Cycling like a granny

[Chuffy]

It just makes me think of slasher movies and stringy body parts Not sure I believe your explanation, I think you just like making girl cyclists nauseous!!!

I do wish i'd been slightly more interesting in my own choice of user name!!! Distinct lack of imagination, that day!!

Hmmmm, all those !!!!!! You're not related to our Keith Oates are you?

 

[longers]

I'm getting better at descending. I cycled off road for a few years and loved losing height on a MTB and was good at it. No air but a very sticky approach to keeping shiny side up. Then I got a road bike for the first time in 15 years.

It's taken me ages to really get the most out of it and I'm not even all the way there yet. I'm quick but I know I can go a lot quicker. I'm getting the hang of the drops and did the snake pass in them today. More practice needed. I need to trust my tyres when leaning round corners.

12 months ago I would have done this ride much, much slower so from personal experience I think that once you get confidence in your self and your bikes capabilities you will be much happier when pointing downwards.

 

[Membrane]

Not sure I believe your explanation, I think you just like making girl cyclists nauseous!!!

I regularly have that effect on girls, although it is usually not intentional

Since you are such a doubting Thomas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insane_in_the_Brain

 

[Keith Oates]

I think that if you cycle with others and they go quickly downhill it will give you the confidence to follow them and raise your speed as well. If they really are going too fast, then drop back and use your own comfortable speed again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Keith Oates]

It just makes me think of slasher movies and stringy body parts Not sure I believe your explanation, I think you just like making girl cyclists nauseous!!!

I do wish i'd been slightly more interesting in my own choice of user name!!! Distinct lack of imagination, that day!!

Hmmmm, all those !!!!!! You're not related to our Keith Oates are you? [/QUOTE]

Are there no secrets on this forum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[peejay78]

when cornering at high speed focus on the exit to the corner, not the road immediately ahead. this way you take a sharper line.

it isn't that important at 18mph, but anything above 30 it certainly helps.

 

[monnet]

I think practising on a descent you know is a good way to improve. Obviously all descents are different but if you know you can handle one descent really well it'' build your confidence. As others have said relaxing and visualising the exit point ot corners is important. It worries me to think like this but if you relax even if you're going a bit too fast I've always found the chances are you'll make it!

Different descents call for different tricks too, I've been riding drop handle bars since I was 8 and I still fret about some descents. Obviously everyone's at home on something long with sweeping corners that you can just flop round nice and fast. I know of one where I can get up to about 70kph but then have to stop at a T junction so I go down on the hoods at 60-65kph the raised profile of the body gives a less aerodynamic position and slows me just enough to make the turn. And despite years of cycling there is still a 20% climb that I probably go down slower than i go up!

Above all though just keep riding the bike and your handling skills and knowledge of the bike will improve and so will your descending. And who cares if you're a bit slow - if you don't feel safe you probably aren't.

 

[asterix]

When descending fast I am always on the drop part of the bars as I feel more in control and can brake more effectively from that position.

For a number of years I cycled in East Anglia and then moved North, first to Manchester and then North Yorks. For quite a while, the speed other people went down hills amazed and horrified me. I gradually became better at it and still remember the first time I reached 40mph Since then I have become a confident descender.

Nevertheless, there are always descents that have to be given great respect e.g. White Horse bank near Kilburn and more recently the Portet d'Aspet where Fabio Casartelli crashed - a gloomy 17% with hairpins - they just happened to be fixing the road as I came round one of the bends and driving a small JCB across the narrow way! I think the driver got more of a shock than I did

 

[cq20]

When descending fast I am always on the drop part of the bars as I feel more in control and can brake more effectively from that position.

I do the same but the problem I have is that I have to move the brake levers further round the handlebar bend to do reach them and then the hoods slope down which is bloody uncomfortable..... and the anatomical bars just make this problem worse.

 

[Tynan]

my quickest is the long hill down towards Seven Sisters on the Seven Sisters Road, the slightly blind left turning at the foot of the hill rather spoils it, I say blind, that should refer to the people pushing out from it, it's very tiresome to have to brake hard there just in case

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Don't fear the Reaper!

 

[punkypossum]

Not sure I believe your explanation, I think you just like making girl cyclists nauseous!!!

Oi, I like membrane (as a name that is), and I'm a girl!!!

 

[Mr Phoebus]

Urethra Franklin.

 

[Amanda P]

Practice on a hill you know well. A long straight descent is good to practice on, because you can see all the way down it, you know there are no obstacles, and you won't have to steer around any corners. (In this neck of the woods, Terrington Bank would be an obvious candidate - the arrowed bit on this map - well known to local cyclists).

And some advice given to motocyclists comes in here. Don't look at the obstacles/potholes/oncoming cars etc. There's a tendency when going at speed to fixate on them, with the result that you're drawn towards them. Don't. Look at where you want to go. Glance at, and note the position of, potholes and the like, but keep looking at the line you want to travel on.

 

[Cathryn]

Membrane (the word, not the forumite) is like offal...if you think about it too much, it makes you feel ill!!!