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1 minute ago, olddbrider said:

I think Kyle Warner could clean up if he started doing clinics across the country (well, after the pandemic eases up of course). I really like his teaching style and he seems to have a real knack for breaking down difficult concepts into easy to learn chunks.

Agreed.  I first saw his drops tutorial a few weeks ago and have made a point to watch all of his videos since.  He does a great job at breaking down individual things to focus on, explaining why to do each thing (which is really what resonates with me), and having his inexperienced girlfriend demonstrate the progression and letting her ask the questions that many of us already have really helps.  He also comes across as a genuinely likable person with a positive reinforcement approach which goes a long way when teaching others.

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  • 1 month later...

Resurrecting an old thread here, but it is more pertinent than ever given the dry conditions we have. I was drifting all over the place at Walnut last night!

 

On 6/17/2020 at 10:11 AM, Barry said:

But I try not to "turn" my bike--I corner. I'm more likely to weight the handlebar than I am to turn it and I try to make only very slight adjustments on the handlebar. Every turn (every turn) I make a concerted effort to place pressure on my tire's side knobs by significantly leaning the bike down with my outside foot down. I'm staying fairly upright, and my bike is positioned under me with all weight on those outside knobs. Is this "new school?" I'm not sure, but it occurs to me that I'm doing exactly that technique on a very much old style geometry bike (2006 Giant Reign) in my avatar photo. That's me cornering on a loose turn on the Whole Enchilada in 2007. Good thing I didn't slide out there, because a ~1700 foot fall is only about 3 feet away. 

 

Regarding new school/old school: During this discussion I was remembering where I originally got the basis of my cornering technique. In 2001 when I very first got into serious trail riding, I picked up Ned Overend's then fairly new 1999 book, Mountain Bike Like a Champion. I was sure that much of my technique had come from the book, but unfortunately it had gotten lost in one of the 7 address changes that I've had since buying the book. But I was able to find the exact snippet I wanted online on Google Books! Check out that handlebar! 

 

image.thumb.png.246f95d0de946f74ae072d6486ee2482.png

 

Outside of this the primary change I've made after moving to Austin and riding in the super loose  scree and moondust, is to move my outside leg/knee forward to further weight the front tire. 

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Right. That's the other thing that has changed with my technique over the years. I drop the saddle on pretty much every corner. With the saddle so high, it's harder to get into bike/body separation or especially hard getting your outside leg/knee forward to weigh the front tire. 

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6 minutes ago, Barry said:

Right. That's the other thing that has changed with my technique over the years. I drop the saddle on pretty much every corner. With the saddle so high, it's harder to get into bike/body separation or especially hard getting your outside leg/knee forward to weigh the front tire. 

I haven't been riding offroad much but I have been doing a lot of road riding lately, and since this thread started, I've paid a lot of close attention to what I'm doing on the road.  The bike/body separation is a huge factor in my cornering on the road, but obviously this is limited by the saddle.  This is why I'd think hard about adding a dropper to road and CX bikes if I was doing some tight criterium racing.  Amazingly though, I don't use the dropper much on my MTB, mainly for drops.  That may say more about my setup (lever is hard to activate) than anything else.

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with the limited time i have ridden trails lately, I am trying some new things. I really pay attention to how much I lean the bike and separate my bike and my body. I also added a 70mm stem to my bike, up from 50mm. I convinced myself that I needed a short stem like all the cool kids, but I am finding that such a short stem does not provide the optimal fit and handling on every bike. don't believe everything you read on Pinkbike, folks. my frame has a transitional geometry between new and old features. the head tube angle is not super slack and the reach is short, so the front felt pretty cramped and a bit limiting. the seat tube angle is slack so it's not that difficult to get the saddle out of the way. I have a dropper but I mostly use it for real chunk as it does not help me much on flatter turns.

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5 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

That may say more about my setup (lever is hard to activate) than anything else.

You wouldn't think it a huge deal, I mean, it isn't like you need to stop and lower your quick release! But I can't say enough good about the Wolf Tooth lever. And I bet their light action version is even better. And folks rave about the PNW Loam lever. I also have a BikeYoke Trigggy lever that I keep as a backup and it's pretty good--as is Jessica's Brand X lever. Basically any lever that works like a front derailer shifter is going to be decent. I did a little spin on my Spitfire a couple of days ago, and it has an old KS polycarb lever shown below, and it was just awful. Indeed I found myself using the dropper less. 

 

image.png.0d93a1b25ea96e794e603ce3c4f3b5be.png

 

I can't even imagine using one of those early under-the-saddle levers...

