Mountain Biking Skill: Clearing Logs

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Read below about how to negotiate your mountain bike over logs. This is a skill that I have seen many others have difficulty with mastering.

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Click for article:
http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-6-161-17800-1,00.html

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I am an avid mountain biker myself and had spent some time as a guide and an instructor for beginners.

For clearing logs as a beginner, I always ask the rider how many wheels a mountain bike has. The answer is three: the front wheel, the back wheel and the middle wheel (chainring). The chainring plays a very important role in beginner log clearing.

This technique is for low speed or crawling speed.

Once the front wheel is lifted over the log, the chainring is the first thing to come in contact with the log. Because of the gear teeth, this wheel has tons of traction when spinning on the surface of a log. The rider has to remember to keep pedaling and to focus on maintaining the same balance as if not crossing a log. The spinning chainring will quickly crawl over the log with the rear wheel now coming into contact. At that point, the rider must move weight off of the rear wheel while still pedaling and maintaining balance. This will allow the rear wheel to quickly crawl over the log.

I recommend using small logs and then gradually working up to much larger logs.

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For High-speed clearing of logs, I have always preferred the Bunny-Hop over the Up-and-Over technique (explained in the article). This is because with the Up-and-Over, there is a chance that the front wheel may slide out or become trapped which will result in a fall or going over the bars. Even so, Bunny-Hops should be avoided when going down hill because they are much more difficult to perform successfuly.

For successful Bunny-Hopping logs, practice high hops in a parking lot or flat area while moving slowly. Try to jump as high as you can with control and avoid landing on the front wheel first.

Once you are able to do a 2-foot jump at low speeds, practice at higher speeds before attemping a log. Remember to jump so that the front wheel is a bit higher than the rear.

If the rear wheel hits the log on the way over, this will cause the front wheel to dive down sharply which may result in the front wheel contacting the ground first. Just be ready for this while jumping very large logs.

I have seen very good bikers jumping huge logs over 3-feet high. Some enormous lags require a double jump. The first hop lands the bike directly on top of the log and the second jump comes a second after landing (while still maintaining balance) which gets the bike over the log.