Why am I such a pansy?

[truth]

mmmm....cupcakes....


that's pretty much all I got out of this thread....

I prefered the loamy soil pics.

[hev]

woah, that's not at birch mt by chance is it? looks kinda familiar.

edit. n/m.

[skipolebasket]

Maybe your mind is saying to you: "hey, you don't have the ability to do that in control and there is a good chance you will hurt yourself"

[powderwhore]

I'd roll a manual over that shiz! Speed is your friend.

[Andy_B]

Of course the angle of the pics makes all the difference, but from what i can tell the second hit looks undoable. It just doesn't look like there's enough room to land the bike on top of it.

That and its a uphill landing on the 2nd rock....

[bio-smear]

Initially those cupcakes distracted me, but I'm getting into my own Mother's Taffy cookies here, so I'm going to continue with my dissertation.

Think about the body position that your BMX bike's geometry puts you into, and the amount of scrotum clearance you have on a little bike. Modern freeride doctrine subscribes more to this than to the old Ned Overend geometry that forces your ass way up in the air and hunches you over. A properly sized hardtail frame is going to be great for climbing, but not so great for getting your center of balance lower, for stuff like bunnyhopping and dropping off shit (not necessarily cliff drops.) On a BMX bike, when you land hard, your ass has ample room to drop down almost to the rear wheel. Of course, the stability on a BMX bike comes solely from the rider, since there's not much to grip with your knees or thighs.

When hucking, your body is the most important thing. In motocross, I see a lot of guys wad because they go off a jump in a rut, and they try to force the bike into a certain trajectory off the jump, and the rear end swaps one way or the other. The rider tries to stay aligned with the bike, and ends up with his/her body out of alignment to the trajectory. That's a mistake. Once your body is rotated wacky, you're fucked. A 230 lb motorcycle is going to track that rut off the jump, and the only thing the rider can do about it is let it go, deflect to one side or the other, then pull it back once in the air and it can no longer be acted on by the ground. The bike has it's own mass and it's best not to let it affect yours. You can even land all sideways and fucked on a full suspension bike, and if your body is well aligned with the direction of travel, you will recover, usually.

Bicycles are much more easy to wrangle than a motorcycle, but this thinking holds true. Maybe you should pick up a cheap BMX bike and go get back to your roots, it will help.

[JMO]

Maybe you should pick up a cheap BMX bike and go get back to your roots, it will help.

I am so tempted to do this. There were a couple jumps in Wellesley where I was KING! Ahhh...those were the days. Now, I just drool with envy while watching guys like mildbill huck massive cliffs.

[ShawnB]

It's true. Bikes have come a long way, especially for that type of riding. I wouldn't try much of anything on that bike...

I won't argue that bikes have come a long way and all, but cuh-huh-huh-MON already! It's just not the bike!

JMO, in this humble JONG's opinion, you just need to practice lifting your front end off of small straight drops at speed. Practice plus progression will make it all work fine. Don't throw your money away on a new bike until you at least LEARN how to ride the basics on this one, fer fuck's sake.

Yes, the doods know it's harder to launch with a longish stem, but please...you don't have to call in Gandalf to make the shit happen--you've just gotta yank harder. And hard yanking is truly my area of expertise.

Just practice. Practice yanking your bars up while riding off a curb at a good clip. We all had to figure it out at some point. When the curb's no worry, practice the same lift off a couple of steps. Once you get that dialed in, keep on working up a foot at a time, progression, blah blah blah.

Sorry for the kinda serious post, but it sounded like you were kinda maybe asking seriously for help. It's my respectful opinion that if you're asking this q, you need technique help, not a burlier bike. There's nothing great about your bike, but there's nothing that'll stop you from learning the essentials, either. Rip it. Go go go.

[watersnowdirt]

those cupcakes look good. seriously.

I have nothing else to add. I'm just finally learning to air little tiny drops. Definitely have endo'd many times before really understanding how to get the hang of it.

[skipolebasket]

I won't argue that bikes have come a long way and all, but cuh-huh-huh-MON already! It's just not the bike!

JMO, in this humble JONG's opinion, you just need to practice lifting your front end off of small straight drops at speed. Practice plus progression will make it all work fine. Don't throw your money away on a new bike until you at least LEARN how to ride the basics on this one, fer fuck's sake.

Yes, the doods know it's harder to launch with a longish stem, but please...you don't have to call in Gandalf to make the shit happen--you've just gotta yank harder. And hard yanking is truly my area of expertise.

Just practice. Practice yanking your bars up while riding off a curb at a good clip. We all had to figure it out at some point. When the curb's no worry, practice the same lift off a couple of steps. Once you get that dialed in, keep on working up a foot at a time, progression, blah blah blah.

Sorry for the kinda serious post, but it sounded like you were kinda maybe asking seriously for help. It's my respectful opinion that if you're asking this q, you need technique help, not a burlier bike. There's nothing great about your bike, but there's nothing that'll stop you from learning the essentials, either. Rip it. Go go go.

I like your style motherfucker

[edg]

I vote that's it's due to your inner pussy.

(Don't act like it doesn't exist, mary)

edg

[SKISC]

Hard to go wrong with a Specialized. I rode one for years. Just got a Giant Reign 1 and sometimes wonder what I was thinking. It is my first full suspension and I really want another hardtail.