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pembo · 2 years

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Gravel Riding Skill: Descending

In my cycling club there are a number of road riders that have taken up gravel riding. The biggest thing I have noticed is they lack confidence on the gravel descents. The photo below is a great example. I rode this with a massive grin on my face whereas the riders with me unclipped and edged their way down. These guys are both road riders that absolutely floor me on the road.

Where is this trail I hear you ask. This is in The Peak District and is called The Old Buxton Road. It leads from the Cat & Fiddle and descends into Buxton.

So why are they struggling? A number of reasons really, they are not used to letting the bike squirm around underneath them. Road riders are very static on their bikes and stay planted in the saddle mostly. Whereas mountain bikers are always off the saddle and using their weight to keep the bike planted. Gravel in my experience is a combination of them both.

Now riding gravel requires a keen eye to pick the best line. After all, we don't have any suspension to soak up those mistakes. Mountain bikes are awesome at absorbing the trail and keeping you upright. So one of the first things to master is line choice. Also being aware that you cannot attack the trail the same as a mountain bike. You may have to slow down and gently work your way over the obstacles. Having said that, if you are confident enough to throw some speed at it and keep off the brakes you will happily skim over the top of most of the rough stuff.

It comes down to confidence. I'm not suggesting that you throw all caution to the wind and try to descend like a God. If you are struggling and filled with fear that is a good thing as it will keep you on the bike. Most of the gravel trails are not as extreme as the one in the picture so always stay within your limits, and ride to your ability. As your confidence grows the speed will pick up and you will be tackling tough descents in no time.

Practice, practice, practice. All skills take time to develop. There is a saying that to become a master at anything you have to put in 10,000 hours. So how long have you been riding gravel for? I'm talking about hours in the saddle, actual riding time. There you go, so don't be hard on yourself, we are all still crafting our skill set. I always say two things. The first one is this:

"If you are not falling off you are not trying hard enough"

The second question is this:

Why did you fall off?

If you can work out why you fell off then you can adapt your riding so you don't do it again, hopefully.

Thinking about riding down a descent lets just dissect falling off for a moment. The first thing to understand is that your bike has been designed and is perfect in every way. So when you fall off it is not the bikes fault, nor is it the trail you are on. The reason you fell off is because your body weight was in the wrong place for that part of the trail.

Knowing that the trail is heading downhill and gravity was to pull you down we need to compensate with our body. Have you heard of the "Attack Position". Basically going downhill most falls include flying over the handlebars. This is because your body weight is too far forward on your bike making your bike front end loaded. So when your front wheel digs into a rock or a rut the bike will stop and your front loaded bike will catapult you into Superman mode.

Once you and your bike have parted company you need to get away from it as it turns into a weapon of mass destruction and you are the target so unclip and create some distance if possible. This is easy to say but at that moment all you are thinking about is that this is going to hurt.

Falling off the bike doesn't actually hurt, the part that hurts is landing. Just saying....

So to avoid being Superman you need to put your weight towards the rear of the bike, this makes the front end light and allows it to not dig into ruts and rocks. In effect it skims across the obstacles and stays up rather than being forced down.

The attack position is your most used position on the bike and that will be in another post of its own. Essentially the steeper the descent the further towards the back of the bike you need to be.. This also emphasises the need for a correctly fitting bike. If your frame is too big for you then moving your body around will have less of an effect. The basics are to have your arms and legs slightly bent, as these are your shock absorbers, remember gravel bikes don't have suspension as a rule. Then stick your backside over your back wheel. There are other parts to the attack position which will be covered in future posts.

This then puts your body weight on the rear of the bike allowing the front to skim over things, you are absorbing the knocks through your arms and legs.

Finally get on the drops. We have discussed how your body weight makes all the difference and you are thrown off the bike when your weight is in the wrong place. Getting on the drops lowers your centre of gravity which helps to plant the bike into the ground.

Finally, finally flared bars. Most gravel bikes have flared bars, some are quite extreme. Personally my bars only have a 12% flare which I find is enough for me. So why flared. Firstly, how wide are mountain bike bars compared to road bike bars? Yeh, really wide. This gives you more control and stability. As a rule your gravel bars should be as wide as your shoulders from hood to hood. This will give you a comfortable riding position on easy gravel when you are on the hoods and top of the bars. The flared drops just give you that bit more stability in the slight extra width alongside lowering your centre of gravity which makes the bike feel more planted.

The other benefit of the flare is when you drop from the hoods to the drops you will naturally drop onto them and not miss them. Believe me I have experienced this on a very rough descent when I failed to get on the drops early enough. The bike was bouncing around and my left hand missed the bar completely. Did I fall off, no but it made me decide to get some flared bars and learn to get on the drops before the terrain becomes rough.

In summary:

Attack the descent at YOUR speed, this will build confidence

Get OFF the saddle and into the ATTACK POSITION

Pick your LINE

Get on the DROPS

The rougher the terrain requires more CAUTION, don't be a hero

If you fall off, GET AWAY FROM THE BIKE

Happy gravelling, my fellow graveller

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