[Closed] how to ride kickers?

What size kickers are we talking about here? And when you talk about overshooting presumably you are on about doubles?

Just do it is my motto, if I have a run into something and don't do it (excluding testing the run in to make sure it's not got some secret hole in it!) then it makes it into a bigger "thing" that I have to do.

My other general rule is 3 failed runs and that's it, it won't happen that day.

Better too fast than not enough speed, as i found to my peril!

Just go for it, but don't give up i think, are there any easier ones that you could work your way upto?

Pics/video of efforts are needed though 🙂

oh definitely get someone to film your first few attempts so we can all have a laugh... or be mightily impressed by.

Once I get my balance back I'm off to take a close look at these...
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follow someone who can ride them, & go at the same speed.

It'll probably be faster than you think.

They look nice Caledonia! Where are they (sadly, I'm guessing Scotland...)

My tip would be to keep relaxed, knees and elbows bent. Hit it at the same speed or a touch quicker than someone you've seen clear it. I'm guessing you're not up to speed on pumping jumps, so you might need more speed than someone who makes it look easy.

Can you actually jump or not?

When you say wall of dirt, it sounds like some mega ramp which is probably not the best thing to learn on.

Go fastish to start with, better to overshoot a bit rather than come up short. Usually the first time I ride a set of trails it feels like a bit of a blur and you dont really get a sense of whats happening. After a couple of goes you can usually slow down a bit or boost the take offs a bit more.

Also, if it feels like its going wrong on the takeoff/as soon as you've taken off then its time to bail off. Push the bike away from you and you'll probably land on your feet. Its better to bail early since the chances are you wont do yourself or the bike any damage. Its when you hold on hoping to correct it that the bad times happen.

Stay relaxed, loose and stay positive and you'll be fine.

do you have a pic of the jumps?

take the front brake off 🙂
wear pads (elbow and knee) find the one jump thats still a table top (theres usually one) and just keep going at it until your over the other side, thats what I did and now I'm doing doubles and heading for the big step up jump, taken me 12 months of riding every monday (weather permitting) but I got there in the end

Tip #1 - stop slamming on the brakes on other peoples hard work. 😛

Other tips

# learn to bail, coming up short is better than overjumping if they are proper steep DJs.

# don't wear a full-face helmet, it obscures your view making it harder to spot your landing (or spot that you're coming up short and have to bail)

# if you are following someone, make sure it's someone with a similar level of skill to you and a similar style. I hit DJs way slower than a lot of my riding mates but go further and higher.

# learn to nose in to landings and aim to land front wheel first (just) on near the top of steeper landings. small, tightly spaced trails with short gaps can teach you good technique for this.

Yes, if they're steep then overshooting isnt good. Chances are you'll be coming in nose first and it doesnt take much to overshoot a steep landing.

coming up short and nosebonking the top isnt great either, and if you 50/50 badly theres a chance you'll bend your forks. Saying that, I ride jumps on a bmx so the consequences of getting it wrong are worse. You can get away with alot more if you have sus and big wheels

I usually plough my front wheel into the face. Then plough my face with the front wheel. And after that I plough the ground with my face.

I guess that doesn't help.

got the day off tomorrow, we all have; another holiday thanks to the religious germans....

There is nothing religious about what happens tomorrow alpin! Have you experienced Männertag yet? You may find around 100 paralytic German men lying between the take off and landing of the jumps!

@ Red Star.... they have so many bloody holidays here i just assume that they are church related. never sure if we are allowed to dance and play music, put the washing out etc etc...

yes, dirt jumps. i'm confident enough to run at kickers where the landing isn't so severe. more sort of high-ish and long with a larger landing area as opposed to short and steep and big penalties for failure.

piss pot lid and new 661 knee pads will be worn.

am i right in thinking i should drop the travel (hardtail) or leave it sitting out at 160mm?

I don't jump, but I got the impression you need short travel with higher than typical compression damping. The idea is for the suspension to suck up isolated big hits, rather than to try and deal with rough terrain. Willing to be corrected tho.

ride towards it bloody fast, see what happens and be prepared to ditch the bike midair if necessary.

Having got away with my first (teeny tiny) double yesterday I agree with flatboy.

I was clipped in though, so was perfectly aware that I couldn't bail and that my face WOULD eat dirt when it went wrong.

I always convince myself the try them, hit them and then freeze and land awkwardly/sideways/one end heavy. Drives me nuts.

Am I the ONLY person who read the thread title as "[i]how to ride k[b]n[/b]ickers?[/i]"? 😆

Those jumps I posted are in Scotland, in a wee place called Culross in Fife.
They asked the local council to use those woods, and they police and maintain them by themselves.
Not been to look at them yet, but since I can't ride I may go and spectate some evening to see how it's done !

for suspension, I never found anything better than z1's set to 40mm of very stiff travel. Less is definately more. Don't go rigid, put way too much stress on the frame/forks making it more likely to snap if you get it wrong.

Am I the ONLY person who read the thread title as "how to ride knickers?"?

no 😀

it's this whole 'snap' 'ruin' that worries me.

i can self-heal, the bike can't. it just eats €€'s

That's interesting, my first double was in Fife and by 'eck it wasn't as big as them!