Best tip I got from Ben in this series is "weight forward". Like many said we instinctively avoid danger by putting our weight back and away when we actually need to push the front wheel onto the ground for grip. Now I just need practice to reprogram my brain.
Cheers for all the videos Ben . . . always clear and very useful. The thing that helped me a lot with flat corners was to do quite an exaggerated 'pre-turn' before the main turn. Fabien Barel was brilliant at these!
I've been riding for 30yrs plus so plenty of time to develop a few bad habits! (Understatement) and flat turns are probably my worst! Great video! Keep them coming braaap! 🤘
Coming from motorcycling, I find slow speed tight turns more favorable if you lean the bike beneath your body/legs, but keep your body upright and in some cases lean opposite of the bike. It's just putting weight where you want it, relative to the traction. Leaning the bike in a tight turn with your body well inside of the tires, is a sure way to wipe out traction.
I find that pedaling out of these types of corners improved rear wheel grip at the apex. Timed right so you don’t get a pedal strike. It’s the same theory as powering out of a corner in a race car. You usually get some front fork dip as you enter after braking so get centered on the bike and transfer the weight by applying a pedal stoke as you exit
for me it's difficult keeping weight over the front wheel in flat turns, the front is always the first to slide and the knee jerk reaction is to move back out of fear only making it worse. Sometimes both wheels loose traction, so you know you're balanced at least, but then the bike isn't leaned over enough to grab the side knobs because the fear reaction stands it up.. flat turns are a tricky skill to learn because you have to overcome the automatic fear reactions. Practicing power slides in loose conditions gave me confidence that I could balance a sliding bike though. And then you can throw yourself into the corners with more confidence to practice what it feels like at the limits of traction
Great video. I notice my issue with corners is getting the rear end to break loose without using back brake. Going fast into the corner with speed and confidence ends up in braking and fear due to the rear end not moving as expected. If you don't get it to break loose you go over the berm resulting in panic breaking to avoid it.
I would definitely be sneaking round the inside line by the tree. My friends would all be trying lame attempts at rear wheel lifts 😅. We'd all be slower than Ben's proper approach. Ben never mentions line choice, but his entry wide of the little rock isn't obvious, but a massive step to getting it started off right
I think when turning a flat corner locking the back wheel until the bike is aiming in the right it is faster than using this technique except if it is flat. In most slopes turning is faster with the rear wheel locked without weight on the back wheel. I would love to compare different techniques. Great explanation by the way
What are those blue forks? “Work on your weaknesses” never a truer word spoken. Will you be ghosting the IXS rounds? Asking for a friend 😂 keep up the brilliant work Ben and PB team 🤘❤️🌈🕊️🌎
🎶 track? It’s *Believe Me When I Say It* by *Matt Large* - and yes we are THRILLED to be your trusted provider. ua-cam.com/video/nbXOiatUi0g/v-deo.html // Epidemic Sound
The majority of my wipeouts this year (first year back in over a decade!) were flat corners lol. I feel more confident in how to approach them now, but adding that much grade would make it so much more challenging lol.
I find it very difficult to keep my weight far enough forward when I get nervous in a downhill corner. Glad I’m not the only one. I’ll be drilling next time I come across the right flat turn!
Super timely for me. The past 2 days I’ve made about 30 runs at a flat right hand corner. Try to work on one aspect at a time until it started to come together. Man they are tricky. I’m finding it hard to have enough lean with the bike while maintaining my weight over the front tire. Finding the apex early and spotting the exit seems to help me find a good body position though.
This is one of the very few things i knew from the beginning cause flat loose corners and smooth jumps were all i could ride on my old sh#tbox hardtail🥰
So the audio volume levels were a bit better in this video, although I still had to crank up the volume to hear the voices. At least the music wasn't that loud, although still too loud in comparison. Please just use that normalizer, please!
After watching Tom Pitcock he would put his right foot forward peddles level when turning right. Which I find hard to think about in time to do it as I ride with my left foot forward I think that’s why I find it easier turning left.
