New to drops, worked my way up to this guy today. Rear suspension would bottom out. Is that normal or is there something in my technique I should adjust.
by kaplajo11
New to drops, worked my way up to this guy today. Rear suspension would bottom out. Is that normal or is there something in my technique I should adjust.
by kaplajo11
10 Comments
If it bottoms out, that’s bad you know? Get out the manual and set it for your weight.
Looks good. Your weight positioning is really nice. Keep your knees bent a little longer to help absorb the impact. I wouldn’t hate it if you landed a little more nose heavy. Try to land at the same angle as the landing pad.
Add a bit of air to the rear (and probably front) suspension. If you don’t know how to set your sag, watch some videos and play around with different levels. Bottoming out won’t damage your suspension, jsyk.
This is a pretty big huck to basically flat. If you are regularly doing things like this, yeah you should add some air to your shock, or add some volume spacers to keep it from bottoming out every time. If this isn’t your normal riding, then I would not set up your shock based on it.
Super newb here. Like level 1. I hope to be able to do stuff like This one day but I have a question.
Are your legs taking the whole impact of that land? Like, would it feel the same as if you jumped off of the platform without the bike? Or does the bike mitigate most of the hit?
How much is the bike mitigating vs how much your legs are working?
Firstly, 10/10 for the footage.
If the bottom out is a hard clang that’s not ideal. A drop like that will be hard though, so expect to use all the travel.
Now for technique. It looks like you are riding the drop like a jump, ie you do a preload and a subtle pop. Your body moves upwards just before the drop, which means your body weight then has further to fall.
Your timing is spot on, but what you are doing is going to result in heavier landings.
Instead of that upwards movement, you want to push the bike forwards with both hands and feet, keeping your heels low. The push movement should happen as your front wheel goes off the drop, and done right will keep the front wheel high. Then once off the drop pull the bike back under you ready to land.
This will also change how your body falls and might help with bottoming out.
Looks good. This is a bigger drop- if it’s bigger for what you would encounter then hitting bottom on your suspension is fine. I would expect to hit the bottom on mine for this.
If you go bigger- then you should adjust your suspension settings- the high speed compression can be set firmer or less permissive to prevent this.
Others have said to add air- this is a band aid and doesn’t work well in actuality. You have to add a lot to make a difference, especially with permissive compression settings- and then the bike will be terrible in other places. Set sag properly (which it likely is)- then leave it. Adjust high speed compression to deal with these bigger hits. If you don’t have that adjustment then it is what it is until you get fancier suspension or a revalve which may or may not be worth it. Adding bottom out tokens can be done if you aren’t at the maximum allowed- see your manual for this. Over adding volume spacers above the limit can create a dangerous condition in the air can.
Looks pretty close to perfect technique to me, but I’m no expert
Is this that little bike park right off I-225?
Dont wanna be the park police but id recommend a fullface and gloves if you gonna do anything higher than a chest high drop. Anyway, stay safe!
Hey love this spot. Was out there around lunch time!