3. Braking:

Braking is a love/hate relationship. Love because they set your speed for corners and, inevitably, save your butt during a ride. Hate because they scrub off speed, cause handling errors if applied incorrectly and sometimes spit you off the bike real hard!

My first recommendation is spend time getting comfortable with how hard your front brake stops. V-Brakes and Discs have tremendous stopping power. Do you know how to get the most out of them? If not experiment on familiar trails to find the point of optimal braking.

Secondly....NEVER apply the brakes in a corner! This is the most common mistake made by riders. Set your corner speed before you get there. If your braking in a corner you are loosing time and loosing control. You also want to practice sliding the front and rear wheels in corners. Your bike will "hook up" differently under hard braking and it’s important to find the limits of traction and control before you get into trouble.

The last word on braking for today....When In Doubt Let Er Rip!!!! Staying off the brakes is an acquired skill that will pay huge rewards in the end, plus cleaning a tough section with no brakes feels awesome!

Next Page - Finding The Zone