Just curious as to how far people push it on Jumps and Drops when out riding, would you hit a 4 foot drop to the flat?… would you try to clear a 6ft set of doubles?

I am slowly getting to the stage that I would, but I am starting to think the watching of Rampage/Freeride edits is impacting my sense of reality, after all, I am a 41 year old father of 2 with a reasonable level of fitness, not bloody Kam Zink!

Honest thoughts/comments would be great…

would you hit a 4 foot drop to the flat?

to flat? try and avoid I prefer a good transition though old station platforms are available

would you try to clear a 6ft set of doubles?

no, I hate doubles

Yes

I’m 39 year old father of three – yes and yes to the above but its all about the run in / run out and general sketchiness – I’d hit bigger if they are simple and well made but would avoid if they are not well made and have poor run ins and run outs. If they work and flow as part of a trail I’d hit them no problem. If I’m not 100% confident I won’t hit it. If I don’t think a mistake would end well or be easy to ride out I won’t hit it.

WWRMTBGD?

6ft doubles are just the warm-up set*

(*when on the BMX)

Yes to both but I don’t like drops to flat! Also for me it depends on the run in and out, if they’re a bit sketchy I lose my confidence.

I think the best thing you could do would be to contruct a wooden ramp in your street.

You’ll then be able to go out and specifically target jumping and dropping skills.

Get your two kids to lie under the ramp as an extra incentive to make the jump.

I imagine all your neighbours will be out to see a 41yearoldfatheroftwos dare devil antics, I reckon you’d get quite a crowd.

Yes and yes. But I wouldn’t go in blind… would at least want to size them up and check the landings etc before hitting them.

I imagine all your neighbours will be out to see a 41yearoldfatheroftwos dare devil antics, I reckon you’d get quite a crowd.

Haha.. I bet they would, and I can picture the Napoleon Dynamite type crash

Good points on the run ins/outs. The jumps/drops are in a local woods, made by the locals.. for the locals… so not really that well placed, making some of the run ups/outs a bit sketchy… I think if I find a nice tabletop jump with a good run up I would gain a little confidence.

Off to Cannock Chase tomorrow, so hopefully I can find a few to practice on there.

4ft drop to flat, yes.
Was happily dropping multiple 3ft flights of steps last night in the dark and rain on a 100mm XC hardtail.

6ft doubles, yes BUT I really don’t like doubles. Those big nasty doubles at Antur Stiniog jumped up and bit me. But I’m guessing they’re maybe getting on for 15-20ft. Way too big for me. (Still undergoing physio on torn rotator-cuff).

[edit] late fourties here… blooming youngsters today! [/edit]

Yes to both, at night.

41 year old father of 3 (still hurting from bad crash weeks ago from going too fast on slippy trails 😛 ).

I started playing DH a few years ago, you can still improve your riding and confidence with kids at home and increasing grey hair.

No to the four foot to flat – at the moment. Have built myself up to 2 foot with ease and the occasional 3 footer, but classic OTB recently on the latter, resulting in the loss of a tooth, has knocked the confidence a bit.

I hate doubles. It’s all psychological as I’ll happily do a table top of similar distance, but cut out the middle bit of it and I get the frights something bad.

Am turning 42 next year and haven’t smashed myself up as badly, or as regularly – or had as much fun on a bike – since I was a wee nipper 🙂

44 Father single parent to three here
I taught myself to do ones about two or three foot foot at the Mega last year
Feel better when I have my full face one…shuddered at the tooth out storey funkrodent

Yes, although never in a rush to do a drop to flat.

Losing the tooth wasn’t so bad. Have had crashes that hurt a lot more at the time. What really hurt though was the dentist casually mentioning circa £2k for an insert 😯 . Blimey! Even the denture I’ve got in now cost £250 on the NHofS. Not too bad and my teeth actually look better, though I’ve had to learn to talk properly again. My missus is unsure about the gap come bedtime, but I’ve enjoyed slipping the denture into her waterglass at night and hearing her shrieks when she wakes up needing a drink 😀

38 year old father of two, and yes, to both. But that’s after a long and unimpressive history of 1, 2 and 3 foot drops. Build it up slowly, get comfortable. As someone above said, if I’m not feeling confident, or think it looks sketchy, I’ll walk away.

