Am I on a "Jones flight'?

OldTimer · May 14, 2005

I've only put about 10 or 12 hrs on my Husky 360, so I'm still getting the feel for it (and working out 25 yrs of cobb webs). Anyhow, the first time I got the bike out I came to an unexpected little ditch in the trail, about 2 ft. wide. I did the old school 'scootch way back and goose it' to keep the front wheel up. Oh it kept the front wheel up alright, to the point where I had to just about kiss the front fender to stay off my backside. :yikes:
Of course that put the fear of God in me and since then I've been trying to figure out how to negotiate obstacles with my front wheel slightly lower than OVER MY HEAD.
Behind my son's school there's a cute little place to ride during the week with a couple of fairly tame jumps. Jump 'A' is large dirt mound with 10 foot inclines around about a 35 foot flat top. Jump 'B' is apparently an old elevated access road with 5 foot sides and 25 feet across. On jump 'A', I've discovered that if I do a seat bounce I get good results and have managed about 25 of the 35 feet needed to achieve the 'downslope' landing desired. The harder I bounce it, the smoother the landing. But if I try to stand up a little on the approach or Heaven forbid give it any gas whatsoever I'm poised like a ski jumper on the landing. Jump 'B' on the other hand, wants me to die! If I gas it then, well guess. If not, then the rear wheel goes skyward. That 'smart aleck' little son of mine has been jumping over it like RC since the first week he got his RM65 (I wish he'd screw up in school so I could ground him for awhile).
Do I need to tie a cinder block to the handlebars or switch to a 'Hover-round' or what?

High Lord Gomer · May 15, 2005

I'm not familiar with the Husky 360, but the KTM 360 had a violent hit. It sounds like you are hitting the jumps at the critical moment when the power goes from "not quite enough" to "OH MY GOD, WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?".

I would look into taming the beast a bit with a flywheel weight, pipe, or rag in the airbox. Until then, either hit it a gear higher so you stay away from the power, or a gear lower so you have already gotten into the powerband earlier and there is no surprise hit on takeoff.

COLEMANAPP · May 15, 2005

I wouldn't think you'd need to tame it down and its definitely not ever gonna go from no power to toom much unless you are twisting the throttle. Its the first motor I ever had that really likes to be lugged down low. You have to baby your right hand. If you're revving it, then yes, it's violent. Throttle control a gear high has got to be your mindset. Riding it on the pipe is a big waste of what that motor is all about. I don't MX with mine but I did gear it down from stock, ride a gear high, short shift. I've had 2 of em over the last 4 years that I really liked. I'd say my initial experience was kinda like yours though. Just gotta rethink your riding style.

bikepilot · May 18, 2005

I am not completely sure I understand your question, but it sounds like you are having trouble gaining a proper atitude in the air. That is, the front end is to high on jump A and too low on jump B. There are two main factors that affect the aditude of the bike in the air. First, is riding style. Your weight distribution, power applied to the rear wheel and the amount you preload the suspension on the jump face make a big difference. Second, is suspension settings, more rebound damping tends to make the respective end of the bike stay lower as you get less spring effect from the suspension. In my experence, Huskys tend to jump more nose down than most bikes. To compensate for this I use a little more throttle on take off and try not to pre-load the rear suspension too much. A few clicks in on the rear rebound adjuster also will keep the rear end lower, but may cause the suspension to pack in bumpy sections or whoops. Obviously, you can reverse thise to get the opposite affect. Its typically easier to hit a jump at a constant speed standing up than to accelerate off a jump and seat bounce (sitting down) to get the needed height. Of course this requires that you have plenty of room before the jump.

Also, the brakes and throttle have a pronounced affect while in the air due to the rotational inertia of the wheels/tires. To lower the front end pull in the clutch and tap the rear brake, to raise the rear end tap the front brake, to lower the rear end twist the throttle.

good luck and happy flying:)

ellandoh · May 18, 2005

from what ive been told never hit the front brake in the air. id tend to believe it because ive never seen anyone do it ever, on the other hand seen thousands of rr brake taps

High Lord Gomer · May 18, 2005

I'd never do it, either, but a much better rider than I (Jeremy Wilkey) does it sometimes.

ellandoh · May 18, 2005

High Lord Gomer said:
I'd never do it, either, but a much better rider than I (Jeremy Wilkey) does it sometimes.

front? if so, is it as effective as the rear , id rather do the front then i wouldnt have to worry about the clutch

High Lord Gomer · May 18, 2005

Not quite as effective, since it is stopping a lesser mass and transferring that rotational momentum to the rest of the bike. The biggest two drawbacks of stopping the front wheel are:

1: You can't restart it spinning if it drops too far. I've seen good riders go back and forth between tapping the rear brake and hitting the gas to level the bike out while in the air for a long time.

2. Having the front wheel spinning gives it some gyroscopic action that lets you use it to move the bike around by merely turning the front wheel. Once you stop the front wheel, you lose all of the gyroscopic action.

I have also heard that it can be tough landing with the front wheel not turning, but I think that is due more to losing the gyroscopic action just before landing than it is to the front tire not rotating just as you land.

bikepilot · May 19, 2005

In general I don't use either as they slow you down a bit, but if I have to use a brake in the air I perfer the rear as I can get it spinning again just prior to touching down. When you land with the front wheel stopped, there is a very breif deceleration which is not ideal for a butter smooth landing or winning a race. Sometimes a front is much better than a rear. For example, Happy Rambles (MX track) had a small (~40-45ft) tripple at the end of a fairly fast straight. The face of the tripple was often worn down a lot while the down ramp was very steep very peaked. The trouble was, it was nearly impossible to get the trajectory right because the down ramp was steeper than the normal rate of decent of a bike. Tapping the rear brake would lower the rear, but that typically caused the rear tire to clip the peak of the face of the landing ramp. Not doing anything would result in either overjumping or cliping the peak. Taping the front brake was the perfect solution, it allowed me to stay a little low, such that the front tire barely cleared the peak and just before the rear tire clipped the peak, I would tap the front brake which raised the rear wheel just enoug to clear the peak. The result was an exelent down ramp landing which made it easy to set up for the approachign turn and hit the inside line (something that would be impossible if I cliped the peak or overjumped).

Thus, I would recomend the front only in situtations where the landing ramp is very short and useing the rear would result in clipping the peak. Remember, the front brake lifts the rear while the rear lowers the front:)

good luck

Am I on a "Jones flight'?

OldTimer

High Lord Gomer

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COLEMANAPP

bikepilot

ellandoh

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High Lord Gomer

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ellandoh

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High Lord Gomer

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Am I on a "Jones flight'?

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