Negoiating Switchbacks

[Loraura]

Switchbacks (in the uphill direction) - as taught to me at a BetterRide clinic:

1)Put your seat at climbing height (optimal power)
2)Get low low low (chest/chin to the handle bars) - this keeps your front end from wandering. You think you're low, you're not. LOWER!
3)Scoot up on the saddle (toward the nose) -- this keeps traction on the back wheel while your low upperbody keeps the front wheel tracking where you want it to go. It's not the most comfortable place in the world to be on a saddle, but it doesn't last long and makes a difference.
4)Start wide on the outside, aim to finish wide on the outside. Make the corner as straight as you can.
5)Look ahead. No, further ahead than that! Look at your exit from the switchback as you enter it, as soon as you can see it, and look down the trail beyond the exit as soon as you can see that.

To practice, find a slope with a tree on it. Place some cones or rocks to mark the outside of the trail, with the tree being the inside of the switchback. Start with the cones/rocks allowing for a nice easy wide apex. Keep moving them in and trying again until you have a nice, tight, steep switchback.

[Irulan]

Switchbacks (in the uphill direction) - as taught to me at a BetterRide clinic:

1)Put your seat at climbing height (optimal power)
2)Get low low low (chest/chin to the handle bars) - this keeps your front end from wandering. You think you're low, you're not. LOWER!
3)Scoot up on the saddle (toward the nose) -- this keeps traction on the back wheel while your low upperbody keeps the front wheel tracking where you want it to go. It's not the most comfortable place in the world to be on a saddle, but it doesn't last long and makes a difference.
4)Start wide on the outside, aim to finish wide on the outside. Make the corner as straight as you can.
5)Look ahead. No, further ahead than that! Look at your exit from the switchback as you enter it, as soon as you can see it, and look down the trail beyond the exit as soon as you can see that.

To practice, find a slope with a tree on it. Place some cones or rocks to mark the outside of the trail, with the tree being the inside of the switchback. Start with the cones/rocks allowing for a nice easy wide apex. Keep moving them in and trying again until you have a nice, tight, steep switchback.

I've heard good things about Gene's clinics however I do have to ask...
What if you've lowered your saddle for a descent... THEN what do you do? I think there is more than one way to skin this cat.

[Loraura]

what if you've lowered your saddle for a descent... THEN what do you do?

I have a Rock Shox hydrolic seat post. I hit the button =).

Without a dropper seat post, you'll have to make compromises. I can confirm that it IS easier with the seat at the optimal height for climbing. I also find that I don't really have to drop my seat for decents unless there are ledges of 2 feet or more. I can get my weight far enough back on the bike for smaller ledges and sustained grades without having to drop my seat from climbing height.

When I began riding, many people told me to get all the way behind my seat for every little thing going downhill. Gene taught me otherwise. It's really about weight balance/management. If you watch downhill racers and even XC racers, they only get behind the saddle, with the saddle level with their torso for the steepest of gnarly rocky decents. Being WAY behind the seat puts most people, in a position where their arms have no bend left. Bad idea to be at the "end of your rope" like that.

[Loraura]

Watch these ladies decend. They really only get behind the saddle for the large ledge.

http://youtu.be/lgpNJsA7E2k

Their saddles are at a climbing height.

[Irulan]

The xc racer gals might leave the saddles up, but I won't. I've seen way too many endos ,of people who just won't put the saddle down. I'm sure the racers train to ride like that,who wants the extra ounces of a gravity dropper?

For me, the saddle is just in the way on continuous descents. If I'm in rolling/mixed terrain I will keep it close to climbing height, but for any kind of long descent, down it goes. Our local riding is conducive to this: a big climb followed by a long descent, or long shuttled rides, of XC but down flowing terrain. This is also how I've been coached, and trained to coach. "Canadian style" focuses on a neutral position with the legs some what extended, much more of a standing type position that is taught in the states. You move your weight back and forth through the hips but never get way back. DH racing is a separate discussion. :-)

Gene is very well regarded, but there is no only one correct way to ride.

[Loraura]

I haven't tried it to be sure, but I'm fairly certain that if my hips are behind my saddle, my butt would hit my 29er tire before my torso would touch the saddle. The saddle bucking me forward by hitting my torso, because it was not lowered, would really surprize me if it happened, and I'm kind of a "strudy" type of gal, not a thin thing with long legs.

On a 26er, I would bet that might be different since the distance between the top of the wheel and the top of the saddle is greater on a 26er.

Sounds like a dropper seat post would be a nice treat for your riding style, Irulan.

I can also tell you that the dropper seat post works WONDERS on cornering. Drop the seat coming into the corner, lean the bike as far as needed (becuase the saddle doesn't hit my thigh anymore, in fact, many times my whole body is on the outside of the bike), straighten out and pop it back up to pedal onward.

It just takes a little practice to get the muscle memory down. Where you normally pop out of the saddle to stand, you simply put the saddle down first, THEN pop up. One extra little movement to learn. With repitition, it becomes second nature.

I do sometimes find it hard to drop the seat AND brake hard at the same time. It's a pretty tough reach for my small hands to brake while also getting my thumb over to the dropper button and compressing it.

[Irulan]

Pictures are worth 1000 words.

This is descending as we teach it. Maybe saying "hips back" is a little overkill. It's always about where your center of gravity is. The point is that the rider isn't behind the saddle, but centered, and that the front of the bike is still weighted. The rider is extended, not crouched behind the saddle, which we all agree is bad/ineffective form in most situations.



This is how we teach switchbacks. Legs extended, weight centered and over pedals but hips a little back, looking around the corner, feathering brakes and front end of the bike controlled.



Again, this is Canadian style, which a little different than what is taught most places in the states.

[Loraura]

I see what you mean.

It looks like in the first picture the rider has room to raise the saddle a good bit without it interfering with her body position. Maybe not though. Hard to tell from a picture. Whatever makes the rider feel comfortable and balanced is the right height, for sure!

For some examples for terrain I'm working with here in central Texas, we have a lot of short but steep downs and ups. I ride this without dropping my seat:





This is one I'll drop the seat for:

[Irulan]

When you are in rolling terrain, it IS important to find a saddle position where you are comfortable for both ups and down, that's for sure.

First photo is my fave coach out of BC, Tracey B. who also coaches for Dirt Series. She's my hero, has coached me since 2001, and who I've apprenticed with. She is a level III NCCP ( Canadian certification) coach. One of the things we do is, with the exception of climbs, make the riders put their saddle down as part of the learning experience. It forces the sofa sitters to start using their bodies and to feel the body-bike movement connections.

BTW, for anyone who wants, Gene Hamilton who Loraula mentioned, has an excellent reputation with www.betterride.com He also has a great newsletter that you can subscribe to that has a lot of really good info on the head game parts of mountain biking, the physical parts, and even bike tech stuff. I would love to take one of his camps sometime, but he never gets up in my neck of the woods so I go to BC instead.