[Closed] How to jump

Go faster!

Go Jedi!

While we're at it, how to manual? I've been watching videos and loitering in car parks to practice for months and don't feel any closer to when I started.

I can pop my front wheel up for small obstacles but can't get anywhere near balancing it.

Through the medium of the internetz and STW general awesomeness, teach me how to jump

Stand on a firm bit of ground.

Bend knees.

Extend rapidly.

Keep knees slightly bent for the impact of coming down again.

Once you've mastered this (takes about 18 months from birth) , just do the same on a bike. The trick to keeping the bike level in the air (IME) is to just imagine the jump is an invisible mound of earth extending above the tabletop and ride over it as normal (added bonus this forces you to look at the landing and get the bike level with it).

kelron - Member
While we're at it, how to manual? I've been watching videos and loitering in car parks to practice for months and don't feel any closer to when I started.

I can pop my front wheel up for small obstacles but can't get anywhere near balancing it.

Asking that is the quickest way to start a fight on STW...

http://ukbikeskills.co.uk/

go see Tony, he will show you the way, safely and within your comfort level

I did a beginners jumps course at BPW in September - I can now jump small tabletops and doubles, but if the take off ramp is very steep that scuppers me so far.

I'm in need of a lot more practice and a bit more coaching for sure.

The jist of it was compressing the bike down (full suspension bike) at the right time, then as the bike goes up and leaves the top of the lip making sure you stand tall and unweight the bike.

The key 'do not do's' were don't pull up on the handlebars and don't try to bunny hop off the ramp.

I got coached by katy Curd who was very good. my problem was I popping my hips to early. She had me alternate between manualing across the top of a table top and jumping it which helped me get the timing.

When I was young I could do huge jumps on a BMX no problem. Now... I just can't keep the bike going in a straight line in the air at all. It just doesn't do what I expect it to in the air. Very odd, I never even thought about this when I was younger.

Thanks for the recommendation guys

Yes, go to Jedi! Check out my profile pic! 😛

Jumps on a full suspension screw with me. I don't ride full suspension very often but I grind drops easier than jumps. Bmx no bother but full suspension MTB!?! It just goes all wrong!

Strikes me as odd, all this advice to jump prior to a jump? Or compress the suspension prior to take off.

if you were in a car going over a jump, you wouldn't lift off your seat or bounce it down to help get airborne would you? The Dukes never did anyway!

if you were in a car going over a jump, you wouldn't lift off your seat or bounce it down to help get airborne would you? The Dukes never did anyway!

Actually you might, kind of. You can see stadium trucks dab their brakes before hitting a ramp to bring the nose down, with the rebound and acceleration up the ramp pushing it back up and stopping the truck pitching forward in the air.

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Most important bit of learning is feedback, that is where coaching comes in, so it's a good place to start as the bad habits can be spotted early and got rid of.

Jumping a car, that weighs around 10 or 12 times more than it's driver is rather different to jumping a push bike, that weighs a similar amount less than it's rider! When you say "i want to jump stuff on my bike" what you really mean is a want to jump stuff myself and have my bike follow me..... 😉

When you say "i want to jump stuff on my bike" what you really mean is a want to jump stuff myself and have my bike follow me.....

Yep. I've been trying to impress this upon a chap I know who's recently come to mtb from road and cx bikes. He worries about not being able to dictate exactly where the bike goes at any given moment and I'm finding it difficult to get him to forget the bike and set himself up for stuff before he gets there.

If both wheels leave the ground I fall off.

I can take off very competently, landing is another matter

When I was young I could do huge jumps on a BMX no problem. Now... I just can't keep the bike going in a straight line in the air at all. It just doesn't do what I expect it to in the air. Very odd, [b]I never even thought about this when I was younger.[/b]

This is key I think as adults. Don't overthink it. Just do it. Start small, get bigger. Same as you would when you were a kid.

You'll fall off, and then you won't, and then you will again, and then you mostly won't.

It's about feel, so having lots of (often differing) advice about it can be unhelpful.

Get some mates along and have a go, repeat, repeat.

I'd also say pick your coach carefully. I'd been doing small jumps for a few years (not with any degree of confidence) and more recently started to jump slightly bigger stuff and the odd small gap or double by just adding some speed and hoping for the best, so decided it was time to get some coaching before I hurt myself.
The 1st one I went to was ok, but I ended up coming away very confused as to what I should be doing as there seemed to be so many things to do on take off and when in the air, so when I got back on my local trails and tried putting it into practice I was worse than before I went. I am not blaming the coach, but it just didn't work for me.
The 2nd coach (he has been mentioned a few times in this thread already) made it seem so easy and **** me it worked and I'm now doing jumps I never would've considered before going.

Get some mates along and have a go, repeat, repeat.

Go see Jedi.

6 foot doubles he will teach you to ride in 5 mins, no exaggeration.

