Me and a few mates have found some nice little jumps some people have have built on our local trails (the ones where the ground drops away from you with a slight ramp up)! Thing is we have all tried jumping off these mainly by getting in the attack position, weight forward then on the lip of the ramp pulling up and backwards. However all we end up doing doing is dropping the front wheel virtually endoing whereas we should be landing the bike (or both) wheels first.

Have any of you freeride gods got any suggestions what we are doing wrong or should we just give up and stay XC jey gayers 😉

Go on the jump and drop course at LLandegla. It’s £120 but very very good.

Then just practice what they teach you

Keep your wheels on the ground – it’s way more sensible.

use your legs not your arms?

I find “popping” off kind of helps, like doing a little bunny hop. As does going faster. After you’ve pulled the front you need to shift your weight forwards in on fluid motion, then relax back as you’re landing.

I’m sure someone can explain it better than that. How big are said jumps?

It sounds like you know what you need to do, it’s just doing it! Practice riding off smaller stuff with your weight back, then build up to bigger stuff by pulling back harder/going a bit faster. In terms of bike setup, it’s generally easier not to nosedive off stuff if you have the saddle down and a short top tube or stem.

If bikes were meant to be off the ground they wouldn’t have wheels.

Follow my golden rule. Air in my tyres, not under them.

Seriously, I cant jump either. Scares the bejesus out of me.

mragreeable – Mmmm good point as my Lapierre Zesty has a long tube so might not be so much of a jumpy bike.

This is more for drops than jumps. Lower your saddle, practice riding off kerbs, start off with your body low and as your front wheel approaches the edge shift your arse/weight backwards, as your back wheel leaves the ramp/ledge/kerb extend you legs to soak up the impact. Riding of kerbs aim to land both wheels together, you’ve got to really heave up the front end to land rear wheel first on little drops, on bigger drops you just need the rear weight shift and push the back wheel down, otherwise you risk looping out.

If you’ve got a really jey setup and can’t lift the front wheel at all then try higher rise bars or a shorter/higher stem.

put the seat down.

no, not a little bit down – right down.

if you are nosing it your body weight needs to be more central/towards the back not over the front.

sounds like you need to go faster.

To jump nicely you really need to know and understand how to pump. Building up the skills progressively is def the way to go – the guys at Llandegla are great – using the same base system as us at allbikedup.com (Surrey Hills).

One hint though – it certainly isn’t anything to do with yanking the bars up. In fact, to get a smooth powerful launch you actually need to push into the ramp, not pull away from it. As with all bike handling, it is much more to do with the feet than the hands.

Wise words from GlenP

If you really want to jump then the biggest impact will come from some formal tuition.

Otherwise,

– ride with folks who can jump and watch them, then imitate (obviously best not imitate a 12ft huck! go for the small stuff…)

-find some small jumps that you can hammer. Ones that aren’t scary but get you airborne. repeat, repeat, repeat. start by rolling them and get faster. Build your confidence. XC riders tend to be very good at absorbing bumps and soaking up the jump, but you want to be transferring that energy into getting the bike (and you) airborne. Go with some mates so can learn with your eyes.

have fun 🙂

TM

p.s. I am entirely mediocre when it comes to jumps but am enjoying the learning immensely. When you get a jump right it feels utterly wonderful!

seat right down, centred on bike, enough pace for the jump (this is the hard bit), don’t push or pull the bike too much until you’ve learned a bit more.

Personally I reckon the best jump to learn on is a fly out or step up – i.e. one that sends you up a lot, but slows your forward momentum. The bigger the take off the better.

correct jumping you should not pull up at all, you should have your weight distributed in the middle, make sure you hit at a good speed, slow speed on a jump is not good. You need arms and legs slightly bent, not right down. once you hit the lip if you have your weight correct you should just be able to float it and spot the landing still with your weight central for a nice even landing. Lots of shifting weight in the air can create problems, oh and never look at your front wheel, spot that landing. My last tip is commit to the jump dont go half hearted and dont go for the brakes… watch a video of rowan sorrell, when he hits a jump his body hardly moves until the landing

correct jumping you should not pull up at all

Thats a lie

Bigger jumps and more speed. Seriously, I have been closer to wiping out by trying to jump stuff that simply isn’t big enough or when I’m not going fast enough.

