[Monkeywrench]

Ken,
earlier this week in another category you had mentioned developing and maintaining good leverage on the bike while in-air. I was wondering if you could talk more about that - I feel my take-offs are getting better, but still feel like a bit of a rag-doll on landings because I feel at the mercy of however the bike positions itself in air. I'd very much like to be deciding how the bike is positioned, but I'm not sure how. I'm thinking it's because my in-air posture isn't allowing me to preset the bike properly for the landing.

Another question: this picture below is a snapshot of a rider in mid-air during a simple jump (with both a take-off and landing ramp). Is he back on his seat like that to lower the back of the bike? I know he was standing during the take-off, and he stood back up for the landing (I have the short video on my hard disk).

Here you go:


thanks for any advice,
matt

[crfsonly]

i wish i was better at describing what happens in the air. 'leverage' may not be the best word for what happens but it works. when you're in the air it's a 'frictionless' for the most part. yes, there's wind resistance but that's all. so, the only real 'leverage' you have to influence your position in the air are changing your CG with your body position/bike combination and altering the inertia of the wheels. if you've ever watched a freestyle competition it's pretty obivious that these provide significant 'leverage' to alter what happens in the air. unfortunately, it's more slight of hand than reality. most of what happens in the air starts long before they leave the ramp. you have to set yourself up on the ramp for the leverage you'll need in the air.

in your case...you need to find a table that's reasonable in lenght (no more than 15 feet long i'd say for starters). the jump should have a good straight run to the face. with a table you can start off slow and focus on technique and then add more speed as your ability and skill increases. again, stand, with knees slightly bent, arms also slightly bent at the elbows and shoulders, having a foward position on the bike. your position should far enough forward so you can see your number on your number plate if you looked down. as you go up the face the angle of the face will have a tendancy to rotate you back from this position. you have to resist this and hold your position. as you approach the face you should have reached the velocity you need for the jump. accelerating or decelerating on the face, while it's an important technique, it is NOT a beginner technique. keep in mind that allowing your body to rotate backwards when you hit the face impacts your throttle postion as well...the combination of both of these can cause a front high position in the air.

in the air if your position off the face was maintained and you held your speed off the face you'll be able to either pull up the front or push the front down as needed. keep in mind that you won't be able to do either if your arms and legs are straight off the face of the jump. the goal is to land the front and rear tires at the same time or as i prefer the front slightly before the rear. another technique is the landing. using the throttle correctly when you land can salvage bad to hard landings.

i hope this helps some...ken

[Logan#925]

Another thing ius that while in the air grab the clutch and tap the back brake to bring your front wheel down or rev the bike up to bring the front wheel up. This is also called in some cases a panic rev because you'll see peoples wheel dive and they ll hold it wide open trying to regain a suitable landing position

[jp403]

you need for the jump. accelerating or decelerating on the face, while it's an important technique, it is NOT a beginner technique. keep in mind that allowing your body to rotate backwards when you hit the face impacts your throttle postion as well...the combination of both of these can cause a front high position in the air.

Not that I'm at all an expert on jumping form and techniques but a little advice that was given to me and helped me out when I started. Like ken said find a nice small table. And find your speed before the jump in the LOW to MID RPM range of the appropriate jump. If you go into the jump let's say in the high side of second gear, when your starting out jumping you'll have a tendency to let off the throttle a little bit. and when the bikes in the high side of the RPM range it affects the bikes tendency to lower the front end more than the low to mid RPM range. Maybe it's just me but I do find myself blipping the throttle more in the air with my CRF compared to my CR their is much more engine braking on the four stroke, which I like better but took awhile to get used to.

[Monkeywrench]

JP-
yes, aboslutely. I notice that too. Seems like whenever possible I like to get into 3rd gear if I can, whereas just starting out I was horrified at the idea, but wish I had tried it sooner.

great tip.

[b.lee]

About the guy in your picture, he just has bad style/technique. No need to slide back like that in the air. I have a friend who does that for some unknown reason, and he can't seem to shake it, no matter how much we make fun of him!

