The finger off the front brakes in corners technique has been an absolute game changer for me & is literally revolutionizing how I ride. I'd call myself ok-ish to slightly above average at cornering, but I've always felt a lack of confidence in corners, especially in loose or less than ideal conditions and flat corners, having a couple wipe-outs over the years from the front tire washing out. And I've almost exclusively been a two-finger brake technique rider in almost all conditions. Enter in 1-finger in the corners, and wow, my mind was blown! I feel like I can rail into almost any corner now & have loads more confidence knowing my front tire has way more traction, and I can actually feel it. I always thought it was a lack of tread issue, but its really been a technique issue. Thank you JK & keep shredding!
Glad that has helped for you!!! I may do the August patreon tutorial about this... But it's something I really have been honing in on recently too. Lately, I have been doing this for slick, off camber roots with good success as well. Your tire has $10 to spend on grip- use it wisely. I now go zero front brake on corners AND when smashing through rocks or roots. There is more grip when brakes aren't applied, the suspension works better, and the bike rides smoother. The hard part is finding the appropriate spots to scrub speed, and not being an idiot and getting over confident with all this. Ive also come to terms with dragging rear brake a bit- that's far less troublesome than dragging some front brake.
@@JeffKendallWeed I love it!! Yes, the not being an idiot part is key, lol. I never though about the suspension dynamics in chunky stuff, but it makes total sense! Unless of course you're riding rigid... 🤣I'll definitely keep experimenting with this technique, can't wait for the Aug tutorial!
One of the best motorcycle (racing) skills drills I've done is the "no brakes" laps. Scary as hell at first but in the end most folks are shocked by just how fast they can really go without ever using the brakes. Sneaking up on it with the MTB too so really cool to see it outlined here as well. Great video Jeff!
This is a big part of my trailbuilding style, constant transition, both vertical and horizontal. Whether it's a sculpted bmx style trail that launches the rider into and out of corners/banked transitions, or a raw loamer that requires more effort and precision to make that happen. Trails that have as little straight and "flatbottom" as possible allow for a really cool rhythmic sensation.
Nice! Those trails sounds flowy! I tend to seek out more of the janky stuff where it's a constant riddle of figuring out how keep momentum and get the bike thru, but BMX style tracks through the woods are neat! You're inspiring me to grab the hardtail and head across town to hit some jumps again!
Love these videos and you make it look so easy. Also am jealous of your trails in the Pacific Northwest. I’m in Ontario Canada near the GTA, nothing like those trails with an hour drive. The best I’ve found in South Dagmar in Uxbridge. Keep up these great adventures!!!
SoCal has finally been blessed with a Dual Slalom series, but I have racking my brain on how to get better at it without a DS course to practice on. So, I'm trying to session DS-esque portions of local trails, I've dipped my toe into BMX, (Racing, not freestyle,) and I'm going to pump tracks. This vid gives me something to focus on in the berms. Thanks, Jeff!
It's great practice to set up a cone course on both high and low traction surfaces, and practice not just cornering, but braking hard before corners, and sprinting out. That helped me a lot when I was getting into it!
@@JeffKendallWeed or to start with the basics and work up, but …. The saying is true .. you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You’re a great rider by the way absolutely awesome, how long have you been riding?
Thanks Kev! Old dogs can totally learn new tricks- it just may take a while! I started getting hardcore into biking when I was 10, back in 1995, with BMX racing that fall. I started MTB racing in Spring 1996.
coming from motocross- tighter turns on a mountainbike feel like doing it with a broken chain- so I am not very good at it. Which doesn't matter at all since there are no trails around here so no corners.. and no jumps
Well in MX, all my coaches said to lean inside of the bike on tight corners. On the MTB, it's the opposite, you've gotta lean the bike more than your body. We don't have ruts, and we weigh a lot more than our machines!
Hi Jeff, thank you for the great video. As I was watching it a few times I thought that parts of the techniques do better fit when you ride a full suspension bike. Maybe there is a bit of a language barrier. Can you tell me if it also applies to riding hardtails? Thank you Regards from germany
Do you have any tips on how to get over your fear of berms. I can do the proper cornering technique for berms when going slow, but when I go trail speed or fast my brain just stops working and I just can’t corner.
