What the buck?

stewyh

Likes Dirt
Hey all.
On jumps with tight kickers or a rock/log/lip at the top of the launch I'm getting bucked forwards and copping a seat in the backside or landing in unintentional nose manuals. Any idea what I might be doing wrong?
On a steel hardtail so no rear squish adjustments to contend with.
Seems to be conflicting opinions out there. Some suggest more weight thru the front of the bike on transition to preload the forks then pull up. Others say lean right back and do all the compressing and exploding with your legs.
I'm pretty sucky at jumps in general but I'd like be able to to hit up smaller ones with a bit more confidence.

Cheers.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
It's all 3 mate and you've got to learn how to get the timing right.

Preload the front forks on the transition at the bottom of the lip and then drive your rear into the lip (with your legs like a springing action), later on let the bike climb out of the jump by learning back (not a lot). After you've climbed out of the lip with the front and rear leaving the lip, roll the bike under yourself a little so that the wheels match the angle of the ground you're going to land on. Don't keep the front wheel up very high for a long time while both wheels are in the air as if you want to land on the rear wheel first.

If the lip isn't right for the size of the log, you've got to throw in a bunny hop to get height and roll bike under you straight away so that you're back wheel can clear the log.
 
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pink poodle

気が狂っている男
This happens a bit with steeper take offs. The jump wants you to go up in a high arch, but you want to stay low and dive for the lander...

As you are exiting the lip try to raise your body up in line with how the lip wants you to go. Push the bike into the up ramp as you hit it, bars up towards your chest as you are thrown upwards, bars away from you as you level the bike off in the air, then do the nose for the landing. Imagine watching yourself side on and you are drawing an S with your bars, but not as curved through the body.
 

stewyh

Likes Dirt
I've got the bunny hop going ok off smoother transitions but my local trails have a few tricky little doubles that are a bastard to negotiate at speed. I'm hitting them up tomorrow so will slow down a bit and see if I can throw a decent shape off the kickers.
Thanks for the suggestions.
 

Flow-Rider

Burner
Screenshot_2017-10-25-01-23-37.jpg


You might want to build yourself a little ramp with a kicker so that you can practice how to get length and height. You'll need to learn how to squash a gap jump in case you start to come up short. Some trails that don't get maintained often, end up with worn kickers so you have to work harder to clear the gap.
 

Shredden

Knows his goats
Sometimes its not you, its the jump. Even small jumps which look easy can really fuck up the best riders if they are too steep and short for the speed you hit them with.
 

Mr_hANky

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I always cringe when i hear people who give jumping advice along the lines of just lean back. The more you lean back tbe harder you will catapult forward. All that energy you put into the back wheel on the lip has to go somewhere which ends up throwing you into a nose dive if you arent a very confident jumper.
 

Chriso_29er

Likes Bikes and Dirt
For a really kicky lip like off a rock or root I find you need to try and match the wheel hit pressure front to rear.
In most cases this means using the front wheel bounce to launch and then absorbing a little of the bump from the back to avoid that forward kick.
Before and after this the general jumping techniques as outlined by the guys above come into play.
 
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