The Dismount.
I have always swung my right foot behind my left foot and dismounted my bike like that. Last week P-money was trying to get me switch and bring my right foot between the bike and my left leg. I been working on it, but I’m just way faster the other way. Just wondering how you guys do it and what ya’ll think.
Way to start the season of dudes!! The blood on Wahs elbow is nice.
cj
8 Responses to “The Dismount.”
Master Wah teach unworthly disciple right leg through left.
Blood = Badge of Honor
I too have been guilty of the shuffle step until the end of last year. Yes 11years of the shuffle. You think you have a crack habit to break? This year I’m dedicated 100% to the right through left. I have found it so much faster and more efficient and I have it down now. I have spent a ton of days this year just practicing it. You just need to commit to it. If you time yourself on a high-speed barrier you will see that it is way faster right through left. To practice it, just set your left foot on the pedal and don’t clip in and do that 20 times then clip in and repeat, repeat, repeat… until you start dreaming of it. Once the dream comes, you will never go back.
Take a look at the pros. They all dismount right leg back going into fast barriers. A local racer who has been on the US worlds team a few years running says it like so many things … you need to absolutely learn the basic rule and then learn when to break them.
I carry much more speed through the barriers stepping through. Any uphill dismount and I step back. If a quick dismount at slower speed is advantageous (uphill barriers through slow terrain where pedaling to the last second is fastest, for example) and I’ll step back.
The more tools in the toolbox make for a faster racer.
I don’t get it. They both have their uses. Right leg through left for high-speed dismounts. Right-leg behind left when dismounting uphill or when the dismount is sketchy or when you blew it because you weren’t paying attention, or because it just works.
Bart the kung-fu master Wellens and Mr. Nys use both all the time the only exception being when Sven is bunny-hopping stuff.
You’ll get it. They both have there uses. In the perfect scenario (high-speed flat dismount) there is nothing faster then right leg through. Off-camber and slow uphill dismounts the right leg back come into play at times. Practice both in a bunch of situations and see what works for you.
I went out and practiced the right leg through about 10,000 times today. In the end I was rockin it really smooth. Can’t wait to start the season sunday.
learned to do the drag step (back behind) first, then picked up the step-through two years ago and used that pretty consistently, but now i’m back to the drag step. why? watching some of our local elites and how fast they could dismount and jump over the barriers (two steps max). figured i’d give the drag step another shot and now i’ve got it down pretty darn good even at speed, better than i had been doing the step through. i found that what really helped was kicking both legs forward so that they hit the ground faster than the bike is rolling.
the one place where i think the step through is almost always smoother for me is when i need to shoulder the bike–seems easier to lift and swing when both feet are only moving forward, not the little bit of sideways like the drag step sometimes makes me do.
two good tricks to have handy, that’s for sure.
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