Ride Skills - Braking in Corners

Everyone does it, here’s how to do it properly

In this article, I’m going to explain why and how to properly use your brakes to optimise speed and control through corners.  

There’s a commonly held misconception that you should not brake in corners. This simply isn’t true. Let’s begin by rephrasing that notion: brake as little as possible in corners. 

No-braking through corners is rare and only possible in some circumstances. In every other instance, there is a way to brake that improves your cornering. 

For context, this is an advanced braking technique that requires a bunch of practice to burn into your muscle memory. Like any tool, the more you use it the better you’ll get with it. 

My Observations

The issue that I find riders struggle with is sudden and heavy braking events in the middle of turns. This is usually because they have either; a) arrived at the turn with way too much speed, or b) their speed has increased too much through the turn.  

Essentially, it’s panic braking to stay on-track. 

This happens because riders are either trying to avoid braking and so under-brake, or, they don’t have any effective strategies to deliberately apply to their braking—it’s just instinctive and reactive.  

Controlled vs Uncontrolled Braking

Lets have a look at some concepts behind braking in corners. The front brake has more of influence than the back brake in these concepts as it’s more powerful. However, this is a very specific context, so don’t start thinking the front brake is your enemy!

Grip

Tyres aren’t good multi-taskers. They like to grip for one thing at a time - slowing down or turning. Asking them to do both in the middle of a turn is a tall order. This is most important for the front tyre (and front brake), where most of our direction control happens.

As you apply your front brake, the front wheel gets heavier as your mass gets pitched forward. The harder you pull the brake, the heavier the wheel gets. This can create a spike in pressure into the front wheel, which isn’t an ideal thing to happen mid-turn while the front tyre is leant over. At the extreme end, it will eventually reach a traction limit and ‘let go’. If you’re dealing with erratic grip induced by the sudden front braking, it’s very difficult build trust in your front tyre.

Instead, we want the pressure through our front wheel to be as consistent as possible to produce the most predictable grip. Leaving the front brake alone helps achieve this, especially for corners where we don’t have much traction (flatter & looser surface corners).

We’re all familiar with the effect the rear brake has on grip too - best to leave the skids for the kids.

Stability

Two things are at play here. First, rider stability and second, bike stability. Again, the front brake has the greatest influence here.

As mentioned above, front brake usage will pitch you forward on the bike. You will need to resist and counter these forces to stay centred, otherwise you’ll be forced out of position and de-stabilized. Resisting these forces requires you to tense your muscles to brace, which locks up your mobility - you’re now stiff. This isn’t good, because that precious mobility could have otherwise been applied to cornering movements like leaning the bike.

You are intrinsically linked to your bike as a system. If heavy braking has de-stabilized you, it will have had an effect on your bike, too. If your weight has shifted forward and made the front wheel heavier, your bike’s geometry will be affected. The shape of the bike will be compromised (most likely the fork diving) and the chassis’ stability will be poor as you turn the bike. Not ideal.

Physics

I’m not really into the long winded scientific explanations behind cornering physics.

I’ll keep it simple - when the bike is turning and leant over, braking forces make the bike want to ‘stand up’ so its perpendicular with the ground again (it wants to stop leaning). This can affect the turn shape of your corner as you struggle to maintain the same lean angle under heavy braking.

The Reality - We Need to Brake!

So, braking in corners isn’t ideal - and the harder and more suddenly we brake, the greater the negative effects. That’s the concepts, but is there a place in reality where we might actually need to brake in corners?

Speed control & Line choice

Lots of corners go downhill - you gain speed through them. Some corners (like the ones we have in abundance in Queenstown) can be very steep indeed. We have to control how much we speed up, so we need to brake. If we don’t, we’ll swiftly lose control of our direction and our lines will be chosen for us - hence why the whole ‘you can’t brake in turns’ holds little relevance to mountain biking.

