Do you fight the basketball when you twirl it on the end of your finger? Of course not. If you do it right, a basketball will stand on the end of your finger as long as it is spinning. In this case, you are working with the forces generated by the spinning basketball to balance it on the same finger you dig your nose with.
In my example above, hitting the tree (although common for me) could have
easily been avoided. It was not the bike which could not make the turn, it was
my brain.
The more I ride, the more I understand that turning is a mental thing. Think of
most of the places you may have ridden. You probably take corners at speeds which met
your personal abilities and not your "hardware abilities." Riding a MTB with any
sense of agression requires that you get beyond the personal abilities
and start working on finding out the hardwares abilities.
Let's assume I made it through that corner (...after about 10 tries).
As I approach The Curve I look at the line I am going to take and begin to take the bike onto that line. As I start to lean, the bike tire moves from the center tread onto the "transition-tread." This change in forces on the tire causes the tire carcass to deform a little out of round. Based on the tire pressure the contact patch will tend to get a little bigger as the weight of the bike, the cornering forces, and the centrifugal forces start to grow with every degree you lean. As you get to the apex, or the deepest part of the turn, you will take on the greatest amount of external force while in this turn. At this time you are probably on the cornering or "edge-tread." This is the set of tread blocks which seem to stick out the side of your MTB tire. They are designed to better handle the "Blessed Mother of Traction" when the bike is getting attacked by numerous forces of nature. When you are on the edge-tread you are really balancing yourself against the bikes forward momentum, the centrifugal force of the spinning wheels, the force of the rims being leaned off-center, the bike's tendency to stand up in a turn, and the wheel's tendency to want to lay down in the turn. If you are balancing this all correctly, you will turn. If you make a mistake, or the "Blessed Mother" is not on your side, you will tend to meet the ground - post haste.
Cranking up the "how to ride a Mountain-Bike microscope," there is even more going on between the tire and the road when you try to turn.
When you are turning your MTB the basic effect is the same, but you are not
travelling in a straight line. Now the "bounce" has to content with the
forward momentum of the bike, and the forces pulling the tire and rim to the
earth. The result is a slide everytime the tire encounters any major surface
irregularity.
When I am on my un-suspended MTB, I have to ride differently than when I am
on the ProFlex because of the differences in traction. I have to setup my tires
differently also. When I hit "The Curve" on the hardtail beast, I find that my tire
pressure most affects my cornering ability because it determines how much
the tires are going to bounce. This is also about the same time you discover if
you have crappy transition-tread on your tires. I find with the Beast that I
have to run a low pressure, like 35 to 40 PSI, if I want to take turns the
fastest. This is a compromise because I have to pedal harder to make up for
the spongy tires, and the rear end may tend to squibb out from under the rim a bit
more when I snap it into a turn (as opposed to a nice, even arc into a turn).
Since my tire is not filled "tight" it actually cushions the blows from the
ground surface to some extent. Also, because the tire is a bit squishy, it
tends to hit the ground and get settled in better before it starts to bounce
again. This little reduction in the tire bouncing gains a ton of traction.
I can come up to a turn trailing the rear brake right up to the start of the
turn. Just as I am about to enter the turn, I scan for objects in the
trail which could cause "momentus-interruptus". If all is clear and my speed
is OK, I look at the exit of the turn right where I want the tire to
touch the trail. Keep looking here until you are just leaving the apex
of the turn. Next I get off the rear brake and try to lean the bike in to the
turn evenly. I usually take a line right through the center of the trail in case
the tire slides a bit. This way you have room for a slight slide without
hitting any obstacles which are not moving the same direction you are. Letting
the bike slide is something you need to get used to. It will slide a bit. If
you have good tires and you have correct tire pressure, you can bet that
the tire will slide predictably and not suddenly. To best handle a slide, keep
your elbows out and relax your arms and hands. When the slide comes, just
relax and you will automatically do the right thing - push the front end.
If you start thinking about sliding you will not do it right. Practice relaxing
and do not practice sliding. Practice cornering and turning and not the
disasters that occur when you do so.
My ProFlex is a completely different animal from the Beast. Full suspension bikes
are better designed to deal with the laws of the "Blessed Mother", and they
therefore allow you to ride more agressively. With a suspension on the bike,
the tires will not tend to bounce over the ground. In fact, the suspension
allows the bike to soak up bumps like 12 ounces of pimple cream. Because you
do not deal with the tire except when it is on the ground, you have a ton more
braking power and you can lean until you feel rocks hitting your elbows.
When on the ProFlex and I am attacking "The Curve", I use much less caution
then the times I am on the Beast. I also use a ton more forward momentum!
When approaching The Curve, I will pedal until the last possible moment and
then turn my attention to the exit of the turn. Without considering my speed
or looking at the center of the turn (beyond looking for logs and dead Union
Leaders) I put my pedal down on the side of the bike on the outside of the
turn and lean until I get to the place on the exit of the turn I am looking at.
When leaning you should slighly crouch down and keep your elbows out to handle
a slide. RELAX!
