Yeah, because we all hated Nevegal so much...or Cap D'ail...go ride those rocks and tell me how cool vermonts trials BS is. But hey, glad you find me so powerful and influential! Sweet.SCARY said:
Rock garden techniques
- Thread starter SK6
- Start date
haha super 8 much?Brunettes said:What next? F#@k skinsuits?
I wanted to write that on my bars too, then i see it on someones frame the movie
oh well, I'll have to settle for " PIN IT J.GNAR. "
That GIF of Curtis Keene shows it pretty well. The bike needs to be loose between your legs so it can thread while your body stays straight forward. You want to keep your body moving straight through the rock garden while your bike confroms to the line or smaller rocks as best you can. Pumping and boosting can also help.
Also id vote Brian Head's rock section as up there for pretty nasty. The rocks weren't that huge but they were loose and the section was crazy steep into a weird rock drop thing.
This is right after the huck, you can see the rock section in the upper right, It went up prob 100 feet and turned on that bench where the log is.
Also id vote Brian Head's rock section as up there for pretty nasty. The rocks weren't that huge but they were loose and the section was crazy steep into a weird rock drop thing.
This is right after the huck, you can see the rock section in the upper right, It went up prob 100 feet and turned on that bench where the log is.
yeah, that's the cool thing about rockgardens.
they can be so different from one to another.
big rocks,
small rocks,
imbedded rocks,
loose rocks,
square rocks,
round rocks,
dry rocks,
wet slippery rocks.(my favorite)
it's great when they're all growing in the same garden.
they can be so different from one to another.
big rocks,
small rocks,
imbedded rocks,
loose rocks,
square rocks,
round rocks,
dry rocks,
wet slippery rocks.(my favorite)
it's great when they're all growing in the same garden.
Well, I don't know about that overall strategy, but I do like when there's a nice big rock somewhere at the start- hit it fast and gap the whole thing or land in the middle with speeeeed.zmtber said:
waht should you do if the entire trail is covered with say, 3-8'' compleatly loose rocks? it seems like you can blow thru it but i always seem to get slowed up or bucked around to much. relaxing doznt help much
^^ i've got about a 200-300 ft downhill ditch about a minutes ride from my house. Its covered in loose rocks ranging form about 5-15 inches in diameter. I've been going there for a while and I've found a few things that work well.
1. look down the trail so you can adjust and lift up to go over bigger rocks in your way.
2. Relax and stay back. I found the bike likes to do alot of the work I was doing so if I just stayed back and stayed loose it tended to find its own lines.(with a little guidance I can even pick what lines I go down
)
3. MORE SPEED. I always used to take this ditch slow because of the size of the rocks, but recently I tried it with speed and as long as I stayed relaxed it was much smoother and much faster, and I was even a little dissapointed as it had almost become too easy to ride.
then i got a rude awakening when I was leaning too far forward and endo'ed into the rocks. Yup still fun.
1. look down the trail so you can adjust and lift up to go over bigger rocks in your way.
2. Relax and stay back. I found the bike likes to do alot of the work I was doing so if I just stayed back and stayed loose it tended to find its own lines.(with a little guidance I can even pick what lines I go down
)3. MORE SPEED. I always used to take this ditch slow because of the size of the rocks, but recently I tried it with speed and as long as I stayed relaxed it was much smoother and much faster, and I was even a little dissapointed as it had almost become too easy to ride.
then i got a rude awakening when I was leaning too far forward and endo'ed into the rocks. Yup still fun.
Pin It and hang on
bikingisbetter said:
Get light on the bike and hit it at full speed. Or what Zark said!
Ya got a 888 now Ralph!
What rock garden?!!!
neaky:
What rock garden?!!!
neaky:
Dartman said:Ya got a 888 now Ralph!
What rock garden?!!!
I agree. Now that you have the 888 you need to get way forward and get as much weight as possible off of the rear wheel. Ride the fork like a unicycle. Next time we are out I will follow you and help coach you till it is rightJeremy R said:What you want to do it pedal as hard as you can right into the rock garden, then lean forward as far as you can possibly lean. Stretch your neck out, and to measure if you leaned foward enough, look down and make sure you are looking out over the front tire and onto dirt. Then as you approach the first rock, tense up your entire body as tight as you can, and when your front wheel touches the first rock,
push down on your front fork as hard as you can.
