Brake Control

Brake Control

Controlling your brakes is a critical skill for riding smoothly and safely. Whether you’re heading out for a fun ride or trying to be as fast as possible for a race, good braking and speed control is a skill you should refine.

Brake Control
  • Brake control: modulation

    Learn how to modulate your braking power to achieve smoother riding and better control over your speed on the trail.

  • Brake control: brace and counter balance

    As we brake, our body weight wants to keep moving forward, learn how to counterbalance and brace in order to brake in a safe and stable way.

  • Using the front brake

    Once you've practiced brake modulation and stopping with the rear brake only, its time to add the front brake.
    Out on the trail, we will be using both brakes most of the time.
    The front brake adds a lot of braking power, so we need to really pay attention to bracing and countering the brake force...

  • Braking: full stop dismount

    Make your stops safer by using getting to a full stop before dismounting off the bike, here’s how.

  • Braking: common errors

    We all need to use our brakes while riding. The proper braking technique will give us a smooth ride, while these common errors can easily ruin our day…

  • Braking on low grip conditions

    Braking under low grip conditions such as loose gravel or wet surfaces can be tricky.
    You don't want to lock up your brakes and start skidding out of control or damaging the trail, right?
    With this exercise, we will practice a higher level of modulation, learn to feel how much grip we can generat...

  • Brake Modulation Progression

    If you've watched and practice how to modulate your brakes on low grip surfaces like gravel and once you feel comfortable with it, maybe its time to step up the challenge and progress.
    In this video, Shaums will demonstrate the same technique taken from the gravel road - to a much more challengin...

  • Braking Over Roots

    Braking over roots can be a huge challenge. While the same principles of brake modulation apply here as well, you will need to be quicker on your reactions.
    Getting across roots with the brakes on will almost certainly cause our wheels to slide and wash out.
    How do we deal with it?
    As the front w...