Riding roots may look easy for seasoned mountain bikers, but if you’re newer to the sport they can be quite intimidating! The fear of losing control and falling can cause riders to lock up and struggle over roots. Read on for some trusty keys to get you cruising over rooty sections of trail problem free!
Learn to unweight and reweight your wheels
One of the most important skills to learn on your mountain bike when approaching any bump or obstacle you need to ride over is the importance of using your body weight properly to get you over them smoothly – riding tree roots is no different.
As your front wheel approaches and makes contact with the roots, you need to move your weight back off of your front wheel so there is as little weight as possible on it when it contacts the root. By having less weight on the front wheel when it impacts a bump in the trail like a root, there will be less impact and you will feel the root less.
Instead, unweighting your front wheel will allow it to more smoothly travel up and over an obstacle like a root. You need to time this right and make sure the wheel is unweighted as it makes contact with the root or roots.
The same principle applies for your rear wheel. Once your front wheel is up and over an obstacle, you want to move your weight over the front wheel and off of the back wheel. You want as little weight as possible over the rear wheel as it contacts the root so that it bears less of a brunt from impacting the roots.
While shifting your weight back then forward as you ride over roots is not a complicated thing to do on your bike, it does take timing and practice to do it properly. The more speed you are hitting roots with, the more timing and skill unweighting and reweighting your wheels takes.
What if I’m dealing with more than one root?
You will still want to unweight and reweight your wheels as they impact the roots, but if you’re dealing with a cluster of roots that goes on for a little while, you will need to determine which roots stick out of the ground more and will have a bigger impact. Roots that barely rise above the trails surface won’t require the same amount of unweighting and reweighting of your wheels compared to roots that stick up further and cause bigger impacts.
The more a root sticks up relative to what’s around it, the more you should be unweighting your wheels as they hit that root.
Hit roots as squarely as possible
A key to having as much grip as possible while you’re riding your mountain bike over roots is to hit them as squarely as possible.
This means that you want to try to hit the roots on a perpendicular line, meaning if the roots are running directly across the trail, you’ll want to hit them at a 90 degree angle. If the roots are running more diagonally across the trail, hitting them squarely can be a bit more difficult.
Adjusting the line you take into roots that are not running straight across the trail can allow you to still hit them squarely at a 90 degree angle and give you as much grip as possible as you ride over them.
Hitting roots squarely is even more important if you’re riding in wet conditions (LINK). While roots will have reduced traction even on a dry day compared to regular dirt or rock trail, they become especially slippery when wet.
Dial in your tire pressure
Setting your bike up correctly to ride roots can be nearly as important as how you ride them once you’re actually out on the trails.
The most important thing you can tweak on your MTB that will make a difference when riding roots is the tire pressure. A lower tire pressure will allow your tires to absorb some of the bumpiness of the roots, but there is also another reason to soften your tires up.
Tires with lower tire pressure will give you more grip when riding over roots (and just about any other surface). Riding wet roots will make dialing in your tire pressure for maximum grip even more important.
Stay centered and in balance
Staying centered and in balance on your MTB is an essential skill for anyone’s riding technique. This is important even on flat, smooth trails if you want to optimize your performance.
When you’re riding roots and other rough terrain on technical trails, this becomes doubly important.
Level pedals
Keeping your pedals level, meaning neither pedal is lower than the other one, is hugely helpful in keeping you in balance on your bike.
Getting one pedal lower than the other will cause your weight to be more towards that side, and you’ll have to counteract that by leaning your weight the opposite way.
By keeping your pedals level as you ride roots, you’ll be set up in a way that will keep you balanced and more centered over your bike. Proper set up will allow you to feel more stable and inspire confidence as you approach and ride over roots.
Get low
Getting into a low, centered position as you approach and ride roots will help you be more balanced and allow you the range of motion you need to unweight and reweight your wheels as they contact the roots. Being low also will feel more secure and allow you to be ready to attack the roots you’re about to ride.
Getting your weight low is especially important if you’re riding roots on steep trails. Having your center of gravity too high when hitting rough, steep terrain can be a recipe for disaster because it becomes much easier for you to wind up getting thrown over the bars (and nobody wants that!).
Be athletic
Keep tension at bay and keep your arms and legs loose. When you approach an obstacle or feature that intimidates you, your instincts will tell you to tighten up, but you need to be aware of this and keep yourself loose and mobile.
This will allow you to soak up the bumps from roots better while keeping yourself centered over your bike and help to prevent you from getting thrown off balance
Avoid sudden movements
When you’re riding roots on your mountain bike, avoiding sudden movements is very important. When your tires are on roots, their traction and ability to keep their grip is reduced.
If you try to make a sudden turn, stop suddenly, or all of a sudden start pedaling hard, it becomes a lot more likely that your tires will slip because of the reduced grip you have on roots compared to hard packed dirt trails.
If you’re riding wet roots this is even more true, and you need to be cautious and steady when on these roots.
You need to be thinking ‘smooth and steady’, meaning turns should be gradual if you have to turn at all while on the roots. This also means avoiding hitting the brakes if possible, or if you need to brake, to do so very lightly, and avoid rapidly changing the pace of your pedaling.
Ideally, you can glide over the roots using your momentum instead of having to pedal. Each pedal stroke while on wet roots increases your odds of losing traction.
Frequently asked questions
To ride your MTB over roots smoothly and safely, you should first learn to unweight and reweight your wheels as they hit the roots, which will allow you to better carry speed into and over the roots.
You should also hit roots square, at or near a 90 degree angle whenever possible, which will improve your traction over the roots. Make sure you stay centered, low and athletic while riding roots too, and avoid suddenly turning, braking or accelerating. Allowing your momentum to carry you over the roots will help to maximize your traction and control.
All roots are slipperier than regular trail riding, but when roots are wet you’ll have far less traction riding over them. All of the same advice applies, including avoiding sudden movements and hitting roots squarely, while remaining loose and athletic. Just know there is a risk that you could suddenly lose traction when the roots you’re riding are wet.
Conclusion
Now you’re equipped with the keys you need to ride roots successfully. While you should be cautious with any technical terrain you ride, there is no need to fear roots as long as you focus on hitting them squarely, staying low and athletic, unweighting and reweighting your wheels as they hit the roots and avoiding sudden movements.
Don’t forget to keep pedaling if you can. Multiple roots kill your momentum!