Something is going wrong when I do drops that either are steep to steep or bigger than say 4 foot to steep. Any tips? Anything else is easy peasy but not sure if it is a confidence thing or just balance thing. I get a bit unbalanced when pushing my weight right back, maybe my heals are not down enough. On the steep the first time my front wheel washed out and the third time my feet came off the pedals.

drops? or roll downs?

I was doing both on Sunday. Are roll downs like an angled drop? I.e. a ramp at about 45% down then it ends and drops to a similarity steep drop. At least it was nice pine needles!

I'm rubbish, but sounds like your weight's too far back.

Shifting your weight right back might be good for doing back flips, but its not much good for anything else. Lots and lots and lots of people on here post pictures of them demonstrating very bad technique.

if its drops I've a similar mental block, I'm not too bad on ones that are relatively flat to flat, but throw in a slope on the run in out either with a transition that effectively levels/raises the take off or just where the trail drops a few feet over a root and I cant convince my brain to pump through the takeoff like I would for a jump/drop normaly. Something to do with my weight already being on the rear tyre.

Should I just be leaning foreward then pushing my weight back over the takeoff?

Started of with the weight in the middle but these are steep slopes. The drop was not that high though only 2 foot but the steepness threw me of balance.

do they involve airtime? if not its a roll down. weight needs not be way back for either

Had a stupid little crash on Sunday due to indecision about whether to roll or pop a drop. Perfectly rollable at low speed, but I approached at pop speed and then tried to roll. It did not go well – airtime and landing on the front wheel, full fork compression. I almost held it on the rebound but was unbalanced so we parted company. Bloody and bruised but not broken.

I need Jedi training.

25 secs in this film

Involves air time. Can't see the drop though.

I can do thing one everytime

but fail when it gets a bit bigger.

(Not me)

These are the problems

I am sure the drops are steeper than that though?? 🙂

Another image. I can do the drop on the left no bother but the one on the right I did a massive fail after landing it but something went wrong just after I landed.

I have exactly the same issues, I reckon it's because flat to flat generally means you can just leave your weight neutral whilst slopes in/out actually mean you have to adjust your weight and I'm not confident enough to do it

geda, so you are talking airtime drops.
you land rear wheel first in the vid. plus your back foot is tilted toe down before take off

I agree with you DT78. Going off flat is fine (assuming it's not too far down). But any kind of ramp-up freaks me out.

Vallåsen in Southern Sweden is a cool place to go if you are passing through though. its about £17 for a days uplift with loads of different trails. Not the hugest of height drops but nice rooty, rocky and smooth trails

The vid was not me!

I think it's a bit of a misconception to put your weight back for drops. I think it comes form people be anxious about nose diving. I always try to stay pretty centred on the bike for drops and land both wheels together.

And ride a prophet or an DB Alpine. I felt a bit under biked when seeing all the big downhill bikes but it went ok.

geda, eh? why post it? who ever it is needs to sort that out 🙂

So the key is getting the bike level with the landing and probably having the right amount of speed to make it smooth?

I posted it as I could not find a picture of the drop! Now I found one though.

For those bad boys just ride off them and push the bars away a wee bit as you get to the lip. It isnae rocket science you know.

I am off now any more suggestions would be great.

Just go at a medium speed, pop the nose as you approach the end of the ramp / drop and try and follow the shape of the landing, don't brace but try to extend into it as you land, on bigger drops the hang time element maybe what is messing you up here, give it a little more time before extending your arms / legs into it or you might start separating from your bike, even if you don't its a sketchy feeling.

hmmm, my one isnt that big, will give it a go with my weight further foreward, the landings mulch anyway so nice and soft!

Find one that can be rolled or dropped. I learnt to drop by doing what you'd do jumping, start with a table top and when you are ready move to doubles.

I used one in my local woods that is around 20 feet top to bottom and can be rolled or launched once I realised that I was dropping about 8 feet or so before landing other proper drops seemed less tricky. Might help?

i'd seriously recommend getting some tuition; this thread is full of advice, all well intended but some of it just plain wrong/ misleading.

But aren't the people who go on tuition courses mincers? I got the Dirt School DVD and there is no way I am going on some tuition course with folk like that, it would be embarrassing.

My usual strategy is to go off the side so reducing the height, fear, then building up.

Yeah, I bet they can't even do drops, the mincers.

Oh hang on….

You do know you just said that out loud … 😯 … yeah absolutely, it's only mincers who get tuition, helps them with all that going off the side technique… 😆

Have you seen the video? I think they were trying too hard to get "your normal everyday rider"

If you are struggling with drops that size then you are just a "normal everyday rider". Dirt school vid is great.

The last images you posted would scare me into making a cockup too, the rest I wouldn't even think about TBH. Reckon I probably have the same problem you do, whatever it is! Maybe the extra height makes me a little more likely to freeze up and so not correct for the landing, I'm fairly sure I always take off fairly well but just forget to correct as I'm bracing for an impact!

I didn't rate it. And I followed the advice about drops in it and the front end washed out. Anyway maybe I should not have tried so hard at trolling.

yeah cos pros never get tuition, they learn it in their sleep!! 🙄

Geda, you've come to a forum to ask advice from a whole mix of people but you are unsure about going to someone who has spent years and years studying mountain bike techniques, ridden with and analysed some of the best in the world, developed analysis skills to help in every riding situation, has a bank of coaching progressions that will sort out pretty much any problem in bitesized chunks, ….

I can't vouch for other instructors who are mentioned on here but i know some get really good press, and i can tell you for sure that the guys who work with me at CycleActive have spent a huge amount of time not just working on their personal riding, but developing their coaching too. Our last staff training day was spent working on two drops and two jumps at Ae Forest, taking video of eachother as we worked on different approaches to not only to the jumping and dropping, but to the moves that form part of it and how to break them down and explain them when working with clients.

Our clients come from all over the world and from all walks of life. We get super keen dirt jumpers, trail riders, elite level racers, total novices and american billionaires. The competencies (both technical and mental) they come with are different but we have the skills to make them all progress. That's why we do it – so don't be put off by a video, good coaching is a truly amazing experience and the biggest feedback we get from people is "why did i wait so long before doing this!"

Give us, or someone, a call and we'll get all of your biking problems sorted out.
Cheers
Chris@CycleActive

I love the 'the're all mincers' honesty. I do kind of feel the same way about organised skills courses, to be fair though, im sure they aren't all slow and steady health and safety cheese fests, you might learn some neat tricks for tackling stuff that doesn't just come from natural progression. If anyone rocks up with panniers on their bike though you are probably on the wrong course!

Thanks for the replies. I think the main worry I would have is going on a skills course and ending up in the equivalent of the baby pool. I would never big myself up as I believe the best way of learning is to go into everything you do with the knowledge that you still have stuff to learn, having the attitude that learning new stuff is fun and admitting that you must currently be doing some things wrong. This applies to everything from my trying to learn a new language to my current biking skill of trying to learn how to do a manual.

That has took an awful long time. The longest thing to unlearn/learn was that doing a manual is nothing about pulling on the bars and everything about getting the balance and weight right to push your weight back at the same time as pushing the rear of your bike forward with your legs. The stage I am now is trying to keep the balance point. Probably could progress a lot quicker if someone could point out my mistakes and point me in the correct direction.

Some of the more extreme skills are harder to learn and practise as the cost of failure is higher. That is why one of the best things to do is progress slowly one step at a time.

Sorry for dissing the dirt school vid. I am 100% sure that the guy is fantastic as a coach and would not mind going on one of their courses but the DVD was a bit of a disappointment. I love the Brian Lopes skills book though and although I cringe a bit at the production the DVD Fluid Ride like a Pro seems good to me. I am sure someone will be along to say that the ones I like are all wrong.

Goes off to find some skills courses between the 12th of June and the 14th of July..