I've always done way better turning left than right. I suspect it has to do with needing to lean the bike a lot (which I do) but also having the rear brake on the right hand makes leaning it right more awkward.
IMO Look at your position of your feet, if you put your outside foot (crank pointed back) before the corner then as you roll into the corner that outside foot will start to come down. As you do this you will notice that your right knee will naturally point into the turn. That slack from pointed back to down will give you more down pressure on the sidewall of the tires = more grip and more confidence.
so hard to learn this on your own; how do you know when its good? A manual its easy to know when its good; a jump is measured by the near death index, even a berm "feels" good when you ride it well. But flat corners always feel a bit iffy; without someone who's better than you to compare against how do you know if your getting the most out of it?
That corner needs a pre-turn. More weight over the outside pedel. That is hips will be on left side of bike, and also rotated towards the exit of the corner. See Jeff Kendal-weed cornering videos. He uses exaggerated cornering positions possibly too much, but for that corner they would be perfect. The position also allows you to catch a rear wheel slide much easier.
Honestly, I know it's probably not the best way to do it, but I usually just powerslide through a turn like that, keeping my leg on the inner part of the turn close to the ground, and when I start to lose speed towards the end of the turn, I use that foot to kick off and gain momentum.
It would be great, if you could manage to put some red-green “virtual” lights on the video for each brake, to show us when you brake and release… (you would be the first one to do it as well)
Apex going into corners, not pressing on brakes in turns, looking ahead… I raced on road courses for 12 years and directly apply what I know about road racing to biking. This has been a huge help for me. Of course moto gp and motorcross for the obvious reason but our bikes are not motorized. It’s much more difficult. Motorcyclists and car racers take the same lines and apply the same skills. If you had a light weight car with 2 people and the passenger leans into the corner you actually do feel a difference because the weight is more centered. Also in MTB’s you want to keep your weight centered in turns and lean the bike into the turn. It has helped me.
That is not really a flat corner. About 60% of it has a natural berm going in. Could have doubled your speed by going up onto the berm early and exiting before it flattens out.
Me thinks that your outside foot is too far forward which is bending your ankle under 90 degrees. It looks like you're braking and putting your weight too far back. Get more aggressive and put your upper body over that foot more.
"There is just gigabytes and gigabytes of people just like bumbling down easy trails. Its fine to document your footage on GoPro, but uploading it to youtube is a bit much, maybe."
Ben, I like the channel but you have zero enthusiasm in your voice. This is the biggest reason I don’t watch your channel when you host. I’m serious. You have to pump up the enthusiasm. Show some high powered excitement when you host. Right now you sound bummed.
Maybe you should watch some of his older videos, he’s actually a hoot to watch. The guy has been through a lot mentally and physically in the last little bit. He’s the most clear, concise person I’ve heard explain techniques and i guarantee he’d still “muster the enthusiasm” to smoke anyone’s ass on the trail that gets on here pissing and moaning about the sound or his level of happiness. If you dont like it, shove off and find someone with your type of charisma. The absolute majority of viewers on this channel freaking love Ben!
@@Todd-cf8nl yea I’m saying that he should be more energetic. MTB is a very fast and physical sport. His hosting tone is befitting of a golf game. I’m just at saying what I personally would expect from a host of a sport like ours, mountain biking.
@@Velo1010 after what he’s been through I’m just glad he’s still doing these videos Period! He is still one of the best I’ve seen at explaining techniques and most all of his content has always been upbeat, entertaining, clear and from a place of great experience and understanding of this sport/hobby.
@@Velo1010 bad crash, bad back injuries, screwed up his racing career, struggling withADHD. He’s had a rough go of it in more recent times. That’s all I was saying was cut the guy some slack. He was always cutting up and high energy in the instructionals before he hurt himself and usually seems to still be , this just happened to be a calmer Ben.
Anyone else now only stay subscribed to PinkBike because of Ben?