Try it, its a hoot!:bomb: ...
Stay back and let the bike do its thing. And don't get bogged down. Go into the section with speed so you just skip over everything.
Letting the bike do its job is the key. The issue is a matter of trust, trusting the bike and the suspension.
Yeah and here's a story from 3 weeks ago.
I was dropping a 5' into a rock garden 5" - 15" crushed/jagged rocks on a retaining wall scenario. Approx. 150' in length going down to apple B's parking lot.
I dropped and held on, leaned back and was 15' from the exit out and "WHAM" I hit a small descent and 2' rise and looked like a lawn dart. There is 9' from my last tire mark to where it starts again in the bark and that one is only 18" long and only 1 tire (front) then there's another 8-9' before you see all the scrapes in the parking lot from the bike and me hitting and it wasn't right side up.
This is the what not to do in a rock gardn story.
I can't lift weights or apply any weight to either lower outside area of my palms and holding on to the bike is OK till i hit some gnarly stuff.
Yes there is discoloration and swelling still 3 weeks later. Its a rerun of last year and breaking my foot in the early spring and ruining thew season.
I was dropping a 5' into a rock garden 5" - 15" crushed/jagged rocks on a retaining wall scenario. Approx. 150' in length going down to apple B's parking lot.
I dropped and held on, leaned back and was 15' from the exit out and "WHAM" I hit a small descent and 2' rise and looked like a lawn dart. There is 9' from my last tire mark to where it starts again in the bark and that one is only 18" long and only 1 tire (front) then there's another 8-9' before you see all the scrapes in the parking lot from the bike and me hitting and it wasn't right side up.
This is the what not to do in a rock gardn story.
I can't lift weights or apply any weight to either lower outside area of my palms and holding on to the bike is OK till i hit some gnarly stuff.
Yes there is discoloration and swelling still 3 weeks later. Its a rerun of last year and breaking my foot in the early spring and ruining thew season.
i personally say medium speed through a rock garden. Too fast and you could loose control. too slow and you get bucked. so prolly a medium fast speed if that makes sense.
Stay low, kind of back, unweight when possible. Dont white knuckle the handle bar. Cranks even. off the brakes.
a good way to learn rock gardens is to start with small ones. then move your way up. if you live on the east coast theres more rocks then dirt.
Stay low, kind of back, unweight when possible. Dont white knuckle the handle bar. Cranks even. off the brakes.
a good way to learn rock gardens is to start with small ones. then move your way up. if you live on the east coast theres more rocks then dirt.
OMG!!! I missed this the first time thru this thread. That's funny right there, I don't care who you are!Jeremy R said:What you want to do it pedal as hard as you can right into the rock garden, then lean forward as far as you can possibly lean. Stretch your neck out, and to measure if you leaned foward enough, look down and make sure you are looking out over the front tire and onto dirt. Then as you approach the first rock, tense up your entire body as tight as you can, and when your front wheel touches the first rock,
push down on your front fork as hard as you can.
Try it, its a hoot!:bomb: ...
Absolutely. What you are really saying is maintain momentum. Which is a bit different from speed. The whole "stay low, stay back, stay loose" goes toward keeping you on top of the rocks and moving forward. Too little momentum and your bike gets trapped in holes in the rocks and you endo.snowskilz said:
I don't so much as work on maintaining a "line" through since I always seem to get bounced off my intended line. So I just hit the rocks and react to whatever is given me. Stay loose and keep the bike upright.
Mike
I found one thing that helps is to not ever hesitate or flinch when you get knocked off your line or whatever, just keep attacking. Sometimes you'll hit a rock and get knocked away from where you were trying to go or the bike becomes unbalanced or whatever, but the less you try to recover and the more you try to keep attacking whatever line you're on (intentional or not), the better off you'll be. Sometimes you'll make the wrong decision and end up crashing or off the track, but that just goes down another brick in the palace of experience.
USE the rocks