new to off road riding!!

[Irulan]

if you are up the Northwest neck of the woods, there are some awesome clinics for women in BC.

Red Mountain ( town of Rossland) and Rossland Mt. Adventure both put on clinics. I've been to the RMA one and it was some of the best $$ I've ever spent on myself.

Irulan

[melissam]

Here are a couple of Mountain Biking books that you might enjoy:

William Nealy's Mountain Bike! A manual of beginning to advanced technique This book is illustrated with some very charming cartoons -- educational and entertaining!

Mountain Bike Magazine's The Complete Guide to Mountain Biking Skills This book has a series of articles. The beginning has a great story of a roadie getting his first taste of mountain biking -- something most of us can relate to.

Have fun!

-- Melissa

[Irulan]

Originally posted by melissam

Braking tip (which I learned at a WOMBAT clinic): shift your weight
backward before braking -- heck, even lift your butt up and behind the seat.
It helps maintain the balance; the back wheel won't pop up when slamming on
the front brake.

while weight back descending and braking is always a good thing, I have a little trouble with the slamming on the front brake part, especially in a thread for a new rider. Grabbing your front brake is a sure recipe for an endo. You were really taught that technique? Not that we all haven't done a panic grab with a "save" at one time or another...

the ideal way to use your powerful front brake is gently, modulating it. The front brake is very powerful, 70% of your braking power. Modulating is applying gentle consistent pressure to achieve your desired result ( stopping) Modulation could be defined as, "The ability to smoothly increase braking power with modest changes of pressure at the brake lever. The opposite would be toggling, as in locked up or not locked up."

when I was at bike camp in Canada, training with a 5x Canadian women's DH champ, the thing that were taught about front braking were: feathering, one finger control, modulation, and descending *very* slowly with NO skidding.
We basically got screamed at if we grabbed our brakes.

Here's Cindy Devine, demonstrating descending using front brake only to control speed of bike. OK,so I'm not a great photographer, I have other talents.
:

[melissam]

Irulan,

Ah, I was in a hurry and didn't phrase the braking tip as well as I should.

The drill was a panic stop (in a safe, controlled area, not on a trail) which illustrated that if you shifted your weight back, it helps to keep the back tire down. The takehome lesson was to respect the front brake, but not be afraid to use it, as it has most of the stopping power.

-- Melissa

[Irulan]

Yes, we've all had those "panic stop" moments where you thank god that you WEREN'T airborne!! I've had a few where unfortunately I wasn't able to save, either.

That's a great idea to practice panic moves in a safe enviroment.

I never realizied how critical braking technique was until I did that camp. It was scary how many of us raised our hands when asked, "how many of you have been told never to use your front brake?". So we spent a whole morning on it. Now, I just need to get discs...

Irulan