Practice and work your way up speed wise. It's hard getting over that fear but it's super rewarding once you do. From my personal experience you also just have to overcook a couple berms and go over just to know where the limits at 😂
Great video, the pumping technique is one of my favourites! Unfortunately my fox x2 is ruining it by sucking air so I have to change it… I’m wondering between Cane creek tigon and Ohlins TTX air and really looking for a lively bike feel. That’s for a Specialized Turbo Levo. What do you think Jeff?
Just service your shock mate. Air can service intervals are nothing on an e bike, mine gets done every 2 weeks! Blowing chunks of cash isnt thr answer If you dont keep ontop of the maintenance a TTX or anything else will get grumpy too
Cheers Emil! It's always nice to have a backup shock on hand. TTX and Tigon are similar damping systems, main diff is one is air, and the other is coil. I'd go air, personally.
Great video Jeff, like always! What would you suggest I do for cornering for loose over hardpack like the trails at Hawes in Mesa. I'm always finding that I lose traction in these loose corners. Thanks!
Ah I started to do this whole thing while going to university in San Luis Obispo, CA, where it is super loose over hard. That's why I don't weight my front wheel crazy hard like some folks- weighting the rear and pumping is both fast and more predictable when sliding out is so easy to experience.
@@JeffKendallWeed This is exactly what I designed the RR (Raised Reversed) stem for! I never assume that I have perfect traction because my trails in So Cal are always dry and loose. As such, I focused on how do I manage control of a drift and make the bike dynamically more prone to drift predictably. The RR stems Reversed offset is all about leaning the bike over and carving for turns while loading the rear end, and the Raised height gives more leverage over the frame for pumping. Since the Reversed offset arcs out instead of in when turning relative to the frame, it allows the rider to position themselves on the outside of the bike when cornering to load their side knobs properly while also leaning the bike in further for a kinematically tighter turn and more predictable drift response. This helps the rider keep better balance in loose terrain, and even surf and carve through loose dirt.
@@JeffKendallWeedThe need to weight the front wheel hard I’d argue is more a side effect of trying to get good feel of what the front wheel is doing for keeping balance through a turn when riding on a system where keeping good feel and control of the front end is compromised due to excessive side to side motion of the bars and floppiness in the steering geometry. Traction is fine even with very minimal loading of the front wheel when you can keep balance through a turn. When you loose balance in a turn, you either have your cog leaned to much for the turn and fall over or wash out, or your cog is not leaned enough for the turn and it stands you up. This is balanced actively by steering and counter steering. Along with that, over loading the front end can actually make it more prone to sliding. An object in motion wants to stay in motion in a straight line maintaining its momentum. So why when you are trying to move away from that straight line would you want to shift your weight forward and push the front end down and in the direction you don’t want it to wash out. Instead I say pull the front end around the turn when you don’t want it to push and slide, and help direct it to change direction while you over load the rear end to make it slide and oversteer for a really nice carve. If you imagine the front wheel of a bike lifting in plane with the frame like it’s doing a wheelie, and then you lay the bike on its side and pull the front in that same motion in plane with the frame, the bike will now be basically turning. It’s a similar principle in practice and a big part of why Jeff comes out a lot of turns in a manual. The RR stems Reversed offset calms the steering dynamics with much less wheel flop and side to side motion at the bars so that keeping good feel of the front end and balance through a turn is much easier. Combine this with the more rearward rider position with all of the riders weight through their feet, and you get something that can carve loose turns way smoother and faster.
For me, thinking about it that way helped a lot with applying the right mechanics. There are so many different ways to approach all this stuff, so I hope this helps some folks!
More plush and damp? Heavy duty casings help a lot- you can run low, 22-25psi pressures, without big risk of flatting. MaxxGrip is amazing- awesome all winter. In summer, it's not as much of an advantage, but it definitely still hooks up!
