Video: Absorbing Trail Features & Maintaining Speed - How To Bike with Ben Cathro Episode 4

 Jewellers hate him Cheers dude

 Best series on pinkbike in a while, the tips aren't that relevant to me, but the video quality and Ben not taking himself too seriously will make me watch all episodes. It's like the anti-pinkbike-academy, sorry had to go there!

 @Mugen: Why are the tips not relevant to you...

 I try my hardest

 I’ll let him know. Kinda worried his head might pop at this point though.

 @ben-cathro: please can you add the links to previous episodes. Thank you

 @dicky1080: www.pinkbike.com/news/tags/how-to-bike

 @brianpark: thank you!

 Just used that trick while recording our line choice vid. Genuinely good option tbh

 @ben-cathro: For line choice I go with "lock all limbs in panic, look at the thing you want to avoid, brake too hard and too late" but I'll let my buddies know that my technique for trail features is now Ben Cathro approved.

Great videos, love how you show the "wrong" way shots as it really illustrates the difference small changes in body position and technique have on riding. Great series so far.

 There’s line choice? I go where my bike takes me.

 Haha, turns out I needed someone to say: Make these videos, here’s the budget, get it done by this date. I was still late on delivery but hey, progress.

 Ha you're right. I remember him bumming rides to the race and doing the editing in a cheap room late at night. Next morning looking for better wifi so upload would work. It's funny how sometimes it all works out.

 @ben-cathro: you’re the best dude. Keep it up.

 It’s the graphics man. Just can’t argue with them.

 he's a effing king of riding skills and teaching them

 Might even stretch to a half pizza supper

 If you don’t use a dropper your obviously limited by what you can do with your legs but the same principles will still apply. Good luck.

 @ben-cathro: Yes most will apply and the part about going forward before a drop totally resonate. Coming from years of road racing it took me a while after starting racing xc and marathon to realize that putting your ass backward is not the one-size-fit-all solution when there is something technical.

 @ben-cathro: Thanks!!

 For sure you are. Being aware of it allows you to maximise it though.

 Sounds perfect for a small dip forward of the chest then pushing the bike into the steeper face. Verrrry hard to know if I’ve exactly understood you’re explanation so go cautious with your first try with a subtle move to see if it helps.

 Cheers boss.

 As you go into the feature the arms are pushing “pitching” the bike down at the angle of the feature. This should happen just after the front wheel goes over the edge.

I do it a little later in the vid as I’ve got a long bike and I think I was trying to push the front wheel all the way down to the transition. That’s a personal quirk of mine rather than something you should emulate.

At the transition the focus is on the push with the legs to drive the back wheel through the transition and settle you back into a centred position.

You can add a little dip of the arms before the lower transition to better guide the front wheel through it (you can see me doing this little dip on the green example at 12:15) but it’s not crucial.

So the focus is push down with the arms just after cresting the steep at the top (puts you into weight back riding down a steep position), push with legs as you hit the transition at the bottom (puts you back into Boss Stance).

 @ben-cathro: Great explanation Thanks!
Really enjoying this series!!

 Sounds like you’re already doing it right. If you need to slow down for the turn and you can’t slow down after the steep feature then you have to do it before. Sounds like prejumping in would put you into the turn too fast but I could be picturing it completely wrong because words are open to interpretation. Tricky one.

 Going by Friday Fails you are not the only one

 'Stay far back' is one of the worst MTB 'tips' that somehow still lingers and refuses to die. I continue to hear it circulated amongst the dad-bro weekender MTB-is-the-new-golf crowd. Fuck that. Get low and forward and embrace the gnar.

 @dirtyburger:

Agree. Started riding “proper” “steepish” trails this year. Without really thinking about it after a few sessions I was riding far more neutrally within the middle of the bike.

Weight over the back gives you nowhere to go when you get to a feature

 @dirtyburger: 100%. Sucks that there are so many of those people giving advice. I see so many pics of people with such bad form or people suggesting bad form.

 You want the same fore-aft balance on the tire contact patches as you have when riding level terrain. Which does indeed imply that you are going to shift rearwards a little for that same balance (with a big "but" coming up later on). If you look at '90s/00's freeriders descending, it may seem that they're super far rearwards. Though mind that [1] they're probably descending steeper than you are and [2] their wheelbase to wheelsize ratio is likely smaller than what you're riding now so they did indeed have to shift further back for that same balance. Their bottom brackets were probably higher too.

And now the big "but": compared to riding at constant speed, when you accelerate you need to have your weight a little more forward for that aimed fore-aft balance and when you decelerate you need to have your weight a little more rearwards. You probably already do this on level terrain, same applies on sloped sections. You're obviously going to accelerate during the first section of the descend so have you body "ahead" of the bike or you're never going to catch up as it accelerates. Imagine leaning too far back when dropping in on a skateboard (ramp, bowl, whatever). The skateboard would just fly away under you (and you'd likely hurt yourself). Stay ahead and the board will nicely come underneath.

Also mind you that this forwards position is only during the first phase as he accelerates. If the descend is longer and you'll brake for a constant descending speed you'll shift your body more rearwards. Yet if you're geometry is right, you should still have enough room to move and shift your body (to absorb irregularities etc). Only when you actually have to descelerate (so actually reduce your speed) you'll shift your weight even more rearwards to avoid an OTB. But you don't want to go there when not needed (so look ahead to avoid unneeded deceleration hence trail erosion) as you will have little room left to move and steer. Also, it seems people have too much fear of going OTB and dive too deep into the other, equallyh unsafe, corner. If you feel the rear wheel lose contact then lower front brake pressure and it will nicely come back down. Develop that reflex and you'll no longer be that scared.

TL;DR: The very forwards body position is what's needed during the first part of the descend where the bike is going to accelerate. This isn't where you'll be when descending at constant speed or when slowing down. Yet indeed during this acceleration phase too many people seem to be too far back which causes them to both lose room to move around over the bike and they'll end up hanging on for dear life as the bike accelerates with them dangling behind.

 I would

 Or was it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 Ride every single day. Video yourself and session any sections you are having problems with.

 Same technique but don't lean so far forward that you go OTB.

 But way more fun

 Do you mean a whip or tailwhip? A tailwhip is rotating the bike 360 degrees around the handlebars as you take your feet off. A whip is getting sideways in the air and brining it back.

 @redrook: definitely tail whip. Can’t be the only one who wants to see a 7ft man throw a whopper on XXXXXL mega tower.

 @thenotoriousmic: If Ben can do that I definitely want to know how lol