a fear of sliding out in a corner.

View from the cockpit on my playground:

And yes, the road really is that rough, (speedo in kph)

Akatarawas road in wellington, 107 corners in 4.5 miles, 5% average.

Just make a note of your

Just make a note of your threshold speed and nudge it up 2mph each time. 

The other method is the braver one, if your friends can do it, you can do it. I used to use that one doing trackdays on my motorbike, I’d run well under my potential till i followed a faster rider. Not too much faster though. 

Definitely better on the

Definitely better on the drops, slightly off the saddle to absorb any unexpected bumps. Get good at bunny hops!! Still hate descending though, it’s not much more fun going up hills though tbh!

Some good advice above, tho I
Some good advice above, tho I’m not convinced the ‘cancellara knee out’ makes much difference to weight distribution since you’ll be putting a lot of your weight through the outside pedal (which will be at its low point). Tho what it may do is help point the riders shoulders (and hence view point) around the corner – ie look where you want to go.

When I was a kid I had a bad
When I was a kid I had a bad crash, probably due to doing the death grip, as a result was always rather slow and nervy. But now after returning to the road I have learnt to relax and get my position right (hanging my backside further back off the seat, from mtb days) this now allows me to be able to descend fast and have been able to reach the dizzy heights of 53 mph, on not very good roads. This is fast enough for me. I think its about state of mind and learning to relax and go with the flow and trying not to touch the brakes too much. Hope you have success and don’t worry you will be able to slowly build up your speed. Most of all ENJOY yourself. B-)