[Closed] Tips for riding 29er through the twisties

Steer with ze hips!

Talking to LBS this is a common issue stepping up from 26″ bike and you have to learn to turn in earlier.

I think it's a feature of 29ers with LLS geometry. 29ers with race geometry can still be lightening quick.

I think it's a case of using your body weight more and as said, 'pushing the bike' through the corner with your hips. Although really it's pushing your own bodyweight into the right place to get the bike moving. Also, make sure your dropper is lowered even on flat stuff as it's more or less essential to give you the room to move your body about in the required way.

TBH it's not hugely different to any bike with similar geo. The only real difference is when you get really tight hairpins where you might have a 3in longer bike so you might need to hop it around slightly more often.

I'd definitely second the drop the dropper comment, mainly as it makes everything more fun.

Lead with your outside foot.

Most people tend to always lead with the same foot, however for 50% of turns that means your body is twisted the wrong way.

By always leading with your outside foot your hips, and thus your core, and subseqeuntly your upper torso and then head, naturally turn into the conrer more.

We all know we should look where it is you want to go, by leading with the outside foot it really promotes this.

Not 29er specific, just something I was taguth that I find really effective.

(It also encourages a cheeky extra half a pedal stroke between corners, more speed!)

Its not a 29er thing, its a longer bike thing. I only notice the supposed extra weight when on the full fat bike (which is in effect a 29er, but with 4.8" wide tyres). At speed the fat bike wont turn in without some effort on the riders part as the wheels really are heavy (the tyres alone weigh more than some 29er wheels inc tyres!).

My 2p, the outside foot down, weight forward, bike leant over works on corners where you need stability and to carry as much speed as possible. On sharp corners thats not the case.

From a physics point if view cornering works because you put your center of gravity to one side of the tyres contact patch, to keep things ballanced the tyre has to push sideways, the bigger the offset, the bigger the push, the faster you go round the corner.

So it feels comfortable if you go barley off the imaginary line of resultant force acting from your cog to the tyres contact patch.

What you really need to to do to turn quickly is get well off that line. Counter steer into the corner (i.e. aproach in the middle of the singletrack, then to initiate the turn flick the front wheel to the outside). Youre now falling over, but the tyres will push back and bring you upright.

Try it on the road, or in a park (get 3 cones, and arrange them at 90deg or sharper to make an entrance and exit gate with the middle one being the apex. Keep playing and seeing how sharply and quickly you can get through. Grass, even wet grass is actually incredibly grippy! So you can really push it and see how violently you can turn. And when you find the limit, grass doesnt hurt!

A group of us ride cx in our lunch breaks and one of the occasional sessions is to put three cones in a line across a slope about 2 bike lengths appart, ride down the hill and see how quick you can turn arround the middle one and get back up.

Its not a 29er thing, its a longer bike thing.

Yes this seems right. Have owned a Vagabond and a Longitude, both 29ers. Longer wheelbase on Longitude by about 10cm, completely different feel around switchbacks. Vagabond handled pretty much like any 90s 26er rigid ATB/MTB (except rolls better), while the Longitude feels more boat-like.

Maybe have a look to see if stem is short enough and fork offset long enough.

I used to suffer from this and then focused on weighting the front tyre more and dont really have those issues anymore. Turned it in general my riding position was too far back. Think more attack position as they call it like a push up on the bar

I'm with snotrag and thisisnotaspoon. This is a skills thing not a 29er thing. If you can't get some good coaching (easily the best cash upgrade I've ever spent biking) My penn'oth is research and experiment with different techniques, no one thing will work for your style in all situations.

Here's something that Chris Porter showed me that added a very useful tool to the box. Stand off your bike, don't go riding anywhere just yet! Take hold of the saddle and lean the bike over. Note that the bike self steers into the lean, the front wheel just turns into the corner without you having to do anything. The more you lean, the more it steers. Do this while you are riding the bike: make room under you with your body position, lean the bike over under you while you stay upright and keep your weight over the tyre contact patch. Add a bit of looking ahead (super important) and pointing your hips where you want to go and you may find your 29er feels a lot more nimble.

Getting your weight back also helps in twisty stuff.

When you corner, your bike is actually pivoting about your rear wheel. At low speeds with a very tight corner, this is the dominant effect. So by putting your centre of mass closer to the rear wheel it has to move less - and the front tyre has more leverage so it's easier to spin you round.

The best way it was described to me was that 29ers showed up any bad habits that 26ers hid away, and vice versa. I very quickly realised that I wasn't putting nearly enough body movement into cornering especially, and once if figured that out, the bike got a load easier to get round a corner, and a helluva lot more fun as well.
The other thing that I noticed was that a 'bad' bit of cornering on my part was more noticeable on a 29er - lesson being: don't beat yourself up our blame the bike of it feels bad.
The tips up there ^ are all good in my experience. Try a few out, but also consider a morning of coaching. It's consistently been the best money I've spent on any sport.

Twisties? Are they in Machynlleth?

just to add to the body position advice above. Push the inside end of the bar down at the same time. This works well when riding from your hips and putting the pressure on the outside leg and tipping the bike over onto it's edges of tyre.

Let the bike breathe with the trail.

That is all. Namaste.

Try unweighting your outside hand off the bars , so your body weight is to the inside
Twist your hips and upper body to aim at th exit of the corner
Look through the corner out the exit, not at the corner
Outside foot down , and heel down below pedal axle Drive the bike through the corner
Take a wider line / radius , not the classic F1 racing line, this is more likely to spit you out wide on the exit
Crank the bike over more than you do already , it wont fall over and its safer to open up the turn than having to try to tighten the radius mid corner
Unweight the saddle , get you body weight through the BB , lowers the COG = makes cornering easy
Practise till you die / crash in a ball of flames / go for a ride in a big yellow hekilopter, I hate saying session as its what 14 yr olds do but find a corner that suits and ride it a few times , not for hours as that would be counter productive then ride off into the sunset , just abit faster

Thought I would write a post script to this.  The segment fram cracked and was replaced kindly by Orange for a new stage 4 with new shock.  It is a different beast altogether through the twisties - you can just hammer it with hardly a thought to it. I feel much more part of the bike and can fly through berms and down singletrack in a natural way without having to overly think corners.  Awesome bike the Stage 4 - highly recommended!! 🙂

So there we go!

Stuff all your skills advice, you just need a new bike!

😀

different beast altogether through the twisties – you can just hammer it with hardly a thought to it

So it IS true that spending a fortune on the latest and greatest is worth-while! This thread is going into the 'evidence' folder 😀

I was going to write put a 27.5 back wheel on.
Ah, I did anyway.
That was my solution.
And google Simon Lawton (Fluidride) on cornering / footwork.
A nice adjunct to Fabien Barel’s cornering video which is ace.
Enjoy.

And this all applies only to newer 29ers - I was larking about on an old Niner SIR9 the other day, 90mm stem, steep HA - tried to corner with the slightest aggression and nearly found myself out over the bars instantly. 29ers have come a long way.

IMO it's not really different technique or turning earlier or anything, it's just being used to the bike that you're on. I've been riding big ****-off 29ers since before it was cool, because I am that cutting edge, and now it's just what I'm used to so 29ers turn normally and well, and my one 26er turns weirdly.

Paul the punters YouTube channel is worth a look.

Someone up there mentioned weighting the inside of the bars. This guy says the outside?

I've seen that video before, and honestly couldn't take much away from it - Kasper (although an awesome rider) just doesn't translate into teaching the technique very well.

just ride more, you'll get used to it. Don't overthink it.