I was recently taught to keep up speed in sandy corners by keeping the bike more upright and placing your body weight on the inside of the turn - like road racers. This has worked well for me in sand and it now feels pretty natural. Is this technique applicable to mud and slippery flat turns, or is it better to crank to bike over and weight the outside of the saddle? Thanks.
sand riding style vs mud
- Thread starter arjay
- Start date
High Lord Gomer
Poked with Sticks
- Sep 26, 1999
- 11,788
- 35
If you lean off the inside in mud, you are guaranteed to watch the bike slide away from you. I'm not too sure I agree with doing that in sand, either. But hey, if it works for you...go for it.
Personally, running a gear high and being careful about the application of throttle helps me in muddy turns.
Personally, running a gear high and being careful about the application of throttle helps me in muddy turns.
matt-itude
Member
- Jul 6, 2004
- 293
- 0
this in my opinion is completely a feel thing. you are just going to have to make the decision on how much leaning throttle and turning the avalible traction will allow you. some mud is like ice and some really hooks up. and in the sand i feel the throttle is usually your friend.
how about the muddy straights?
i was riding my grass track (turning it into a mud track) this weekend on my crf450 and i hit one 20-yd section that was "more soggy" than the other parts (not standing water but soggy topsoil) and wow did the front end get loose. it felt for the moment that the front wheel quit turning and was skiing through the mud. this was under hard acceleration - but being the fool that i am, i went back and gave it a few more tries at varying speed and it still made the front feel very loose -- even tried it with the small ttr125 to see if it would track better, but no change. what's the proper (and safe) technique here?
i was riding my grass track (turning it into a mud track) this weekend on my crf450 and i hit one 20-yd section that was "more soggy" than the other parts (not standing water but soggy topsoil) and wow did the front end get loose. it felt for the moment that the front wheel quit turning and was skiing through the mud. this was under hard acceleration - but being the fool that i am, i went back and gave it a few more tries at varying speed and it still made the front feel very loose -- even tried it with the small ttr125 to see if it would track better, but no change. what's the proper (and safe) technique here?
- Jun 20, 1999
- 2,563
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High Lord Gomer said:
Me neither. I've found that in sand, you can actually get the front tire to dig in if you throw your weight forward at the last minute and throw the bike down till you're almost touching the handlebars. Then slide back on the seat as you finish the turn and straighten up. Dragging your foot makes for some cool action shots too. :) This works good for tight turning. When it comes to the sweepers, ya gotta just play with it and hope there's some banking. In sweeping turns I usually do more leaning than actual turning. I'm not much for playing in the mud but I would tend to use the same techniques that I use for sand.
- Thread starter
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- #7
Thanks for the feedback guys. Keeping the bike more upright and keeping bodyweight on the inside of the turn is only something I do when standing and hustling the bike through hilly sand singletrack which has deep sand built up in the turns. I stand 90% of the time on the trail. On sweepers I sit and lean back a bit to keep the front light. Staying more upright has increased my singletrack speed significantly but I guess it's a sand thing - on hardpack I would lean the bike over more and weight the outside.
I'm still sorting out my riding also, and one thing I found with the standing up riding in attack position is that I started really grabing the bike with my lower legs and then moving my upper body around as needed... Exactly like riding a horse, squising with the lower legs, creating a solid base, then post up off the saddle... I also found that keeping my heels slightly downward, as if in sturups with he tips of my feet always on the controls works awsome for me... I found in the past that i sometimes would ride with the toes on the pegs and I'd be loose with the lower legs when you tighten up you have better feel and better control...