drops: limit on "just rolling"?

Monique Y. Mudama said:

A couple of weeks ago, I surprised myself by going down
about a 2 foot drop. I just pointed my bike in the right
direction and rolled.

At what height is this a bad idea, and for what reasons?
What do you do when just rolling isn't enough? I've heard
of lifting the front wheel to try to even out your wheels
when you land -- is that the standard technique?

at some point when you roll a drop, if it's steep enough,
your angles will be all wrong and you'll go OTB.

here's a good right up on how to learn to land these
correctly: ( not that I can do it...)

***********************8

I truly think the best way to learn to drop, especially
for us, is to ride off a standard curb at walking speed.
Try just working the bike so that the rear wheel lands
first, without using a wheelie kick or bunnyhop! (using
'cheat methods' will form bad habits so make SURE you are
not using anything but body english to get off that curb!)
What it means is learning to pull up just right and timing
your drops.

If you can do it perfect every time, try going slower! The
slower you go, the harder it is to drop. If you go much
slower than walking speed, you may need the assistance of a
pedal kick to get your rear wheel down first.

NOW, the reason why we practice getting that rear wheel down
first on these small drops is because the higher you go, the
less likely that front wheel will stay up and you will, say
off a 3ft drop, actually land both wheels even from the same
technique that gets your rear wheel down off the curb. Does
that make sense? Think of it this way, the curb is 4-6" high
so there is not enough time for the front wheel to truly
nose down if you are nailing the above mentioned curb-drop
form. Off the 3 footer, there is a little more hang time in
which the nose dips a tad bit and you will land even or
maybe a little on the front. SO, if you are hitting a tranny
off your 2-3ft, you should be golden with the curb
technique.

OK< so you want to go bigger? practice a 2-3ft flatter drop
as you practiced that curb. Huck off it at walking speed
until you land rear wheel first every time. NO bunnyhopping
or pedal kicking allowed!! Also, be careful, as landing a
steep tranny rear wheel first can be bad bad bad. It's all
about the weight shift. You should not get into bad
cheating habits

If you shift your weight properly and at the right time, you
shouldn't have to pull up on the bars going off most drops.
You've all seen the pics of riders in the air with their
weight over that rear wheel...they pop their hips back into
that position as they're going off. You can't come into the
drop already completely back because then your front wheel
will never come up. It's the pop that brings the front wheel
up without you having to yank on the bars. This will sound
odd, but just try it and you might be able to feel what I am
talking about.

****

Get on your bike in a relaxed standing position and roll at
a little less than walking speed. Let the bike go a little
slower. Just when you are coming close to a stop, use your
body and try to thrust the bike forward so that it continues
to roll. No pedaling here! Pretend like you can't use your
pedals, they are just level and still (as you would want to
go of a drop). Thrust your bike forward and try to get it to
roll. Good, quick, hard thrusts, not a bunch of small, wimpy
thrusts. This is much easier to understand when
demonstrated. to thrust correctly:you are gonna want to drop
your weight back fast by bending your knees; get your butt
back. your front wheel might even pop up a bit because it is
the same priciple explained above! You dont really need to
pull up much for most drops, you just need to thrust the
bike in this method!

Penny S said:

Monique Y. Mudama said:

A couple of weeks ago, I surprised myself by going down
about a 2 foot drop. I just pointed my bike in the right
direction and rolled.

At what height is this a bad idea, and for what reasons?
What do you do when just rolling isn't enough? I've heard
of lifting the front wheel to try to even out your wheels
when you land -- is that the standard technique?

at some point when you roll a drop, if it's steep enough,
your angles will be all wrong and you'll go OTB.

This is mostly correct, but you can alter those angles by
getting back behind the saddle. I've rolled some pretty good
drops with my ass nearly rubbing the rear tire, added
benefit I guess 🙂 At that point you can almost use the
saddle as a chin rest.

Quoted message said:

here's a good right up on how to learn to land these
correctly: ( not that I can do it...)

***********************8

I truly think the best way to learn to drop, especially
for us, is to ride off a standard curb at walking speed.
Try just working the bike so that the rear wheel lands
first, without using a wheelie kick or bunnyhop! (using
'cheat methods' will form bad habits so make SURE you are
not using anything but body english to get off that curb!)
What it means is learning to pull up just right and timing
your drops.

