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Technique for landing a drop

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
Hey,

So I hit the ground harder than I ever had. There is a drop where I ride that if one stands at the bottom it comes up to the chest. The landing is down hill, not a super steep angle but you can definitely increase fwd momentum once you land. I think if you land a few feet out the depth of the drop increases to around 6 feet. As I came down the approach I was probably going a bit to fast and although I pulled up I came crashing down head first. Thank G-d I didn't break anything by got the wind knocked out of me and am really sore etc...
Question here is how do I land it? I can post a quick vid of the drop (not me crashing) if I can get some technical analysis...

rif
 
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Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,241
20,021
Sleazattle
Moar speed, pull up. All you need to know.

"Pull up" is the dumbest and most ubiquitous advice in mountainbiking. Much like trying to teach someone to jump by "lifting your feet". I would expect such advice from a hack but wouldn't recommend following it.

When riding off a drop, your front wheel leaves the ground before the rear. During that time while the front wheel is not on the ground, and the rear is, gravity is going to rotate your bike forward. Over rotate and you go OTB. You can prevent this by either going faster or counter-rotating. Going faster reduces the time difference when the front and rear wheels leave the ground limiting the forward rotation.

"pulling up" is the final step in counter rotating. Much like when you jump you first must compress your legs, push off, then lift your legs. To counter rotate, move your center of gravity down/forward, push back/up, then pull. The tricky part is in the timing but it is easy to practice on flat ground.

Applying torque through a pedal kick does the same thing but harder to pull off IMO.
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
448
Generally speaking, you want your wheels to match the angle of the landing, letting both land at the same time. Unless it's really big to flat, which you should probably avoid at first, anyway.

It's all in the timing and just takes practice. Start by dropping off a curb, getting both wheels to land at the same time. Once you've got that, step up to something similarly small, with a sloped landing, but "pull up" less. Adjust speed and "pulling up" to land near the top of your landings. Practice makes perfect- good luck!
 

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
Thanks all, I did not panic brake, I am not sure if I went over the bars I do not have a clear memory of what happened after launching just smacking the ground. It was the first time I attempted the drop. I think i underestimated the amount of force I needed to first load the front end and then shift up and back, I think I just very mildly bunny hopped and then nose dived. I will practice on smaller drops for a while before attempting this again. Also, how does one successfully handle or absorb the force of a successful landing from this height. Should my weight and position be way behind the saddle?

rif
 

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
18,855
9,559
AK
You need to extend your body in the air to absorb the landing. Depending on the drop's landing, you do almost nothing except extend if it's the same angle, push the front end out if it's steeper, and push down slightly on the edge before launching to pop the front wheel up if it's flatter, although you may be able just to pull up. Each of these inputs is fairly slight in my experience, most of my ugly drops came from over-doing it. Timing is pretty important too, but becomes natural with practice.

Back in the 90s, it seemed that dropping to flat was a "thing" and that people were trying to one-up each other. Then there was the stupid Josh Bender era, not to flat, but way beyond what most anyone can handle. Big drops to flat are terribly abusive on any bike, even DH bikes, about the best that one can do with those is be a skilled trials rider and drop it on a trials bike. You can extend your body as much as possible, as I mention above, but if the drop is big enough, your bike simply isn't intended to be doing that stuff and needs radically different shock tuning and other things, not to mention doing it at speed vs. doing it like trials introduces a lot more danger if things go wrong (more things on your body might break due to the speed).

In most places, on courses, at parks, on trails, they are not designing stupid big flat drops for these reasons, usually it's drops to transitions of some kind, and usually the biggest drops have the most/best transition. Obviously that's not always the case, but the trail designers aren't usually trying to kill riders. For the bigger drops, it's important to think about your shock tune, you might need some more compression damping on both ends, not all shocks have this capability, but this is oft-overlooked and all the rebound in the world won't help if you don't have enough compression to slow the impact. Over the summer, I loved the bigger drops at Keystone because IMO, it was simply "make sure the shock is set up decent and just go off the edge and grip the handlebars very tightly", because all the drops were to nice transitions and it was simply a matter of holding on during the landing, even if it was a much higher drop.