@@JeffKendallWeed Thanks Jeff! What I meant about more plush and damp is I want a tire that calms the trail chatter down for a more comfortable ride, like adding more suspension to your bike if that makes sense, I dont have an issue with flats. just want a softer ride especially in the front to feel less harsh.
Ain't no one perfect but Jesus...but we all got opinions. Maybe in our litigious society....maybe this was just a way that there would be recognition for where the phrase originally was popularized....I don't see much wrong with it....
The finger off the front brakes in corners technique has been an absolute game changer for me & is literally revolutionizing how I ride. I'd call myself ok-ish to slightly above average at cornering, but I've always felt a lack of confidence in corners, especially in loose or less than ideal conditions and flat corners, having a couple wipe-outs over the years from the front tire washing out. And I've almost exclusively been a two-finger brake technique rider in almost all conditions. Enter in 1-finger in the corners, and wow, my mind was blown! I feel like I can rail into almost any corner now & have loads more confidence knowing my front tire has way more traction, and I can actually feel it. I always thought it was a lack of tread issue, but its really been a technique issue. Thank you JK & keep shredding!
Glad that has helped for you!!! I may do the August patreon tutorial about this... But it's something I really have been honing in on recently too. Lately, I have been doing this for slick, off camber roots with good success as well. Your tire has $10 to spend on grip- use it wisely. I now go zero front brake on corners AND when smashing through rocks or roots. There is more grip when brakes aren't applied, the suspension works better, and the bike rides smoother. The hard part is finding the appropriate spots to scrub speed, and not being an idiot and getting over confident with all this. Ive also come to terms with dragging rear brake a bit- that's far less troublesome than dragging some front brake.
@@JeffKendallWeed I love it!! Yes, the not being an idiot part is key, lol. I never though about the suspension dynamics in chunky stuff, but it makes total sense! Unless of course you're riding rigid... 🤣I'll definitely keep experimenting with this technique, can't wait for the Aug tutorial!
One of the best motorcycle (racing) skills drills I've done is the "no brakes" laps. Scary as hell at first but in the end most folks are shocked by just how fast they can really go without ever using the brakes. Sneaking up on it with the MTB too so really cool to see it outlined here as well. Great video Jeff!
Amazing skills break down and love the drills. Now I just need 500 hours of practice to pop one JK manual out of a turn.
so true
Always out there making it look easy Jeff!
Man you’re such a sick rider Jeff! I love learning from your prime example. 🤙🏼
Thank you Hawkis!
You're right, Jeff- a sine wave is still a sine wave regardless of its orientation on an axis.
Hell yeah! Getting me pumped for my morning ride
This is a big part of my trailbuilding style, constant transition, both vertical and horizontal. Whether it's a sculpted bmx style trail that launches the rider into and out of corners/banked transitions, or a raw loamer that requires more effort and precision to make that happen. Trails that have as little straight and "flatbottom" as possible allow for a really cool rhythmic sensation.
Nice! Those trails sounds flowy! I tend to seek out more of the janky stuff where it's a constant riddle of figuring out how keep momentum and get the bike thru, but BMX style tracks through the woods are neat! You're inspiring me to grab the hardtail and head across town to hit some jumps again!
Love these videos and you make it look so easy.
Also am jealous of your trails in the Pacific Northwest. I’m in Ontario Canada near the GTA, nothing like those trails with an hour drive. The best I’ve found in South Dagmar in Uxbridge.
Keep up these great adventures!!!
As a shy celiac the hook def hooked me 🙌🙌
SoCal has finally been blessed with a Dual Slalom series, but I have racking my brain on how to get better at it without a DS course to practice on. So, I'm trying to session DS-esque portions of local trails, I've dipped my toe into BMX, (Racing, not freestyle,) and I'm going to pump tracks. This vid gives me something to focus on in the berms. Thanks, Jeff!
It's great practice to set up a cone course on both high and low traction surfaces, and practice not just cornering, but braking hard before corners, and sprinting out. That helped me a lot when I was getting into it!
I’m so excited about this!!! Can’t wait to try. Huge thanks Jeff!!!! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Cheers Matt!
Great vid! That Hightower looks sweet in action. Would love to see a review on it!
jeff try not to be steezy challenge
😂 borrrring?
