Dirt jumping

[NEMBA_bkr-dude]

One of my biking flaws is dirt jumping. I used to do it fine until I had a couple nasty crashes ( I blaim my LBS entirely) and I stopped for a long time. I lost almost all my skills. I have have a tendency to nose manual up the jump, which looks cool, especially on table tops, but if I hit a double I am screwed. What is the correct for for dirt jumping and how do I alter it to jumps shorter than the length of my bike?

Thanks,
Biker-Dude

[NEMBA_bkr-dude]

come on guys I know you all like to hit jumps occasionaly

[MMcG]

Dude,

When you posted your question, there probably was nobody on the forum......perhaps on Monday you'll get more answers as people log on from work (I guess you can call it that for some of us).

My crystal ball foresees a free-ride oriented hardtail in your future methinks!

Take care,

Mark

[NEMBA_bkr-dude]

I have an all mountain hardtail and I love it. Freeride hardtails are too heavy for me. Especially for my 200 mile ride this summer.

I have have a tendency to nose manual up the jump, which looks cool, especially on table tops, but if I hit a double I am screwed. What is the correct for for dirt jumping and how do I alter it to jumps shorter than the length of my bike?

I'm not sure I understand what your saying here, when you're rolling up the transition are you up on the front wheel? Or do mean when you land you tend to land nose heavy and roll on the front wheel for a bit?

In either case it sounds like you're not pulling up on the bars enough and are putting way too much weight on the front end. A lot people new to jumping tend to just hurl themselves off a lip and don't bother to lift the front end, so when they land they usually land front wheel first. The best way to cure this is to always "bunny hop" when you hit a jump, this will force you to preload the bike and pull up on the front end.

As far as the judging distances, it's all about your speed and the size of the lip. Some jumps take more speed than others, it all depends on the the jump's lip and how steep it is. Jumps with steep lips tend to need less speed to clear and jumps with shallow lips tend to need a lot more. As you jump more and more, you tend to get a better sense of how much speed you will need for a given jump, it just takes time...

I hope this helps.

[NEMBA_bkr-dude]

Thanks, ya I have no problem landing. It is just the transition. I think it is because of my fear of pulling another half back flip that is keeping me from putting my weight back. I used to be a fearless dirt jumper and I had really good form but then I stopped after some nasty crashes and I lost all my skill.