Your Strong & Weak points in DH Racing

[DeanoG]

Was thinking about DH Racing whilst I should have been working (as you do), and I got round to what I thought my relative strengths & weaknesses were, and how I could go about improving on them.

To summarise, I though my riding was like this;

Strengths: Speed through rough stuff, pedal power, and squashing jumps (I’m 6’4” so I got lots of travel in the arms and legs for the rough stuff)
Weaknesses: Medium speed corners, berms & faith in my ability to stay off the brakes through sketchy flat corners.

To try an improve on my weaknesses I’m going to re-read Brian Lopes’ book, and go hit some berms & loose corners with a video camera for review so I can check my body english. I’m also going to have a play with my stem length to see what effect that has.

Having done this myself, I’d be interested to see what others thought of their own riding styles/techniques and relative strong & weak points. It might be interesting to see if any common points become apparent.

Cheers, Deano.

[StInKy LoVeR]

Yeah I've been DHing not to long but I have been riding every single day 24 hours and I have picked up heaps quick.

Strengths:

Cutties and flat corners.
Burms fast or sharpe.
Speed when sprinting.

Picking up on:

Rock gardens I've always been scared of them for some reasons, but now I really like them and am starting to go really fast.

Jumping haven't really practiced jumping just always hit the things on my track but now I'm getting the hang of whips at my local jumps.

Weaknesses:

Bunny hopping just the only thing I can't do I can jump pretty high by myself but when theres and object in the way my timing gets screwed up.

Never having my fingers on my on the brakes when pulling up a manuel and sometimes I pull to far and fall back because I can't feather my brakes.

[GravityGuru]

Stengths: Ability to consume large ammounts of alcohol both during and after a race.

Weaknesses: Riding

[samjam]

strengths: i'm good at crashing
weekness: i'm bad at pretending it didnt hurt.

nah..strengths:since i learnt it properly,coming out of burms with speed.well fast for me
weaknesses:rock gardens and BIG jumps....i havent been doing it long and as much as i try the big jumps just scare the shit out of me:eek:. although i did ok on the weekend but practice will help for sure.for me its a confident thing and i WILL get better.:o

[24alpha]

Strength =
Knowing my own ability.

Weakness =
Being affraid to push my ability.

I also hate gaps. doesn't matter how big, the whole space between the jumps does my head in, with that said, there are several that I don't have problems with.:mad::confused:

[Woffa]

Strength =
Knowing my own ability.

Weakness =
Being affraid to push my ability.

I also hate gaps. doesn't matter how big, the whole space between the jumps does my head in, with that said, there are several that I don't have problems with.:mad::confused:

Hux, i have told you... don't think about that space in between the gaps. Just think about riding out of the jump safely and doing the next part of the track.


Strengths: knowing my own ability and how hard i can push myself... I also know that i have advantage on rocky tracks because i ride them often and are use to them. I also have the strength to block things out and just do something, unless it needs to be thought through.

Weakness: My weakness is pedalling and fitness, i am just a lazy bastard that just takes a few cranks every section. Don't worry to much, i am sorting that all out :D.

Cheers,

[Sethius]

weakness:going down the hill? always crashing on the race run after a real good last practice run.

strengths: knowing when to move over for others :p

[bennylachlan]

Stengths: Ability to consume large ammounts of alcohol both during and after a race.

Weaknesses: Riding


Wouldn't that mean you have to RACE to be drinking during and after the race!

EDIT for Gravity Guru: Strengths: Top notch spectator

[Dozer]

Stengths: Ability to consume large ammounts of alcohol both during and after a race.

Weaknesses: Riding

Me too........:o I tend to break something on my bike that can't be easily fixed on a race weekend and spend the rest of the time talking garbage and drinking grog. What a great role model.
I do love the fast stuff and I can handle it nicely. Some of the slower stuff buggers me up a bit but practise makes perfect! Lets just say that I'm getting plenty of drinking practise.;)

[fatass]

Strengths: rock gardens, flowier corners.

Weaknesses: confidence on jumps, straight bits (user name :D)

[thecat]

Strengths: I own a bike
Weaknesses: Ability, strength, fitness and courage:o

[molzy13]

i would have to say my strenghts are overcoming fear. anything like big gaps, drops, stuff like that i always try to give a shot. but my weakness points would have to be fitness (for sure:p), drifting, and really technical things like tricky rock gardens and "some" northshore:(

EDIT: weakness..... line selection. usually i rely on my mates

[i like dirt]

I've been riding DH for a year now and been going ok. I'm hoping next year to go full on with my riding and practice everyday.

Strengths

Fast, Flowy stuff. I can just open up and hammer.
Jumping. First kind of riding I learned was dirt jumping :)
Off Camber, sketchy corners. I can go through these decent.
Fitness.


Weaknesses

ROCK GARDENS!!:mad: I hate these but I'm learning to do them. (I'm short)
Rocks again because I suck at them that much.
Keeping feet on the pedals over rocks. I wear 5-10s and still can't keep them on.
line selection. I usually follow someone down during practice and steal their lines. :p



Hopefully making my DH rig a whole lot lighter soon too, which will help me a lot.

[24alpha]

Hux, i have told you... don't think about that space in between the gaps. Just think about riding out of the jump safely and doing the next part of the track.



Yer, easier said than done. but it is working!!!

[JARRY]

streanths: fitness, getting better at rock gardens.

weekness: afraid to push myself to my abilitie, off camber.

cheers,

[DeanoG]

Reading the replys in interesting to see that what some people dread, others look forwad too.

Its kinda funny to think that as your sitting there at the starting gate listening to the beeps, and thinking to yourself 'I gotta stay pinned through that bastard drifty left', that the next guy is more concerned about clearing the double, or finding a clean line through the rock garden that you dont even blink at.

DH racing, many different challenges for many different riders. Cool eh!

[Woodsie]

Weakness: Going fast

Strengths: Make everybody else look and feel fast ;)

[brjknns]

Strengths:
Pedaling over rough stuff, straights and Berms.

Need to improve on:
Jumps and Drops mostly - finding the right confidence to clear gaps and attempt drops without killing myself.

[jjperko]

Strengths : Slow tight and steep stuff, sharp corners etc.

Weaknesses - Fireroads. Can anyone help me out with this? My mates always pull away from me in practice on not so steep fire roads even though they're not pedalling any harder or just cruising. (My bike rolls fine by the way, no brake grab or wheel bearing issues).

[Barrett]

strengths:
Rock gardens( nothing better than a big ass rock garden), Hitting new jumps

Weakness
high speed Cornering, linking up corners in practice, but all seems to come together in the race run, lucky a!

[luke.b]

Barret has no weakness. He's lying. :p

[luke.b]

Seriously now:
Strengths; Rock gardens. Big jumps (i'm gonna cop it about the last one I tried though)

Weaknesses; Fitness (working on it now), decent cornering speed, fitness.