Nose-Diving on Jumps

I recently moved from my old Genesis 26″ Core hardtail to a Salsa Horsethief (29″, full suspension)

One thing I’ve found about the new bike is that I often fluff jumps – with the front wheel nosediving. Not all the time, but a lot. I make a concious effort to move my weight back but still….

Is there something different I need to do due to the bigger wheels or rear suspension? I’m not some super-jump freeride guy – these are just jumps off rocks or things on the trails (think Spooky Woods at Glentress). Was always Ok on my old bike.

If it makes a difference I wear SPDs. I’ve also set the sag on both fork and shock and set the rear shock’s rebound to be slower than the forks’.

I’m going back to Glentress on Saturday so will practice on the jump park there – just want some tips!

I’ve also booked in for jump-school at Tweed-Love – £10, bargain! It’s not for a couple of months though.

having analysed my jumping after a massive crash i suspect its to do with not pumping the lip with the front wheel.

If you’ve squashed the jump with the front then popped with the rear it’s going to pitch you forward, does that make sense?

Yeah, timing issue maybe, you should be popping the front wheel off the lip of the jump by kind of compressing your body a little beforehand and then unweighting the bike at the lip to give you a little spring. Don’t pull up on the bars though.

Go back to basics, find a little lip or a kerb and get your timing back.

It will be different if you’re used to a HT and now on a full sus. I would suspect that that is what’s caused the issue, not the wheel size. Just a slighlty different technique required.

Slow down rebound and take your time practicing jumps on your new bike. Spend an hour on the jumps at glentress and you should adapt quickly enough, that is if you could jump properly to start with!

I make a concious effort to move my weight back but still….

This is the problem.
You are most likely hitting the take off with your weight back which causes the rear suspension to compress more than the front and then it kicks back, throwing your weight forward as you take off. Stay on top of the pedals and let the bike come up to you.

Fore-aft balance when jumping

If it makes a difference I wear SPDs

Also likely to be the issue.

Don’t try to lift the bike with your feet, you want to push the bike into the ground about a yard before the jump, and the recoiling of you and the bike will cause you to jump.

My first guess would be that the rebound on your rear is still too fast. Wind it on a bit more and see how it feels.

It’s not to do with the suspension set-up, it’s to do with the positioning of the rider and technique. Don’t try to adjust the problem away, learn how to jump properly otherwise you are just gambling with your safety every time you leave the ground and have to just hope that you land right this time.

Go and see Jedi. He’ll fix you.

yup, go see jedi.

You don’t need a jump park to practise this, a kerb will do – keep jumping off it until you can consistently land front first, rear first and both together. Then apply the exact same technique to the bigger stuff.

I’ve never ridden clips but I get the impression that flats force better technique – you can have great technique on clips but you can get away with bad technique more easily.

http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=812

you are probably sitting back on take off

And, if like me, you are “late” with your push, three things happen:

1) You are pushing with your legs after the front wheel has left the lip, that naturally will cause the front of the bike to dive, whereas, a nicely timed push, means the bike sort of “springs” up and forwards off the lip of the jump “all of a piece”. With a soft, longer travel suspension bike, that push can need to be really quite early i find

2) You “retract” your legs too quickly rather than staying straighter and more upright. Watch the pro’s huck off some jumps, and they almost look like salmon leaping out of a river!

3) If, like me, you’re a bit clumbsy and un-coordinated (!), your “bulk” upwards push (from your legs) can be a bit jerky and in-consistent, especially if you think you might be going a bit slowly and are going to undershoot the landing. That doesn’t help with balance in the air either.

(note: I am by no means a jumping expert! 😉

Well, had a run around at Glentress on Saturday for their demo day so was on a bunch of different bikes and doing the same route over and over.

Good advice guys – once I got my mind into doing basically what I called “a rock thrust” with my crotch, I stopped dropping the nose of the bike. Giving out an 80s metal high pitched wail each time did wonders too.

Went up to the jump park on my bike to practice and it was fine – same as the demo bikes for jumping, so no set up issues – was all bad technique.

Even tried doing a jump with my old ‘lean back’ technique and yeah, nose diving.

So will keep practising and get my technique fully sorted out at Jump School in June

Cheers guys

Slow down rebound

+1 this and speed up your fork rebound.

It’s more likely a technique issue, as has been said already, but doing that will cushion you a bit whilst you work on your technique.

Slow down rebound

+1, it took a bigger air can and re-tune to get my Pitch to jump nicely.

Nice one! Glad we could help!

(makes a change from people typing out relies from a hospital bed where they have followed STWs “sage” advice…… 😉

Why don’t you book on one of these discounted courses with Ridelines – http://www.trailscotland.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=8183&p=86154#p86154

+1 for a visit to Jedi.

He had me doing gap jumps by 11am when I’d never even managed to clear a table top !

Who and where is this Jedi you speak of?

Agent007 – Uk Bike Skills.

Thanks for the recommends