What’s with this turndown action?

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Hi Lee,
I have a question I was hoping you could answer. In a lot of the videos I’ve been watching lately, I notice racers cutting sharply across the lip of a jump. What and how are they doing? It seems they do this to keep low, how does this work?
Thanks! Eric

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Hey,

That’s called a Turndown, or a Bubba Scrub. Pro MXer James “Bubba” Stewart does amazing scrubs on motocross tracks. I saw a photo of him scrubbing across a huge table — and his peg was only a couple feet off the ground.

A turndown is a high-speed/racer move. It keeps your body low and gets your front wheel on the ground early. Turndowns work best when you’re hipping or transferring, or when you’re so pinned you’ll overshoot the landing.

Brian Lopes demonstrates in the groundbreaking book Mastering Mountain Bike Skills:


It helps to say BRAAAP!!!

— Lee

5 replies
  3. Dan says:

    To avoid confusion, Alex is right it is a scrub that is pictured and the topic of discussion. A turn down is a style points trick, they are both incredibly hard to learn and take a great deal of practice. Also with out modification to your bike or the trick a turndown is next to impossible on a mtb.

  5. omfg says:

    OMFG! BIAN LOPES!! HE IS SO SUPER GOOD OMFG. HE KNOWS ALL. Dan and Alex are right, a turn down is completely different. Lopes in the above picture is scrubbing, just like motos. You happen to turn the handle bars down while scrubbing but that doesnt make it a ‘turn down’, which is think is confusing you Lee. Don’t agree? Google Images ‘turn down’ and see what comes up. Google images ‘bubba scrub’ or ‘speed scrub’ and see what comes up.

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