Scott Scudamore: Hi! My name is Scott Scudamore and you are learning how to ride your mountain bike with confidence. In this clip we are going to talk about going downhill, control descends. This is probably one of the most critical things to learn about riding; you will find that you really can go down some rather some steep descends without loosing control of the bike.
So, a couple of things to keep in mind; we have been talking about bottom back or keeping your body back on the saddle, very, very important here. The other thing that is important is using both brakes but primarily using the front brake. You want to use your front brake and you want to keep it feathering; so, front brake, back brake, foot brake, back brake, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, as you are going down the hill.
Shawn is going to demonstrate, he is going to have is body back, all the way back; his butt back on the saddle; his arms, his elbows bent, nice and loose and then he is going to come down and show you how you can go really, really slow down the hill. The other thing, if your rear wheel or your front wheel starts to slide, let up a little bit on the brake and then gently come back on the brake and you will find that you will make it down the hill really, really slow; slower, slower, slower, even slower; see he is going really slow and he is still going, see that and all the way down. He is going to demonstrate that again so as you can get the feel for when he comes down; he is going at a nice -- he is totally in control the whole time. At no time has he worried about crashing; he is not going too fast and again this whole idea, do not look at the front wheel; look ahead, you are just nice and easy, loose; he has got his elbows bent and he is just going really, really easy.
He is just braking, a little bit of each brake, front back, front brake, front brake, all the way down, just a great job. So this time he is going to come down and he is going to show what happens. Now, if for some reason, you are going downhill and you find that you are having a little difficulty and you think you might fall, it is very important for you to weighting your body, so that you fall in to the hill, not away from the hill because then you'll go crashing down. So, he is going to turn and he started crashing, crashing into the hill and then that way by going into the hill, if he goes the other way, he is going to come tumbling down the hill and we clearly don't want him to do that.
So control descending, very, very important, that you follow the brakes, you keep your bottom back on the saddle and as you are going down just follow the brakes and you will stay in control all the way down the hill.
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