Some thoughts on speed tucking

Roger on 08/05/2012

A while ago, when we had the crazy idea of trying to set a world speed record for mountainboarding, we did some research and experiments on using speed tucks on a mountainboard. I’ve used what we learned a couple of times since then but never really had the chance to test it properly against a rider who would normally be faster than me. Here’s a brief overview of what we learned and how putting it into practice went.

Things that affect speed

Things like tyre pressure, tyre footprint, and lubricated bearings all affect how fast you can go on a mountainboard. And having those things sorted will certainly help you accelerate quicker, but once you get to about 20mph it all comes down to how aerodynamic you are. And that’s where speed tucking comes in.

Longboard Speed Tucks

Longboarders have been using tucks to go faster for a long time. They have three main types of tuck; the American, the European, and the Brazilian.

The Brazilian Tuck is characterised by being low to the board, and sometimes includes the riders arms pointing out in front to cut through the air. The American Tuck has both feet flat on the deck, the rear leg behind the front leg, and the riders back as horizontal as possible. The European Tuck is slightly lower than the American with the rear foot raised up on its toes, the rear knee resting on the front ankle and often with the arms straight out behind.

Brazilian speed tuck

American speed tuck

European speed tuck

Longboarders have lots of discussion about which is the faster tuck, and it often depends on things like the height of the person using the tuck, but one thing is certain, using a tuck makes the rider more aerodynamic and so makes them go faster.

The problem of speed tucking with bindings

Of course, the thing that makes longboarders be able to tuck so effectively is that they can move their feet into whatever position they want to. Mountainboarders aren’t so lucky. We have bindings which reduce the options for positioning out feet, but if you use noSno softs or snowboard bindings you could considering pointing them forward more so you can more easily get into a speed tuck.

Mountainboard speed tuck techniques

So, which speed tuck works best on a mountainboard; American, European, or Brazilian? We found that a mix between the styles worked best on a mountainboard. Whether you can adjust your bindings or not, pointing your feet as forward as possible is a good start. then bend your front knee and put your rear leg directly behind your front leg (you might find it easier to keep your rear leg straight). Twist you body so you are facing forward and lean over the front of your board so your back is as horizontal as you can get it. Your arms can either be against your sides or held down in front of your body to fill the dead space and direct the airflow to the sides. From the front your body should be a T shape.

Does it work in practice?

Which board should go faster, a noSno on twelve inch skyways or a Trampa on 8 inch wheels? Dave McBean was on the noSno. It was the same set-up he used to win the Masters and get the third fastest time at the Whinlatter Downhill Comp. We were riding the Scotland Downhill Comp track at Dunkeld, a track he knows well.

I was on my little Trampa and holding a speed tuck all the way. And I kept up with him. Speed tucking works. If you want to go faster and get better times at Downhill Comps, get good at speed tucks.

Other speed tucking tips

Here are a few other things that might help with the speed tuck and going faster.

  • Stretch. Stretching before using a speed tuck will make your legs feel better and mean you can hold the tuck for longer.
  • Keep still. Holding your body as still as you can in a speed tuck will help with it’s aerodynamics.
  • Practice. Try out the speed tuck on a easy predictable run. Maybe try timing runs standing up and tucking to see what difference it makes.

Nompa Pro DH trucks – Initial Testing

Roger on 08/04/2012

Took the first prototype Nompa Pro DH trucks out for a test ride.

Nompa Pro Flexi-trucks

They performed well and seem like they’ll do what I’m hoping, e.g be stable at high speed and not suffer from speed wobble, reduce bump steer and provide a bit of dampening, and give the wheels some camber which should change the grip characteristics of the tyres, especially in corners. The only issue seems to be with the lack of return to centre, but with a bit more development I might be able to work that out, possibly by staggering the truck bolts which would also give more turn.

Some thoughts on cornering

Roger on 07/04/2012

How many ways are there to go round a corner on a mountainboard? The answer is lots

But to start with let’s think of a corner as having nine points on it. Three of them are on the outside edge, one at start of the corner, one at the apex, and one at the end. Let’s call them A, B and C. And then we have the same along the inside edge of the corner. Let’s call them D, E, and F. Now, let’s add another three points that follow the middle of the corner and call them G, H and I, and draw all the connecting lines.

Those nine points can be joined up like this:

Cornering lines

Which gives us:

  • A, B, C
  • A, B, I
  • A, B, F
  • A, H, C
  • A, H, I
  • A, H, F
  • A, E, F
  • A, E, I
  • A, E, C
  • D, B, C
  • D, B, F
  • D, B, I
  • D, H, C
  • D, H, I
  • D, H, F
  • D, E, F
  • D, E, I
  • D, E, C
  • G, B, F
  • G, B, I
  • G, B, C
  • G, H, F
  • G, H, I
  • G, H, C
  • G, E, F
  • G, E, I
  • G, E, C

Those nine points give us 27 different ways to go round a corner.

