Tips for Braking Fast when Downhill Mountain Biking

Video Transcript

In really steep terrain, you're on the brakes almost all the time. So, letting off the brakes is almost like twisting the throttle on a motorcycle. If you just let off the brakes completely, it'll get you the extra little bit of speed you need to be stable or roll over something. The thing to remember is, as you get sketched out, as you get scared as it feels like you're about to go down, resist the instinct to pull on your brakes. Instead, keep looking ahead, stay loose, let go of the brakes, and get your speed--get your momentum back, get your stability back. I'm going to ride this section. You'll see I'm on the brakes really hard all through it. I let off the brakes at the end there to get enough speed to clear that little drop at the end. So, watch what I do, and see if you can maybe listen for the sounds of my braking, or I'll try to tell you when I am braking. Okay, light brakes, hard front brake, off the brakes. If I wasn't looking far ahead-- instead of looking far ahead if I was looking right in front of my wheel, I would have hit the brakes real hard in that G-out to slow down, and when I got up here, I wouldn't have enough speed to make it off the end of that cleanly, and would have gotten all bottled up. So sometimes letting off the brakes to get that little bit of speed is what you need to do.

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