[az450thumper]

It's Brandon again w/ a question about jumping.

When coming off the face of a jump I've riden up to the lip w/ just enough gas to clear the face and have let off... I'm thinking this isn't right? I'm nervous to gas to much hence through distance and height that I'm not ready for, but do "HATE" coming down on my nose....

Basic tips from the pros please...


THANKS!
AZ450THUMPER

[crfsonly]

hi brandon,

i've moved your message to the 'riding techniques' message board...hope you don't mind.

so, great question. jumping is great fun and yet can be very dangerous. here's a couple of tips and i'm sure others will jump in and share their .02 worth.

there are three very important things to do right to have a successful jump.

1. Bike position
2. Approach speed
3. Throttle control

I'll review each of these in more detail.

1. Bike position. As you approach the jump is critical. You should be standing with knees slightly bent. Your body should be forward and neutral to the point where if you look down you would be able to read the number on your front number plate. It's critical that you learn to hold this position up the face and as you leave the face of the jump.

2. Approach speed. It's important to have the proper speed as you approach the jump. The proper speed is the speed that will allow you to clear the jump obstacle but not over jump it. Sounds easy but it's difficult to judge what that speed is as you're just getting started jumping. For this reason, you should only jump table top jumps while learning. this way you can dial in the correct speed without injury. start by just practicing these jumping techniques without trying initially to clear the entire table top. you'll come up short but on a table it's not going to injure you. then as you gain confidence and skill you can increase the speed and eventually clear the jump.

3. Throttle control. As you hit the face of the jump your speed needs to be fixed. This is absolutely critical. If you accelerate off the face your front end will rise and you'll likely "loop" the bike. If you 'chop' the throttle as you leave the face you can send the front downward causing you to come up short and/or go over the bars when you land.

Now, if you do all of these things and you have a good safe table top jump to practice on you'll find that once you're in the air you'll have a comfortable neutral position that will allow you enough leverage to either push down the front or pull up the front to adjust for your landing. Your goal for landing should be to have the front wheel land just before or the front wheel or with the rear wheel. there are personal preferences here but you'll get a feel for what works for you.

another tip, frequency is more important that duration of practice. in other words, 5 consecutive days of 1 hour long practices will pay greater dividends than 1 five hour session.

lastly, these tips are for someone just begining to learn how to jump. once you learn these basic skills you'll be able to learn more advanced jumping skills that will allow you to jump obstacles right out of turns where there's little run as well as other more difficult/advanced jumps.

good luck and let us know how it goes.

crf's only

[asmartas11]

I was reading this forum and wanted to see if i could get some help also.
Your tips are helpful and I will try and apply them tommrow.
I just started doing some woops,doing ok but those kids (20-30yr olds) make it look so easy..I'm mostly doing two at a time,sometime there doing (4).
I cannot seem to get up enough guts to go for it..
Any suggestions?

One other thing in trying to learn to do is.Being able to pull in the clutch while in the air to tap the brake to pitch the bike down when the nose is too high..
Thanks for your .02 worth

[crfsonly]

whoops...we all love them right? necessary part of any one bag of riding skills. first, there's no replacement for practice. you have to do a ton of whoops to get faster. practicing good technique is as important as practice. if you can, tape a pro race and watch a whoops section over and over again how the pros do it...this will give you a mental image of the body position you should be working towards. simply said you have to keep the front light. the balls of your feet are over the pegs, your backside as far back as possible without locking your knees, your arms extended but certainly not locked at the elbows. all this while maintaining throttle control and staying loose enough over the bike so you don't get tossed around at the suspension does its thing.

think about what happens while going through the whoops. the front hits the next whoop while the rear is hitting the previous whoop. this doesn't always happend simultaneously. the front can be compressing while the rear is unloading and versa vice. the arms act as pivot points and the last set of shock absorbers before the impact hits your body. the feet, ankles, knees and hips are all pivot points and shock absorbers that also help maintain your body position over the bike. so, you have to maintain an calculated and changing mix of "give" and "resistance" during this whole process as well as throttle control and speed through the whoops. again, practice, practice, and more practice.

[asmartas11]

thanks for your reply,
sorry to say but I think I got a bit over confident by going for it on a step up jump.there was a bit of distance to cover on my attempt but i came up short.thus the rear end got loaded up sent me into a flying w then hung on long enough for my left leg to come down and get rapped up in the rear wheel breaking my tibla and tearing my acl ligimant..
Im not sure but have been told by some friends,there thinking maybe my suspension my be too stiff thus not just asorbing my short comming..Im thinking about having a professional set up my suspension for when i am able to ride again..I would like to hear some of your suggestions..Kinda down in the dumps about this whole sistuation,

Thanks,
Kevin

[crfsonly]

kevin...sorry to hear the this news. i never like to hear of anyone getting hurt...the sad reality it can happen. best of luck to you in your recovery...i hope it's quick.

regarding your suspension, professional suspension work is always going to help your bike handle better for YOU...that's because it will be set up just for YOU...your weight, your riding style and skill level, your discipline, etc. if you come up way short there's no professional suspension that can help you. hey the pros crash all the time and they have the best of the best.

good luck to you in your recovery and keep us posted.

ken

[wade]

Kevin...sorry to hear about your mishap...Get well soon

[asmartas11]

Thank's Ken and Wade for your support.
I think im gonna take the time now that im not riding to get the suspension set up for me..A friend of mine has a Suspension Tech who has set up several professionals suspension.Maybe after that it might be a little more forgiving and me a little less stupid!

Thanks,
Kevin