Is there actually a technical reason for tipping a bike on its side while airborne (is that a tabletop?) or is it just for show?

Its to prove you 'av the skilz init

A tabletop is a flat topped 'jump/mound'

Boxelder – what is the correct name for tipping the bike in the air?

….awaits Mark Datz – king of rad

Tipping the bike to the side is also called a tabletop – you were correct in your first post.

In downhill racing, tipping the bike over can help you stay low to the ground, which is faster than getting lots of air. Otherwise, it's for style!

A tabletop is what the aim is, but a proper table looks like this:

The jump where you tip your bike to the side is more like a motor cross whip (not a tail whip), it's just all about style.

A tabletop is indeed tipping the bike on its side – flat like a tabletop.
It used to be a style thing, but I suspect you might be refering a little to the Brian Lopes vid. He looks to use it to soak up the jump and keep the bike low – airtime is slowtime.

You could eat your dinner off a proper tabletop

a tabletop and a speed scrub is different.
tt is for style
speedscrub is for technique, stolen from motox

i thought they were known as buba scrubs

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.vitalmx.com/images/photos/10005/627483568_1221156301.jpg&imgrefurl=http://puremx.wordpress.com/2008/10/20/james-bubba-stewart-the-bubba-scrub/&h=900&w=1440&sz=288&tbnid=tDhI4vxiGZMYKM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbubba%2Bscrub&zoom=1&usg=__WUe5cePBIQRXYYcrxufFi09Q7es=&sa=X&ei=G6hyTIeeE8q6jAec_sT6CA&ved=0CB0Q9QEwAg

as james 'bubba' stewart kind of invented them

yeah but its dh not motox and its been stolen hence speed scrubs 😀

i'm pretty sure i've heard dh racers on dirt tv and freecaster refering to them as bubba scrubs still. look sooooooo cool.

I believe scrubs originally came from BMX, people were doing them long before James came along…

For mere mortals the same effect can be had by slightly turning your bars as you take off which soaks up the jump a bit (obviously quite a bit less than laying the bike over but if you are honest you probably aren't going fast enough to need to do that)

Iain

It's known as "saluting the god of gnar"

obviously.

Vanderham and Romaniuk whipping it to the max down a-line and dirt merchant.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5k3DngsI6M

So basically are you saying that it scrubs speed by allowing you to leave the ground earlier – before the jump pushes you further into the air?

AlexSimon – Member
So basically are you saying that it scrubs speed by allowing you to leave the ground earlier – before the jump pushes you further into the air?

Not as such, it changes the trajectory of your flight to a lower one. You don't go as high so you return to the ground sooner your foward speed remains the same. Scrubing a jump doesn't speed you up it allows you to hit the jump at a much faster speed than required to clear it and still only land on the landing as oppose to over jumping it. As an example at my local track the finish line jump is after a fairly long, slightly downhill straight, has a nice big face but is only about 50 foot long and has a corner shortly after. If you were on the gas all the way up to and on the face you would end up in the carpark! So the solution would be to shut off halfway down and roll the jump or accellerate all the way and scrub it, the latter being faster as you are on the gas for longer.

Iain

"saluting the god of gnar"

is more a fifteen pint thing isn't it?

Landing a scrub is the hard bit…

Cos it's fun 😉 'remember trick's r 4 kidz'

and style it up whenever you can

Not sure what the original question was but here goes anyway:

1. A table top is the name of a type of jump but also is the name given to a style of jump. A table top style of jump means you get the bike as near to horiziontal to the ground as possible but the bike frame remains inline with the takeoff and landing of the jump. Be that jump a table top, Gap, drop, double, triple etc etc

2. A whip is another style of jump, this means turning the rear of the bike so that you get the frame perpendicular or further to the direction of the landing and take off. You then turn back so you land in the direction you took off. In FMX its called a twitch whip, if you look back at the take off as you do the whip, V cool.

3. You can combine a table and a whip if you have the skilz

4. A scrub has already been described correctly. It is a style that absorbs the lip of the jump and keeps you lower and therefore faster becuase you can hit the jump at a higher velocity.

5. A hip style jump is like a whip only you land at a different angle to the one you took off at and is required for hip type jumps. if you don't use that style of jump you will crash or have to go much much slower to roll the hip type jump.

6. A combo of a hip and table, and also a hip scrub.

Hope that answers the question, although as I am crap at desribing stuff probably just confused things more.

I fogot to add, that doing tables top style jumps, whips etc over straight jumps is slower than scrubing or simply let the bike fly over them. The reason is that a whip and a table require a the rider to pop off teh lip and hence go higher over the jump and as a direct result loose speed. Hip jumps do not have that problem becuase they are must do on hip jumps.

good find with that pic. its nearly 30 years old and to this day theres not many folk that could do what dave is popping off there! its unreal for the time. R.I.P vanderspek.

i had to edit this.. just check out the height of that tabletopped bunnyhop. w..t…f !

So is scrubbing different to pre-jumping?

I don't really get how (on a bike at least) you can hit the ground quick enough to benefit from the downside of the jump, like you can with a pre-jump. All that sideways tipping must make it a much longer procedure to do.
Anyway – I'm guessing the reason we don't see it so much in BMX racing and 4X is that the risk factor is too big, especially when there are other riders close by. It's probably the kind of thing people do over the last jump when they're already relaxed in the win.

So basically for style again.
I'd love to be able to do it though – it looks so good on camera. There's a great picture of someone doing it on a Cannondale RZ in this month's Dirt.

Any excuse for another random tabletop pic…

its called a table top or panny.

🙂

I thought a tail whip was where you span the bike around the bars…?

Bit like a bar spin but the other way round.

Please enlighten.

😕

A tail whip is that, these are 'moto whips' or just 'whips'

"So is scrubbing different to pre-jumping?"

I always thought pre jumping was jumping into a drop rather than launching off it – if that makes sense.

prejumping is lifting the bike and placing it on the downslope rather than popping off it.

scrubbing is basically whipping the bike as low as possible to avoid overjumping at speed. not many DHers can do it well, most simply do a stylish low whip giving the impression they're scrubbing.

this guy can scrub a DH bike nicely:

http://video.mpora.com/watch/TSZF9Ah1s/

Must say i can only do it a tiny amount but a whip is just bloody good fun. I was doing them at mayhem and got told i was having too much fun by someone with very colourful lycra 🙂

OMG Beefy and Iain Gillam those pics are so rad.

I think I am going to print them and put them on my inspiration temple

GW – Gotcha. I've seen that video before and was mightly impressed. Not sure I'm ever going to be able to do that :o)

So my backflip-tailwhip over every little kicker on my local trail will be slowing me down?
Better change that approach then…..

DrP