Wednesday, 23 November 2016

How to rail berms like a pro

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Bryn Atkinson is one of the first crop of Australian downhillers to make waves on the World Cup circuit, Bryn’s ridden on teams alongside Sam Hill and Nathan Rennie, and has chalked up a string of top 10 results. Here he gives us a few tips on riding berms like a pro.

Basic tips

1. Entry point

As with learning any skill, I’d recommend you back off a little and ride at about 90 percent. Slow things down until you’ve perfected the technique. Once you’ve spotted the entry, look for anything that might disrupt your traction and avoid it — or, if you can’t avoid it, be smooth over it. Remember, exit speed is what you’re after, so going in full speed and blowing the turn will only slow you down for the next section.

2. Into the middle

This is where you want to be leant over and settled into the berm. It’s good to keep your outside foot down (at about 4 o’clock on a left-hander) and your inside foot up (about 10 o’clock). Try to keep any body movements to a minimum and look towards your exit. Don’t touch the brakes while you’re in the turn.

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3. Exit point

Hopefully by this point, having entered at a controlled speed and stayed on a nice smooth line, you are carrying some good momentum as you come out of the berm, ready for the next obstacle. If not, get up there and do it again — there’s nothing that’ll make you better at cornering more than repetition.

Advanced Tips

Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can think about finessing the turns…

1. Entry position

Newton’s third law states: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Consider this when cornering. If you enter a corner on the inside line you will end up being pushed to the outside on exit. Likewise, if you stay outside on the entry, you will have more time to come out of the corner on the inside, giving you time to maybe avoid some holes or roots.

2. Traction

3. Practice

You can read more at BikeRadar.com



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