Downhill with your EUC

[Toshio Uemura]

Watching the dramatic slope accident with the MSX that was posted earlier and the discussions on the difficulties some riders had going downhill with the Z10, I was wondering, if we could all give some input on how to go downhill correctly. I heard people describe and saw situations where they “sit into” the downhill ride “like in a chair” and it looks to me that this was the mistake the rider in the video made resulting in his dangerous fall.

Sitting into a downhill ride and putting pressure on the toes, hands high up in the air! A common mistake you see a lot in ? snowboarding.

I composed some still pictures and would appreciate some input from experienced riders. Have a ?:

 

[meepmeepmayer]

The "sitting" refers to the braking you have to do while going downhill, one way of doing that is just bending your knees which looks like sitting in the edge case during strong deceleration.

Where's that video? From your picture, it just looks like the crash guy is standing bent over and the other guy is standing upright, so this "don't do it like that, do it like this" applies to regular riding as well as hills.

The difference between sitting and bent over seems to be whether the upper body is upright (good) or leaning forwards (bad).

I don't know exactly how I brake on steep hills, I just do it

[Toshio Uemura]

47 minutes ago, meepmeepmayer said:

The "sitting" refers to the braking you have to do while going downhill, one way of doing that is just bending your knees which looks like sitting in the edge case during strong deceleration.

Where's that video? From your picture, it just looks like the crash guy is standing bent over and the other guy is standing upright, so this "don't do it like that, do it like this" applies to regular riding as well as hills.

The difference between sitting and bent over seems to be whether the upper body is upright (good) or leaning forwards (bad).

I don't know exactly how I brake on steep hills, I just do it

With “sitting” I did not mean, just bending your knees, I meant sitting like “sitting (falling) back into a chair” . If you get your center of mass (hips and ass) to far behind the wheel, you will get in trouble, not matter if you are going upward, downward or straight! And for me leaning forwards has nothing to do with “bad” if you do it right. ? 

[Mono]

IMHO not much different than any other difficult riding situation: keep the knees bent and soft and remain on top of the wheel. What makes going downhill a little more annoying is that pulling the forefoot up (which is needed) with bent knees is somewhat more difficult than pushing the front foot down.

[LanghamP]

I had a run away wheel once going downhill. While I didn't crash I did revise my downhill body position.

1. A firm grip on the wheel with your knees or higher. You cannot let the wheel float between your legs because you cannot generate enough force on the back part of the pedal. Sitting back more just means you fall off the wheel instead of slowing down. Personally I just reach down and push the nose or tail down if I feel I can't get enough force, a habit I learned trying to get my 18 incher up a hill.

2. If you slalom downhill the chances of hitting the pedal on the ground is very high, and soft ground + holes = death.

3. Be extremely aggressive when coming to a ledge or steps. I mean, don't have any back force at all, you need to be leaning forward because if you're leaning back and your wheel gets air, it's like slipping on ice. You have no choice; on ledges you have to lean forward regardless of what you were doing before.

4. I often zig zag down, stopping and putting my inside foot down. No good ever came from bombing downhill on an EUC.

[Toshio Uemura]

50 minutes ago, LanghamP said:

I had a run away wheel once going downhill. While I didn't crash I did revise my downhill body position.

1. A firm grip on the wheel with your knees or higher. You cannot let the wheel float between your legs because you cannot generate enough force on the back part of the pedal. Sitting back more just means you fall off the wheel instead of slowing down. Personally I just reach down and push the nose or tail down if I feel I can't get enough force, a habit I learned trying to get my 18 incher up a hill.

2. If you slalom downhill the chances of hitting the pedal on the ground is very high, and soft ground + holes = death.

3. Be extremely aggressive when coming to a ledge or steps. I mean, don't have any back force at all, you need to be leaning forward because if you're leaning back and your wheel gets air, it's like slipping on ice. You have no choice; on ledges you have to lean forward regardless of what you were doing before.

4. I often zig zag down, stopping and putting my inside foot down. No good ever came from bombing downhill on an EUC.

Great advice! But I love ❤️ bombing downhill until my eHorse beeps frantically. ? ???

This is the one and only way to get 60 to 90 km/h of speed out of almost any wheel without cutoff. (Just joking! Don’t try this at home!!!!) ? 

[Circuitmage]

I usually have to lean back a bit, to keep constant speed (not accelerate).

And, I always walk my unit down hill if it's wet. Mud is not my friend.