🤚
💯
No. I don’t subscribe. He has zero enthusiasm in his voice.
💯
Great instruction!!
Best tip I got from Ben in this series is "weight forward". Like many said we instinctively avoid danger by putting our weight back and away when we actually need to push the front wheel onto the ground for grip. Now I just need practice to reprogram my brain.
Every time I'm freaking out and getting in the back seat I hear Ben's outrageous accent scolding me 😅
So happy to see you again Ben!
Ben is the cutest one from the Pinkbike team!
Cheers for all the videos Ben . . . always clear and very useful. The thing that helped me a lot with flat corners was to do quite an exaggerated 'pre-turn' before the main turn. Fabien Barel was brilliant at these!
I've been riding for 30yrs plus so plenty of time to develop a few bad habits! (Understatement) and flat turns are probably my worst! Great video! Keep them coming braaap! 🤘
We are very happy to see you here again, Ben!!! I hope everything has been resolved at your house.
So much technique is involved in that turn.
Coming from motorcycling, I find slow speed tight turns more favorable if you lean the bike beneath your body/legs, but keep your body upright and in some cases lean opposite of the bike. It's just putting weight where you want it, relative to the traction. Leaning the bike in a tight turn with your body well inside of the tires, is a sure way to wipe out traction.
This is a great series you are putting together!
Always good to watch and even my somewhat addled brain does on occasion work enough to try out some of these skills. Cheers Ben and team.
THESE ARE THE BEST! THANK YOU @PINKBIKE!
That was great thankyou, proper on going practice and learning area for me
I find that pedaling out of these types of corners improved rear wheel grip at the apex. Timed right so you don’t get a pedal strike. It’s the same theory as powering out of a corner in a race car. You usually get some front fork dip as you enter after braking so get centered on the bike and transfer the weight by applying a pedal stoke as you exit
Hell yeah!!!
That was very helpful! Thank you!
for me it's difficult keeping weight over the front wheel in flat turns, the front is always the first to slide and the knee jerk reaction is to move back out of fear only making it worse. Sometimes both wheels loose traction, so you know you're balanced at least, but then the bike isn't leaned over enough to grab the side knobs because the fear reaction stands it up.. flat turns are a tricky skill to learn because you have to overcome the automatic fear reactions. Practicing power slides in loose conditions gave me confidence that I could balance a sliding bike though. And then you can throw yourself into the corners with more confidence to practice what it feels like at the limits of traction
Try a bike with longer chainstay
@@chadson5244 I have a stumpy Evo slack and low. I'd rather improve my skills than trade the bike I love
I HATE practicing individual skills such as these BUT I’ll do it for the Pinkbike crew👍🏻
Great video. I notice my issue with corners is getting the rear end to break loose without using back brake. Going fast into the corner with speed and confidence ends up in braking and fear due to the rear end not moving as expected. If you don't get it to break loose you go over the berm resulting in panic breaking to avoid it.
I would definitely be sneaking round the inside line by the tree. My friends would all be trying lame attempts at rear wheel lifts 😅. We'd all be slower than Ben's proper approach.
Ben never mentions line choice, but his entry wide of the little rock isn't obvious, but a massive step to getting it started off right
I think when turning a flat corner locking the back wheel until the bike is aiming in the right it is faster than using this technique except if it is flat. In most slopes turning is faster with the rear wheel locked without weight on the back wheel. I would love to compare different techniques. Great explanation by the way
What are those blue forks? “Work on your weaknesses” never a truer word spoken. Will you be ghosting the IXS rounds? Asking for a friend 😂 keep up the brilliant work Ben and PB team 🤘❤️🌈🕊️🌎
Hi, small tech question: what fork is it on your bike? Thanks
Here I am, in one of the flattest places (Florida USA), watching people do only downhill. At least my cardio is great. LOL
🎶 track? It’s *Believe Me When I Say It* by *Matt Large* - and yes we are THRILLED to be your trusted provider.
ua-cam.com/video/nbXOiatUi0g/v-deo.html
// Epidemic Sound
The majority of my wipeouts this year (first year back in over a decade!) were flat corners lol. I feel more confident in how to approach them now, but adding that much grade would make it so much more challenging lol.
