UKC

Have an American friend staying at the moment and he wanted to do a couple of climbs he'd heard about. I lent him one of my bikes and we did 2 clockwise and 2 anti-clockwise loops around Swains Lane and Highgate West Hill. Going up was fine but I found going down at speed somewhat un-nerving. I've noticed that my fast decents are definitely getting slower. Not granny speeds but anything above about 35mph gets me a bit jittery even on the long relatively safe Archway decent.

Was wondering if this was me getting older and more risk averse or a mind thing knowing of the poor quality roads coupled with light carbon wheels?

Anyone have any thoughts or similar experiences?

In reply to Indy:

<Vertigo is not a irrational fear of heights, and anyway you have the rather rational fear of crashing at high speed, but let's not get pedantic>

There are lots of roads in Sheffield that I'm far happier to go down on a MTB than a road bike, and will go faster as well. And even on a MTB I'm a cautious descender. Always say confidence is something you gain gradually and lose rapidly! Twice last year crashed heavily and cracked ribs, so just starting to get my confidence back to my own modest levels.

And that's the only advice I can give - ride more, and your confidence will increase.

Unless you crash.

In reply to Indy:


Were you going down Swain's Lane?! That would definitely make me nervous.

In reply to Indy:

I have often mused, while about to launch myself down some snow-covered precipice on a board/skis, that there is no way I would attempt to ride the same thing on a mountain bike if it was covered in grass.

Strange, isn't it.

In reply to Indy:
This might sound rather strange, but forgive me, for it has helped me. Equally you may know this and so I thank you for giving me time to catch up with you!

I used to have a fairly rational fear of over-cooking it going into a bend and not having anything else that I could do to get out of trouble. Then there was a discussion of Moto GP and the way those guys flick their bikes through bends, and how bikers steer in general, which led to trying 'opposite lock' steering on a bike.

So, counter-intuitively, if you turn your bars to the right you will turn to the left - as the thing on which you are balancing moves to the right you will lean to the left, and will go left.

Bingo - so as you commit to the bend (say a left hander) you push down and forward on the left of the bars and you will carve gently into the turn, push more and you turn more, ease off and you straighten up. Keep on the drops, to get your centre of gravity low, and hang your inside knee out to shift your centre of balance to the inside so that the bike doesn't have to lean as far. Think carefully about your body position - if you're 'steering' you don't need to shift your torso, but you can make it a lot smoother and faster if you do. If there's a series of bends, push one way then the other.

Just to be clear - you push forward with your inside hand - left turn - push down and forward with your left (inside) hand, which turns the bars to the right. And vice versa.

If you over-cook it going into a bend - you now have something you can do - push the inside hand forward and down some more and you will lean and turn more/


Watch this - over and over again - Cancellara's epic down hill catch
youtube.com/watch?v=RxXqQqAc2pA&

Do your braking before the bend, not in it. Never touch your front brake in the bend, and have faith - a braking wheel will skid, but a rolling one needs provocation - so, the smoother the make your turns, the better.

Take as easy a line as you can - wide/apex/wide


BTW anything steeper than about 1 in 7 with blind bends scares me. Where I live, we have sunken lanes and hills. I met a tractor with a baling machine behind it a few summers ago - that was nearly a very bad day out.

In reply to LastBoyScout:

I find that if I get out mountain biking just after a ski trip, I do go downhill faster, some of the confidence seems to carry over, and fast doesn't seem that fast. And in both cases speed can be your friend - your bounce over obstacles rather than being knocked off course by them.

However I'm starting to think that being used to a mountain bike is bad for your confidence on a road bike - you get used to fat, grippy, forgiving tyres and feel naked and exposed without them

In reply to Indy:

Perfectly normal, it is just age catching up....

20 years ago I would descend passes in the Alps (e.g. Lautaret) or steep hills at home maxing out the speedometer on my roadie (stops measuring at 99.9 km/h) or would lean into hairpin turns so that the pannier bags would touch the tarmac. No way I would even get close to these speeds now, much too scared.

CB

In reply to Chris the Tall:

true, and I'm a cautious 45 mphish max downhiller who's entirely happy to let the 60 mphers just go and I'm no great bike handler, and have not (yet) had a road bike fall so can't be riding at the margins (it's easy to get it wrong at speed and find yourself on the wrong side of the road on an off camber corner. Not a percentages game I'm keen to play.) But anyway with those hefty disclaimers, I do find a bit of mtb technique makes me feel a bit more confident going downhill on the road, as in twisting hips into bends, centre of gravity between wheels etc.

In reply to Indy:

Nothing wrong with being a cautious descender particularly on the roads. I am fairly cautious, my mate on the other hand is a very fast descender, he is currently in hospital with a broken hip after a crash yesterday......i am not!

In reply to Indy:

Is it possible you're just picking bad hills? I find Highgate Hill a bit worrying for the sweeping bend, bollards and speed bumps, plus the possibility of traffic coming from the side roads or overtaking cyclists or parked cars on the opposite side. And as for Swain's Lane, I wouldn't care for going down that even if the steep bit wasn't one-way, since it's also so narrow and you can't see past the wall to spot anything coming the other way.
Maybe see if you can find something steep but less hazardous to compare - I reckon you might not get so jittery.