39 here. No kids but a hefty mortgage!

As with others above – not a fan of drops to flat. Drops to tranny – maybe 8 foot+ The ones on the Matador at Inners are no problem on a trail bike – the 6′ is a nastier landing than the 8′ one.

Doubles (trail/DH ones) – once I’m warmed up and in the right frame of mind up to about 20′. Used to ride the Bullrun at Chicksands quite a bit and that has a 35′ double on which is very easy to overjump. BMX/dirt jump doubles with really steep trannies I’m very not keen on though.

It’s all confidence. I’m usually really hesitant the first time I do a new stunt, but after that it’s all fine. Usually find that if you can “flow” a trail at it’s natural speed the jumps and drops will just happen. It’s having the balls to stay off the brakes that’s the difficult bit.

Mashed up my shoulder a couple of years back when I overjumped a 25′ double by a good 18′ on my BFe. WAAAAAYY too quick. Nearly rode it out, but lost the front wheel on some roots… SPLAT!

47 Here. Will happily drop off four feet, but wouldn’t touch doubles with a barge pole. Completely cleared the second to last tabletop at Golspie a few years back and suffered a busted toe, finger and burst nose for my “bravery/stupidity”, as well as bent bars and a wrecked saddle.

Would love to be able to jump silly stuff, but you need time on the bike for that, and I can’t spare it – so I’ll just youtube the stuff I can’t do and enjoy someone else my age breaking his bones

Seriously you’re all old.

I’m a complete pussy but love pushing my own lowly limits so probably yes after some careful deliberation

speaking of altered sense of reality I reckon there could be some in this thread 😀

I overjumped a 25′ double by a good 18′

That’s 43 feet – the Rampage canyon gap is 70 feet. If you jump 43 feet on a hard tail I doff my cap to you sir! Hell even if you’re only imagining yourself doing it you’re still my hero 🙂 No way my brain ever sees me doing that kind of stuff.

I find that people generally exaggerate distances/height 😉 Can manage doubles/gaps that are roughly a bike length or more between lip to lip and drop anything comfortably from my waist height. I’m 6 2″.

I’m building myself up to having a go at a 15ft gap jump next season – I have easily cleared the 15ft table just before it on the run in so I’m mentally ready 🙂 If I clear it I’ll be hanging a right and having a go at a 6ft woodwork drop just after. I’ll have to wait until May but in my mind its already done.

I’m not really all that brave, but I’ve found I can drop up to a couple of feet to flat if I carry enough speed and can see the run out. As for jumps, well, this year has seen me looking for excuses to leave the ground on the trail, and thanks to my lad’s encouragement I can happily clear skills park type “easy” tabletops, including going for the gaps once I’m warmed up and up to speed. Bigger gaps and mahoosive hucks may not be the future for this particular forty-nine year old with a knackered hip though, but Great Rocks “Jumps for Dads” may tempt my wallet.

Glad I posted, I now don’t feel quite so old… just a bit of a wimp!

I also ride alone a lot of the time, which does make me think “what if”. I guess time and patience is the key… and I will keep sangobegger’s wise words in my head…

Would love to be able to jump silly stuff, but you need time on the bike for that, and I can’t spare it – so I’ll just youtube the stuff I can’t do and enjoy someone else my age breaking his bones

I’d love to be able to do more jumping to build up my confidence but there’s no jumps on the Malverns 🙁
When I do an uplift it takes most of the day to build up to hitting the jumps again.

That’s 43 feet

I find that people generally exaggerate distances/height

If you ride on Leith Hill – you might know Donnie Darko – on the right, just down from the tower? There’s 2 doubles at the bottom (the RH fork as you cross Caspars). The first is pretty small, but the second isn’t… It might not be 25′ dead, but it’s very definitely well over 20′. I’d only done it once before on my big bike with DH tyres on, and I remembered having to pedal like hell between the first and the second jumps. Being on a dinky hardtail with fast rolling tyres on, I carried a lot more speed than I had previously, and the take off was much poppier than expected. I had plenty of time to think about how much I’d bolloxed it up as the landing tranny went whizzing past, but the bike was still orientated right, so I figured I’d try and ride it out.