So, what the point of all this? Surely we just ride into a corner, go round it, come out of it and carrying on riding, right? Is it really worth thinking about your line? What are the benefits?

There are two benefits to choosing your line round a corner; speed and control.

Taking a corner at the maximum speed is all about getting it as smooth as possible. In motor sports, the ‘racing line’ would be A, E, C as it’s the shortest line though the corner (rather than going round it), and on some corners that would work just fine. But on a boarderX track this might not be the case. As berms are built to hold the rider on the track following the central line of G, H, I might be the faster line. But, out freeriding on a loose surface might mean that taking the widest line of A, B, C might be fastest as we don’t slide.

Control is all about being able to put your board exactly where you want it, to be able to come out of a corner on the best line for the next feature or obstacle. Remember, line out is more important than line in, so if we want to exit the corner at point I we have nine lines to follow. If we knew we were going too fast to get round the corner we might go D, B, I and lose some speed by going out wide. Or maybe we came into the corner on the G, H, I line but a rider had fallen in front of us so we had to go G, B, I. And, of course, this is all based on the perfect corner, but in the real world the track might narrow at the exit of the corner so that F, I, and C are all in the same place. Then we really need to consider our line in to make the exit clean.

So, regardless of whether we have a berm to help us get round the corner or not, choosing the right line can be really useful for maintaining speed, loosing speed, avoiding obstacles (and other riders), or even just making it round the corner. As every corner is different, it’s up to you to decide what you think is the best line to take (and if you’re a boarderX racer, practice every line).

It’s lucky there are so many corners in the world.

Some thoughts on suspension trucks

Roger on 31/03/2012

There has been talk about suspension trucks for mountainboards for as long as I can remember, probably for as long as there have been mountainboard trucks. It’s not a huge mental leap from riding non-suspension mountainboard trucks, to seeing bikes, cars, etc. with suspension, to thinking maybe mountainboards should have suspension trucks.

Now, some people will say, ‘No need, your legs are your suspension.’ And in a way they’re right. The riders legs do a lot of the work suspension would do and they have a really fast organic computer controlling them. However, that doesn’t mean there might be benefits from also having some kind of suspension or dampening built into the trucks. It’s certainly worth considering, even if just to get our heads around the fundamental concepts involved in suspension trucks, think about the advantages and disadvantages, and decide whether it’s worth pursuing or not.

Firstly, a quick nod the closest thing to suspension trucks currently on the market; the noSno flexi axle.

Goofy’s noSno Flexi Axles

Now, we have to be clear that these haven’t ever been claimed by noSno to be suspension trucks, and although they do a lot for dampening rough terrain (and have other advantages too) the problem with noSno flexi axles is that they suffer from ‘bump-steer’. This is important because it’s one of the big challenges in designing mountainboard suspension trucks. Bump-steer occurs when one wheel hits a rock and gets pushed up. Since the wheels are connected by an axle which is mounted at an angle to effect steering, one wheel hitting a rock can cause the board to steer. Riding over lots of rocks causes lots of bump-steer and can make the board difficult to control at speed.

So, now we understand the need for suspension a bit more and have a reason to explore it, let’s get the basics right. First some quick definitions of the differences between ‘suspension’ and ‘dampening’. Flexi axles (noSno or otherwise) are designed to provide dampening. They reduce the effects of rough terrain on the board and the rider, but they are not suspension. To be a true suspension truck the wheels would have to actually be suspended in the same way bike and car wheels are. That means that when they are being ridden they are held in equilibrium between the spring effect pushing the board up (or the wheel down) and the weight of the rider pushing the board down. Now that we know the difference, we can throw the differences aside as the aim is still the same; to reduce bump-steer and give a smoother, more controllable ride.

The most important fundamental concept to get your head around when it comes to suspension and dampening trucks is that each wheel needs to be able to move vertically to effect suspension/dampening completely independently of the truck moving diagonally to effect steering. Time for a quick sketch…

Steering and Suspension Angles

It’s this keeping the suspension independent from the steering that is the biggest challenge in designing suspension and/or dampening trucks, partly because there isn’t much room to work with, and partly because of how complex suspension design actual is.

Here are a few examples of some of the designs people much smarter than me have come up with:

Beiran’s Flexi Axle Trucks
ODB’s suspension truck idea
Eric Brinner’s suspension trucks
Josh Tulberg’s Suspension Trucks
Brennig’s Suspension Trucks

All sorts of designs, idea, models and prototypes out there. Some have lots of promise, some are overly complex, and some just won’t work as they miss the point about steering moving on one plane while suspension moves on another plane. Let’s try to get down to the simplest reduction of what would be required to build a flexi axle that doesn’t suffer from bump steer. Another quick sketch and it might look something like this.

