Why is riding slow so important for fast descending? let Brian Cooke explain

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Maybe you have ridden with Bubba and the crew before or maybe you haven’t.  Either way you will know that BBL like the hills, and what goes up must come down!

Why is riding slow so important for fast descending?

And on that note, why is fast descending important at all?  Good question!  Firstly if you are reading this you are reading the BBL newsletter. Maybe you have ridden with Bubba and the crew before or maybe you haven’t.  Either way you will know that BBL like the hills, and what goes up must come down!  We love to share these journeys out in the hills with likeminded people but we need to be safe, and cornering at speed is safer than cornering slow and on the brakes.  You have done the hard climb so you should enjoy the descent, and to feel the flow and the freedom of a beautiful corner… well isn’t that why we go up?!   Not only is it awesome to feel the flow, it’s also important to be able to descend with the group especially on a long ride so everyone else is not waiting.

So where do we start? Well remember when you learnt to drive a car?  You didn’t jump on the race track straight away or in a rally car and take corners at 80km per hr… or did you?!  Probably not, unless your some kind of super human freak!  Generally we started off learning slow, with the L plates clearly displayed and an upright alertness to think through every step as we were scrutinized by our coach!  Some of us may have had a more natural instinct towards it however we all started slow.  Learning slow allowed us to train the brain and eventually program our brain to drive for us.  It became automatic, and those slow skills translated to better control and reflexes when driving fast.

This is the same on the bike.  We need to learn slow and steady, which will translate to more control when you are riding fast and on steeper terrain.  It will become automatic and instinctive.  With many riders this skill is skipped.  We get all excited as we decide to buy a new bike, maybe our partner or friends are riding, or maybe we run and decide we wan to do a triathlon and need a bike.  So we buy the bike, helmet, the shoes, the pedals and the kit and just start riding.  We ride straight, we get stronger and faster and before you know it we have great power and speed and no bike handling skills leading to the majority of crashes that occur.  We should be a bit smarter than that. …continue reading