I'm not sure why you would want not use the crank to help
get and hold the front end up (wheelie kick). Me thinks that
I would be pretty hard pressed to ride at walking speed
(2.5 mph), and keep the front end up long enough so that the
rear tire lands first, even on 8" drop (though I don't
think height matters much).

Quoted message said:

OK< so you want to go bigger? practice a 2-3ft flatter
drop as you practiced that curb. Huck off it at walking
speed until you land rear wheel first every time. NO
bunnyhopping or pedal kicking allowed!! Also, be careful,
as landing a steep tranny rear wheel first can be bad bad
bad. It's all about the weight shift. You should not get
into bad cheating habits

I wish they would suggest why "cheating" is bad. I recognise
that using clipless to do bunny hops is not prefered, but
this I don't understand. Anyone?

Quoted message said:

If you shift your weight properly and at the right
time, you shouldn't have to pull up on the bars going
off most drops.

I find this hard to believe, perhaps it is easier on a bike
set for DH, but a XC setup for climbing, with more weight
forward, sounds tough, then again, I am strickly an XC
rider, so WTF do I know.

--
Craig Brossman, Durango Colorado (remove ".nospam" to reply)

Craig Brossman said:

Penny S wrote:

snip

Quoted message said:

I'm not sure why you would want not use the crank to
help get and hold the front end up (wheelie kick). Me
thinks that I would be pretty hard pressed to ride at
walking speed
(2.5 mph), and keep the front end up long enough so that
the rear tire lands first, even on 8" drop (though I
don't think height matters much).

Quoted message said:

OK< so you want to go bigger? practice a 2-3ft flatter
drop as you practiced that curb. Huck off it at walking
speed until you land rear wheel first every time. NO
bunnyhopping or pedal kicking allowed!! Also, be careful,
as landing a steep tranny rear wheel first can be bad bad
bad. It's all about the weight shift. You should not get
into bad cheating habits

I wish they would suggest why "cheating" is bad. I
recognise that using clipless to do bunny hops is not
prefered, but this I don't understand. Anyone?

Regarding wheelying (pedaling hard) to lift the front end: I
think they want to discourage it because if you're between
gears or have some other drive train glitch, you wouldn't
get the front end up, get distracted, and screw up the drop
(been there). If you manual it, or just get your weight way
back/throwing the bike forward as you are starting the drop
(learned that this year :-), you have fewer variables to
create problems. SS should be more immune to these sorts of
problems (hmm, SS reinforcing a bad, or at least
questionable, habit).

Cheers, Shawn

"Monique Y. Mudama" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

A couple of weeks ago, I surprised myself by going down
about a 2 foot drop. I just pointed my bike in the right
direction and rolled.

At what height is this a bad idea, and for what reasons?

You can actually roll practically any height as long as you
got a transition at the bottom to roll out.

northshoremountainbiking.comphoto gallerOpen ↗
y/rp90/andre_lorson.jpg

Rolling down drops like the picture above requires trusting
the "Force". 😉

Drops with no transitions require hucking skills.

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

You can actually roll practically any height as long as
you got a transition at the bottom to roll out.

northshoremountainbiking.comphoto gallOpen ↗
ery/rp90/andre_lorson.jpg

Rolling down drops like the picture above requires
trusting the "Force". 😉

Drops with no transitions require hucking skills.

In the company dental plan thy must trust.
--
_________________________
Chris Phillipo - Cape Breton, Nova Scotia ramsays-ramsays-Open ↗
online.com

On 2004-05-31, Chris Phillipo penned:

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

You can actually roll practically any height as long as
you got a transition at the bottom to roll out.

northshoremountainbiking.comphoto galOpen ↗
lery/rp90/andre_lorson.jpg

Rolling down drops like the picture above requires
trusting the "Force". 😉

Drops with no transitions require hucking skills.

In the company dental plan thy must trust.

s/thy/thou/

I suppose this is why some folks wear full-coverage helmets
rather than just lids ...

--
monique