Steering with your Hips

[telegirl]

So.....whether or not this should go under Adventures, Mountain Biking, New Riders, or Blonde Moments, I'm not sure. But since the original post that lead to my Adventuresome Blonde Moment on My Mountain Bike was posted in New Riders, I thought it should go here.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=10723

Sooo, on Saturday, it was the perfect New England Fall day. Crisp, but not frozen, with clear blue sky and still some foliage to supplement the eye candy. I was doing one of my i-pod rides, out my back door, on some of BikeHubby's tight and windy single track. I read and re-read Velogirl, spokewench and GLC1968's comments and discussions about cornering, steering, and counter steering and felt like I could really relate to "steering with your hips". And it was on this day that I decided that I would really concentrate on that technique.

After practicing in our driveway a bit, I set off.

Turn left, hips go this way, turn right, hips go that way, over whoops, over roots, turn with hips and turn with hips. Had me a nice rhythm going there, swinging in and out of the turns, feelin' the love.

Then went to some narly downhill. The kind of downhill that makes one pause and wonder what one is doing....off cambre, rocks, roots and tight switchbacks.....The one downhill that I end up walking part of, dabbing most off, and wishing that it would just go away.

So off I go! It starts off easy enough: Hips and turn and hips and turn, but then I picked up speed. No problem......hipsandturnandhipsandturn....just a little faster, right? Apparently, although GLC was concentrating on turning without using her handlebars, that doesn't work so well for me....Maybe I just don't have the hip moves, but I'm guessing that you DO need some handlebar work to corner very tightly, since I ended up going right off the edge of the switchback and between two trees, which did stop my bike from going any further, but which knocked me off my bike and down the embankment.

Note to self: Might want to try using handlebars in conjunction with hips next time.

[lph]

Hah! Very well written.

Hope you're ok...

[GLC1968]

OMG! I'm sorry...I admit to feeling partially responsible for your spill!

Two things that came to mind reading your post...one was that velogirl mentioned that you need more handlebar on a turn when doing switchbacks at slow speeds. My guess is that at higher speeds, you need both handlebar and hips in perfect union?

The other thing I thought while reading was OMG...I'm on a road...not a trail!!! My conditions are a a bit tamer than yours!

I hope you aren't hurt and that you'll be out there giving it a shot again soon!

[telegirl]

It's all good!... It seems like it was more a Blonde Moment than anything else - I was so into "steering with my hips" that I just totally blocked out everything else! It was just so funny to be sitting there thinking "wow, I need to work on my hip movements" and then thinking "hmmmm, I wonder if I should have steered more with the handlebars??"

I'm thinking I am going to practice on some tamer downhills and try to get those handlebars and hips a goin'. Salsa on Bike- I'd like to see them put THAT on Dances with the Stars (well, maybe not Jerry Springer in bike shorts )!

[Squeaky]

I love this tip! Since I read it on the other post, I've been practicing it and my turns (especially left) have improved immensely... weeeee

[han-grrl]

When it comes to turns or any mtb riding, or any bike riding, you always want to look where you want to go. as soon as you turn your head you will naturally start pointing the rest of your body where it needs to be. also...being lose on the bike will let the body follow more easily.

during the 24 hour race earlier this year (that one i did on a team), i was coming into a a switch back, descent...there was a tree on the side, and i guess some people started to shoot for the tree...i was watching the path to the tree and realized that i actually had to turn BEFORE the tree (and also didn't realize how steep it was), so at the very last second i threw my inside knee (it was a left turn, so the left knee) and hip to the side, and steered it left. meanwhile i hear this "oh crap" behind me. the guy behind saw the tree as well, but was following too close behind to change directions and well..didn't make the turn...i said "you were too close weren't you" he gives me this sad "yeah"...i said "my husband might be jealous if he saw you that close to me"...

[rocknrollgirl]

I was just practicing this on my new bike this past w/e. I think I had the same mantra going on....hipsthiswaybikethatway hipsthiswaybikethatway...
DH was behind me with a mantra of his own whatinhell whatinhell

LOL!!!!!


Ruth