Trying to perfect my dropoff technique – happy on 1 footers and working up to 2 footers. Been reading the excellent Brian Lopes book and he talks about letting the front wheel drop on downslope landings. Trouble is, how do you work out how much to let it drop? Obviously too much and you risk a massive endo and too little you end up on the back wheel, thumping the front down and doing a massive endo!

Is it just about practicing on the small stuff to get a feel?

Any pointers gratefully received…

Start small and get bigger. On drops onto a downward slope, don't pull up on the bars as such but throw your weight back as you go over the lip (a bit like doing a manual).

On drops to flat, the slower you are going, the more you will need to pull up and back on the bars.

Also, don't look at the lip, look where you are going to land and then to where you are going to ride it out to.

I'm no expert so I am sure someone will correct this, but this is how I was taught.

As with anything like this, it's 20% technique, 80% confidence. You're worrying way too much about the landing – you'd have to seriously over do it to endo on landing, especially if you land rear wheel first. The main things are weight, balance, relax and keep your speed.

Yes – you're right in sticking with the small drops until you get the "feel" for it though. Then gradually work your way up.

I found this video pretty useful.

If you go fast enough you don't really have to do anything on most drop-offs – just ride off them with your weight slightly back.

AFAIK you are trying to land both wheels at the same time, or the rear slightly earlier. Obviously this means you need to pull up more if you are dropping to flat. If you land the front wheel first you are more likely to lose control/wash out.

If you are dropping to an incline or 'transition', you need to get your bike to roughly match the angle of the landing.

Drops to flat are quite hard on the bike, so you will need to absorb impact with your arms, legs etc. For very slow drops to flat you can do a wheelie drop – i.e. wheelie off the drop to try and land both wheels at the same time. I wouldn't do it off a big drop though, as I find it harder to absorb the impact!

Sounds like you might know all this, so I would guess all you need to do is practice, build up confidence and remember that sometimes speed is your friend!

If you can do one ft, you can do two or more. Unless you're just rolling the one ft drops and are in danger of plugging the front wheel on anything bigger?

Splash out on a skills sessions and save yourself a lot of grief?

BTW, the best technique does not involve pulling up on the bars at all – much about using your feet and body transfer.

GlenP – I did a skills session earlier in the year with a mate who's a guide and am now just trying to consolidate my technique and build up the confidence to do the bigger stuff.

I've tried in vain to find somewhere in Surrey Hills to find a suitable practice spot so I may yet be in touch re a skills session 😉

Hi Brooess

What I suggest is to use body transfer and footwork to make a front wheel manual. Practice the timing over a log or some-such and then transfer that to popping off step-downs. You should be able to get both wheels landing at the same time without yanking the bars at all (in fact, don't even think about the bars).

There are a couple of good spots that I like to use on Holmbury. On Telegraphs there is a nice series of little root steps that you can loop back round and do repeatedly – once you can do that every time graduate to a bigger drop – there's one very near the top of Holmbury Hill. The only difference between big and small drops is in the mind – there are several techniques to help there too, but you'll have to do a session to find out!