Learn to manual lift the front wheel.

Do them off kerbs until you can land back-wheel first consistently.

Take it to small drops from there.

(From the OP, sounds like he’s talking more about drops than jumps).

So to sum up:

– Pull up.
– Don’t pull up.
– Learn to manual.
– Learn to pump.
– Use your legs.
– Use your arms.
– Build up gradually.
– Go balls out.

Let us know how you get on. 😉

get the brian lopes book, he tells you how to do it. pics and all….

Learn to bunny hope on the flat, once you’ve mastered that the rest comes naturally

Craig1975 speaks the truth.

NB. a proper bunnyhop is when the front wheel comes up followed by the back. Not at the same time.
The body positioning is the same for controlling a bike from take off to landing.

Pulling up on the bars should only be done when you need to generate more height to get to a landing.
Avoid this when you are learning. Stick to small tabletops that you can make the landing on

Jumping to flat landings look shit, make sure you always hit a trannie.

Hmm. So learning to bunnyhop properly is the best start? But then to bunnyhop you have to pull up on the bars, and there is lots of advice saying don’t pull up when junping. Tis confusing for us jump virgins

were you really expecting a consistent answer on here? 😆

I have a tattoo of a line of Ogham round my right leg. Sez “can’t ride for shit” Sums it up, really.

find a well built jump which you don’t have to a lot on, hit it as fast as you dare and relax (probably the most important thing)
it helps if it’s part of the trail too and not just a single hit without any build-up

I can’t jump either.. scares the hell out of me too.. I can ride quickish, but put a jump in my way and I grab a handful of brake and it all goes wrong.. I usually end of on my front wheel when landing 🙁

davidtaylforth if your hitting a lip / jump you dont need to lift up…. gravity does it for you when you hit the jump. Like I said watch some films of the pro’s! not pulling up was the biggest thing I learnt, it lets you focus on the trail and your body position…………

the need to pull up depends on the jump

Take a look at Bike Skills for some tips on jumping.

For me I started going to the skate park this week nice and early when no ones around to practice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXc1_UF6xXg

It’s not the easiest thing to explain, watch others and try and pick up there technique and then practise, keep practising and then practice some more, It will click into place.

I can sort of jump, The bike never follows my feet though so i end up with gouges out of the backs of my legs.

Using clipless pedals though, Its a piece of piss 😆

I sot of bunny hop jumps..

I find speed makes the front wheel dip on landing (not pleasant) but hopping keeps the bike level for landing..

I sort of jump (extend) on the take of ramp and the bike comes too.

Is that wrong?

davidtaylforth if your hitting a lip / jump you dont need to lift up…. gravity does it for you when you hit the jump. Like I said watch some films of the pro’s! not pulling up was the biggest thing I learnt, it lets you focus on the trail and your body position…………

Well I guess it depends on your style etc. and yes you can just clear jumps by relaxing and floating over but this isnt as much fun.

If you want to jump properly then you need to pump the bottom of the take off and pull up, generally the harder you pull the higher you go. This is surely correct (unless i ride like an oddun’) as I rode my BMX at the trails only about 2 hours ago, and I definitely pulled up on the take off.

If you watch some films of the pros you’ll see they do pull up. How do you think Chase Hawk boosts so high? By riding into the jump and letting gravity do it for him?

I was rubbish at jumping, with similar problems to you underthesun.

Had some coaching and the instructor pointed out that I wasn’t leaning back as far as I thought.

Once I got that right – putting my bum further back and leaning my chest further down – everything seemed to click into place.

Give that a go maybe? It helps me to get into the position a comfortable while before the jump, so I can concentrate on pumping the lip and having the bike pointing in the right direction.

Yes, but you could also describe it as pushing down hard with your pedals. I’m not sure that’s the best way to learn though. You need to feel what it’s like to fly for a bit before boosting too much.

I think the biggest problem beginners have is not riding ‘out’ of the take off, so they fly forward rather than up, so the bike doesn’t come up with them, hence feet coming off the pedals and the bike feeling off balance.

Spankmonkey – no his body never moves at all, he never pumps a take off or anything.. 🙄

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UmlGJF09xM

start small and build up