There is a real reason he’s called Jedi, he is uncannily good at teaching bike skills.

what kayak23 said. in my view, and of course it is just an opinion so don't go mental, a coach is not at all necessary. But it's your choice of course. good luck and enjoy it

I used to be able to do smaller doubles at 80s BMX tracks when I was (much!) younger but hurt myself fairly badly then got old and scared. I did a skills course a couple of years ago at Hamsters which helped me get a bit of confidence back over doubles and stuff but I'm still a huge scaredy cat. A skills course will help, even if it's only being amongst other people who have the same issues/hang-ups as yourself!

I'm kind of of the opinion that generally if you know where the front wheel's going the back has to follow, right?

HTs loads nicer to jump than FS, in my world anyway. FS loads nicer to land though... 😆

edit-

imagine the jump is an invisible mound of earth extending above the tabletop and ride over it as normal

Shut the front door! That is jolly good, thanks! (not sarcasm, genuine 'ta').

edited again- full-stop before or after brackets?

Jedi had occurred to me, as I've seen nothing but positive feedback. Would be cool to go away on a bootcamp and come back to nonchalantly throw a double in front of the kids 🙂 - think that might be the ultimate answer, as I think I'm doing something fundamentally wrong

Will watch those vids too before playing again - the issue was (I think) either not committing enough so barely popping off the launch, or getting the speed right and nosediving so badly I near pooped myself and went back to step 1. There's clearly technique and confidence missing.

Totally get coaching isn't necessary, but I'm at that time of life where time is more precious than the money - if I just got a leg up from coaching I'd consider it money well spent.

Thanks all!

Jedi is brilliant. Many coaches either coach the techniques they think are used but aren't what they actually do or overcomplicate things massively - or both! Tony gets it like few others do.

Or on a much smaller budget, the brand new edition of Mastering Mountain Biking Skills (v3) is very good. For the jumping it now breaks things down two different ways, the original way they used to teach and a more advanced way. But the more advanced way is actually simpler in many ways and more intuitive if you're a decent rider and is much closer to how Jedi teaches.

I think one big advantage of specific jumps coaching is that it is likely to be held somewhere with good, beginner friendly jumps.

Go somewhere like Tony's Field of Dreams, and you know he isn't going to set you up on some nasty short, lippy/flippy "jump" built, using the term loosely, by some 12yo's round the back of Nationwide in Swindon!

Learning to set yourself and the bike up to negotiate any shaped jump can only come with experience, and you don't need that extra complication when you are just trying to get the basics right!

How hard is it to get a bit of wood and a couple of bricks, make a ramp outside the house and just practise?

That's how me and umpteen mates learned.

As above, don't Think, just try.

the issue was (I think) either not committing enough so barely popping off the launch, or getting the speed right and nosediving so badly I near pooped myself and went back to step 1

Obstacles look bigger when they and you are inanimate, don’t hang around staring at an obstacle for longer than is necessary. Trust your skills will be there when at speed and the trail is flowing.

Commitment is vital, if you approach something at 70-80% you have already decided subconsciously to fail and are trying to reduce the impact of the failure. Approach at 100% with an attitude that you are going to succeed. Commit all the way to the lip.

Where does one find this mythical Jedi, do you need to crash your X-Wing into a swamp on a remote planet? 😉

Where does one find this mythical Jedi,

[url= http://ukbikeskills.co.uk/ ]UK bike skills[/url]...lord knows why they call him/them jedi.

'Cos he's 'jedi' on here, innit.

Another vote for Tony (Jedi).

My wheels never ever left the ground in 30 years of mountain biking (except when falling off) and within a hour at Tony's place, he had corrected a lifetime of bad habits and got me sailing over a 7' gap jump.

Top fella too.

Anywhere in Scotland similar to jedi? I can get down most stuff, I can do drops, but jumping is complete beyond me..

It's more to do with the mind tricks.

UK bike skills...lord knows why they call him/them jedi.

Forum user name from way back if I remember right.

On Saturday some DofE girls were walking towards me around the outside of a boggy bit of trail

Faced with the alternative of riding through the swampy section at a speed that wouldn't splash them but would probably be too slow to avoid bogging down I decided to pin it and go for the bunny hop slash jump

It was just oarsum it all went quiet as both wheels left the ground and I landed on the other side smoother than Semenuk, without missing a turn of the pedals.

Stevet1 Commit all the way to the lip.

Best commit all the way to the landing really! Landing nicely is about matching yourself and the bike to that landing, that, generally takes an active approach, rather than a passive one!

Anywhere in Scotland similar to jedi? I can get down most stuff, I can do drops, but jumping is complete beyond me..

Probably try talking to dirtschool, they do jump sessions at the freeride park at GT, quite fancy it myself.

I did a group one with Ed Oxley, but didn't get much out of it as it was a big group, 8-10 IIRC, and there were a couple of proper beginners that took up a lot of his time, that's the gamble of a group day innit, I'd defo go private or at worst with one of my mates for 1:2.

Dirt School get great write ups, Craig at Whinlatter is awesome too.

Ridelines do jump courses at Glentress, next one is March but then they are monthly. Or book a 1:1 with them.

thanks for the recommend guys 🙂

tpbiker - Member
Anywhere in Scotland similar to jedi?

Ben Cathro. Awesome dh and Enduro rider.

[url= http://sickskills.co.uk ]Sickskills[/url]