How to descend really fast, safely 

because accelerating is so much harder on a bike than with a motored vehicle, you most often tend to sacrifice distance for the highest exit speeds. i learned this through fixed gear racing, where even braking cost you energy ...

Decreasing radius turns have caught me off guard a few times. Knowing your descent is pivotal before pushing any descent. Until then, lower the risk and break early and take the best line you can see. You can always start pedaling if you ended up playing it too safe. Banking in smoothly is another big lesson to learn. Smooth is fast.

When I learned to ride a motorbike I was taught the moniker “outside-inside-outside” to keep track of where you need to be in the turn. It still helps me.

Great clip! As a descend enthusiast i can agree 100%. Visability is key to aproaching the turn. Awarness of the road ahead is also very important.

I find descending more difficult than ascents. I'm fine with up to 10% gradient uphill, but even 5% downhill gives you lot's of speed, and I don't yet have skills to tackle the corners at high speed efficiently. Securing the visibility of the exit, aiming for the late apex, unless the turn is clearly visible, doing all the braking before the turn help, but it's still scary af.

All the techniqe stuff is easy. The hard part is to know where the limit is, how fast you can enter the turn, without exceeding it.

Excellent coaching - very clearly explained - thank you!

Great Video. Just discovered your channel after listening to your podcasts way back..

Love the thought of clipping the apex with the shopping trolly, then deploying DRS to get to the reductions first. Great video!

Nice video with good explanations. Concerning "seeing the exit": With modern bike computers in navigation mode you can anticipate every turn with a short look on your screen. That helps me a lot. And I am not even trying to corner or descent as fast as possible (I am not racing but touring) - I just try not to die, ride without fear and have at least some fun while descending :-)

Nice! Doing this in a group adds additional complexity as well. (Part 2?)

Rule 1, go as wide as you can (within road and traffic limits) until you see the exit. This gives best visibility and fastest exit speed. Poor riders always pull in too early.

A better analogy is GP motorbike racing, as opposed to F1 car racing. Although general cornering principles hold for both, 2-wheel vehicles need different skills than 4-wheels.

Great production value

Thank you! I had a crash recently, fortunately my body got only a few scratches, but my self confidence got totally broken. I find myself now breaking before all the turns. It‘s time to go to basics and renew the skill.

🎉🎉🎉 a very informative video

What software did you use to get the roll angle and g-force? That's pretty cool . I need that in my life. Do you need a gopro / wahoo/ garmin?

When entering a bend, my focus is not so much "where is the end of the bend" but rather "where does this bend's radius reach it's minimum". After that I can plan my speed/leaning/breaking. The bend's point minimum radius will will never appear later than the end of the bend.

But Pidcock does something eles that allows him to descend with extra speed: watch his upper body. He leans the other direction to reduce the pressure/physical force on the tire.

Gilbert was following the line the Moto was taking...moto took a narrow line and Gilbert followed, obviously the braking and traction the moto has is better than that of a road bike. One of the rules of racing bikes at club level is that when your at the front of a bunch, make sure you chose safe lines as the safety of the riders behind you depends on you. Meaning if you come off the road due to under steer, everyone else behind you is likely to follow. Gilbert figured out too late that the same line as the moto wasn't going to work out well for him.

can you link the videos you recommended at the end? thanks and good video btw

a super nasty, and prolonged, speed wobble where I barely kept it upright literally fkn' shattered my descending confidence, my mental game, long term. the only thing that saved me that day from getting bucked off the bike was a leg up against the top tube that sufficiently damped the worsening oscillations.

For Gilbert: also, don't supertuck on winding roads... the time required getting back up to the saddle definitely didn't help preparing for this corner @10:30.

i use my garmin 1030 to show me how tights are the turns.

My advice is to be careful with the brakes… try to brake before the turn, and not to brake hard while turning or even entering a turn… especially if you’re carrying some speed. Also, you can sometimes predict the road conditions! An example would be, If you’re passing by a section that has dirt ledges, there can be dirt on the road (especially if it rained)

Gilbert's problem was that there was a right hand bend before the tight left so his position coming out of the righthander put him in exactly the wrong position for the lefthander.

If you want to learn the racing line go play some driving games. You can usually even get it to show you the racing line for braking and position all from the safety of your home.

I am a skilled descender, but I rarely (almost never) use the drops while descending. This could be because that's how I learned it, bike fit issues, or flexibility in my back. I would likely benefit from a bike fit. What can information can you give us on riding in the drops vs. on the bar tops?

Lots of helpful info about race line, I thought I understood already, but truth is corners are way more complex and usually multiple together, or hazards making them different to what the maps show. Would be interested in a video detailing camber. Also when to wash off speed safely, as sometimes I feel like an uncontrollable runaway train on a straight section of downhill.

What cycling computer and software did you use to create the HUD?