Brilliant 👏 👏 👏
I find it very difficult to keep my weight far enough forward when I get nervous in a downhill corner. Glad I’m not the only one. I’ll be drilling next time I come across the right flat turn!
Great videos these Ben. The cues are very valuable. How about how to ride a tight loam track? One of those with a single snaking rut! SO hard ‘;~}. 😂😊
Super timely for me. The past 2 days I’ve made about 30 runs at a flat right hand corner. Try to work on one aspect at a time until it started to come together. Man they are tricky. I’m finding it hard to have enough lean with the bike while maintaining my weight over the front tire. Finding the apex early and spotting the exit seems to help me find a good body position though.
are his lowers mounted backwards on his fork???
Are the droputs facing backwards? No:) So i would guess they are mounted right
what kind of specal-editon Fork is this??
I’m happy to see I’m not the only one who has the same remark 😀
I think its an MRP
I’ve been trying out all the skills in this series and have gotten noticeably faster in corners
It would have been good to time the first and last run and shadow them for comparison.
This is one of the very few things i knew from the beginning cause flat loose corners and smooth jumps were all i could ride on my old sh#tbox hardtail🥰
So the audio volume levels were a bit better in this video, although I still had to crank up the volume to hear the voices. At least the music wasn't that loud, although still too loud in comparison.
Please just use that normalizer, please!
Decades of racing motocross but damn I still struggle looking ahead while cornering on a MTB.
Never washed the front wheel out. I'm assuming that was because of the balanced weight distribution. Thanks Ben, I'll give it a go myself!
Could you talk about how to enter a corner? What's the best path?
After watching Tom Pitcock he would put his right foot forward peddles level when turning right.
Which I find hard to think about in time to do it as I ride with my left foot forward I think that’s why I find it easier turning left.
What about pre-turning? Not applicable in this situation or simply different schools of thought?
I've always done way better turning left than right. I suspect it has to do with needing to lean the bike a lot (which I do) but also having the rear brake on the right hand makes leaning it right more awkward.
But I'm sure it's also my right leg does the weighting better than the left
IMO Look at your position of your feet, if you put your outside foot (crank pointed back) before the corner then as you roll into the corner that outside foot will start to come down. As you do this you will notice that your right knee will naturally point into the turn. That slack from pointed back to down will give you more down pressure on the sidewall of the tires = more grip and more confidence.
I wouldn't have thought we have the same kryptonite; most of the time it's a flat turn that gets me.
so hard to learn this on your own; how do you know when its good? A manual its easy to know when its good; a jump is measured by the near death index, even a berm "feels" good when you ride it well. But flat corners always feel a bit iffy; without someone who's better than you to compare against how do you know if your getting the most out of it?
For sharp corners, go wide as possible to carry momentum and preserve energy.
That corner needs a pre-turn. More weight over the outside pedel. That is hips will be on left side of bike, and also rotated towards the exit of the corner. See Jeff Kendal-weed cornering videos. He uses exaggerated cornering positions possibly too much, but for that corner they would be perfect. The position also allows you to catch a rear wheel slide much easier.
Honestly, I know it's probably not the best way to do it, but I usually just powerslide through a turn like that, keeping my leg on the inner part of the turn close to the ground, and when I start to lose speed towards the end of the turn, I use that foot to kick off and gain momentum.
Why didn´t you break harder and earlier, wouldn´t that improve grip and in the end the overall speed?! Or did I get something wrong here?
Hm, I found out that I pretty good at looking through corners and leaning bike, but I should work on breaking to cut this apex nice and clean
1:30 what you shud do is; ride it super high, then.. drop it straight down out
I went to Austria and there was a few flat corners like this with stone stairs in the middle. Spoiled every corner in my way 😂
Why did the intro make me want a Costa Latte?