The reality is sometimes we have to brake to stay in control of our speed and direction - we just need to do it the right way. Good braking patterns will make you faster, guaranteed (seems counter intuitive, huh) - enter the both-back-none strategy.

Both-Back-None Strategy

Here’s a simple strategy you can use for speed control in corners, leading to easier direction control. It lets you prioritize front wheel grip and improves your stability through the turn by being selective with your front and rear brakes.

‘Both’ Zone

Use both your brakes before the corner to slow down.

Brake enough so you arrive at the corner at a comfortable pace. This buys you valuable time to correctly initiate your cornering movements. The bike isn’t leaning or steering yet, so get stuck into that front brake to scrub speed and slow down.

The more you need to slow down, the more you’ll need to brace with your arms and legs to resist the braking force pitching you forward. Drive the heels down and be strong with your arms to stay centred as you begin your cornering movements.

‘Back’ Zone

If you need to control your speed in the turn, lightly drag your back brake so you don’t speed up too much. Switch to this phase when the bike has started leaning and is no longer upright.

Only using the back brake leaves the front wheel ‘free’ to grip the ground. This provides predictable and trustworthy front wheel grip. As the back brake is trailing behind us, a light drag won’t de-stabilize your position much either. The bike may want to ‘stand up’ a little bit, but this is easily manageable.

Remember, use this back phase only if you need it - otherwise proceed to the ‘none’ zone!

‘None’ Zone

When you feel comfortable to, get off the brakes and let the bike roll to complete the turn.

Take advantage of the unrestricted mobility you’ll have so you can move on the bike, get the eyes up and looking down the trail. This lets you find more fluidity and momentum in the exit of the turn.

Considerations

• Dedicate yourself to deliberate practice. Go intentionally slower at first to acquire this braking pattern. You’ll feel when you’ve have got the zones in check - things will start to ‘click’.

• Depending on the speed, shape and size of the corner, how much you brake in each zone will change. A long, flat, dusty corner after a chute will require different amounts to a huge bike park berm with loads of support.

• When you transition into each zone will change too. ‘Both’ will always be before the corner, but the ‘back’ and ‘none’ zones are very context dependent. The point at which you can access the golden ‘none’ zone will vary - it’s fluid, not rigid. It takes experimentation to tune into the nuance of each corner - practice!

• Once you get the pattern ingrained, you can use it to deliberately change the zones to find different cornering outcomes - braking late to square off turns, braking early to access inside lines, braking harder in the both zone to shorten the zone… the list goes on.

• A tell-tale sign of poor speed control in corners is getting ‘pushed’ outside & up the turn, or exiting the turn too wide. Brake more in the both zone, or keep the speed in check with the back brake for longer to correct this.

• Expert level trails (Grade 6) have corners that are so steep that this strategy becomes limited - the back brake is only helpful until it locks up and you skid. The strategy shifts to using the front brake as gradually and lightly as possible in these instances. Bear this in mind.

Be deliberate and proactive with your brakes to avoid unintentional panic braking in corners.

Practice the both-back-none strategy to limit the negative effects of braking in turns, so you can have better speed and direction control.

Bonus Content - BrakeAce Readouts

Here’s an extract of my own braking practice whilst recording using BrakeAce on ‘Thingymajig’ at Skyline MTB Queenstown. From the different colour lines, you can see my exact brake usage through the corner in the both, back none phase.

Having this sort of insight is incredible for unveiling the truth about what you’re doing with your fingertips. Riders often have a hard time mentally processing/interpreting what they are actually doing with their brake levers, because there is so much going on. How cool is technology!

These articles are designed to unpack some of the riding theory behind improving your skill set on the bike. If you’re keen to get out there and give them a go, be mindful to choose appropriate terrain (something easy for you, often an open field is a good place to start) and be prepared to feel some funky new sensations as you ride. Feedback is key, so get some footage (or a coach) to guide your journey. These articles are in no way ‘absolute’. Our sport is dynamic and ever changing, so there will always be exceptions to some of these general concepts.