[Closed] Front end confidence.

What front tyre are you using, at what pressure?

If you are unweighting the front wheel, it won’t grip. Try to make a conscious choice to move your weight forward, until it becomes second nature.

It's the front actually drifting?

I mean to say, is it just the perception the front will go or is the bike/wheel actually "telling" you it's at is limit?

What tomhoward says, front needs weighted.

Bend those elbows, don't go mad with front tyre pressure.

Are you riding the same bike as you were 20 years ago? If not, the geometry is likely to be significantly different with modern bikes requiring a bit more body English to weight the front wheel.

As others have said, force yourself to bend your elbows and lower your chest closer to the stem.

2.5 Maxxgrip Assegai will help give you confidence to push the bike a bit harder. Its soooooooo grippy.

Also watch Steve’s video on how to ride modern bikes on Hardtail Party. He explains body position and getting over the front very clearly.

Get your chin above the stem.

Don't rely on tyres to give you confidence. Sure, mess around with tyre pressures, but 99% of your confidence will come from improving your technique and body position. Never look to kit to correct technique. Kit can overlay over good technique to eek out further improvements and get characteristics and bike feel you prefer, but always look to technique first. Nobody ever fell off a bike because of crap tyres...a poor workman and all that.

As others have said, you need to adjust your body position to improve weight distribution...your front wheel will never grip if there is no weight on it not matter what tyre you are running. Also there is technique to actually turning and positioning your body as you're turning...lean the bike, keep your body over the tyre contact patch, drop your inside arm/grip and rotate your hips. A decent skills course would help you here, as they have helped me hugely, as it is always handy having another person looking at what you're actually doing and advising where you are going wrong or what you need to change.

make sure your bars aren't overly high or close, a lower front will make you more inclined to weight on the front , obviously too low or far and it won't be comfy for seated...
obviously, this goes hand in hand with being off the seat/seat down away

First time I've seen the video above and it is probably one of the best ones to describe the different body positions.

In the side by side slow mo of him going down you can see the back wheel lifting for longer as he hits the bottom whilst sat back in 'old school' mode. Really wouldn't expect that but, it does show what he is saying about control and the body taking care of some of the damping and shock loading when in a forward position.

What bike are you running and is it different to what you’ve run in the past?

On late 90’s bikes on steep stuff you’d be off over the back to avoid going over the handlebars because of the short reach and long stem which pulled you forward.

Newer bikes are generally longer reach / shorter stem so you’re pulled less over the front. You therefore can bend your elbows and be in the middle of the bike without going over the bars. This position means you’re weighting both tyres and therefore have front end grip.

A dropper post means even in this centred position you can get low in the bike as the saddle isn’t in the way too.

I had the issue you had - some was (I’m convinced) the reach of the bike being too long for me, but some was definitely technique. I went and had a 1 to 1 coaching session and that made even the long bike much more confidence inspiring on corners and I don’t think I binned it after that point due to lack of front end grip.

However since then I’ve sized down on reach and with the coaching / improved technique it’s now awesome and I’m constantly getting quicker bit by bit and it feels like the technique I’m trying to practice on / focus on is coming together nicely. It feels like I’m getting much more aggressive in the corners and feel more ‘in’ the bike than on it.

So I’d recommend getting some coaching ASAP.

Thats a great video, I've been thinking for a while it was all to do with my fork and tyre pressure that was dropping my confidence on certain sections of trail but its not at all. Need to change the body position, totally get that.
Always felt the front end was just going to wash away underneath me and had no grip, just need me to put a bit more of me upfront.

I think it may be to do with unconsciously trying to revert to an old school attack position, off the back of the bike, but I still feel as if the front will wash.

Because keeping your weight over the back is actually unweighting your front wheel and so lessening traction at the front.

I don’t know if that is an ‘old school attack position’ for cornering although I do remember it for tackling slow-mo verts 🤣. For old-school I’d recommend watching some old footage of John Tomac on Kamikaze runs.

Thanks everyone, I’m going to try and get my chin over the stem and more bend in my elbows.

I’m on a Bird Zero 29, which is great. I’m coming from a 1996 Univega 504, so massively different. I do have a dropper post, which is a revolution!

Tyres are Maxiss DHF AND Maxiss Discetor on the rear.

My top tip would be to fettle your fork set up first, it makes a massive difference. My preference is for no tokens 20-25% sag if you want maximum cornering confidence. It gives a really solid early to mid stroke platform to lean hard onto which in turn delivers grip. Also as you're on a zero 29 it will be 130 or 140 travel, but I didn't intend for you to get that 99% of the time. Set up your forks so that you normally come up a couple cm short on a ride and you'll be way more confident in the turns. It will also stop you clattering the pedals on stuff too...

As what Ben says the Zero is pretty low - it should be awesome in the corners. Where are you in the country - if anywhere near Forest of Dean Katy Curd coaching helped me kids with a 1 to 1 3 hour session on cornering and jumps

With the assumption that you are talking about a "lack of grip" for cornering, rather than say breaking, then chances are you may not be loading/leaning the bike correctly! What's your footwork like? if your footwork is wrong/lazy/poor then you will never be able to turn the bike at speed. Modern LLS bikes require the rider to actively turn them, and not just by pushing / pulling on the bars! Modern tyres also can be quite "square" with aggressive side lugs, but a fast rolling middle bit, so fail to lean the bike and engage those lugs and yes, there will be little grip!

The good news with practising footwork, is that is best done when going slowly! ie you can do it on every corner to get the basic technique engrained and into your muscle memory. Once you've done that, nothing beats finding a nice turn and simply riding round it repeatidly, as fast as you can till you fall off ....... 😉

So I’ve been out tonight for a night ride and before The last trail, Telegraph a mate dropped 5psi out of my forks.

Totally changed the ride.

Front was way more compliant and I wasn’t skipping about everywhere. I think I must have been at about 15% sag.

Combined with unconsciously moving back in the corners and not keeping my head above the bars, all lead to a washy front end.

I only managed one run, as it was 23:00, but I’m hoping to get a run out on Wednesday and learn some more.

Probably doesn’t help that since I bought the bike in lock down I’ve gone from 74kg to 69 and was probably running too hard as well.

I wish I’d lost weight in lockdown....initially I did but then I got bored and started eating more junk and drinking more alcohol!