Always land on your back wheel

Why does everyone who has been mtb’ing since ‘back in the day’ always say this?

Bizarrely if i watch these exact same people land a jump they land either both wheels together, or front slightly first.

Landing rear wheel first is terrifying. The front comes crashing down all out of control. Land front slightly first or both together it’s in comparison really easy.

I got the same thing from a motorcrosser when i borrowed a CR250 and had a go on a proper motox course. Land on your back wheel.

So i hit this huge (for me at least) table top, landed on my back wheel on the down ramp, and very nearly cart wheeled straight into the back of an ambulance.

“Oh, you got that a bit wrong – yes, i landed on my back wheel like you said, isnt that right? Er, no. So why did you tell me to land on my back wheel then? Er, i don’t know.”

So, why? Any ideas? Jedi said it was Evel Knievel’s fault.

Everyone from “back in the day” doesn’t talk shit, maybe the ones you know are retarded.

The advice I’ve been given is both at the same time or front first on a down slope. Never been told back first for the reason you describe. Maybe back first might work well for landing on an up slope, but I can’t picture it.

With slow speed drops to flat, rear wheel first is the way. For everything else land at the same time or slightly front first.

If you think about it, wheels on the ground cause drag. this means that if you land front first, the rest of the bike wants to overtake the front. I know in practice this rarely happens but if you have the brakes on a bit or something it could. Also you shouldn’t head over the bars on a rear wheel landing. whatever people say, I just try and land both wheels at the same time and it seems to working so far

GW – Member
Everyone from “back in the day” doesn’t talk shit, maybe the ones you know are retarded.

^ this. 100%

I have. Ever been told to land back wheel first.

I have also never told anyone to land back wheel first.

My suspicion is, that’s because it horse shit

I know in practice this rarely happens but if you have the brakes on a bit or something it could.

If you’re stupid enough to hit the brakes when landing a jump then you deserve to go over the bars. 😆

because it horse shit

except for these:

slow speed drops to flat,

If you’re stupid enough to hit the brakes when landing a jump then you deserve to go over the bars.

fair point. I’ve seen it happen even so; however they were less than competent on a bike.

Jedi, who knows far more about this than I do, once told me people think its right because Evel Kneivel used to land back wheel first. However he often came off the bike shortly afterwards, look at the slow motion film of the Caesar’s Palace Fountain jump.

Mind you, once you get a Harley in the air with a big heavy engine revving forwards the torque reaction is going to try and rotate the bike the opposite way anyway.

Unfortunately I am old enough to know that the reason for landing on the back wheel first was that we did not have suspension forks. Any jump of any size needed your legs to take up the hit. Now bikes are better and lots of jumps have landings. Back in the day etc we just used to jump off stuff and try and land on whatever was there.

I started biking “back in the day” – Infact, it was so “back in the day” I had no one to learn from so I had to figure things out for myself when performing jumps.

No one was jumping bikes back then, so I learnt my techniques from something closely related – an aeroplane landing. I noticed they always landed back wheels first, and few crashed. I figured I’d apply this to my biking, and Ive done alrite.

Every modern mx’er or FS’er I have ridden has had considerably more shock absorbtion on the front than the back.
AFAIK you dont want to be rear end first, ever, front first or both together.

peaslake dave – what on earth are you talking about? Who on earth front brakes when landing front wheel first from a jump or drop?!?!?!

When playing with my toy motorbikes ‘ back in the day’ we always landed rear wheel first as it looked better.

You need to practise landing jumps on a rigid bike, you’ll soon get the correct technique 😆

Taylforth +1

When me and my mates were building ramps in the street our little nine year old bodies weren’t really strong enough to muscle our bikes into a good take-off or landing.. trying to land on our back wheel was how we learnt to ‘send it’

viv – I’ve been riding with people who basically have never ridden a bike and normal logic no longer applies. They try stuff beyond their ability and panic.

