Tips on riding downhill

[velomaniac]

Move your weight back, relax your arms, feather the back brake, dont touch the front, drop the seat post, dare yourself to stay off the brakes, accept falling off is a possibility, wear armour.

Example, me on red route at Glentress, forgot all of above, hit ramp and got airborne, locked wheels, smashed into ground, went home in ambulance with broken collar bone ! Once healed started with little hills, did all of the stuff in my advice, built up to steeper hills and now do red route at Glentress with ease.

Practice, knowledge, precautions and knowing ultimately its the bestest fun on two wheels keep making me do it. Push yourself a little at a time and eventually you'll get there !

Best luck.

 

[wickedwheels]

I don't know what it's like on your side of the pond, but I just taught my non-cycling wife and brother-in-law to downhill this way:

I took her to a ski area (Killington) that has a lot of fire roads. (They were both on hard tails, by the way, with suspension forks. The fire roads are key because they can be ridden very slowly or super fast, with lots of room for error. We did the same "trail" a few times, getting progressively faster each time. Then I started taking them on some of the single track in a similar fashion. By the end of the 2-day trip they were flying and felt very comfortable with it all. Next season we're going up and I'll rent them some long travel full-suspension bikes.

So the key is:
-same trail over and over again
-open, wide trail if possible
-push yourself more and more each time

If you want to fly out here next season when the mountain opens I'll take you. Killington, as opposed to some of the other mountains in the area, is amazing for beginners but is also fun for more advanced riders