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Basic Trail Riding Technique - February Lets begin with a quick review of the main points we covered last month. January’s article dealt with basic body positions used on different terrain. First, we stressed the importance of riding standing up. Standing on the foot pegs on rough terrain allows your knees and leg muscles to absorb shocks from bumps, ruts and rocks and allows weight shifting. Standing up allows you to shift your weight rearward where traction is poor or forward to avoid looping out on steep up-hills. It allows you to help steer the bike by shifting weight to the left or right foot peg. Now lets talk about the benefits of wheel unloading (un-weighting) and loading (weighting) techniques. Front and rear wheel loading and unloading helps you to ride safely over obstacles such as rocks, ledges, logs, mud and ditches. Loading and un-loading only works from a stand-up posture. I relearned this the hard way during a Turkey run in early November. It was near the end of the ride. Luis Colom, an A rider friend and I had ridden nearly 60 miles on tight, rocky trails and I was getting tired. As we finished a muddy section, we came to a slippery, mud covered stonewall. Luis rode over it standing up, making it look easy. I tried to ride with no technique other than ‘sit on your bum and gas it’. All it got me was a hard landing on my butt with my bike upside down on the wrong side of the wall. Front Wheel UnloadingFront wheel unloading is used to initiate a wheely. Wheelie’s are not only fun, they are needed to drive the front wheel up and over rocks, logs and ledges smoothly without banging into the obstacle. The front wheel unload begins with the rider standing up and applying a hard down force on the foot pegs about two feet before the front wheel hits the obstacle. To do this, suddenly collapse your knees allowing your full body weight to come down hard on the foot pegs. A hard down force compresses (loads) the suspension storing energy in the front and rear springs. Simultaneously blip the throttle and jump off (unload) the foot pegs while pulling back on the handlebars. This allows the front springs to rebound and lifts the front end onto the obstacle. Next, shift your weight forward un-weighting the rear wheel to help it roll up over the rock or obstacle. If you time this correctly, the front wheel rises up and rolls easily over the rock or log followed by the rear wheel. Powerful bikes can do a wheely just by blipping the throttle so why all the tricky loading and unloading? Here’s why. If the terrain is wet and muddy, the power wheely may not work. The rear wheel can spin, producing no lift of the front wheel. Occasionally, you may come upon a log across the trail while riding down a hill. It is more difficult to wheely when riding downhill because some of your weight and the weight of the bike shifts to the front wheel. Here is a trick to help. As soon as you see the log, slow down. When your front wheel is about three feet feet from the log, apply a quick hard jab on the front brake to compress the front suspension. Immediately, release the brake, unload and apply a jab of throttle. The front wheel should rise up and over the log and the back wheel will follow. This trick requires precise timing and should definitely be practiced first without a log. Fortunately, you can practice the loading/unloading
techniques anywhere, even in your back yard.
It helps to learn how to wheely on terrain with a slightl uphill.
First practice without any obstacle until you can do a small wheely.
Then, practice with a small diameter limb or a piece of 2” x 4” until
you get the timing right. Then move
on to larger obstacles. On most
structured trail rides, you will not have to ride over any rock or log higher
than about 8”. But, even a 3”
wet limb angled to the trail can dump you hard if you do not unload the front
wheel properly. Tip: If all
this loading/unloading sounds too complicated, just do a good hard ‘stomp’
on the foot pegs, followed by a quick blip on the throttle while pulling back on
the bars. It is much easier than it
sounds. Rear Wheel Unloading There are situations where you will need to unload the rear wheel to help it over an obstacle. At slower speeds and with smaller obstacles such as 6” diameter logs, front end loading is usually enough. If you get the front wheel over the log, the rear wheel will usually follow. However, if the 6” log is slippery or it is at an angle to the trail, it may throw you into a rear wheel sideslip. For an angled log, first use front wheel unloading to help the front end over the log. Then, just before the rear wheel hits the log, unload again by jumping off the foot pegs. This allows the rear spring to rebound to help pop your rear wheel over the log, thus avoiding a rear wheel sideslip. Also, use the rear wheel unload technique to reduce the impact when the rear wheel hits a log or rock at high speed. Advanced riders, riding at high speed, will first pull a wheely to clear the front wheel over the log and then do a quick, hard “bunny hop” to jump the rear wheel over the log. Ditches and Gullies. While riding woods roads or trails you frequently come upon
ditches. Treat the ditch like a log
and use unloading technique to “wheely” the front wheel over the ditch.
Try not let the front wheel drop into the ditch.
If the ditch is deep or has a steep bank, it can stop the bike and throw
the rider over the bars. This is
called “doing the flying W”. It
is not fun. Try practicing longer and
longer wheelies on a smooth grassy surface while wearing all your safety
equipment. Use a bit more unload
along with more power and a harder pull back on the handlebars. Control the
height of your front wheel by modulating the throttle.
As you get better, you will be able to amaze your friends with long
wheelies and you will also develop a very useful trail riding tool.
Safety
Whether practicing or trail riding, always wear your helmet, goggles, boots and other safety equipment. This is especially important when learning or practicing wheelies. Let people know where you intend to ride and never ride or practice alone. Always ride in the company of others so there is someone to get help in case of an injury. If weather permits, try to get out and practice loading and un-loading techniques. Next month, we will cover whoops, turning techniques, jumps and some advanced techniques. |
