Guest Post from Megan Hottman – Director Treads.com/DFT:
Because I live so close to lookout mountain in Golden, I tend to train there a lot.
Which means I see a lot of folks riding there, which means I see a lot of them descending back down the mountain. I see a lot of folks descending improperly -so I thought I’d try to offer 3 tips in the hopes that cyclists reading this can learn how to descend properly, for their own safety as well as the safety of other cyclists and motorists out on the roads:
1. ALWAYS descend in your drops. That way, no matter how big the hole or crack is that you ride over, your hands will not come off the bars (like they do if you are riding up top on your hoods). Hands coming off bars during high speed descent = bad.
2. ALWAYS keep your butt on the seat. Do not hover! (Why do people do this? You are unweighting the bike, plus your legs get tired). Weight the bike, sit on it, apply as much down-pressure to those tires as you can with your body weight. Please do not stand up or get off the saddle while descending.
3. ALWAYS lift the inside foot and stand on the outside pedal. Do not go through turns with your cranks level (ie parallel to the ground). Here’s a photo to show you an example of me taking a right-hand corner at high speed:
Photo courtesy: Megan Hottman
note-the inside (right) foot is UP so that I don’t scrape a pedal (which will cause a crash) and the outside (left) foot is applying down-pressure on my outside pedal (literally-think of standing on that pedal with that one leg). I am also pushing down slightly on my inside (right) handlebar. This is a good thing to remember if you come into a turn a bit too “hot” and you feel you may drift (ie over the yellow line) – just push down into that inside handlebar and the bike will slice a tighter turn, keeping you safe and out of the path of oncoming traffic.
Megan M. Hottman, Director
“TREADS.COM/DFT” Women’s cycling team
www.definedfitnesstraining.com
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