Yes, with bikes?

I have a video of a person drifting with scooters so I thought it should be possible to do it with MTBs or BMXs.

I was cycling pass this section of a small lane and there was a 90degree turn with powdery sand on the road. Cus the road was evalated so I dare not go too fast over that section and I was thinking drifting may work without compromising the speed.

If you are on a trail don't do it. This is bad for the trail. It does make steering easier (jn theory) but really braking on the front brake requires more skill and allows for more speed (check out motocross)

If you are talking street. Sorry can't help you.

You are referring to sliding BOTH wheels, right? Sorry, I don't have any advice, I just wanted to clarify what you meant by "drift".

Yes it is possible! Just don't do it on trails
if it's on a road with sand/dirt/etc on it go ahead and "back it in"
Weight the outside pedal and throw your weight to the outside, this should send the back slidin'

Good luck

If your talking about sliding both wheels then I will say "Good luck killing yourself buddy". If you want to slide the back, grab the rear brake, lean to the side you want to go and steer the opposite direction....that will swing the back around.If you plan on doing it on trails, then "Go ahead and rip sh¡t up".

Yes I mean sweeping the rear wheel around to create an "oversteer" effect. By the way, "drift" is to describe the power sliding motion. It's slightly different from power slide. Power slide is merely sweeping the rear around whereas drift is more like the whole vehicle sliding in the direction you want. Of course it works on almost any surface.

So why not on trail? What kind of surface you are talking about?

The video about the drifting scooter was having BOTH the wheels sliding, so it's called drifting instead of mere sliding. Yes, it was a scooter doing the trick! No foot touched the ground.

locking up the back tire and sliding/grating/dragging it over the trail is about the #1 way to damage a trail while mountain biking. When the tire isn't rolling, the tread is still sliding over the surface, but literally ripping it apart -- this loosens the top surface and really aids in erosion. there has been a lot of debate about the damage that mountain bikes do to tails (many arguing that mountain bike should be outlawed from trail!s). i've seen lots of reports and most show that IF the rear-tire-slide is avoided mountain bikes do LESS damage per distance than hikers or horses or motobikes -- of course mountain bikes tend to log more MILES than hikers or horses... if you ride trails, you can easily see the damage as long marks on the trail surface, usually with a pile of dirt or leaves at the end in the downhill direction... incidentally the 2nd type of damage is shortcuts which hikers also often do as well as trail-widening when riders go around water or mud (stay in the single track and ride through the water or mud unless it is literally not possible or extremely muddy in which case you probably shouldn't be riding the trail).

anyway, NOT locking the rear tire on trails in important b/c:
1) it destroys the trails for others by greatly increasing wear and erosion
2) it really hurts the mountain bike image and our "rights" to use off-road trails (for example Switzerland where officially it is ILLEGAL to use any trail less than 1 meter wide - that's 3 feet! so any single -track is by definition illegal)

interestingly: i learned most of my riding etiquite in the Northwest and learned NEVER to lock up th back brake while riding on trails. I took an "exteme trails" course this summer as part of my "Bike Guide" certification and the Austrian instructor (who was really skilled and could do rear and front single-wheel hops, big wheelie-drops, etc) TAUGHT us to lock the rear brake and slide it in tight corners on single trail --- we had to practice for an hour over and over on this one trail -- i felt so "evil" destroying the trail like that and i won't use that skill ever again on trails

as to the original question: i've never tried locking BOTH wheels and sliding... i think they do moves like that in motorcross, but i think you need pretty high speed and wide tires so probably only works for major "downhill-type" mountain bikes...

I’ve got to throw my two cents in here – I have been a advanced mountain bike instructor for about four years and one of the biggest things I try to pass on to the people I teach is trail etiquette, and the first thing in trail etiquette is to keep the tires rolling. Dragging your rear wheel around switchbacks, down chutes, over drops is bad, for the trail, and for speed – locking up the tire = loss of control – loss of control = loss of speed.

A power slide is different than skidding, but still bad for the trail. A power slide is skidding the rear end with out using the rear brake. Putting your weight back and to the outside of the turn, essentially forcing the rear end to lose traction and slide, does it. Again, bad for the trail.