Twisted flexi axles

This seems to me to be the simplest version of a flexi-axle truck that can (hopefully) keep steering separate from dampening. The diagonal base bolts on to a noSno baseplate (or Nompa deck) while the horizontal axles can flex for each wheel individually. I can’t think of a simpler way of doing it so this seems to be the starting point to begin designing better dampening trucks. Maybe it’s time for the ideas people to step aside and the engineers to step in. Either way, there’s lots of work that can be done with suspension and dampening trucks, but is it worth it?

Josh did a survey on SurfingDirt Forum, and found that of the sixty responses, 24  were not interested, 31 were some what interested and 5 were very interested in the idea of ‘suspension trucks’, and 33 of those 60 were interested in specifically seeing suspension on mountainboard trucks. Since mountainboard suspension trucks would only ever really be for riding very rough terrain they will always be a high-end specialty feature, but then again, we used to say the same about brakes…

Some thoughts on brakeboards

Roger on 19/03/2012

With more and more mountainboarders getting into downhilling and riding with brakes, I thought I’d a have a think about a few different ways of setting up brakeboards, the terrain they’re might be suited to, and some advantages and disadvantages I can see. Firstly, types of brakes.

Types of brakes

The four types of brakes are hydraulic discs, hydraulic pads, cable pads, and cable discs. All have their advantages and disadvantages. Cable pads are the cheapest and simplest but don’t tend to work very well (but can be beefed up a bit). Hydraulic pads like the ABS and Trampa brakes are lightweight and not too expensive but can lack stopping power. Cable disc pads are a bit rare but work really well. And then there’s the noSno disc brakes, which are the most expensive but definitely the most effective.

There are also different ways to set-up brakeboards. I call them heavy, light, and mixed.

Heavy

Heavy set-ups will have nine, ten, or twelve inch wheels all round, generally have a longer deck for stability at speed, and are better suited to long open firetracks and mountain descents. This set-up can have pad or disc brakes as they are mostly used for slowing down rather than stopping.

Light

Light set-ups will have eight inch wheels and most usually pad brakes. They are the most general brake boards and can be ridden by all kinds of riders, not just downhillers, but anyone who wants a bit more confidence on a board or doesn’t want to learn other speed control techniques. More riders using this kind of set up is important for getting over the idea that brakes are only for really gnarly terrain.

Mixed

Mixed set-ups have bigger wheels on the front and smaller on the back, such as nines and eights or ten and nines. This set-up is great for tight singletrack riding. Brakes on the front with heavy tyres for traction, and smaller wheels on the back to make it lighter and more agile.

Front or back

Should brakes be on the front or back trucks? Traditional wisdom says brakes should be on the front as that’s where you’re body goes as you brake which should give you more traction and better braking power. Front brakes work well for Mixed set-ups, but Light and even Heavy set-ups could have the brakes on the front or the back. I’ve found that riding a Light set-up with brakes on the back works well as in my head I can separate direction from control. That means that everything I do with the front of the board is about where I’m going and everything I do with the back is about controlling my speed, scrubbing and braking.

So, that’s some of my thoughts on brake boards and different ways of setting them up. I don’t think there is one right way to do it. It’s dependent on the rider, the board, the brakes and the terrain, but it’s important to experiment and find the right way for you rather than going with the ‘usual’ way of doing it.

Nompa’s are taking over the world

Roger on 26/02/2012

Although my Nompa experiments have grinded to halt recently, Brennig has been busy building a 35 degree version. Looks like he’s done a good job of shaping the deck and fitting the trucks, but I reckon he can get a lot more creative with the deck shaping (maybe dinosaur shapes). He has fitted noSno soft bindings, which is what I’m using at the moment. They seem to be a happy medium between the weight of ratchet bindings and control of snowboard bindings.

Now he just needs to get out there, test ride it and report back.

Brennig's Nompa

Check and subscribe to Brennig’s blog Where the party is.

Remolition on Kindle?

Roger on 02/02/2012

Yeah, that’s right. You can now get Remolition – The Interviews on your Kindle.

Remolition on Kindle

Now you can take Remolition with you everywhere, so you’ll never be without something mountainboardery to read. The Interviews includes chats with some of the best and most influential riders in the world, and you also get a bonus interview with the Remolition crew. Just head over to Amazon to download it and start reading. Enjoy.

Remolition – The Interviews

Roger on 31/01/2012

Fireside chats with some of the best mountainboarders in the world

Remolition on Kindle

Reviews

“I must be honest, I went into the purchase with very low expectations but I figured “what the hay” I’ve given one dollar bills to homeless people before, so why not throw one away for a chance to read the rants of of a bunch of british wheelie boarding nutjobs? Boy am I glad I did, suprisingly British English is easier on the eyes than it is on the ears and it turns out that those british nutjobs know quite a bit about the ol’ mountainboard and are jolly good blokes when not posting drunk on the surfingdirt forums. Easily the best dollar I ever spent.”

“There aren’t many books about mountainboarding. There are even less available electronically.

Buy this even if you only have a passing interest in mountainboarding – its a fun read and keeps your stoke gland primed & ready to go!!!”