[Closed] Switchbacks

I used to have real issues with this (as I realised riding some of the double blacks at Les Arcs one year!). I'm now pretty confident at riding these types of switchbacks, mainly due to finding some good, steep switchbacks and practicing many, many times. The main tips I can give you are:

1. Try to take a wide line in and get your outside food down/back and inside foot up/forward. Try to turn your hips and knees into the corner (if that makes sense?!)

2. (By far the most important imo) Look at where you want to go! Not down the side of the hill 😀 The bike will generally follow...

 Am I the only one that finds that they have a preferred direction for the turn?

Nope I cannot do uphill right handers. I know I can't do them in my head, so I can't, occasionally; when I forget I can't do them, I can, and then realise after a couple that I can't do them, and then I can't. Again.

Lots of the very tight alpine ones require a endo turn TBH, unless you're very confident with them already really steep rooty exposed alpine switchback isn't the place to practice, really.

technique wise, spot the exit,turn wide if there's enough real estate, remember that your front wheel will need a wider turning circle than the back, turn your hips, stay loose, and low on the bike, and do your braking early

Look where you want to be, not where your going. And let the front wheel go as wide around the corner as it can particularly on the entry, if you can exit tight then all's well.

If you need to brake, do it early, then release the front brake, if its steep then you can keep back brake on to pivot you around, just be aware that if you have any momentum then the back brake will be pushing you upright and outside of the corner son if its going wrong and too wide, let go and try and ride it out.

Thanks for the advice. mulv1976 - doesn't having the outside foot back make it difficult to turn the hips into the corner? I need to practice more. As for endo turning on today's route, I think the bike would have been nearly vertical 😉

Actually, the outside foot is more down than back. Having the inside knee up makes it a bit easier to turn your inside knee into the corner.

That makes more sense - thanks.

The French grading doesn't help either. The local guide book had today's down as a red cross country graded route, it was much harder than the other similar route xc routes and harder than the local red enduro routes!?!

Alpine riding is a whole different kettle of fish to UK riding. Les arcs was a real eye opener for me (guided runs, and I still remember "double-header" scaring the hell out of me at the time!). I found a few very steep switchbacks on Cannock chase to practice on and would be much more confident riding them now.

As the right honourable minister for tyre reviews would say - 'Lasercock'. 😊

Lasercock

That's all well and good until the switchback is a 180 that's shorter than your bike and has a huge root on the apex with a drop that's taller than me and a 200m drop on the outside.

Jackass* in Verbier I'll never forget the fear you gave me on the right hand switchback of death..

*Also know as kiddy fiddler because of the way it gently lures you into the woods then ****s you up good and propper.

Cant wait to go back next week.

Jackass is off the menu though.😂

1. Outside foot forward is my preferred stance, but this really isn't the most important thing. As above, it's harder to turn the hips with your feet the other way round. Outside foot down is often a non-starter if it's a technical corner as you'll hit your pedal on stuff.

2. Very normal to find one direction harder than the other, usually because of the way you naturally hold your feet as you ride. If you normally ride left-foot-forward, you'll generally find right-handers easier and vice-versa.

3. Vision is probably the most important thing. You need to be looking for the exit line as early as possible. Turning your head to look for it helps to get your shoulders and hips turned into the corner.

4. After vision, setup is everything. Get that front wheel WIDE. No, wider than that. Even wider. If there's some obstacle that you're debating whether you should go inside or outside of it, go outside of it. If there are rocks, roots, cabbages and such all over the outside of the trail, that's where you should be riding. The back wheel will generally look after itself, even if it ends up cutting the corner and going up higher than your head. Keep the faith and it will come back down again.

5. There are very, very few switchbacks which REQUIRE an endo turn, although it's occasionally useful. I am struggling to think of any at all in the whole Les Arcs / Tarentaise Valley area. One or two of the trialsy ones at the bottom of La Varda maybe, but they're more of a rock chicane than a switchback. If you think you need to work on your endos, refer to 4 instead.

6. Pray to Saint Maxxis.

I used to always teach people the feet thing, now I don't really bother until they're getting round and trying to up the tech. Setup and vision are more important.

stu- I had to google to check the name of that trail, but yeah - f'ked me up good that did.

Any advice I could possibly give had already been given but I'll repeat it for weight:

Brake early so you're not heavy on the front brake while cornering - faster is better when it's lumpy, to keep you rolling.

Lasercock - who doesn't want a laser cock.

Practice your Euro-hops or nose-wheelie turns for when it's smoother but really tight - certainly practising the balance is no bad thing.