Had an excellent skills session earlier in the year. Now much happier on small drops and jumps but my target is to be able to comfortably do 2 footers after I broke my collarbone a couple of years ago getting one wrong because I had no technique for getting it right.

So I just want to go off to a spot and practice doing small drops and gradually moving higher to 2 foot but no idea where I can find such a site. As I'm practicing I want something I can session which isn't on a popular trail (and therefore getting in the way of other riders) and which has an easy approach and runout so I can focus on the technique as I drop rather than other things.

Any idea of a suitable site in Surrey Hills? (or even central London so long as there aren't too many people watching!)

Ta

there are plenty of places in london you can ride off things, keep your eyes open!

Do you want to drop, or roll-off?

And the difference is?

dropping or rolling…

Eh?

Drop is where you, er, drop. As in huck, manual or wheelie off the edge of a sharp lip. Or maybe pre-jump into something that could be rolled.

Roll is, you guessed it, where you roll – keeping the wheels on the ground even if the ground goes vertical but then transitions in the run-out.

Rolling 2 foot drops isn't going to be very successful is it?

OK 2's probably doable, now I think about it , but not much more.

You can roll more or less anything if there is a transition to stop your front wheel plugging.

Ahh I see, I'd not call that a drop TBH, if you can roll it without catching your rings on the floor it's more of a slope, even if it has a vertical bit in it, a drop in my mind has ~90 degree start and finish angles, otherwise its just a steeper bit in a slope. Until you get extreme (10ft+ vertical bits in the middle of a slope).

I agree too – but what most people call a drop off is actually something that can be rolled. Like rolling into a bombhole. what you are considering a drop is what some others might call a step-down, or very big step down. I just didn't want to send brooess to something that was not what he was expecting.

brooess – did you do you skills session with us?

ride off walls for practice or drop steps

I'll have my thread back now if you don't mind 🙂

I mean drops. As in, no way of rolling, the only way to go is committed, front wheel in the air, makes for good photos and very popular with the fit girls…

Any ideas of a good location…

what most people call a drop off is actually something that can be rolled.

really? people mistake "slopes" for "drops"?

OK. Glad we sorted that one out. I suggest you go the last section of Telegraph Road, after the dip with the tree stump. There is a succession of small steps that you can practice manualling off the edge of – there are about five or six in a row, they are small enough to have no serious consequence if you fluff the timing, and there is a right-hand turn just after the chicane around the telepgraph pole – turn right and right again and go do it again, and again.

Once you've got a 100% reliable manual that you can pop without yanking the bars and/or looking down you can go to the Judges Seat at Winterfold where there are two bigger ones, either of which will impress the girls.

Brant – yes. Really. Drop-off gets used (by some people) as a generic term for more or less anything steep enough to not be able to stop on. Because the technique is totally different I wasn't going to send him to the wrong place.

cheers Glen P. To answer your question, I did my skills session with a mate who works in the Lakes.

I did Telegraph Road on Sunday – all good stuff cos they're all relatively low – 6 inches or so at a I guess and I'm comfortable on that kind of height.

I've been to Judges Seat but can you remind me how to get there in relation to Orange Clawhammer/Xmas Pud?

ta

Alternatively Glen P – how much would you charge for a dropoff session?

glenp – where do you run your skill sessions from ?

Bruce YGM

very popular with the fit girls…

i can confirm that this is completely true. many's the time i've gone over a dropoff and consequently had to fight of the advances of hordes of lovely ladies.

Skills sessions in the lovely Surrey Hills – allbikedup.com

Standard 4 hour skills is £55. Jumps and drops is level 4, but (not being rude) I'd discourage you from coming in at that level – other skills are far more important.

If you can do the little ones, you can do the big ones. Technique exactly the same. What you need is guidance about how to think about the trail, how to look through the trail, how to keep your mind in a controlled mode etc – that's common to all our levels of session.

It most definitely is not just about being brave.

Glen, where on the hills do you practice these drops and jumps?

Just trying to imagine if this could be for me or not

GlenP – cheers, I'll be in touch. As it happens I was chatting to Richard about some other stuff the other day (unless you are Richard?).

I take your point about doing things in the right order but reluctant to shell out too much ££ in times of shortage and from my previous session have been shown all the basics already – just down to me now to practice it all… (manuals, pedal assisted front wheel lift, small drops, tabletops, pumping etc.. ) maybe we can discuss and work out the best starting point?

Cheers…

What about if you go so fast over a slope that you drop off it rather than roll off?

Anyway, there are lots of places to be practising zee drops. How well do you know them thar Surrey Hills? If you want to email me I will send you some places you could head to play cpt_slopestyle [at] trackofdeath.com

brooess – I'm not Richard, but he can advise you. What he'll say though, is that you will be better served doing some stuff from earlier levels and then we can add on a bit of drops work.

Dango – we'll always work on very tame examples first, to get the technique right, and build up from there.

There's a good drop just above peaslake carpark. Ride up the tarmac hill just after the carpark and look in the bushes, can't miss it. Nice and easy.

There is also one on the other side of the carpark (or was a few months back) – at the sketchy end of the trail that comes down off pitch past the church, there was one, dropping stright into a steep slope down to the carpark.

Could be dodgy if you prang it though!

The sketchy/church one has not much of a run in and has been dragged by loads of riders and doesnt have a lip now, theres a great one on Leith (near caspers)

dial your drop technique of wooden ladders.thye are a constant level and easier to judge.
barroness, if you're about herts way let me know and i'll show ya.
🙂