Without going into a huge post about jumping techniques, I can offer this one piece of advice: 99% of the time, it's better to land on the gas than off. This is especially true of the beginner rider, who will come up short more often than not when trying to clear a jump. Even if you cross-rut it on the take of and come off crooked, landing with no throttle applied will cause you to crash almost everytime. At the same time, if you land with the throttle on, the bike will be more susceptable (sp) to soaking up the imperfect landing, allowing you to ride away instead of rag-dolling.

I have crashed hundreds of times like this before I figured it out, hopefully this will speed your learning/crashing curve!

[Rancha9]

That guy is WAY back on the bike, but it may be for a reason you can't see in the picture. He may very well be hauling the front end up because he was nose diving... Either way, a normal jump posture shouldn't look like that. I realize that I'm not a shining example of posture, (This is only this bike's 2nd time out after a 3 year break) but I do meet all the wickets for what's normally considered "correct" air posture, a lot like what Ken described above. Anyway, take a look at this...



You can see that if I was to look down, I could pretty much read my front # plate. (If there was a # on there, it's only 3 weeks old) That's about where you want to be. The other info posted here is good, start small, really small. If it wasn't so embarrassing, I'd post a picture of the jump I learned to jump on, but I will say it was made in about 5 minutes with a shovel. Now, however, I'm comfortable with doing 100' tables (the picture is about 65') And when you crash, and you WILL eventually crash, get up and try it again. Best of luck to you...

[trikrik]

I looked at that first picture and said "hey that looks like me!" Well its not, but the posture is the same. My nephew once asked me why I jump with my weight to the back of the bike. At the time I didn't even realize it, but I believe its caused from the serious nose-dive I experienced when I first jumped my CRF. I was used to jumping 250s and had no problems, posture or otherwise, but have found this "posture" hard to break as I learn how how to jump my crf that nose-dives like crazy.

[crash 411]

Find a high gear to where the bike is lugging just a little bit and leave the gas on all the way off the lip. If you let off you will get pitched into a nose dive. Leave the trottle on in a high gear and you'll sail nice and even. Keep a nice neutral body position.

[crash 411]

Find a high gear to where the bike is lugging just a little bit and leave the gas on all the way off the lip. If you let off you will get pitched into a nose dive. Leave the trottle on in a high gear and you'll sail nice and even. Keep a nice neutral body position.

[irvbike]

Crash took the words rite out of my mouth, highest possible gear and keep your wrist rolled,
That info with the earlier stated "start small" tip and you should get it with some practice.
I remember the first time jumped, I ended up looping when I put it down, I somehow went full throttle in 2nd gear when my back wheel dropped. So if you can avoid that and avoid nose diving you should keep it rite side up, good luck...

[JAWS]

In the way back days, we used to throw our weight to the rear to keep the jump lower. It was just a technique of the times... no scrub had been discovered yet. I still have a tendancy to do that, although I am working to correct that habit.

Joe

[BILLY]

Landing with the gas on will staighten you out if you are off kilter in the air for whatever reason ( bad take off, wind etc).

Also, unless it's an unusual obsticle you should gas on on the take off. This is not absolute, Ken was right when saying there are takeoffs that require a chop before flying.

For what it's worth,

Billy

[deejuks2]

This is all you need to know to start jumps.

No matter what type of jump it is, STAND in your NEUTRAL or ATTACK position (unless you are trying to scrub or whip...).

Keep steady throttle up the face of the jump AS YOU PRELOAD your bikes suspension. Dont let off, dont accelerate. Keep a Steady throttle until the back tire is airborne. After you get used to taking off in this manner you will become comfortable, and you will be able to do other things with the throttle to compensate for other factors.

And, like was said earlier; GAS brings the front end UP, REAR BRAKE drops the front end down. I found it easier to just lead forward to drop the front end when i began, as remembering all of this as you are nervous about jumping for your first times you seem to panic.


hope this helps

[sycraft]

Here is Fat Guy Flying (thats me), not sure if the form is right, but I do land proper and can control the pitch in the air.