Downhill Mountain Biking: How to Descend Without Crashing

Of the many downhill riding mountain-bike skills that seem counterintuitive, perhaps none is more disconcerting than learning how to rely on the front brake for braking, the back brake for control. Also known as modulation or feathering, dividing the two brakes is a skillset you can learn in an hour or so.

Contrary to your likely intuitive sense of how to prevent endos, the best way to brake downhill is to use your front brake with authority. Couple the skill with dropping your butt behind the seat and you become that much more able to maintain control while slowing without getting thrown over the front wheel.

Here's how.

Point your bike down a gently sloped hill free of technical obstacles. No rocks, ledges or boulders.

Descend. As you gain speed, check that your feet are level: one pedal directly in front of the other, the toes of one foot pointed at the heel of the other.

As you glide downhill, drop your rear end behind the seat post. Stimultaneously, , squeeze your front brake with authority. The harder you pull the more you slow.

With your butt and hips behind the seat, your weight is over the rear wheel, preventing you from tumbling head over heels into an endo. Known as a seat drop, seat dropping counterbalances the front brake's stopping power.

Practice the two skills - dropping behind the seat, squeezing the front brake with authority -- until you can slow the bike without locking and skidding the front wheel. As you gain confidence, try the technique on progressively steeper hills before moving on t downhill sections that present variety of obstacles such as rocks, drops and boulders.

You'll find that small rocks require a lighter touch on the front brake (to prevent skidding), while low boulders, with their dry and smooth surfaces, allow you to pull on your front brake more forcefully, yet also make the seat drop all that more important.

Finally, try sandy or muddy downhills, where'll find that a braked front wheel tends to plow the front wheel, sloshing you off course. They require an lighter touch as you wait for the front wheel to slow the bike gradually.

As you may have learned already by painful example, pull the front brake too forcefully while descending and you will endo. Yet the front brake contains potent slowing power you can double draw upon without loss of control.