Jumps

[RMR MOTOSHOP]

How do you keep your front end up when jumping? I keep landing on my front wheel

[atimmer535]

It could be a lot of things, body positioning, suspension, or throttle control. Are you letting off on the face?

[Dirtshark808]

Keep on the gas as you go off the jump and make sure your body position is good.

[mikerides33]

If you are on the gas enough like you should be the concern would be getting far forward enough to keep the front end down. Get on the gas....start small and be confident.

[RMR MOTOSHOP]

Ok so I crashed pretty hard today. I hit the jump with steady throttle standing up and took off good but the front end took a nose dive and I went right over and the bike landed on me. How do I keep the front end up and level? I know I'm missing something simple. Any advice

Edited November 11, 2015 by RScrf450r

[jz125]

Ok so I crashed pretty hard today. I hit the jump with steady throttle standing up and took off good but the front end took a nose dive and I went right over and the bike landed on me. How do I keep the front end up and level? I know I'm missing something simple. Any advice

You didn't carry the throttle all the way up the jump face. Hold the throttle open all the way up and off, clutch in, level bike in the air with the rear brake.

 

When I switched 2 stroke to four I did the same thing, luckily I didn't crash. Sorry brother, painful lesson

[RMR MOTOSHOP]

I'll try it this weekend. Never ride scared

[Dirtrider 88]

Ugh. I used to think that I would never jump the jumps at the track and local sandpit. But now I realized that getting down the rest of the techniques will teach you more for jumping. Body position is essential and throttle control helps. If I was in that situation I probably would have held er wide and hoped for the front to bring itself up. My 0.02 c

[RMR MOTOSHOP]

I had the throttle wide open all the way up the jump. Was going good then all of a sudden the bike took a nose dive. Wish I could post the video

[Ctone23]

If you revved out then that could account for the loss of power and the nose dive. This usually happens when the power delivery cuts off, the nose dive. Sometimes though the jump face is not smooth and if there are bumps or holes on the jump face it can cause weird situations like this, especially if you are riding kind of stiff. 

[jcross312]

was it a small jump? sometimes small jumps have a tendency to kick the rear tire up, whereas bigger jumps give a smoother takeoff. Practice makes perfect. I've had my share of endoes when i was learning. 

[RMR MOTOSHOP]

It was a medium jump at a local sand pit I ride. The funny thing is I landed it before with good air and distance. Guess I gotta just keep practicing. That's all you can do

[turbo dan]

Too many variables.  We dont know your body position or how the jump looks.  Most jumps require not just steady throttle but actual acceleration going up the face, especially steep jumps with a lot if kick.  If you went over just holding steady on the throttle I can see getting kicked over the bars.  There are few jumps that work with that approach.

[ktmyama]

if the front end drops,gas it with clutch out.if the front is too high pull in the clutch and step on rear brake.takes a lot of practice!

[Dirtrider 88]

I experienced this yesterday. If I felt too front end low I'd just floor it, front end high and I would sometimes just lean further foreward. And push on the bars, in extreme cases tapping the rear break with the clutch in is a winner, I saw this one thing that was a rear brake lever and clutch lever on top of it. But when you pulled in the brake it would pull the clutch at the same time. Nifty thing, but I feather the clutch a lot and could see myself grabbing rear brake for the first few rides. Missing shifts is never fun haha

[LiamRM212]

You don't have to pull in the clutch to brake tap , do you?

Edited November 16, 2015 by LiamRM212

[temporarily_locked]

You don't have to pull in the clutch to brake tap , do you?

 

No you dont have to, as long as you dont lock the rear wheel. If you do you can bump start on landing.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Blowin_Trannys

[wes513v]

Ok so I crashed pretty hard today. I hit the jump with steady throttle standing up and took off good but the front end took a nose dive and I went right over and the bike landed on me. How do I keep the front end up and level? I know I'm missing something simple. Any advice

If you kept the throttle on all they off the lip and the front dropped then a kicker probably developed on the jump face. As you are learning make sure you are hitting the smoothest part of the face, stay centered, and relax.

[BoxcarWilly]

You don't have to pull in the clutch to brake tap , do you?

10/10 a good way to kill yourself.

Pull in the clutch, save a life.

[Blutarsky]

Lots of very skilled riders can not explain their very own skills, especially when it comes to jumping.  One of the most important skills, is the feel as you load into a jump face, and the bike starts to rebound, and how you respond in a split second.  Most riders do not even think about this feel for the bike that they have, how they developed in, and how they respond to it.  Anyone decent at jumping can feel how a bike is loading into the jump face, and as it starts to rebound, they can tell if the bike is rebounding in an unbalanced fashion.  Looking for a certain fixed way to hit a jump face is 100% the wrong approach.  It will work some of the time at slow to moderate speed and when it does not work you are on your head.  The faster you go, the more unlikely that a fixed approach will work. 

 

I have used this analogy before...but I will repeat again.  Would you approach a corner knowing how much lean and turn of the bars were needed...then lean that much and turn the bars that much..and just hold that position through the whole corner?  No...that would be nonsense.  But that is how you are approaching jumping.  A rider is a closed loop control system.  You are always getting feedback and adjusting.  ALWAYS.  Every moment. 

 

When a good rider loads into a face that is going to endo him, he feels what is going to happen before he even leaves the jump face and he adjusts.  My guess is that unbalanced rebound off a jump face is felt by a good rider in less than a tenth of a second, and because the response is ingrained, he is reacting before he can even process what he felt.  It is no different than someone pushing you backwards when you are standing flat footed.  You do not think...you put your dominant foot back to catch youself from falling.  You need to concentrate on learning the feel of the bike loading into the face, and the first instant of rebound.  The aturomatic reflexes will come much faster when you focus on this feel.  Very long jump faces are not good for this because the bike loads, rebounds, and settles before you leave.  Medium jump faces and smaller (but not too small...they are very quick and hard to react to) are best.  Load into the face, then feel how the bike is rebounding.  Then learn to adjust your body, throttle, etc to the bike in that split second between your front tire leaving the face, and the read leaving the face.  This split second is where the magic happens.

Edited November 16, 2015 by Blutarsky