Noob Cornering and Off-camber help/tips

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Permalink Reply by ERIC LEWIS on September 2, 2012 at 7:20pm

I'm don't have much more experienced but, with the turns, are you trusting your tires? My first race I touched my front brake too much in a turn, crashed myself and the rider behind me. I've been mt biking for many years but the grass is much slipperier. Practice pushing the turns and taking a wide line apex type turn (if you have the room and aren't cutting another rider off) until you find the breaking loose point and go from there, IMO!

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Permalink Reply by JesseD on September 2, 2012 at 7:55pm

http://www.cxmagazine.com/video-corner-keoughs

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Permalink Reply by Nick DiGangi on September 3, 2012 at 8:20am

Thanks! I will try that. I think my saddle was too far forward, i felt like I was gonna faceplant everytime I took a turn. also my tire pressure was probably too high. I think I was running 70psi (im 160lbs) I adjusted both and will test them out either today or tomorrow. My tires recommend 50psi min should i just ignore that and run the lower pressures I see people talk about?

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Permalink Reply by Chris Mayhew on September 3, 2012 at 2:03pm

Ignore that for sure. Think 50psi or so, see if you can go a tad lower.

Practice practice. Set up a small course with flags. Left around a tree. Practice hitting the outside of the turn, getting into the apex and getting on the gas on the exit. Do a million repeats. Then reverse it for a million repeats. Then make it a 180 turn. Experiment with a lot of lines (and tire pressure). Do it once a week, at least.

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Permalink Reply by Nick DiGangi on September 3, 2012 at 8:03pm

I was planning on setting up some barrels and doing figure 8's and then sprinting out of every turn. I have 4 weeks til Gloucester so I'm gonna practice as much as I can.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Shoemaker on September 6, 2012 at 12:06pm

70psi is WAY too high for cross.  Even 50 is, unless you're heavy.  I weigh 5-10 pounds less than you, and when I race on clinchers (I usually run tubulars) I run around 32-36psi depending on the risk of pinch flats.  More rocks/roots/bumps = a little more pressure, just to prevent pinching.  Start your next practice session at 40, and bleed down a little from there.  If you find the pinch flat threshold in practice, that's good info, and better than finding out in a race.

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