Mountain Biking - Riding Down a Hill

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    videos
    why can't i watch the whole video? i watch half of the video and it kicks back to the start

Scott Scudamore
Hewlett Packard Company
www.more-mtb.org  
703 717 1714

I have been mountain biking since 1993 and have been active in Mountain Bike Advocacy since 1997.   I am a self-proclaimed MTB Junkie.  I have been involved with MTB advocacy for over 11 years, 6 of those years on the Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts  (MORE)  Board in various positions, including President twice.  I have helped to maintain and/or build and design portions of the trails at Fountainhead, Schaeffer, Rosaryville, Gambrill, Cabin John, Wakefield, Accotink, Colt's neck, Cedarville, Conway Robinson and Riverbend.  All legal mountain bike venues within 100 miles of Washington DC.  I am  the current International Mountain Bike Association (IMBA) Representative for the DC Metro area.  I also represents IMBA on the National Rivers and Trails Coalition Working Group.  I am currently President of  the Board of Directors for the local Trips for Kid’s  Chapter. I was Race Director for their first 2 Charity Mountain Bike Races held the end of October   I joined Potomac Velo Bike Racing Club in 1999 and have helped run their MTB and cross races for over 9 years performing various duties including course designer, assistant race director, announcer, course setup, registration, and awards.  I have raced both MTB and Cyclocross since 1995 but have spent the past  4 years doing a few MTB races while I concentrate on the sport of Off-Road Triathlon, XTERRA .   I am also a member of the Bike Lane Elite Racing team.  I started racing XTERRA just a couple of years ago and was totally hooked from the beginning. I have competed in 16 XTERRA races including the 2005 and 2007 National Championships in Lake Tahoe finishing 5th  in 2007 and ended up Mid-Atlantic Regional Champion in 2004. I also competed in the 2007 XTERRA World  Championships.    I am also currently  a staff member for EX2Adventures. They produce local off-road races that challenge competitors of varied interest and ability. From  Trail running, mountain biking, adventure racing, off road triathlons they pretty much have an event for anyone.    I have  given MTB instruction clinics to the newbie’s before the 2004 VQ. I have competed in two VentureQuest races, the EX2 Off-Road Half Marathon, the Backyard Burn 10 mile Trail Runs, numerous Cranky Monkey  MTB races, and the EX2 Off-Road Xterra Triathlon  three times.     I love mountain biking and all that it does for me.  It is my passion and also my mid-life crisis.  

 Shawn Punga was the other member of the team that did the video.  As an active member of MORE for over three years,his involvement with the club has included trail work, trail advocacy, and trail planning at Fairlands, Patapsco, Hoyles Mill, the Upper Rock Creek project, the Watershed, Schaeefer and Roseryville. He has organized and taught a variety of different skills clinics, for different levels of riders as well as leading dozens rides at nearly every venue in the area, His contributions were recognized in 2006 with a Silver Spoke award for Ride Leader of the Year.

Mountain Biking - Riding Down a Hill

In this video Scott Scudamore and Shawn Punga of the International Mountain Biking Association will teach you the basics of riding a mountain bike.

This series: 118,971 views

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Transcripts

Scott Scudamore: Hi! My name is Scott Scudamore and you are learning how to ride your mountain bike with confidence. In this clip we are going to talk about going downhill, control descends. This is probably one of the most critical things to learn about riding; you will find that you really can go down some rather some steep descends without loosing control of the bike. So, a couple of things to keep in mind; we have been talking about bottom back or keeping your body back on the saddle, very, very important here. The other thing that is important is using both brakes but primarily using the front brake. You want to use your front brake and you want to keep it feathering; so, front brake, back brake, foot brake, back brake, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, as you are going down the hill.

Shawn is going to demonstrate, he is going to have is body back, all the way back; his butt back on the saddle; his arms, his elbows bent, nice and loose and then he is going to come down and show you how you can go really, really slow down the hill. The other thing, if your rear wheel or your front wheel starts to slide, let up a little bit on the brake and then gently come back on the brake and you will find that you will make it down the hill really, really slow; slower, slower, slower, even slower; see he is going really slow and he is still going, see that and all the way down. He is going to demonstrate that again so as you can get the feel for when he comes down; he is going at a nice -- he is totally in control the whole time. At no time has he worried about crashing; he is not going too fast and again this whole idea, do not look at the front wheel; look ahead, you are just nice and easy, loose; he has got his elbows bent and he is just going really, really easy. He is just braking, a little bit of each brake, front back, front brake, front brake, all the way down, just a great job. So this time he is going to come down and he is going to show what happens. Now, if for some reason, you are going downhill and you find that you are having a little difficulty and you think you might fall, it is very important for you to weighting your body, so that you fall in to the hill, not away from the hill because then you'll go crashing down. So, he is going to turn and he started crashing, crashing into the hill and then that way by going into the hill, if he goes the other way, he is going to come tumbling down the hill and we clearly don't want him to do that. So Control Descending, very, very important, that you follow the brakes, you keep your bottom back on the saddle and as you are going down just follow the brakes and you will stay in control all the way down the hill.

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