Next step?

[lbk]

Ok so last two times I've been out, I've been doing some small jumps. Feeling more comfortable with it, but I still don't give it enough gas sometimes and come down nose heavy. The jumps I've been doing are on the Intermediate track where I go, and they are fairly small. One is a small tabletop and the other is a small set of doubles. I've been clearing the tabletop, and the doubles, so I wanted to try something just a bit more to help develop my skills.

So looking at, and riding around the big MX track there, I was thinking what would be the best place to try my next step. There is a set of doubles, that good guys clear, but the second jump has a pretty low angle to it, and I've watched plenty of people land on the face of that one. So I was thinking that would be a good place to try since I know I won't clear it, and like I said it isn't really steep that it's going land really hard on the face of it.

So would that be a good place, or I know a lot of people suggest tabletops as the place to start. Only problem there is they are pretty large, and I feel less comfortable landing on a downhill rather than an uphill. Does that even make sense?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[BEEF706]

In general a tabletop is a safer place to extend your distance, you can get a feel for the speed and ramp angles it takes to fly a certain distance and get comfortable.Landing on the flat part of a tabletop hurts less than landing on the face of the lander of a doulbe, especially when you have to carry the speed to clear a decent sized gap. If you are considering a double you might want to try pacing a rider who clears it; try to match their speed. A double with a worn down lander can be the safest to try first, but at some point you just have to commit and grab a little more speed. If you are landing nose down a lot you are probably rolling off the throttle a little on the face, its best to leave the lip with steady throttle ( keeps a level attitude in flight) or a little blip of throttle (gives a little more height, sometimes that is smoother) till you get used to it. if you are afraid of coming up short I think a ltiitle bit of throttle and wheel high is better than nosing in! :yikes:
Hope this helps, BTW, I have discovered that jumping and clearing them is a LOT less stress on my poor old bod than singling or coming up short. :joke:

 

[lbk]

Thanks for the info. I don't recall a true tabletop where it has a large landing area on top though on the bigger track. There is one on the Intermediate track and that was what I started on, and definitely made it easier. Now I'm clearing that tabletop, so was looking for the next thing. The tabletop that is on the big MX track, and maybe it's not actually a tabletop then, has a downward slope on the other side, that I think any decent speed that is where you're going to land.

As far as the nose down, yeah I know what causes it, and can get it right sometimes but not everytime. Part of the problem on that track is it is soooo.... tight that with a 125 if I don't nail the berm in front of it my speed is off that's when I wind up nose down. If I catch the berm just right then I'm setup and clear the tabletop and usually land both wheels, or rear wheel down first.

So I'll have to scout the big track some more see if there is something like that tabletop where it has a decent level surface to land on. But I think most of them have the decline on the other side which is the part that intimidates me.

Don't think I'm ready to try clearing the doubles yet so maybe I'll stay away from those for now. Again thanks for the advice, and I'll have to check it out some more to figure out which one looks to have the level surface.

 

[chewgravel]

I am not actually sure what it is called when there is a ramp, then a real short area of hill then down again. But, thanks to some help from the women's forum, I have learned to handle these well and enjoy the heck out of them. I was only comfy with coming up and landing on a flat surface at first. Then quite by accident I got my first real flying lesson. Then the trick was to learn to land without the nosedive. Stay on the throttle evenly until the rear wheel clears the knoll. That works well for me. It is actually neater than going up and landing out on a flat area. More flying time I think?