Manual a Drop

[AlanD]

_{^{Not a pro but what helps for me is, stay off the brakes at all times. When you brake the momentum tends to push you weight forward, pushing your front wheel into the ground and keep your speed. Learned this from Oom Rodge at haka.}}

 

_{^{Oh yes, keep your eyes on where you want to land and your head up.}}

That's what happened to me, I got to the drop and then got a tad scared and pulled a little bit of brake just before it, stupid, stupid, stupid

[T-Bob]

I'd say skills session will be make a hell of difference and for me it's a little hop before. Not sure wit gives that much technical advantage but mentally it makes me focus most on the hop and less on the drop. I think it gives you a little bit of a 'come on!' feeling and make it a positive action rather then a defensive, hold on and roll over the edge type thing. 

[Nibali]

There's a drop at Wolwespruit where I always end up stopping right on the lip of the drop. Courage fails me every time. Going to try these tips, I need to make the drop

[Hairy]

Just relax and let go... this was on a commute home.....but I have forgotten how to do that anymore.

[AlanD]

There's a drop at Wolwespruit where I always end up stopping right on the lip of the drop. Courage fails me every time. Going to try these tips, I need to make the drop

Maybe we can go session that drop sometime.....overcome the fear? Never been there and a tad closer for me than Hakahana.

[Nibali]

Maybe we can go session that drop sometime.....overcome the fear? Never been there and a tad closer for me than Hakahana.

 

If I'm back in Pretoria I will send you a PM, sounds like a good idea! And go do Wolwe, you'll have a jol on the trials there. They have a pump track as well, good for getting a feel for weight distribution on the bike.

 

Also going to book a skills session sometime, can only help.

[Headshot]

To be fair - those pics don't look like you fluffed it. I do get that you felt as if you survived it rather than rode it well though. That looks like a steep landing so your front wheel needed to match the angle of the landing - a flat landing is rather different of course.

 

Pick a lower flatter landing drop off and practice riding it at different speeds to gain confidence.. The slower you hit the lip, the more you need to get back and over the rear wheel to lift the front (manual). Sometimes you simply roll into a drop unexpectedly and this technique will save you in those situations.

 

When you ride the same drop faster, less body movement will be required to loft the front. A trick i still use is to roll my wrists.

 

Roll them back as if you are twisting a throttle on a moto to lift the front wheel as it leaves the lip.Roll them forward to drop the front wheel into a steep landing. Be gentle in both cases however. 

[AlanD]

If I'm back in Pretoria I will send you a PM, sounds like a good idea! And go do Wolwe, you'll have a jol on the trials there. They have a pump track as well, good for getting a feel for weight distribution on the bike.

 

Also going to book a skills session sometime, can only help.

Cool. Let me know when you want to go and we can arrange sometime. I'm out his weekend though. If theres something that scares me, I like to give it a good look, check the line, build up some courage and then go try, probably stopping at the edge a few times until I end up doing it...lol

[Dicky DQ]

Looking at the photos the only thing I see you doing wrong is going too slowly. That gives the front wheel time to drop with all your weight on it before even half the bike is over the edge. You don't want to RIDE the drop, you want to take it.

 

Practice off a pavement at speed so that either both your wheels land at the same time or your rear wheel slightly before the front.

 

THEN grow a pair and try to hit the big one with the same speed. THIS is the challenge, as you tend to see the higher drop and instinctively want to go slower.

[nonky]

I always find the SCREAMING really helps...one of those screams that chokes off in the back of the throat due to primal fear.

[RiverInTheRoad]

ride around with flat pedals in town and do drops starting from pavement size up to 4 feet high. Do that until you are comfortable. It's really as easy as that.

 

I know the technique needed for a 360. I can't do one because I haven't put in the countless hours practicing it (or have he guts). 

[Reden]

A group of us are going to PWC tomorrow to just practise this.

There are two drops to do. One is quite low and the other one bit higher.

Was nerve wrecking doing the higher one as one cannot see the ground when on the ramp but after the third drop it was easy. I have got a video taken of it.

[Reden]

This was only the second time I did the drop. Last pic shows one mistake. Feet...

I push a little bit but do not manual.

 

[Nibali]

Cool. Let me know when you want to go and we can arrange sometime. I'm out his weekend though. If theres something that scares me, I like to give it a good look, check the line, build up some courage and then go try, probably stopping at the edge a few times until I end up doing it...lol

 

Shot, will do. Probably only going to be in June or so! 

 

Forgot to mention earlier, Wolwe also has a few drops to practice of. It steps in height, about 3/4 of them. And a nice table top jump kind of section thing. Nice to play around on.

[AlanD]

This was only the second time I did the drop. Last pic shows one mistake. Feet...

I push a little bit but do not manual.

Is that like a little skills section to go practice? Is the smaller one easy?

[rudi-h]

I can't jump, but i'm not too bad with drops...  My training ground was emmarentia on the stretch of paved road going around the fountain.

 

There is a long terrace just as you approach the fountain in the northern corner of the park.  On the left hand side (going towards the fountain) the drop is only about 250mm going to ~1.5m as you move further to the right.

 

I used to start out with say 10 repeats of riding the drop, starting to the left and progressively dropping further off the right until I managed to land smooth at the higher end.

 

don't manual it though, the trick is just weight distribution and throwing your bike off the edge.  There is NO need to lift your front wheel before you hit the drop.  a manual IMO is very hard to control and if you lift your front wheel off the ground before the drop starts you might end up second best.

 

PS not sure if you're riding with flats, but flats forces you to maintain contact with your bike by the correct weight distribution, so your only option is to master the technique.  So if you're not on flats already, make sure you lose the cleats for this one

 

If only I had some good advice for learning to ride dirt jumps...

 

edit:  you should try to join peach for an advanced class.  he makes riding look so easy that you forget that it was hard in the first place