new to off road riding!!

[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.
: