Viewing 35 posts - 1 through 35 (of 35 total)
  • How do you progress from rolling some steps to jumping down them?
  • maxray
    Free Member

    There’s this nice little set of 5 or 6 steps in a park by me midway through a bit of twisty singletrack. I have visions of ragging down and just jumping straight down but always find myself slowing to roll them.

    How do you make the transition to jumping them as I cant see how you can build up to it?

    Is it a case of just thinking fekk it and hitting it at a higher speed? Don’t really want to break myself and still be there covered in dew the next morning! 😯

    jam-bo
    Full Member

    depends what you want to acheive? a huck off them to flat is going to be nasty, fastest would probably to slightly pre-jump and pump down them.

    maxray
    Free Member

    Hmm yeah that’s kind of what I am imagining 🙂 It is a landing onto grass but yeah it goes to flat.

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    m0rk
    Free Member

    whichever you do, can you set a camera up to capture the blood smooth landing

    maxray
    Free Member

    😀 this is why I will never progress. Too old to go risking things 🙁

    I’ll just continue to bimble down them and imagine myself being graceful.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Drink a lot.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    how’s your manualling?

    If you can shift your weight back over the back wheel as you go off a kerb so your back wheel lands first, do the same on a smaller set of steps, then these ones, you can let the back wheel run down the steps and absorb the impact on the back wheel as you land.

    Then faster => missing out a few of the steps on the way down. Clipping the bottom one or two with the back wheel isn’t the end of the world, if you’re ready to land on the flat on the back wheel, they won’t slow you down.

    It’s probably a 2.5 foot drop to flat? Look at it like that?

    uselesshippy
    Free Member

    Go faster.
    Pray. 😀

    maxray
    Free Member

    Yeah the manualling would sort it. Can’t manual though apart from the odd rogue one 😀 Maybe I will work on that first.. either that or go the 4 pack of stella /go pro camera route.

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Try something like this

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muDP-9pdvuQ[/video]

    bamboo
    Free Member

    You might consider it ‘typical expensive stw response’, but a skills course would no doubt see you right for this; plus improve your overall riding ability

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    50m long manuals aren’t necessary. Cool as ****, obviously, but not being able to do them won’t stop you here.

    If you can keep your weight far enough over the back wheel that the front stays up for 1 or 2 seconds, that’s probably enough. Once the back wheel reaches the stairs, your weight will push it down the steps, the front will stay up, back lands first, ride into the sunset.

    If you can land back wheel first off a kerb by manualling at a slow jogging speed, I reckon that’s as much manualling steez as you need.

    yunki
    Free Member

    footflaps has got the right idea.. once you have learnt the basics from that vid, try this more advanced technique

    [video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od231q6nbS8[/video]

    klumpy
    Free Member

    Important lesson from the vids; call 999, then when the paramedics arrive explain what you’re about to do.

    splashdown
    Free Member

    Use the force……to seek out Jedi (UK Bike Skills) who’ll help you do it safely 🙂

    wilko1999
    Free Member

    I have similar thoughts about bigger jumps and drops. I am happy doing smaller jumps and drops but ask myself how do I progress to bigger stuff? The answer unfortunately is always grow a bigger pair. I know I can do it, and have the ability to do it, but my swingers just ain’t big enough! I bet deep down you know you can jump those steps, it’s just a case of getting over your inhibitions and having the confidence to commit yourself. Wish I knew how! I need psychological training I reckon

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Thing about steps is, they’re amazingly easy, they just sometimes don’t seem it, and they come in convenient sized packs. 6 is a slightly awkward number- if you want to jump onto the steps, it’s quite short, but if you want to drop them entirely, it’s reasonably tall.

    So practice dropping on a smaller set, and practice jumping into them on a bigger set, if you can. Do some skidz while you’re at it, and sidehop badly off a kerb or two.

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    My personal technique is pull up, pump down.

    Covers all sorts really but once you’re in it, 10 or a 100, much of a muchness.

    Eg:

    Y’ken Northwind?