Drifting is completely different. To drift is to controllably break traction with both tires to set up a better position in the turn, or a better line. I use it most on bermed corners. For example, on a corner where the berm starts late, I’ll start the turn before the beginning of the berm, as I’m coming into the apex I will lean the bike over more, keeping my weight centered and on the outside pedal, this force will cause my bike to “drift” laterally up the berm and into a better line. As the tires move up the berm, the contact area the tires have with the dirt increases because the lean angle of the bike matches the higher angle of the berm, causing the tires to hook up and stop the drift. Most times drifting is done without the brakes, just the force of the turn will cause the slide, but in some situations tapping the brakes can initiate the drift.

I drift all the time when the trail conditions are loose over hard pack. It can be used in more areas than berms. The distance that the bike “slides” in a drift is insignificant when compared to a power slide or a skid. It would take a thousand "drifts" to equal one long skid. Drifting is defiantly an advanced technique, but when you learn to use it right it makes riding that much more enjoyable.

Hey I learnt a lot from this thread. I never knew about trail conversation cus I have never been to one. The place I talked about was just a small section of tar paved road with powdery soil cover over it, so it's not a trail at all. Well, I hope to find a trail here, but there is none as mountain biking isn't popular here. Nevertheless I may try power slide on that section of road first before going on to drifting. I have phobia whenever I meet a corner like that with loose surface, so I guess I need to find a way to conquer it. Man I can't even do wheelie

Back in another life, I could drift (known then as a a "four wheel drift") performance cars. It was the go-fast method of cornering, but required quite a bit of power and fairly high speed.

Look at any old - 50s and 60s - pictures of sportscar or formula car racing. The cars in the corner with all four wheels aligned the same way, but with some (often significant) slip angle showing are drifting.

I will leave it to someone else on two wheels.

Cheers...Gary

Drifting isn't to increase the speed of cornering, but to maintain the momentum when you exit the turn.

I really want to show that scooter drifting video clip. anyone knows of a place where I can upload it?

Not sure if the "not faster" comment was for me, but in fact it generally is. Both through the corner (less tire scrub), and on exit (because you are going faster when you get there, and the balance on exit is better to start with, requiring less of a brute force approach to clean up).

I actually made that comment wrt the fact that you can't perform a drift below a certain speed range, so it was therefore was a technique for high speed corners, not slow ones.

Cheers...Gary

More momentum = more speed

what I meant was the average speed during the turn will not increase, but because the momentum is maintained, the exit speed will be quicker.

If not those formula auto racing drivers would have been drifting their cars around the track.( Lot's of wear and tear on the tires as well).

So anyone know of a webspace?

POWERSLIDE DRIFT, whatever you call it, is the ONLY WAY a RIDER qualify as a Mountain Biker.

Reason is simple. DH bikers do it all the time. Trail riders use it on loose roads.

Reason why it is not erosive: where the trail is loose, it gets blown away by natural element such as wind and water much more than some ripping. Where the trail is not loose, I BET YOU a PUGSLEY sized tire with Stick E DH specific JAPANESE RUBBER won't do a sctrach to ANY TRAIL.

ZIP
END
NONE

YOU TRAIL STEWARD or RANGERS who pretend to be MTBkers, SHAME ON YOU!

IF MTB cause Erosion, you can arrest me now police officer.
IF you call yourself moutainbiker and you don't know or use sliding a k a what i call and what we TRUE MOUNTAINBIKERS call Flat OUT, GO RIDE YOUR ROAD BIKE

PEACE OUT

Three things for you to do:

1) Re-read your post. Find the flawed logic. Maybe some real world observation would help.

2) Do not presume to speak for all mountain bikers, true or otherwise. I've ridden mountain bikes since before they were called mountain bikes, back in the days when you were floating peacefully in your daddy's balls. You do not speak for me.

3) All caps = all moron. Do something about the quality of the public schools in the area where you grew up while you are at it.

ok, i know people like you are going to show up
3 thing for you to do
1) go ride road bikes
2) go ride more road bikes
3) hammer hard on your MTB

Why bring up a 9 year old thread?