I’d do a how to bike camp with Ben.
why does it look like his fork stanchions are on backwards?
Sweet Benny boi
It would be great, if you could manage to put some red-green “virtual” lights on the video for each brake, to show us when you brake and release… (you would be the first one to do it as well)
Super
why is it , that when i watch pink bike, i am always one video click away from crash footage!?!
If Ben is struggling doing a flat corner, I’m feeling much better about myself when I struggle too… 😂
I never would have guessed Ben isn't an ambiturner.
Many skills on bikes can be transferred directly to car racing. Same techniques apply to road racing as they do to bikes.
I think more moto gp or motorcross, more than cars?!
Yeah, the way you really lean the car using your whole body and stuff
I like to yank on the steering wheel at the crest of a hill to boost it
Apex going into corners, not pressing on brakes in turns, looking ahead… I raced on road courses for 12 years and directly apply what I know about road racing to biking. This has been a huge help for me. Of course moto gp and motorcross for the obvious reason but our bikes are not motorized. It’s much more difficult. Motorcyclists and car racers take the same lines and apply the same skills. If you had a light weight car with 2 people and the passenger leans into the corner you actually do feel a difference because the weight is more centered. Also in MTB’s you want to keep your weight centered in turns and lean the bike into the turn. It has helped me.
@@bikes4lifebaybee You don’t lean your body on a MTB. That’s not how you go through a turn.
Can’t accept just slo mo. We need ghosting I’m afraid 😁
I’m a right foot forward guy but also find right turns harder
And again the sound volume is shit.
Good, it spares us the rest irritation of hearing Ben's voice.
jesus why is the mic sound so quiet? get it together lads!
More baby blue forks in the world please.
Next episode left hand flat corners
mad skills ignoring the gnat buzzing arround your face on the outro
Turn bellybutton towards the corner, ie turn with hip…. This was not mentioned in text
it's called a regular corner. get a 26".
That is not really a flat corner. About 60% of it has a natural berm going in. Could have doubled your speed by going up onto the berm early and exiting before it flattens out.
Pro
Me thinks that your outside foot is too far forward which is bending your ankle under 90 degrees. It looks like you're braking and putting your weight too far back. Get more aggressive and put your upper body over that foot more.
"There is just gigabytes and gigabytes of people just like bumbling down easy trails. Its fine to document your footage on GoPro, but uploading it to youtube is a bit much, maybe."
My worst skillset.
🤣
Ben, I like the channel but you have zero enthusiasm in your voice. This is the biggest reason I don’t watch your channel when you host. I’m serious. You have to pump up the enthusiasm. Show some high powered excitement when you host. Right now you sound bummed.
Maybe you should watch some of his older videos, he’s actually a hoot to watch. The guy has been through a lot mentally and physically in the last little bit.
He’s the most clear, concise person I’ve heard explain techniques and i guarantee he’d still “muster the enthusiasm” to smoke anyone’s ass on the trail that gets on here pissing and moaning about the sound or his level of happiness.
If you dont like it, shove off and find someone with your type of charisma. The absolute majority of viewers on this channel freaking love Ben!
@@Todd-cf8nl yea I’m saying that he should be more energetic. MTB is a very fast and physical sport. His hosting tone is befitting of a golf game. I’m just at saying what I personally would expect from a host of a sport like ours, mountain biking.
@@Velo1010 after what he’s been through I’m just glad he’s still doing these videos Period!
He is still one of the best I’ve seen at explaining techniques and most all of his content has always been upbeat, entertaining, clear and from a place of great experience and understanding of this sport/hobby.
@@Todd-cf8nl I don’t know his background. What happened?
@@Velo1010 bad crash, bad back injuries, screwed up his racing career, struggling withADHD.
He’s had a rough go of it in more recent times.
That’s all I was saying was cut the guy some slack.
He was always cutting up and high energy in the instructionals before he hurt himself and usually seems to still be , this just happened to be a calmer Ben.