    Edit: Not much clearing to be had there mind.

    Lifer
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t manual, just treat it like a drop off and you’ll hardly feel it.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Drop ’em to flat cf

    cfinnimore
    Free Member

    Actually, that’s a fair point…. Semi-Hijack.

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    yetidave
    Free Member

    Broke a frame on them as a student whilst slightly drunk. Didn’t notice till mate told me my back wheel had slipped and I was going sideways.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    I’d find a smaller set of steps somewhere to practice your technique on and gradually work your way up to that set. If you can land perfectly off a tall kerb then you can land perfectly off a big drop but you need to be able to land front first, rear first and both together and do whichever suits the situation. Jedi is awesome and Mastering Mountain Bike Skills 2 is an excellent reference guide in the meantime.

    “Don’t do the height until you’re dropping right!”

    I_Ache
    Free Member

    For just 5 or 6 steps I would just go faster and use suicide grips. All these big sets of steps have nothing to do with your stairs. Just hit them and make sure that you absorb the landing with your arms and legs.

    samuri
    Free Member

    Just think if you go just a little bit faster you’ll be going down them without actually touching them.

    chipsngravy
    Free Member

    Visualise success then stop thinking about it and just do it.

    Post the video after you’re done.

    (Said by a 42 yr old who has no desire to wreck his body anymore)

    kudos100
    Free Member

    5-6 steps? Jump to flat.

    As long as you can drop of something the same height, you’ll be good to go.

    b45her
    Free Member

    i often get baffled by people who look in terror at a 3-4 ft drop, without a bike they would hop off it without a thought but won’t do it with 4+ inches of extra suspension and the ability to use their arms as well as legs to soak up the rather light impact of landing.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    i often get baffled by people who look in terror at a 3-4 ft drop, without a bike they would hop off it without a thought but won’t do it with 4+ inches of extra suspension and the ability to use their arms as well as legs to soak up the rather light impact of landing.

    Would that be people who spent their childhood jumping off things on their two feet and thus instilling the correct techniques and mindset to cover them for the rest of their life (until they’re properly old) but didn’t do the same on two wheels and are having to learn jumping techniques as an adult?

    yunki
    Free Member

    and thus instilling the correct techniques and mindset to cover them for the rest of their life (until they’re properly old)

    I don’t know.. I think twice sometimes about jumping off the bottom couple of stairs at home in the house these days.. 🙁

    I think I’m going to use B45her’s mental approach a bit more often on the bike though, great idea

    b45her
    Free Member

    there is no “technique” to smallish drops its just a case of riding off them. 90% of jumping/dropoff’s is having the plumbs to commit to them, there’s very little skill involved.

    colournoise
    Full Member

    Nonsense. It’s all about technique breeding confidence & commitment and nothing whatsoever to do with the size of your balls.

    Balls-technique=pain.

    Get some coaching.

    b45her
    Free Member

    no thanks i don’t need to give someone money to coach me how to jump a bike i’ve been jumping bikes just fine since the age of 10.

    chiefgrooveguru
    Full Member

    no thanks i don’t need to give someone money to coach me how to jump a bike i’ve been jumping bikes just fine since the age of 10.

    Which means you probably don’t realise how much technique is involved because you started young and it’s instinctive for you now. In an ideal situation you can just ride off a drop and as long as you’re relaxed you’ll land it fine. But where I ride ideal situations are rare – drops have angled take-offs and landings which require you change the attitude of the bike in mid-air, drops happen just after and just before corners so the entry and/or exit aren’t simple and drops happen in places where you’re going too slowly to just stay relaxed and centrered or too fast to enter without slowing first (or you’ll end up going seriously large and landing to flat with a crunch).

    skidsareforkids
    Free Member

    I used to have a lot of anxiety about gapping double sets of stairs, until one night I got particularly sloshed and went out and did a set first time. Ever since then it never bothered me… I’m not suggesting that’s how you do it, just saying that over-thinking is usually the problem 🙄

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