Attempted my first ever double of any real size a few days ago, totally over shot the transition and landed back wheel first. Not by trying, but though going to fast and not knowing really what to do in the air. Wheelieing over the next double with my arse touching the back wheel made me vow not to do that again in a hurry (the back wheel first thing, not the double).

Shaft drive motorcycles must always be landed rear wheel first. It’s physics fact.

Davidtaylforth and friends ‘way back in the day’…

Never really thought about it but I do tend to nose most things a bit, never made a conscious decision to do so but it’s nice to discover I was a riding God all along…

I think the point is that it’s best, at least in my experience, to land rear wheel SLIGHLY first at high speed, or VERY first at low speed. Both together if you’re a bit clumsy, from wheel first is almost universally when I feel least in control and land like a sack of spuds.

Done a fair amount of trials riding so rear first is fairly natural to me. When I first learned to drop/jump when I first started MTBing I was always messing it up and landing nose first, scary scary times. I once landed a BIG jump on the nose and rolled balanced on the nose for about 10ft, clenching and hoping he rear came down before I hit trees, and it never happened so I had to dab and went over the bars into a tree.

I think the point is told to people to warn them they need to keep the nose high rather than just roll off an edge. If you’re doing tabletops you’re probably trying to operate beyond the point where someone who needs telling how to jump should be operating. But I’m not the sort of person that deals well with man-made jumps, stuff like doubles always feels best when landed 2 at a time to me, but that’s wholely different to drops and natural stuff on trails.

Also, if you can keep the nose artificially high you can trail the rear in a manual-esque way and ride out some really rough technical sections without putting the nose down and risking a decking.

I guess it’s horses for courses.

Davidtaylforth and friends ‘way back in the day’…

That’s not “back in the day”, that’s YESTERDAY in East London

Front wheel, back wheel. Whatever you do, don’t land on your head and spine-it hurts a bit….

DrP (in pain)

some very slack chains in that old picture

both wheels together or front slightly first 😀

Back in the day riding ramps made from bricks and a plank of wood on a flat pavement it was both wheels or a slight rear bias, front was never a good thing. Obviously nowadays on proper jumps with nice landings or down slopes things are a bit different. 🙂 Aah the eighties!

depends where you are landing.

if it’s flat or near flat then deffo rear wheel first.

this is the correct procedure and still used in SX, MX etc. to this day.

if you have a landing slope then nose that bad boy in to the angle of the landing slope, both wheels together.

then roll out all happy and ting!

I’ve always found that never, ever, getting both wheels off the ground at the same time avoids all this confusion about how to ‘land’ afterwards.

*hop front wheel over log, slam back into it and use the subsequent wheel bounce+momentum to get the rear wheel over it*

is my approach.

Back wheel first if you’re landing in a ditch*

*Huck to ditch not recommended.

It’s acceptable to get the back wheel down first if your pulling “scrubs”

OP, as said ignore these idiot mates of yours. Is it possible they were taking the piss?

Watch any vid of people jumping well that isn’t trials and you’ll see the front first/simultaneous landing. Particularly in rhythm sections when they need to be smooth.

Back wheel first when landing on a flat surface!

those scrubbers are taking off not landing in those pics.

also.

don’t trust scrubs.

and don’t be all front wheel first if you’re not gonna make the gap!

Tracknicko, i was really expecting that video you posted to be:

ha ha ha. no my links are current affair type things.

poor Windham, was on for a good result this weekend.

Ha! so I landed this right even though I seem to recall it hurt my wrists a bit and some fat lad was shouting ‘pull up’

Snakebite your feet / pedals are level and a lot of your weight is past your crank so will be forced forwards when you land, your wheels angle looks fine but drop your heels a bit and take the weight on your legs.

The best way to do this is to go a bit lower and further back into your attack possition, at least that’s my opinion 😀

Agreed, i was riding mostly one handed that day after a silly incident on some rock on my practice run.