I lost my balance coming off this drop as my speed shot up going down over some rocky ledges and absolutely ate shit, was I not low or far back enough? Trying to get back into it after 10+ years away
Ate it coming off this drop just out of frame, how can I improve?
byu/SmellyBallSack95 inMTB
by SmellyBallSack95
8 Comments
Okay here’s my observation, wonder if others see the same thing.
Coming off the drop it looks like you pull up on your bars. Then when you land, your weight is off the back of the bike. When your weight is off the back like that you lose the ability to turn/steer since there’s no weight on your front wheel. This led to your off screen crash.
Drops are less of a pulling up motion, and more of a pushing your bike out in front of you. Stay nice and centered with bent knees in a good riding position as you approach the drop, then when you go off it, just kind of push the bike out in front of you. It’s not a big motion, actually pretty subtle. Then when you land you’re still in a good centered position on the bike.
Hopefully that explanation makes sense!
You were definitely too high on the bike. You want to almost always stay centered on the bike.
At the ledge, you push the bike. That’s good. After pushing the bike, you want to bring it back so you can land with your hips over the seat and chin over the handlebars. You did that pretty well, too.
You want to be lower and more mobile. You don’t want to tense up. Use your legs and arms as suspensions. Absorb with your legs and stay centered on the bike.
That’s my analysis from what we can see.
Classic dead sailor.
What they said..
Too slow and you’re tense. That combined with the landing being soft and your tires looked skinny so I hey probably dug in.
You went into this drop fully extended and pulled up on your bars. You should be in attack position so your body can absorb the impact and balance out. You can’t really absorb anything when you’re already extended. Your body position looks closer to if you were going over a jump, drops do not use the same technique at all.
Do not hop off the drop. You need to lunge the bike forward
you are waaaay to rigid. it almost looks like a maniquin glued to the bike.
Apart from pulling on a bit (wrong thing to do, this is a drop, not a jump, and even then there is only specific times you need to pull) – there is no body movement.
When you landed, you were rigid and too far over the front, tensed up and basically sligshotted the bike away from underneath you, and intstead of being over the front ready for the next obstacle, you are hanging off the bike hanging on for dear life.
What I suggest is, going to a pump track, and ride around practice on rollers/ table tops (no need for any air/ best practice to keep wheels on the ground at this point) while keeping your body position central. On the up of a roller, your letting the bars come up to your chest a bit, and on the down side, away from you. You pretty much want to stay vertical while the bike pivots beneath you. This is a fast way to get your body used to the pivot below you and the arm/ body movements.
While doing this, get a bit lower in more of an “attack” position (crouched a little more, head more over handlebars and elbows up) and notice when you get lower, you can pivot the bike more.
After that, hit the drop again. Basically you are starting at the top of the roller/ table, just a small section of the roller is missing but the motion is almost the same – let the bike pivot down from you as you shift your weight to the back a bit. As the wheels connect with the ground, you are pulling your weight forward to be central again, ready for the next obstacle 👍