@@JeffKendallWeed Au contraire
i'd like to see this..be as boring as you can be on a trail ride jeff..be a "joey" hahaha
Impossible
Great video. Great advice on riding.
Thank you, Dempsey!
That was great. Never knew how to pump. Now I can go practice.
Can never practice pumping too much! I enjoy going from FS to hardtail, as it makes it more obvious when a pump is done correctly.
This is going to give me the fake confidence to break all my teeth and my entire face
You're welcome? Sounds like a full face is a good call!
@@JeffKendallWeed or to start with the basics and work up, but …. The saying is true .. you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. You’re a great rider by the way absolutely awesome, how long have you been riding?
Thanks Kev! Old dogs can totally learn new tricks- it just may take a while! I started getting hardcore into biking when I was 10, back in 1995, with BMX racing that fall. I started MTB racing in Spring 1996.
Love it! I appreciate you people.
I'm here for the trail cats, this bike wizard is just a bonus.
Ah me too, meow!
TEAM DROP FOOT IN CORNERS!!!! Finally someone who preaches the truth
On slower speed or flatter corners, when you need to actively increase traction, it works great. I don't do it always, but I do it quite often.
So good man!!
Voll gut!!!
The lime salt orange salt and raspberry salt are great flavors of lmnt 😁
Agreed!
Great vid. Do you ever use stop wheel rotation to drop the wheel. Front or back. Try it
coming from motocross- tighter turns on a mountainbike feel like doing it with a broken chain- so I am not very good at it. Which doesn't matter at all since there are no trails around here so no corners.. and no jumps
Well in MX, all my coaches said to lean inside of the bike on tight corners. On the MTB, it's the opposite, you've gotta lean the bike more than your body. We don't have ruts, and we weigh a lot more than our machines!
What was that cat looking at? ..oh yeah corner jumping. By the way Jeff your flow is tastey . Best rider to watch.
He was hunting his friend... Thanks Barry!
@@JeffKendallWeedhahaha nice !
The pump track, is that Whatcom Falls pump track? Such an awesome spot there!!!!!
Yes, indeed Whatcom Falls, I love that track! Cheers to WMBC for supporting it!
Any chance you'll review the new MRP Lift damper? would love to hear your thoughts on it.
Hi Jeff, thank you for the great video. As I was watching it a few times I thought that parts of the techniques do better fit when you ride a full suspension bike.
Maybe there is a bit of a language barrier.
Can you tell me if it also applies to riding hardtails?
Thank you
Regards from germany
Do you have any tips on how to get over your fear of berms. I can do the proper cornering technique for berms when going slow, but when I go trail speed or fast my brain just stops working and I just can’t corner.
Practice and work your way up speed wise. It's hard getting over that fear but it's super rewarding once you do. From my personal experience you also just have to overcook a couple berms and go over just to know where the limits at 😂
Great video, the pumping technique is one of my favourites! Unfortunately my fox x2 is ruining it by sucking air so I have to change it… I’m wondering between Cane creek tigon and Ohlins TTX air and really looking for a lively bike feel. That’s for a Specialized Turbo Levo. What do you think Jeff?
Just service your shock mate. Air can service intervals are nothing on an e bike, mine gets done every 2 weeks! Blowing chunks of cash isnt thr answer If you dont keep ontop of the maintenance a TTX or anything else will get grumpy too
Cheers Emil! It's always nice to have a backup shock on hand. TTX and Tigon are similar damping systems, main diff is one is air, and the other is coil. I'd go air, personally.
@@JeffKendallWeed thanks for the info!!! Keep shredding, love your videos! Brapp
YEET
I've seen you mention the Trail 429 in other videos and show riding clips, is there a review coming?
Oh you betcha!
Great video Jeff, like always! What would you suggest I do for cornering for loose over hardpack like the trails at Hawes in Mesa. I'm always finding that I lose traction in these loose corners. Thanks!
Ah I started to do this whole thing while going to university in San Luis Obispo, CA, where it is super loose over hard. That's why I don't weight my front wheel crazy hard like some folks- weighting the rear and pumping is both fast and more predictable when sliding out is so easy to experience.
