Off to Aston hill tomorrow and the last time i was there the bike would drop away from under me meaning my feet would leave the pedals. Should i have the heel down on the front foot and toe down on the trailing foot?
I wouldn't do that personally, but I'm not sure what I would do without doing it. What is going to happen now is a big argument about what to do with lots of citing of mtb coaches.
You're clearly riding in a different gravitational field to your bicycle nothing can help you so just go with it and dial your no foot cans, indian airs and nac-nacs with all that extra air time you have.
So you reckon I'm halfway to a superman then?
The only reason the "Bike drops from under you" is that you are pushing it down with your legs. This probably suggests you haven't unweighted/pumped enough before you have left the lip of the drop! Ideally, both you and your bike should be effectively "weightless" as you leave the edge of the drop.
If you don't unweight enough, you feel like you are dropping too fast, and the natural response is to try to "hold yourself up" and that results in you extending your legs too early. And as you weigh a lot more than your bike, all this does is to push the bike away from you.
So, back to some nice small drops first (the first few on Surface to air are relatively small) and make sure you are unweighting properly!
never experienced that would doing it clipped in help or just terrify you ?
Due to the simple effect of gravity the bike cannot be dropping faster than you so either you push it away or you lift your feet.
Whichever it is STOP
Sorry that is not more useful
You could also be pulling up on the bars instead of pushing forwards. That would make the rear wheel drop away from you pretty quickly. Try, on a smaller drop, just unweighting the front with a weight transfer and slight push out/forward on the bars. See if that solves it.
Avoid dropping a toe, that'll only make losing a pedal far too easy. If anything both heels are fractionally below the axle purely because you've just stuck your arse back and low.
Pracice jumping off kerbs
Kerbs are dialled...there's not enough airtime on them to notice any foot/pedal thing going on. Its the larger drops on the surface to air where I've noticed it happening. I didnt seem to experience it when on my hardtail.
Watch this:-
From 6.53 wise words from the master.
I've got the same instinct as he says in that video, to get the wheel on the ground quick. Problem is my habit is to somehow nose dive 😀
Not sure how I manage that. I don't feel I'm forcing the front down. Depends though, sometimes I get the right push before and the bike is angled ok, but I then don't like up angled lips for fear I'm too far off the ground.
What I really have a problem with though is drops on a down slope. I just can't set myself up right, I guess as I'm too focused on the steep of the slope.
So, back to some nice small drops first (the first few on Surface to air are relatively small) and make sure you are unweighting properly!
Yes! Get the smaller ones right. Don't rely on luck (or misjudged ability) to survive the big ones or you may be visiting A&E (speaking from personal experience...)
Do you pull up off the drops? That's the only way I can think this is happening, that you're effectively jumping off the bike.
Film yourself in action and we'll all do a critique for you.
make sure the pedal axel is behind the ball of your big toe. you cannot control your foot position in the air and nor should you try
my technique is to position my feet firmly on the ground and carry the bike.
It works most of the time...
Depending on the size/speed/decline of the landing, I usually 'unweight' the bike prior to the drop (tuck legs up, extend arms), so when I go off it, the bike doesn't 'drop' to the floor (by my legs extending instantly).
The two biggest drops on S2A are on reasonably downwards pointing gradients, although both are relatively close to the exit of a previous corner, so make sure you're getting cleanly and smoothly out of those corners. If necessary, slow down a bit at first, to ensure a nice smooth fast exit, and give your self plenty of time to get centered on the bike and to unweight cleanly.
I think you sound like you're in danger of overthinking this..
I use a similar technique on drops to that which I employ on most trail obstacles... Close your eyes and scream like a girl