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Would it be possible, in theory, to ride off a jump on a clifftop, pull the most air in all of history, then deploy your chute whilst still on the bike, [i]land it, release the chute and ride away?[/i]
I appreciate you'd have to be tied to the bike to some extend, and it would be hard controlling the chute and the bike on landing, but is it possible? Or has it been done already? Seen a few online where people have ditched their bikes landing normally.
of course it would but why not just try and land on the plane on the conveyor belt and ride off its wing at the end?
Suspect SPDs would be enought grip
Cant get you tube at work but I bet it has been done
It's been done already - some bloke in Norway I think...about 18 months ago...previous there were a few skydivers that did this out the back of a plane...appeared in MBUK about 13 years ago...
The Norway dude was on a Santa Cruz something or other...and the skydiver was on a Marin of some sort (and was wearing a bright yellow jumpsuit with black trim)...apart from that, all other details are hazy...
So yes, it can be done as it has been done...
Also found this -
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And here is the Base Jumper from Norway -
[url] http://urbiker.com/howto-ride-off-a-cliff/27 [/url]
Isn't that what Nigel Farage was trying to do?
There's a base jumping guy in the USA who did it on a unicycle, although I don't know if he ever managed to ride out, I only saw videos of the first couple of tries, where he rode off the cliff fine, but crashed the unicycle on landing.
Joe
As shown in that link above, it's do-able, but dangerous. From my limited skydiving experience, the problem with jumping off or out of something with a board/skis/bike attached to your feet is that the aerodynamics want to flip you upside down or put you into a spin, which means you can't get into a stable position to deploy your parachute. When you have only seconds before impact, you don't want to be looking at a pilot parachute tangled up in your spokes.
Shane McConkey's death illustrates the risks involved: http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/blog?post=4021669
The parachutist from DickBarton's link is also dead: http://jessboss.com/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=80&Itemid=2
A dangerous hobby indeed.
but what tyres???
Alright then, here's an idea:
Given that you can land a fairly big jump on a freeride bike where you're travelling downwards at a fair old speed, you could in theory design some kind of wing or drogue that would reduce your terminal velocity to the point where you could land a jump from any height.
Now THAT would take balls of steel!
i think Josh Bender has tried it a few times but forgot the parachute bit