Its not the jump... Its the RPM's!

[Ocracing]

Hey Guys... Can you help me out here?

Sunday, I went to an Mx track... Man I got there and I felt great on the bike... I could do every jump on the place!

But.. I was doing most of them in 4th gear! Even like 10 foot doubles...

What I don't understand is that I see the pro's at the track fly through a berm towards the jump in 2nd revved really high and cruise over the jump perfectly.. but when I do it In 3rd!~ I seem to go vertical off of the jump! Is there any way to stop my bike from doing this?

I'd really like to jump it in 2nd and be in 2nd for the corner right up ahead instead of shifting down..

Thanks alot!

Btw - I have a YZ125.. 00

 

[Okiewan]

Generalization:
Get all your momentum BEFORE the jump face, level off the power ON the jump face. Smooth power, chop the throttle when the rear leaves the face. Neutral body position. You'll fly level.

 

[Psyco Diver 69]

Easier said than done Okie :D , but practice makes perfect to go out there and work at it and remember use your brakes to control the level

 

[MoO_coW]

Be careful when chopping the throttle. Some jumps you can let it off all the way and some you can barely let it off at all.

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Most jumps can be done with a varying combination of speed and power.

If you hit something with high speed and low power (low RPMs), you could likely make the same jump with low initial speed and high power (high RPMs & full throttle).

The biggest difference is the more power you have on takeoff, the farther forward you'll need to position yourself to balance out the power. In some cases, you should be all the way up over the bars to where you can see not only the front fender, but the front tire, too.

 

[Ocracing]

Wow

Hey thanks guys..

I really appreciate your input on my topic!

I think I need to put a 49 tooth sprocket on the YZ also.. Get more lowend..

I definitely have to try these things out next weekend! Thanks!

Curt

 

[KTMKyd]

One thing that you'll notice the pro's doing in SuperCross, is they do the bigger jumps (triples and the like) in 3rd gear and downshift while flying through the air. We sat right in front of the triple on the 8th row at the supercross and every single person that did the triple would downshift in the air to set up for the next corner. DOn't know if that does you any good,
One thing though, they didn't seem to be giving it gas at all while in the air, so do you think it would be necessary to use the clutch to downshift on the jump?? It didn't seem like they were.....

-Sarge

 

[Jewell]

Posted By Gomer:

The biggest difference is the more power you have on takeoff, the farther forward you'll need to position yourself to balance out the power.

Thank you so so much. People always say to get real far forward but never linked it to "balancing out the power". I finaly feel that I can go out and jump with some sort of idea of what I am doing.

Lets clear this up. The more acceleration you have on the face of the jump (read: cranking on the throttle right before and during the face of the jump) the more forward you need to be.

Without that acceleration on the face of the jump since you already have the speed up to clear said obstacal the Less forward you need to be? What position is needed here. I've never done anything else than really goose it on and right before the face.

Should the steepness of the jump affect how far forward you need to be when using the "goosing method". More steep, lean farther forward?

 

[High Lord Gomer]

Originally posted by Jewell
Thank you so so much.

You're welcome. Being able to help is (one of) the best things about DRN.

People always say to get real far forward but never linked it to "balancing out the power". I finaly feel that I can go out and jump with some sort of idea of what I am doing.

The second thing that Ike (one of Gary Semics' authorized teachers) teaches is body positioning. (The first is control positioning) When he moves around on the bike, he goes from hips over the handlebars (during full acceleration) to stretched back as far as he can (during hard braking).

Lets clear this up. The more acceleration you have on the face of the jump (read: cranking on the throttle right before and during the face of the jump) the more forward you need to be.

Exactly! Except it isn't just throttle position...you can be full throttle at low RPMs and not have much power. It is really how much drive you are getting and how hard you are accelerating.

Without that acceleration on the face of the jump since you already have the speed up to clear said obstacal the Less forward you need to be? What position is needed here.

Yep!

I've never done anything else than really goose it on and right before the face.

I rarely goose the throttle on takeoff. The only time I use that is when I already have more than enough speed and am coasting up to the jump, but need to blip the throttle because otherwise the sharpness of the takeoff would kick the back end up too high. In most cases, if you have got more than enough speed, you should start looking for an even tighter inside line before the jump.

Should the steepness of the jump affect how far forward you need to be when using the "goosing method". More steep, lean farther forward?

Actually, the opposite. Steeper jumps tend to kick the back end of the bike up more. To counter that, you normally need to be on the gas more and a little farther back.

On short, steep jumps, sometimes the front tire will already be in the air when the rear tire hits the jump. This will violently kick the rear end up and the front down. For those, I do blip the throttle very hard and pull back on the bars with a tight grip.

I wish I could do it as well as I can explain it! :confused:

 

[KawieKX125]

Just got back from my riding school, and you should not really chop the throttle at all on he face of the jump. This is what Gary Semics said todo, and since I have tried it, I have needed no airiel adjustments. GAry recommends that you should really just try to use your body position as you leave the face of the jump to control how the bike flies. If the bike is flying front end high, lean farther forward on the face of the jump, if endoig, do the opposit. Hey curt, next week or sometime, I will meet you at Rocky Hill and teach you all that I learned this weekend.

 

[Ocracing]

Awesome

Sounds great bro...

Thanks :)

 

[Okiewan]

Those saying not to chop the throttle; I would like the hear the definition of "chopping"...

As far as body position and rear brake and reving... watch McGrath as an example, (watch closely). While he may not be the fastest this year, he's still one of the smoothest, agreed?

He RARELY touches the brake or or panic revs. It's all body positon and throttle control. If you are on steady power, the bike will not try to go nose high. This assumes you compensate body position to the angle of the jump face. As mentioned, the steeper the face, the more forward you need to be.

IMHO (for what it's worth), "shutting off" the gas as you just left the face (rear has cleared the face), works in a similar fashion to the rear brake, although not as noticable. If you have good body position, normally you will fly flat. This effect is magnified on a 4-stroke (more engine braking) And big bores. It's a lot easier for me to move back to raise the front, than it is to move forward to lower the front. Right before I land, I'm on the gas hard which will drop the rear and soak up some of the hit.

Then again, I could be completely wrong. Done that before. :confused: And... you should listen to Gomer, he jumps bigger than me, course, he crashes a lot too :p

 

[High Lord Gomer]

HEY! I don't crash anymore! :)

I almost always chop the throttle after I've left the jump. Sometimes downshifting in the air helps to bring the front down even further.