I paced out the 18′ afterwards. It was pretty obvious where I touched down – there was a big tyre shaped divot in the ground, which rapidly turned into a big Nike swoosh stylee front wheel washout.

..and for reference – the DH run at AE about 2.5 years ago…

No to both !

Bit of a wimp when it comes to air time, and if it isn’t rollable I don’t ride it. Speed bumps are the only things I’ll jump off !

Hamsterley table top, dunno how big it is. Some people reckoned 30 feet, I don’t think it was that far though. Yeh, it was on a 100mm travel hardtail aswell, wouldnt fancy it on one of those long forked monsters I’ve seen people struggling to do jumps on.

JonEdwards, that is exactly the kind of thing I think I should be hitting.. but get scared just looking at pictures of it!.. you have balls, perhaps a bit squashed after landing the 43′ jump 🙂

Rule 1: Don’t do anything your not comfortable with.
I’ve forgotten Jedi’s checklist, but it’s very similar.

I live by this rule and still surprise myself at what I have done. The drops are getting bigger and the jumps too. I only realise this once I go through the footage afterwards.

If you aren’t comfortable with it, you’re probably gonna crash.

I think I’d baulk at a 4 ft drop but rollable doubles I’ll usually try to clear.
I got the biggest air of my life (so far) last month aged 49 at Swinley on the humpy bit of the blue. I had time to look down at the ground below the front wheel and think ‘ooh, that’s a long way away’. The reality was probably 4-6ft.

I basically learnt most of that kind of stuff at Chicksands. The dual course is great for learning, the 4x course is a bit harder, then there’s the DH runs and drops over the other side. All nicely built and with chicken lines. Plus the DJs. Great atmosphere too, which helps.

Once you’ve got that dialled, a fortnight in Whistler changes your sense of scale massively. Dirt Merchant to Lower A-line gives you SOO much varied airtime, you just end up getting really comfortable with being off the ground.

Im a young’un who has ridden BMX for the best part of 15 years.

I generally ride what i consider very much to be in my comfort zone (which would easily encompass a 4ft drop or 6ft double) and get very disappointed with myself when i bottle out of something i consider should be in my comfort zone.

I went to woburn and bottled the BIG double the 30ft+ one as well as the big drop from the top into the jump area, i got pretty bummed out.

For me, it’s the first pedal stroke, as soon as that is done, i’m normally 99% composed and do it easy. It’s the whole nervousness and build up before the first pedal stroke that gets me.

Also, big, long, featureless run-up into something massive are so difficult for me, i have no idea on speed. It’s from riding BMX trails all my life, there are generally features that dictate your speed rather than guessing.

I also cant follow MTBers/DHers into jumps, they go way way faster than me to clear the same jump, i just end up going flat at their speed. BMXer pump.

deanfbm is the username a tip of the hat towards Fat Bald Men?

Maybe some Fire Bikes Mayhem 😉

Great skills on show in the pics.

Chicksands sounds great – i’m going to take a trip over there to see what it’s all about. Quite often having a wide variety of stuff close at hand in relatively small area means you can progress more in one session than weeks of general riding type riding where you spend ages looking for the next thrill

..and for reference – the DH run at AE about 2.5 years ago…

looked pretty doable when we were there, wide open, nice run in/out but…….no way of building up to it gradually. There’s bugger all at home to practice on either, the graded step downs at lee quarry they built have got sharp berms immediately after landing so can’t really practice on them either 🙁

4ft drop is about my limit on groomed trails (centre), proper drops that appear on proper trails with rocks, twists and iffy run in/out my comfort zone is closer to 2-3′ been meaning to practice but don’t seem to get chance

Old photo from Chicksands dual track. First outing on the new bike…

the graded step downs at lee quarry they built have got sharp berms immediately after landing so can’t really practice on them either

That was the thing that spooked me the first time I went to Canada. It wasn’t just one stunt. It was whole swathes of them back to back. Commit to the first and you have to commit to the entire sequence.

That said – drops to berms are lovely. You get so much grip from pushing the bike into the landing that you can rail corners incredibly hard.

Think of this too – all trails are designed to be ridden, and especially a trail centre in the UK – it might look scary but that’s to put off the nodders. Carry the natural speed of the trail and apply simple basic technique and it’ll come out reet!