I don't know if this will help, but like you said, practice. Drops to flat are stupid, except that having a bit of skill here can be a life-saver if you get into a bad situation that you didn't intend, and at that point you may be sacrificing the bike to cushion your impact, but that's when you realize you're going over something you don't want to be.
 

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
The landing with this particular drop is a decline but how do you gauge if the decline angle is enough to offset the impact? In other word when you say dropping to flat how much of a decline is considered not dropping to flat, is flat flat? or would you even consider a slight decline flat?

thanks,

rif
 

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
23,928
14,450
where the trails are
ok that's a few footer, and not a perfect landing. the video looks pretty flat-ish. So is there a chance you went slow enough to land your rear wheel on that lower rock? Maybe you got hung up on that and pitched you otb. I don't know.

How well can you manual? I think for that rock you'd approach without too much speed, manual off the end and extend your legs to ensure you don't land nose heavy and suck it up.

Get one of your friends who hits it cleanly to walk you through it. You'll get it !
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
448
The landing with this particular drop is a decline but how do you gauge if the decline angle is enough to offset the impact? In other word when you say dropping to flat how much of a decline is considered not dropping to flat, is flat flat? or would you even consider a slight decline flat?

thanks,

rif
I'm impressed- that's a pretty big drop to learn on!
I'd say don't concentrate on the angle, but focus on both wheels landing at the same time, body weight centered and extended, ready to absorb the landing. Maybe practice the small line, riders left of that big drop (where you hiked up in the video)?
image.png

^^^ going off the corner here could be a good place to practice your technique. Good luck!!
 

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
Thanks nick. I have to find someone who's landed it. I dont ride with anyone who's tried it. It is possible i hit that ground level rock althought the marks in the dirt seemed to indicate i touched down a few feet out... My manual should be good enough i can typically lift the front end onto the top of formitable log piles etc... Also do u think i run the risk of breaking my frame it is a 2002 giant ac air?

Rif
 

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
4130biker,

Yea there a couple places I think I can practice. choosing to go left or right for a smaller drop here is a bit tough as the approach is a decent and there is not much wiggle room to hit the drop to the left or right, but I think its doable...
Also Jm, do you have any air pressure advice as far as the shocks and forks?

Thanks,

rif
 

JustMtnB44

Monkey
Sep 13, 2006
840
113
Pittsburgh, PA
Holy crap I just happened to read this post, and watching the video I thought hey that looks familiar, because this is my local park! Frick Park in Pittsburgh, PA. The drop is fairly large with a not great lip or landing or runout. Honestly I haven't done it myself yet, but was planning to bring out my DH or FR bike to try it on first. I have done the smaller drop option to the right on my trail bike, which is much better for practicing on IMO. I probably would not do a drop that large with an '02 Giant AC myself.
 

rif

Chimp
Mar 25, 2015
19
0
pittsburgh, pa
Holy crap I just happened to read this post, and watching the video I thought hey that looks familiar, because this is my local park! Frick Park in Pittsburgh, PA. The drop is fairly large with a not great lip or landing or runout. Honestly I haven't done it myself yet, but was planning to bring out my DH or FR bike to try it on first. I have done the smaller drop option to the right on my trail bike, which is much better for practicing on IMO. I probably would not do a drop that large with an '02 Giant AC myself.
It's awesome to hear from a local! When I am fully recovered we should ride! I think I actually hit that lip at the bottom with my rear wheel which sent me quickly over the bars without time to even get my arms out in front of me, it was (is) really painful! BTW the AC Air has 6 inches of travel in the rear and a 140mm new Fox on the front. Is the age of the bike your concern or something else?

rif
 
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