Look at motoGP and countersteering. It will help you increase your lean with practice.

Well presented, however, a few flaws in the science. I suggest researching “early apex” as that is the safest and usually fastest line selection outside of a purpose built racetrack as it delivers the exit closer to the inside of the turn, leaving more options. Keep in mind that the apex is in the line, not the corner, so you move it where you need it. The confusing bit comes from multi apex terminology- a double apex turn can often only have a single apex in the line, but it sums the situation best so that is the term. And just to point an obvious piece of the gilbert vid, the motorcycle was actually on the correct line, at the apex, when you stopped motion. Source: former motorcycle roadracer, car racer, shifter cart racer, cyclist. Again, well presented! (but follow up with one explaining late apex)

Oh no! I gasped out loud when you said you hadn’t descended much since you haven’t lived near hills for a while. That’s a shame. I live at the top of a long windy hill which is always a fun way to start a ride, although the thought of coming up on the way back, looms over me on many a ride. If only it were reversed.

Instead of, or in addition to, why not observe MotoGP for their body position on the bike? Lots of leaning the bike but staying over top of the centre of gravity of the bike.

My basic problem is that on the road, you have to stay in your lane to avoid hitting a car coming from the opposite direction. In this case, what cornering technique do i need?

Also Bring some "real" meat. Like 30mm+ I have a long endurance bike with 35mm in the French Alps whislt wheighting a chonky 97kg. Descent are a breeze and I feel very safe

I’m on mobile and can’t see the video over your shoulder.

How do you have roll angle data?

By the way, only way to go downhill safely is going slow, doesn't matter how skill or confident you are, the faster you go the riskier it is, tires may slip, a rock may be there, a hole, you making a mistake etc

Good video. It highlights the next-level skills that must be mastered to take a corner as fast as possible. Some notes: Visual skills: cornering is often presented as a physical skill, but it's more a visual skill as well as one of judgement. As you've highlighted, a whole pile of sensory inputs must be taken into account. Apart from decreasing the arc, and hence, radial acceleration, a wider arc affords a better sight-line deeper into the turn. Traction circle: this is often discussed in motor sports, but not in cycling. The traction circle, which you did not name but displayed in your video, is the maximum tractive force in any one direction. Forward acceleration is almost never maxed out as a humans never produces enough power to break traction on clean dry pavement, backward acceleration can almost always be exceeded by hard braking (i.e. skid), and maximum lateral acceleration is what the fast rider tries to approach at the apex. It doesn't not take much convincing to show the fastest way around a corner in an ideal situation is one where the rider is on the edge of the traction circle at any point in the turn. The approach into the turn is fast and hard on the brakes with most braking on the front, and as the rider leans deeper into the turn, braking is progressively lessened and balanced to transition into radial acceleration, then after the apex, the rider completes the arc and pounds hard on the pedals as soon the the bike is upright enough. This takes a lot of practice, which leads me to ... Practice: there's no real shortcut to learning this. You can't learn where the limits are until you go over the limit. This limit is precipitous, and usually results in a crash. Ouch. Actually, there is one shortcut: learn from someone who has already learned it the hard way. By following a skilled rider, a follow rider can learn positioning and lean angles faster than trying to sneak up on it from solo trial and error. "Counter-steer": you gave the impression that this means steering into the turn, but it's actually the opposite. A cyclist imperceptibly steers away from the apex to initiate a lean into the turn, which then causes the bike to start the turn. However, this term is really just another word for balance for single track vehicles: you never hear terms like "counter-skate" or "counter-ski" even though it's the same phenomenon. Micro "counter-steering" is done continuously while riding a straight line.

Rule #64 // Cornering confidence increases with time and experience. This pattern continues until it falls sharply and suddenly (Velominati)

Sa Pilipinas

counter steering

Fast and safe are impossible. If it's safe, it's not fast enough. Well, how could you call a speed fast, if you can go faster? The most important is that for us, mortals, roads are not closed, hence you should never go fast downhill if you want to be safe. It's always risky.

Problem is not skill, is not knowledge, is not math Problem is NOT knowing if your tire will slip on the next corner

14:00 i dont see this video - _ -

informative, but I'm like srsly..if ppl don't know these basics, how the f can you even ride a vehicle?

watch the full video, to get to lured to the watch this video Here trick pointing to no video 🤨 guess I won't learn about those two unknown ways nobody knows about...

You are driving on the wrong site

Watch what video where?? Grrr.

wanna go fast down hill? Learn to ride a mountain bike.

I stopped watching as soon as there is a pass on a double yellow. Nothing is worth that risk

hmmm maybe watching motogp would have been better?

I stopped watching when you passed dangerously

Dude, "How to descend QUICKLY"!! Fast is an adjective, so incorrect to describe an action. Basic grammar.

Where is the video about the bounderies of grip?