Once you are on track with the exit point on your turn, then you should look
as far forward down the trail as you can and head for that. If you can manage
to get out of the turn with relaxed arms and no slide, you will be flying on the
way to the next turn - And I mean HAULING MAJOR BUTT here!
And man can you lean!!!!!!!!!! With no bumps deflecting the tire from its course, you will be able to perform feats of anti-gravity that will amaze even you. I cannot tell you how many times I have been in a turn when one of the wheels went away a little and I just hammered on knowing that it would hook up again, and the "Blessed Mother" would help me escape the snake-of-a-turn with little change in my forward speed. I still find myself coming up to a turn going so fast that I have to not think about it or I will hit the brakes, and break what I hit.
There are a million variations upon actually taking a corner. But cornering on
a MTB essentially boils down to two methods - the arc and the apex.
(They may have official, bike-geek, in-a-book-somewhere names, but I do not know
them)
The apex method of turning is probably the hardest to master, but it will save
your butt the most. With an "apexed" turn, you are dealing with a line
which is not smooth and even. You want to drive into the turn to a specific
point, change what your bike is pointed at, and exit on a different line
than you entered on. The hardest part of this is changing the dirction of in which your bike is
pointed.
Generally, this is done with the rear brake and your pedals.
If one was to apex "The Curve," it would actually be the slow way to get through
it. "The Curve" is about a 100 degree turn which is round enough to carry speed
through. But, to apex The Curve you would want a slightly different approach
whether your bike had a suspension or not.
The key to the apex is how much room you give yourself to "adjust" your line,
and how well you use that line. In a perfect world you have as much room as
the trail is wide, and you will use every square inch of that room to make the
corner. I have never ridden in "perfect-world," but I hear it is nice this time
of year.
As you approach "The Curve," you will want to be in the middle or all the way to
the inside of the upcoming corner. Adjust this based on the amount of room
you have when you are in the corner. If you have a ton of room for error
on the corner, then take the turn tight and inside. If you have little room
for error and you do not want the directional change to be as radical, stay farther
from the inside if you can. (With some trails you do not have a decision here.
You will take a line based on where you can put your wheel)
Just as your tire starts to enter the turn look at your "pivot point." This
is the place you want to apex the turn at. You want to start the apex as the
front rim of your bike passes over the pivot point.
When you get to the right place, you have two choices: heave the bike over into
a slide, or hit the rear brake just enough to goose the rear rim into a slide.
If you want to carry a ton of speed, you will need to slide without the brakes.
Using the brakes to slide can sometimes be the only way into a tight turn if
you want to keep the collarbone count to just two. Either way, you need to get
loose to change where the bike is going to go. If you get the bike to slip
just the right amount, you will be able to oversteer to stop the slide.
When you get it all back together, you are on a different line going out of "The
Curve" than the one you took going into it. If you get real lucky, the line you chose
will actually be in proximity to the trail you were riding on.
It does take practice to master apexing a turn, but it is worth the time to
learn if you do not have a fully suspended mountian bike. Arc'ed turns, on
the other hand, are what make Motorcycles, BMX, Motocross, or Mountain Biking
so much fun that you would spend a ton of money on one of these pursuits, and get up at 7:00AM
on a Saturday even when your spouse has this thing about sex in the morning.
There is only one secret I know of to arcing a turn - RELAX! You want to find a
line which can be made into an even, or widening circle. It helps if the
surface you are turning on has been tested with one's tires and has a nice
positive camber to it. But this is not as critical.
As you approach "The Curve," make sure you are on the line to enter your turn. You
better not be on a hot approach when you realize you forgot to take time to
find a line. If you have to, take the turn on your bike a few times at walking
pace. Once on your line, look at the exit of the turn - the place you want your
tires to cross as they leave the turn. As you move deeper into the turn, look
farther and farther ahead and adjust how far you look relative to how fast you
are going. The faster you go, the farther ahead you need to be looking.
Tune out the corner itself, forget about any minor irregularities you saw.
Do not think about how much you are leaning. Do not think about sliding or
crashing, just concentrate on keeping to the line you took. By doing this, you
will relax your arms and hands. If you are relaxed and the bike starts to
slide you will automatically handle it (it just happens). Let it happen.
Next thing you know, you will be through the turn in half the time you thought
it took, and on your way to crashing into the next turn. (Learn to walk before
you run, ya know!)
You may have to adjust your line, but eventually you will get it. Like golf,
when you get it right, it takes the minimal amount of effort to really fly.
The keys to cornering extend beyond the way your tires are made, the weight
of you or the bike, or even what surface you are cornering on. To corner you
need to know the safest and fastest way through a turn, and you need to be
looking at where you will be and not worry about where you are.
I cannot stress enough how much it helps to have a place to practice. You
used to always hear me going on about Campbell-park "this" and Campbell-park
"that," but I was able to try things with the same bike on the same surface
to see how they affected my ride. The ability to analyze yourself will result
in safer riding, more speed, respect for the "Blessed Mother" and a definite
understanding of your incremental improvement. To me, this makes MTB's both
a challenge and a reward everytime I throw a leg over to just have fun.
Flyin Al
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