Okay, I'm on a Manitou Xvert Dual Crown with stiff kit, five inches of travel and a Cane Creek Cloud Nine with five inches. A few weeks back I see a guy take about a seven foot launch off a three foot dirt mound and goes about 20 feet and slams the ground on a down hill slant and nothing too it. He only had six inches up front and in back. So my bike by comparison is close for what I'm doing considering I'm not doing what this guy did.
Okay, reminder, Manitou Xvert Dual Crown up front, 5 inches, with a stiff kit, Cane Creek Cloud Nine in back, 5 inches. I got my cloud nine boosted to 250lbs of air pressure, rides like a hard tail up hill, no pedal sag at all, and when I need it, it's plush with a hard hit. That's the way I like it. Front too. BUT recently I took a new jump. I'm getting about four to five feet off the ground and hitting a fairly flat bottom slight incline.
For some reason, I feel like a beginner again. I use to ride a Honda when I was a kid and jumped 15 feet off the ground 45 foot distance at age 11. Soared through the air crossed up and landed fine. Today, I keep going off this one jump that lauches me and I'm hit or miss. Sometimes I go off straight, sometimes I lean left or right and in mid air there is no way to stop the left or right lean until you hit ground and turn your wheel. I panic a little as I have no arm or leg protection, (I know, stupid) but I get about ten feet distance and 5 feet off the ground and when I hit I got one foot out to hit the ground first to prevent the front end from washing out and me slamming the ground should first hard followed by face.
So LAST week, ONCE AGAIN the right side lean. Normally I hit back first and I get a nice landing. Once in a while the front first on the lean. When front hits first, I bottom out hard.
So that is where my problem lies. Not sure but when I was a kid, I'd compress and then spring up to get height. Today I'm not doing that and I think that might be causing my lean. Fear at 44 too. But I keep doing this one jump trying to have my second childhood and I love doing it but I think MAYBE last week something happened to my fork or my bike.
After I went off, I leaned to the right and immediately I knew I was in MAJOR trouble as I was leaning too far over to the right but still going straight. NOT good. I braced for what was to be a sure front end wash out and my front end was headed first for the touchdown. Sure enough front touched first, I put my foot out in mid air to cover just in case it did, and if I hadn't I know I would have slammed shoulder hard to the hard dirt. I went back and saw nobby skid which proved my point. After I hit I noticed what "FELT" like a vibration when compressing the fork down when I started riding away for a second when I bounced up and down on my fork and also on the next double. Both Doubles only get you about four feet high but I noticed it right away upon impact.
WHAT could I have done to the fork? Hitting going straight forward but on a five to ten degree angle to my right, the right side fork would have hit first with response time. Is there any play in Manitou fork bottom with the arch being solid? If so, could the skew be bent or worse, done something to my XT race or ball bearings? Internal fork oil dampening system bent in the stantion? Spring compressed and now damage from too much hit? I've hit hard on it three times now where it had NO more to go.
I rode slow and pounced up and down on it and only a few times was I able to reproduce the feeling in the fork when it went all the way down and it felt like resistance or vibration at bottom point but not bottom out. Stantion bent? Damaged? I have NO idea. Today I washed my bike and tomorrow I'm taking a HUGE good look at the fork to see if there are any cracks in the arch or skew holders.
Any ideas what could be causing the vibration when pushing the fork down once in a while? It rode okay later but I'm worried about hitting the jump again tomorrow because although I keep going off it and most times nailing it, I've launched cockeyed leaning left or right three or four times now and when I do I always land front fork first and that's not good. Back first is a smooth nice landing. But front sucks.
Any ideas what I may have done?
I'll be launching tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure if the same jump did something last week, I'll find out tomorrow what the problem is about ten feet from the lauch ramp. Hopefully it wont be catastrophic.
And being it's summer, taking it off to send back to Manitou to check over is OUT of the question if it's still rideable.
