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.

http://www.northshoremountainbiking.com/images/photo_gallery/rp90/andre_lorson.jpg

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

Drops with no transitions require hucking skills.

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.

http://www.northshoremountainbiking.com/images/photo_gallery/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