Does everyone know how to ride this?

[No Worries]

Originally Posted by fasternyou929

While not that extreme, those same blind, uphill switchbacks exist on every mountain I've ever visited. NC, TN, KY, VA, and WV are full of them. Did you intend to sound like Lookout Mountain is the only road with this kind of curve in it?

In Marco's original thread, someone wanted to race down that road. I wanted to bring up the difference between going up and down. I prefer going up myself.

Is Lookout Mountain the only mountain road with curves? In a straight line between western Kentucky and the Rocky Mountains, it pretty much is. It seems to me that most Easteners stay east and most Westerners stay west. Midwesteners can go either way. I've been behind a car from Kansas going up Lookout Mountain that rode on the double yellow. The center of the car was on the line. I'm sure it was both their first time on a mountain and on a curve. If someone from the Great Plains rides to a mountain area, they should know how to ride it.

Originally Posted by BobTheBiker

Kinda, but you can use either. its more of easing off the brakes while going into a turn to scrub off speed than JUST using the rear.

Actually, trail-braking is putting your brakes on before the curve and keeping them on into the apex. On decreasing radius curves, I keep my brakes on past the apex of the turn. In steep, downhill curves, gravity acts like having the throttle open.

Putting on the brakes while in a curve changes the geometry of the suspension and puts a heavy braking load on tires that already have a leaning load on them. If you already have the brakes on, squeezing harder puts more load on rather than changing it completely. I say brakes, because why put all that load on just the front tire, when that nice fat rear tire could be doing some braking?