Riding Leg Suspension Example

June 27, 2009. While Trail Clearing on the West Fork of the Teanaway River, we took a little example video of two of us riding up this short, rocky climb. The rocks were regular river rocks in the creek and the typical square and loose volcanic rocks on the climb.

The point of this video was to look for differences in leg work to look for flaws in either myself or my friend. My friend does not have a Trials bike so doesn't get much actual practice. this video will help explain a basic flaw I was seeing.

The thing to look for here is the action or lack of action of the legs, primarily from the knees down. A typical problem for many riders is that they hold the boots and lower legs still and against the bike with the knees always about the same distance apart.

A key point in the video is where my friend slips and ends up bending over at the waist to correct instead of opening the legs to let the bike make the slip. From that point on, his upper body is no longer aligned with the background trees. Compare with my upper body alignment through the entire ride.

With leg suspension working correctly, the bike almost seems to float over the rocks. See if you can pick out the differences.. many times they are so subtle that you can't see it at regular speed.

Oh yes, the big back pack I'm wearing?? There is a Stihl 020T Chain Saw in there!