@@JeffKendallWeed This is exactly what I designed the RR (Raised Reversed) stem for! I never assume that I have perfect traction because my trails in So Cal are always dry and loose. As such, I focused on how do I manage control of a drift and make the bike dynamically more prone to drift predictably. The RR stems Reversed offset is all about leaning the bike over and carving for turns while loading the rear end, and the Raised height gives more leverage over the frame for pumping. Since the Reversed offset arcs out instead of in when turning relative to the frame, it allows the rider to position themselves on the outside of the bike when cornering to load their side knobs properly while also leaning the bike in further for a kinematically tighter turn and more predictable drift response. This helps the rider keep better balance in loose terrain, and even surf and carve through loose dirt.
@@JeffKendallWeedThe need to weight the front wheel hard I’d argue is more a side effect of trying to get good feel of what the front wheel is doing for keeping balance through a turn when riding on a system where keeping good feel and control of the front end is compromised due to excessive side to side motion of the bars and floppiness in the steering geometry. Traction is fine even with very minimal loading of the front wheel when you can keep balance through a turn. When you loose balance in a turn, you either have your cog leaned to much for the turn and fall over or wash out, or your cog is not leaned enough for the turn and it stands you up. This is balanced actively by steering and counter steering. Along with that, over loading the front end can actually make it more prone to sliding. An object in motion wants to stay in motion in a straight line maintaining its momentum. So why when you are trying to move away from that straight line would you want to shift your weight forward and push the front end down and in the direction you don’t want it to wash out. Instead I say pull the front end around the turn when you don’t want it to push and slide, and help direct it to change direction while you over load the rear end to make it slide and oversteer for a really nice carve. If you imagine the front wheel of a bike lifting in plane with the frame like it’s doing a wheelie, and then you lay the bike on its side and pull the front in that same motion in plane with the frame, the bike will now be basically turning. It’s a similar principle in practice and a big part of why Jeff comes out a lot of turns in a manual. The RR stems Reversed offset calms the steering dynamics with much less wheel flop and side to side motion at the bars so that keeping good feel of the front end and balance through a turn is much easier. Combine this with the more rearward rider position with all of the riders weight through their feet, and you get something that can carve loose turns way smoother and faster.
Clicked so fast even the ad dissapeared
Hahaha nice cat photo! I use UA-cam premium, no ads, and it allows you to turn all videos into podcasts.
corners are jumps flopped over ninety degrees! agreed
For me, thinking about it that way helped a lot with applying the right mechanics. There are so many different ways to approach all this stuff, so I hope this helps some folks!
I want to try lmnt but it's literally double the price per serving of nuun... why??
What kind of tires can make your ride more plush and damp? Should I get a tougher casing or Maxxgrip or both?
More plush and damp? Heavy duty casings help a lot- you can run low, 22-25psi pressures, without big risk of flatting. MaxxGrip is amazing- awesome all winter. In summer, it's not as much of an advantage, but it definitely still hooks up!
@@JeffKendallWeed Thanks Jeff! What I meant about more plush and damp is I want a tire that calms the trail chatter down for a more comfortable ride, like adding more suspension to your bike if that makes sense, I dont have an issue with flats. just want a softer ride especially in the front to feel less harsh.
Bussin thumbnail
I went thru a phase of trying to use memes LOL! Thanks!!!
boss what backpack you rocking at 1:22 ?
Fox Union 12L! I love that pack! I have a backpack comparison coming, and that one's my favorite thus far.
How do you get any front wheel traction at all with your ass hanging over the back wheel??
😂
Cheers mang!!!
Love your vids, but I wouldn't want my brand anywhere near Steven Crowder 😂😂
Fair point!
@sck519 alas, you do not have a brand
Ain't no one perfect but Jesus...but we all got opinions. Maybe in our litigious society....maybe this was just a way that there would be recognition for where the phrase originally was popularized....I don't see much wrong with it....
Why? Whats wrong with a guy trying to have conversations with people that think differently?
Lighten up Francis.