Originally Posted by a2psyklnut
When descending, you WANT a lot of CG on your front tire. That's what provides traction and thus control. You want to move your body weight back far enough so you don't go ash over elbows, but you don't want to drag your butt on the back tire all the time.
It just takes practice and time.
I remember reading an article on Whistler Mountain Bike Park (I think) and they had two photos at the same location. It was a rock face and one of the local riders was doing a nose wheelie (balancing on the front wheel with the back up in the air) as he was going down. The other photo was a guy with his shorts rubbing on the back tire. It's all about knowing your bike, and your body position on it!
L8R
Betcha that was either World Cup downhill or Shcleyer (sp). World cup is straight and kinda long and the shcleyer one is a turning slick rock a lot of great riders do turning nose wheelies on. We have a lot of trails here with that type of slick rock. Dang scarey in the wet.
Today I rode some really steep sections on really sketchy terrain. Becuase of this thread I tried to track how I rode. I did 2 things. I would tap the rear brake and hold the front brake (this technique a buddy taught me). I have the lever short enough where I can almost pull it to the handlebar without it engaging. This allows me to keep my finger on it and simply flex when I need some more torque. I also noticed anytime I came to something steeper (on the steep part like drops or rolldowns) I fully let go and rode it out and then broke again afterwards. My rear brake I would use more to whip the bike around corners...