Mastering Hairpin Turns
When riding in the mountains, most of your time and energy is spent going uphill. However, as we all know, whatever goes up must come down, and due to all that up, you are likely to experience some significant, exhilarating descents. A common feature of those alpine descents that you might not be so familiar with are hairpin turns. The good news for those who need a little practice is that there are usually quite a lot of them strung together, and with a just a few pointers on technique you will be able to see dramatic improvements after just a few days riding.
Approaching the corner
The very first thing you need to do, is identify that there is a corner approaching! It probably doesn’t really need saying, but you need to be on full alert when descending, and the sooner you can prepare yourself for the upcoming bend, the more time you’ll have to get it right and the more relaxed you’ll be. A good technique you can use to do this, which applies any time you are going fast, not just descents, is to look as far down the road as possible. Look for the point where the road either disappears on the horizon (no corners coming soon), or round a corner. Let your peripheral vision take care of any minor issues closer by. The good thing about hairpins is that due to both their sharpness, and by coming into them downhill, means that they are fairly easy to spot (fast sweeping bends can be trickier to read).
Positioning on the road (before the turn)
Your position on the road will depend on which way the upcoming hairpin turns, but either way you need to be on the outside of the corner, as far as safely possible, on the approach (make sure you are not at risk of going down a drain / crossing over the centre line). Being right on the outside of the bend during the approach gives you two benefits:
Maximising the road available for the turn
Giving the best visibility to see the furthest round the bend
At this point you also want to make sure that your outside pedal is down towards to ground, and your hands are on the drops (not the hoods). This hand position gives you a) more braking power due to better leverage, and b) a slightly lower centre of gravity for better stability in the turn. If you are uncomfortable braking on your drops, you should get your handlebars and brake lever position checked out and potentially adjusted.
Braking
This is where it’s important to get in your ‘corner approach’ position early. If there is only one thing you remember about braking when that hairpin is getting closer, with more speed than you expected, it’s this: Only brake hard in a straight line!
You need to take off your speed off before you start to turn. By this I don’t mean you should come to a complete stop, but rather reduce your speed to that which you feel you can smoothly take the corner at. Grip, that thing you don’t want to lose, is a battle between your tyre and the road. Braking hard and turning at the same time make it very difficult for your tyre, so don’t do both at once – brake hard, ease off the brakes, then turn. Leaning your body weight into the turn (more on that next) and heat in your tyres gives you more grip.
Body position
Due to your anticipation of the turn, you’ll be in the right position, braking hard on the drops, with your outside pedal down towards the ground. This is where (just before you get to the turn) you want to be looking where you want to go, ie round the corner, not ahead of you. It can be tempting to look ahead – it’s what you normally do all the time, and there might even be a rather distracting rock wall approaching. Resist the urge however and look round the corner to the opposite side of the road. Lean your body (head, shoulders, and torso) very slightly into the turn, perhaps with your inside knee pointing away and down from your body. A phrase that can help some understand what you need to be achieving is ‘steer with your belly button’. At this point (before you start leaning too much) you should be coming off the brakes.
Leaning into the turn with your body, looking towards the exit
Positioning on the road (during the turn)
As you move into the turn, progressively lean further, remembering to keep looking round the bend. Try to keep the turn as one smooth progression into maximum lean, then lifting the bike back up for the exit (don’t make the shape of your turn like a 50p piece!)
At the centre of the bend (the apex), approach either the centreline or the inside edge of the road, depending on which way you are turning. The idea is to make the curve you are taking as big as possible with the road you have. If you are turning left, as in the photo above, make sure you do not cross over the centreline. Bigger curves = less force on the tyres therefore the potential to go faster. On the exit, move back out the outside of the bend.
Mind-set
Aside from all the technical considerations, positioning, braking etc, how you feel can make a big difference to how you corner. As with most things in life, an alert but relaxed mindset will help you deal with all this information and make the appropriate responses the turn into a smooth, sweeping fast hairpin turn. If you are tense & worried, then the tendency will be to be less fluid, perhaps even resulting in a panic grab of the brakes mid corner. This is perhaps the worst thing you can do as it will a) really test your tyres and increase your chance of skidding (remember braking hard during turning is not a good idea!) and b) actually encourage the bike to come upright and go straight ahead rather than round the corner. If you just try to lean more and trust the tyres then you have a much better chance of getting round. If you find that you really have to brake into the corner, then the best method is to come off the front brake first, and trail a (small amount) of the rear brake. Or if you need to make a small adjustment mid corner, again, go for a small amount of rear brake. If a tyre is going to skid, you have a much better chance of getting away with it if it’s the rear.
Of course, being relaxed when you are feeling apprehensive is not the easiest thing to do. So it’s important to take things at your own pace, and progressively push little by little – don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. You will have plenty of opportunity to practice on those long descents, and a steady but sure build up will work wonders to increase your confidence. The mountains are waiting for you!
Want to improve your riding – check out our Alpine Training Camps.
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