I bought Simon's Fluidride DVD last year and it was the best money spent on riding all last year - that includes two trips to Whistler and a new Demo 8. He presents some great concepts in a way that is understandable. If you only watch the cornering stuff, it is totally worth it.
Wow! How come every time someone talks about cornering the focus is on pedal position. Your feet shift in response to moving and rotating your hips. When it comes to cornering think about hip rotation before anything else.
agreed. if you point your hips (belly button) to the exit your feet (and the rest of your core) will automatically turn where they need to go and you end up doing all of what is posted above without thinking
Best advice I ever gotten about cornering was from Kirt Voreis, and what he said was something along those lines: Outside knee putting pressure on the frame, and outside knee acting as a balancing post. and after that, I was able to corner twice as fast on off-camber turn, and loose turns.
Personally, i've never been able to corner faster until i thought about my elbows. I think most of a time, pedal position and pressure comes naturally if this is not your first year on a bike, but it is important! I always struggle to turn right and these videos shows where the problem is - pedals. I'd like to see more this great stuff on pinkbike.
It's similar to mx or trials in the way that your whole body has to be in tune with the action. The bigger you make the contact patch between tyre and surface, then the faster covering potential. It's all a matter of leverage. YAY PHYSICS!
Oh and another thing I learned. Slow the bike down before you enter the turn and exit fast. The tires were meant to do only one thing at a time. Break in a straight line and dont touch the brakes in the corner. If you brake AND turn at the same time you will go down as the tires can only do one thing at a time. (Something else the 19 year old taught me)
this here is vehicle dynamics 1on1. this applies to any ground vehicle, be it a car, motorcycle or a bicycle. EVERYONE should know this.
and i meant weighting the outside foot should come naturally since in corners when you lean the bike, you don't want to clip anything with your inside foot therefore you raise it and the outside foot naturally takes all the weight. if you come in too hot on a regular basis, practice drifts, drifting is a great way to shed excess speed. also, not to lean with the bike should be common knowledge. it's so simple to practice - just find a straight open sidewalk with some manhole covers and roll up at some 10mph to say, left side of it, then, without yourself moving curve the bike around the right side (and vice versa). the point is to keep yourself going in the straight line but the bike moves around the manhole underneath you.
i forgot to add you will need to counter-steer in order to drop the bike into the corner. again, this should be picked up on naturally, there's really no other way to get it done.
I'm very thankfull for this video and all the comments and tips mentioned above.Thanks to you guys I actually do corner faster and smoother. It is a great feeling when I learn to do something which I usually strugle a lot to achieve! Thanks for the wonderful community here in Pinkbike. Much respect!
I need tips on my position, shifting of weight and my posture. No matter whether Im riding my local bmx track, some dirt jumps or dh trails... I feel fine but when I watch myself back on videos I look uncomfortable. If anyone's willing to help I will put an edit together that shows my position
Find that Golden Thread, boys. I've taken a handful of group and small group lessons with Simon with a wide skill range of riders. EVERYONE walks away better, faster and with new riding skill homework.
We all complain that when you learn a new skill your riding seems to suck, as you are now focused on a new body position (or whatever) but as soon as his cornering technique is second nature, you'll rip!
Well when i ride and i have just watch a video like this one i think to much on how i should ride.. I think its just better to ride and feel your way in to whats best and learn by your self, but it was a great tip this video.
Simon is a legend. I had a great time learning from him. I didnt really know what to expect...but within 5 mins he had totally got my attention. His basic skills really get you thinking and after listening to his advice it is amazing how different and easier things start to feel.
I crashed trying to ride around one of his little flat corners going as fast as i could - and 5 mins later i was able to not only go much faster but also choose my entrance / exit lines and my apex. that was pretty cool. He has wisdom.
The rule for me is that where the head and eyes point the bike will follow. I find that if my head is always pointing in the direction i want to go then my shoulders and respective knee will point in that direction as well. The most important thing is that this should feel natural and not forced otherwise the turn won`t be smooth. Giving tips on cornering is difficult because everyone has different styles. I just think about having my head facing where I want to go, drop the inside shoulder into the corner, and point the inside knee ever so slightly. There is so much more detail you can go into when it comes to cornering but those are the three most important things for me.
BTW baca 262 shouldn't everybody pick up on this after a year of riding naturally, without conscious effort? I have been riding moto for 40 years since I was 5 and I consider myself really fast dh on an mtb but a good friend pointed out that I was doing exactly as this video says. I was coming into stuff too hot and leaning with my shoulder pedals level not weighting outside foot. I kept hitting my shoulder on trees and hilliside. Since I have tried this technique I feel like I have slowed down but my times are down and I am riding always riding on the edge. Before I was always on the edge of crashing. I still have alot to learn but I have found that when you get older you need to listen as there is always an opportunity to learn. The guy I learned the cornering tips from was 19 and a pro DH rider. If I was stubborn or cocky then I would not be advancing. I hope to learn constantly and keep riding until 80 and beyond.
I was just out riding a few days ago and hit some nice smooth berms, but didn't do them great, nor had the speed. I was thinking to myself, i'm heading for a bike road trip this summer and need to figure out how to do berms and such better. Well this sure helped out alot. Going to give it a try this weekend for sure.
a def. help. I was doing this all last season, and just out for a ride this week, and I was noticing I couldn't hit a solid right turn, this is a great refresher...thanks...
Ive been riding for 8 years and me and my friend only just caught on to switching feet in corners! Such a simple thing but loads of riders dont do it. And come to think off it most of my crashes are on right handers.
Looks like his dreamliner is set up with 4" in the back and at least 6" in the front with a ton of sag. Maybe I'm wrong, but if not that is a wild setup. Obviously the guy knows what he is doing, I'm just saying it is weird.
its actually listed in their 2012 book or website as a 4x/slopestyle frameset, not the dreamliner. They only have the frame available currently, but hopefully in the future they market it as a full setup too. When you go to the website look under framesets