So, what happened? What could I have done hitting with the bike slanted to my right a few degrees and the front tire turned right a little before impact at about a 5 to 10 degrees just to try to stay upright when I hit to prevent washing out and slamming my right shoulder. So front right side fork would have felt the impact first unless there is no play.
Any ideas?
Okay, reminder, Manitou Xvert Dual Crown up front, 5 inches, with a stiff kit, Cane Creek Cloud Nine in back, 5 inches. I got my cloud nine boosted to 250lbs of air pressure, rides like a hard tail up hill, no pedal sag at all, and when I need it, it's plush with a hard hit. That's the way I like it. Front too. BUT recently I took a new jump. I'm getting about four to five feet off the ground and hitting a fairly flat bottom slight incline.
For some reason, I feel like a beginner again. I use to ride a Honda when I was a kid and jumped 15 feet off the ground 45 foot distance at age 11. Soared through the air crossed up and landed fine. Today, I keep going off this one jump that lauches me and I'm hit or miss. Sometimes I go off straight, sometimes I lean left or right and in mid air there is no way to stop the left or right lean until you hit ground and turn your wheel. I panic a little as I have no arm or leg protection, (I know, stupid) but I get about ten feet distance and 5 feet off the ground and when I hit I got one foot out to hit the ground first to prevent the front end from washing out and me slamming the ground should first hard followed by face.
So LAST week, ONCE AGAIN the right side lean. Normally I hit back first and I get a nice landing. Once in a while the front first on the lean. When front hits first, I bottom out hard.
So that is where my problem lies. Not sure but when I was a kid, I'd compress and then spring up to get height. Today I'm not doing that and I think that might be causing my lean. Fear at 44 too. But I keep doing this one jump trying to have my second childhood and I love doing it but I think MAYBE last week something happened to my fork or my bike.
After I went off, I leaned to the right and immediately I knew I was in MAJOR trouble as I was leaning too far over to the right but still going straight. NOT good. I braced for what was to be a sure front end wash out and my front end was headed first for the touchdown. Sure enough front touched first, I put my foot out in mid air to cover just in case it did, and if I hadn't I know I would have slammed shoulder hard to the hard dirt. I went back and saw nobby skid which proved my point. After I hit I noticed what "FELT" like a vibration when compressing the fork down when I started riding away for a second when I bounced up and down on my fork and also on the next double. Both Doubles only get you about four feet high but I noticed it right away upon impact.
WHAT could I have done to the fork? Hitting going straight forward but on a five to ten degree angle to my right, the right side fork would have hit first with response time. Is there any play in Manitou fork bottom with the arch being solid? If so, could the skew be bent or worse, done something to my XT race or ball bearings? Internal fork oil dampening system bent in the stantion? Spring compressed and now damage from too much hit? I've hit hard on it three times now where it had NO more to go.
I rode slow and pounced up and down on it and only a few times was I able to reproduce the feeling in the fork when it went all the way down and it felt like resistance or vibration at bottom point but not bottom out. Stantion bent? Damaged? I have NO idea. Today I washed my bike and tomorrow I'm taking a HUGE good look at the fork to see if there are any cracks in the arch or skew holders.
Any ideas what could be causing the vibration when pushing the fork down once in a while? It rode okay later but I'm worried about hitting the jump again tomorrow because although I keep going off it and most times nailing it, I've launched cockeyed leaning left or right three or four times now and when I do I always land front fork first and that's not good. Back first is a smooth nice landing. But front sucks.
Any ideas what I may have done?
I'll be launching tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure if the same jump did something last week, I'll find out tomorrow what the problem is about ten feet from the lauch ramp. Hopefully it wont be catastrophic.
And being it's summer, taking it off to send back to Manitou to check over is OUT of the question if it's still rideable.
So, what happened? What could I have done hitting with the bike slanted to my right a few degrees and the front tire turned right a little before impact at about a 5 to 10 degrees just to try to stay upright when I hit to prevent washing out and slamming my right shoulder. So front right side fork would have felt the impact first unless there is no play.
Any ideas?
