Despite an early brush with death on an icy ski slope, I still enjoy a fast downhill run on two wheels. Not everyone does. There’s good reason for this. Speedy descents are dangerous, even for pros. But what goes up must come down. Unless you limit your rides to the salt flats, sooner or later you’ll find yourself facing the first of many long, steep drops, and since these can’t be avoided, you might as well make the best of them. Staying on the road at speed is Job One. Here’s how to get on the right side of the odds:
Keep your bike in good condition. A steep downhill is no place to discover that your brakes are losing their grip. And a front-wheel blowout almost guarantees a hard landing, so check your bike over before each ride, and keep your tires inflated to the recommended pressure. Make sure no clothing or cargo is flapping around in the breeze either. Nothing brings a bike down faster than something tangled in the spokes.
Never take you eyes off the road ahead. Whether it’s a pothole, a fan of loose sand from a driveway, a downed tree limb, or just somebody’s playful puppy, trouble comes at you fast at 40+ mph. You need all the advance warning you can get. Downhill runs are a dangerous place to daydream.
Ride like someone’s out to get you. Assume that no motorist sees you (many won’t), that every shadow conceals a pothole (a lot do), and that all the dog walkers on the road shoulder have just let their erratic Fido off the leash (some will have done just that). Eternal vigilance is the cyclist’s lot.
Single up and keep your distance. The only thing worse than one rider down is two (or more). As your speed increases, widen the interval between your bike and the bike ahead of you. And save the side-by-side chats for deserted country lanes.
Give yourself some room to roam. You can’t take sharp bends at speed and stay on the shoulder. Sometimes you have to take the lane. And be sure to give the fog line a wide berth, especially when it’s raining. Reflective paint is slippery stuff.
Be mean and lean. The art of descending is best learned by practicing on progressively steeper (and twistier) roads, in places where motor traffic is light. (Good luck!) Overcoming your natural fear of leaning into tight turns is probably the most difficult part. As Daniel Behrman once wrote, “If you lean far enough, you can go around anything, but your whole body screams that it doesn’t want to lean.” So you have to learn to ignore your body’s protests. You also need to keep your inside pedal UP. Grounding the edge of a dropped pedal on the inside of a fast turn is not a recipe for staying upright.
Hold your head high. If you’re going too fast for comfort, just sit up. On downhill runs, air resistance is your friend.
Go easy on the brakes. If you need to kill your speed, it’s best to brake before you enter a curve, rather than wait till you’re halfway through it. And it’s always a good idea to apply the brakes gently. Locking a wheel during a speedy descent is a no-no—especially if it’s the front wheel. On very long, steep downhills, when rims can sometimes get hot enough to raise tire pressures sky high, it pays to “rest” your brakes by turns, alternating front and rear and giving the unbraked rim a chance to cool down. (A word of warning: This isn’t always possible. The rear brake is much less efficient than the front. That’s another reason to look—and plan—ahead.)
If you’re feeling shaky, take a break. There’s no shame in walking down especially steep hills. After all, it’s a lot easier than plodding up them!
Downhill runs are a cyclist’s reward for hard climbs. But there’s a fine line between pleasure and panic when you’re speeding through sharp curves. Needless to say, it always pays to stay on the pleasant side of that line!
Further Reading
- “The Other Side of the Mountain: Chris Boardman’s Six Fundamental Rules for Descending”
- Jobst Brandt on Descending” An article on the late Sheldon Brown’s website.
This article is an update of one originally published on April 21, 2012.
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