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1 hour ago, Barry said:

Right. That's the other thing that has changed with my technique over the years. I drop the saddle on pretty much every corner. With the saddle so high, it's harder to get into bike/body separation or especially hard getting your outside leg/knee forward to weigh the front tire. 

That's interesting.  I'm probably at a low intermediate skill level and almost never use my dropper at Walnut or Brushy except for downhills.  I'd think that using it for every corner with all of the tight switchbacks would be more cumbersome than anything (perhaps your subsequent lever recommendation helps), but droppers are relatively new to me so it's more likely I'm just not doing a good job of using it properly.

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3 minutes ago, pjs32000 said:

I'd think that using it for every corner with all of the tight switchbacks would be more cumbersome than anything (perhaps your subsequent lever recommendation helps), but droppers are relatively new to me so it's more likely I'm just not doing a good job of using it properly.

I get that is sounds cumbersome! It probably looks cumbersome as well if you're following me--to see me constantly moving up and down for forward and back. 

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46 minutes ago, Barry said:

I get that is sounds cumbersome! It probably looks cumbersome as well if you're following me--to see me constantly moving up and down for forward and back. 

Not many people can follow you.  You always seem to ride to the max and so it makes sense you maximize every tool at your disposal!

For everyone else that has never ridden with Barry, the first time I bet Barry, I was at Walnut, I can't remember which trail, probably log loops, and was feeling good and the trail wasn't busy and I was riding fairly fast...but I heard someone coming behind riding pretty fast with pretty loud brakes.  So I rode faster, and he still caught up to me.  It turned out to be Barry on his Fat bike turned to SS XC (can't remember if the drops were on it yet).  

The 2nd time, I similar experience to the first. Heard the loud brakes, thought to myself "what are the chances it's Barry?".  Hah!  sooner than I thought Barry and @CBaron go by me.

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1 hour ago, AntonioGG said:

I heard someone coming behind riding pretty fast with pretty loud brakes.  So I rode faster, and he still caught up to me.  It turned out to be Barry on his Fat bike turned to SS XC (can't remember if the drops were on it yet).  

If it was single speed then it had a flat bar at the time. Loud brakes makes sense for this bike too, since they've Avis mechs. And while the bike is relatively slow and heavy, nothing corners like 4.8" wide Minions! 

 

But dang I have the hartail-singlespeed bug again. I'm pining over the new Hanzo ESD. It's just impossible to justify after just getting the EVIL a couple of months ago. I may have to turn FattyFattyDropDrop back into Fat&Single. It's such a versatile bike! But heavy! It weighs 2x the EVIL. 

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On 8/14/2020 at 4:19 PM, mack_turtle said:

Viscous headsets.

Had a hydraulic steering damper on my last few dirt bikes. It was Buttah. Totally changed my riding and was another fantastic crutch for my weekend warrior skill level. I don't know how well it would translate to MTB but I bet it would do well on DH races.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, RedRider3141 said:

Had a hydraulic steering damper on my last few dirt bikes. It was Buttah. Totally changed my riding and was another fantastic crutch for my weekend warrior skill level. I don't know how well it would translate to MTB but I bet it would do well on DH races.

 

 

Can't imagine not having one on any sportbike on the track. Wonderful devices.

Edited by TheX
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On 8/14/2020 at 9:54 AM, Barry said:

Resurrecting an old thread here, but it is more pertinent than ever given the dry conditions we have. I was drifting all over the place at Walnut last night!

 

 

Regarding new school/old school: During this discussion I was remembering where I originally got the basis of my cornering technique. In 2001 when I very first got into serious trail riding, I picked up Ned Overend's then fairly new 1999 book, Mountain Bike Like a Champion. I was sure that much of my technique had come from the book, but unfortunately it had gotten lost in one of the 7 address changes that I've had since buying the book. But I was able to find the exact snippet I wanted online on Google Books! Check out that handlebar! 

 

image.thumb.png.246f95d0de946f74ae072d6486ee2482.png

 

Outside of this the primary change I've made after moving to Austin and riding in the super loose  scree and moondust, is to move my outside leg/knee forward to further weight the front tire. 

just an esoteric point, but there is no such thing as centrifugal force. 

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I've seen some good memes on centrifugal/centripetal force before. There was meme where the punch-line was that it was "a parent," but I can't dig that one up at the moment. But XKCD will suffice!

 

centrifugal_force.png

 

Edited by Barry
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3 hours ago, Teamsloan said:

I'm one of those folks. If your dropper lever doesn't have a ball bearing pivot on the lever and can't be color matched to you bike's color scheme...what are you even doing with your life?

What am I even doing with my life? Geez, I get asked this every freaking day. And my bike parts don't all match.

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