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jumping for an old XC hack

1K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  holiday 
#1 ·
OK, I'm looking for a directiont to take here, so thanks for any input you have...

I have some skills, as an aging XC guy who has ridden a bit. i have actually podiumed in the downiville downhill, so I have some technical skills as well, but I have NO new school skills. riding some of these trails with new jumps and things built, I can see that some of them actually add flow (while some break it).

so, any direction to create jumping skills?

i looked a 4 ft gap and realized i used to clear 4 milk crates when i was like 6yrs old..
so, i should be able to do it... it seems.

i'm not into crashing, though.

thanks for the help

bike wise, after many years on a ss, i'm riding a 9 speed santa cruz superlight,

cheers,

holiday
 
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#4 ·
Body armor is cheaper than the hospital

You can jump any bike, its just when you have repercussions for coming up short etc... that it matters what youre riding. now that may sound like a snotty thing to say, "aka - you wont hurt yourself if you dont wipe out" but really what im trying to say is that if you start small and go with jumps that have little or no consequences for either being long or short, you can work up to the bigger stuff w/o ever risking much other than then kind of injury that youd get just putting your bike down riding regularly. another thing DONT TRY TO LEARN ON BMX SIZED JUMPS WITH A FULL SIZED BIKE> you need longer launches and trannies. you will hurt yourself and or your bike.
and i definetely agree about the helmet (and gloves and knee/shin guards etc..)
 
#6 ·
Don't reserve the urge to jump for stuff that must be jumped. Just start boosting a little off of any little hump in the trail so you start feeling comfortable piloting the bike off the ground. Just like any other skill to develop, you start out small. Also what desmo said is good too. Look for a good safe place with well thought out jumps for beginner levels. I imagine that with your old childhood capabilities it wont take long to get the hang of it at all. Despite what some people tend to think in this forum, jumping isn't everything, even to DH/FR'ers, but it is like any other skill in riding a mountain bike: It may not be your focus, but it is a tool that you should have in your toolbox.
 
#7 ·
The way I learned how to do jumps was a bad one, but it worked good! I just did 5-6FT - flat over and over until it was smooth. It hurt a lot. I think jumps are not that hard when it comes down to it, a lot of it is mental. But like the others say... practice is the only way, everyone learns different tricks.
 
#8 ·
the main problem with the superlight as far as jumping goes is that the head tube angle is quite steep and the chainstays are long. its about as xc as you get. this contributes to the "bucked" feeling you are probably experiencing.
Robstercraw is ablsolutely right, try popping off of things that you might normally try sucking the bike up to you for... and i don't reccomend Majestics technique for your bike unles you don't weigh much.
 
#9 ·
since you are coming from and XC background, you need to make sure the seat is lowered a lot more than you are used to. Even popping off small rolls in the trail, a full XC stride seatpost height makes jumping cleanly almost impossible. The steep head angle isn't going to make life easier learning, but most jump bikes these days are coming with pretty steep HAs

more importantly you should start learning to be as smooth as possible on your superlight

super helpful videos found here
http://www.declinemagazine.com/visuals/fluidride/fluidride_vol1.htm
 
#10 ·
Great thoughts, thanks.
Some keys I'm taking away.... don't do it on the bmx track (i was thinking that was a good idea...)
-lower the seat (i was thinking about this anyway, but maybe just going 1 to 2 inches -
lower could be a compromise if i'm hitting stuff on the ride, while lowering it more will help the practice. I actually ride my seat about 1.5 off my xc height for races like downieville, so that's something i can do)

i've always liked a little more "freeride" position on my xc bikes, so i run a 90mm stem, but i went to a 15degree from a 5 to help the angles a bit. i may build up another bike and i'll go with 115 fork instead of a 100 ( i know it's minor, but that will set the head angle back a bit hopefully)

I'm not too worried about my superlight frame. i'm a finess rider and weigh 167. i ride smooth and the hope is too jump smooth as well. also, it seems that many people are jumping hardtails, so a 4 and 4 seems it should be plenty (i know, they already have skills and it is plenty if you choose the right jumps and land it the right spot...right :)

of course i wear a helmet, i don't wear any pads, but maybe i will. I used to pride myself in not needing them, and have always enjoyed passing what i called the amadillos (extra armor :)), but maybe i'll use them for practicing. my brother used to be a semi pro downhiller that competed without pads, so it's a family issue...)

i love the idea of hitting extra stuff. too often my ingrained xc mentality makes the clock too important when their fun stuff along the way that might take longer, but is fun and will bring up my other skills. thanks for this robster claw. you idea of a tool in the toolbox is exactly what got to post this and think about expanding my repertoire. of course, the way trails are changing in shape brings it more to the forefront as well.

thanks again. i just found out where a hidden dual slalom course is that my brother helped build year ago. he said you go from 3 to 30 feet, so i should be able to start small and work on popping stuff, instead of my go to move of absorbing everything.

cheers,
holiday
 
#12 ·
holiday said:
ps. thanksfor the video clip. the one on basic jumping is quite good.
i'm either dead air now,or i absorb most of the compression... not able to do anything with it

cheers,
pay extra attention in the video to how his form is when he is hitting the face of the jump after learning how to lean into the face better, I can hit things further at 2/3rds the speed of before

like you, I was absorbing any compression into my legs

with the seat-tube, I ride with mine as low as I can comfortably get a stride when I want to go have fun in the technical stuff. Maybe 3-4" out of the clamp, no higher. It gives me a lot more room to work with on landings, and I hardly see the saddle bombing down the fun stuff anyways
 
#13 ·
Karupshun said:
since you are coming from and XC background, you need to make sure the seat is lowered a lot more than you are used to. Even popping off small rolls in the trail, a full XC stride seatpost height makes jumping cleanly almost impossible. The steep head angle isn't going to make life easier learning, but most jump bikes these days are coming with pretty steep HAs

more importantly you should start learning to be as smooth as possible on your superlight

super helpful videos found here
http://www.declinemagazine.com/visuals/fluidride/fluidride_vol1.htm
Is there a way to save the video clips from declinemagazine.com?
 
#14 ·
some success!!!

thanks again for the thoughts here.

I had some good success today. I went out and rode with a friend of mine, Karl Rogney, who is a pro downhiller, talented bike rider and a good coach... with what i had worked on visually and in bike setup, we went out for XC ride and found some jumps. He had thought there were tabletops, so if I came up short, there wouldn't be issues, but they were almost all doubles. that said, with a few tweaks on entrance and in the air, i jumped 5 new doubles that were all bigger then I was comfortable with originally.

on one, with around a 7-8ft gap and a log face on the landing, I was very nervous. I felt my default absorbtion would put my back tire in the log for sure, and possibly my front tire into the log...

I ended up clearing it, and he was cracking up as I walked back up. i asked why and he said, while, your worst fears were correct. you absorbed the lip too much, but your bike riding skills kicked in and you lifted the front end enough to clear the log and then pulled the back end over it as well. you did what you had to to hit the landing. what made me laugh is that you show these skills, you just don't believe in them...

so, that jump and his perception, helped my confidence. with the tweaks and just believing in my skills, i think i can find my way to land the type of hits I see as worthwhile. i won't be a hucker by any means, with my constant calculation of risk vs. reward going on in my noggin, but I will add some of these jumps to my toolbox for more flow and fun...

thanks again,

cheers,
holiday
 
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