[Closed] Any advice for my riding position?

Do you drop your saddle on the descents? Getting your weight lower gives you more control than just getting it back IMO. Obviously it is possible to ride anything with your saddle up, ala world cup XC racers, but dropping it makes it easier for us mortals, and easier means less scary, faster and more fun.

lets see a pic then

No I dont drop my seat, but will from now if it'll help! I've only got a pic of where I ended up after I fell but dont know how to upload! It was at Llandegla, I went too fast off the smallest wooden run with the drop at the end and landed on my front wheel which bounced me 15 foot down the hill via tree stumps before stopping due to tree!

unless the set up is wildly wrong, i'd point to technique.

your position back and forward on the bike changes for different trails - sometimes being on the front of the bike is a good place to be, especially if you're pumping for speed on flowing rollers or fast singletrack.

the problem often comes on trails that are rough or where you're braking, not accelerating, but often that's got a lot to do with foot position as well as body position. most people think about body in isolation but you have to make sure the braking forces get pushed through the bottom of the bike instead of the top/handlebars if you want to be stable and not go over the bars.

I've written some features on this for BikeRadar and I'd be happy to email you the links if that's helpful - fire me a line at chris@cycleactive.co.uk
Cheers
Chris

@ crasher - just seen your second post there about landing on the front wheel. that's maybe pointing to the need to get your manuals sorted out so you can smoothly lift the front of your bike as it hits the takeoff. again, got some stuff on this if you want it so just let me know yr email and i'll fire it through.
Chris@CycleActive

Its definately technique! 🙁 Need a few pointers to sort it!

Might not be too far forward ... the common problem is people riding too far off the back. It'd be good to see a pic of you in your normal position.

Stuart

[img] [/img]

"Go low to be pro" - Shaum March

look at how low that saddle is.... 😉

BTW the Shaum March quote is ref the front end, not the saddle. 🙂

Sounds like you had your weight too far back after you left the lip of the drop, causing the front wheel to dive; that sounds counter intuitive but is true.

So the technique is -
1. Set your line and speed
2. Unweight the bike and execute and a small, popped manual as your front meets the lip, with your weight central or JUST behind central
3. As you jump you should be stood tall on the pedals with your weight remaining central, your legs straight ready to land
4. As you land your knees and elbows flex to help soak up the compression
4. Ride off. Grinning.

Alternatively, do a skills day.

Hmm - this is set to turn into another one of those threads with lots of conflicting and confusing advice!

I'll offer one very simple thought which gets you virtually all of the way there, and beyond that you are probably better either doing a skills session or try the Brian Lopes book, which is good and enjoyable too. This bit of advice could come from either - ride the bike with your feet, not your hands. Drive both tyres via the lowest and strongest point of engagement - the pedals.

First, I recommend changing your username heh heh no really if you can get to one there is nothing like a skills course for putting all of these ideas into practice. Personally I can highly recommend CycleActive, as I've done a couple with them myself. They do courses nationwide, although they are based up here in the lakes (I don't know where you are based).........defo worth a go I would say 😀

Sounds like you had your weight too far back after you left the lip of the drop, causing the front wheel to dive; that sounds counter intuitive but is true.

What? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Care to explain? When I manual off drops I rarely nosedive 😀

@coffeeking I think maybe he means if your weight is really far back and your arms are fully extended when the front wheel drops it will pull you forward with it, potentially over the bars.
Could be technique, position, bike or a combination.

If I was you I would do the following:
Find a drop that won't cause any serious injuries if you mess it up but bigger than a curb.

Practice over and over going off the drop until you feel confident in doing it.

Find a bigger drop that makes you feel nervous and ride it using the technique you just learnt from the smaller drop.

Keep doing the bigger drop until you feel confident in doing it and work up to the next size up and so on.

Before you know it you'll change your user name to Josh Bender Crasher!!

I have recently had issues with jumping after dislocating my shoulder and couldn't stop dead sailoring on any jump, drop etc. Popped down to the local BMX track, practiced and got my head around it again (and set the rebound up on my forks correctly) and was clearing the doubles to flat in the end!

@coffeeking "What? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Care to explain? When I manual off drops I rarely nosedive"

I know, I did say it sounded counter intuitive, but note I said "after you've left the lip of the drop". Next time you come across a drop-off try staying in an off-the-back position see wh'appens.

Or rather please don't, you might hurt yourself and blame me for suggesting it 😐