I have been working on landing what I call a rolling jump. Not sure what it is really called. I basically ride down a driveway between the sidewalk and the street and then up the beginning of the curb as it rises up on the edge of a driveway and try to launch off. You get the same effect if you ride towards a ramp that has the top set at about 7" and then ride up and off.
If I hit it right, meaning if the pedals are near horizontal on landing, it seems to work okay. However, if I land with the pedals in the vertical, I often dump the muni, or land awkwardly.
How should I proceed. Do I try to spin to the horizontal while in mid air? Do I just learn to deal with the odd pedal position because that is how the real world works?
I don’t want to stop and hop up to the spot and jump. That’s not what I want to work on. I can do that already, albeit slowly.
Some times I’ll do the Scoobie Doo thang, spinning to a new position while in the air. This may have it’s place, but for me initiating and landing jumps only from ‘optimal’ positions is a handy cap I hope to shed- for small drops; for larger drops, you want all the compression room you can get. On fast and furrious decents I might have to take many rappid short drops at odd pedal positions to avoid breaking cadence. IMHO, being able to take short drops as they come is as valueable as being able to set up optimal landings.
Key to taking impacts at odd crank angles is even foot pressure all the way around the rev.
I wonder if the difference isn’t more in your launch than it is in the landing? Do you have much opertunity to ride fast, chopy decents? How 'bout stairs? I’m starting to get to the point where stairs are no longer a series of individual crysis, but a process. Since the steps don’t kindly sincopate themselves to your pedeling, even foot pressure is important all the time. Hitting the bottom throws me more than the ride, since it requires a quick, controlled reaction at an unpredictable crank position. Practicing stairs might help.
Your right, my problem might be in the beginning and not so much in the landing - something to look for. I like your suggestion about doing stairs. I know where I can find 4 long and shallow stairs to work.
Sorry, no long fast descents - just yet. Workin on the slower technical single track aspects, currently.
> If I hit it right, meaning if the pedals are near horizontal
> on landing, it seems to work okay. However, if I land with
> the pedals in the vertical, I often dump the muni, or land
> awkwardly.
>
> How should I proceed.
Land with the pedals horizontal. You will always get a better landing this
way, if you have a choice. If one pedal is down, your leg doesn’t have the
room to compress on impact. Unless you ride with your seat real low, you can
bounce off your seat, and have your bottom foot come off the pedal to the
rear. You probably already know that part.
So even on really small jumps there should be enough room to make a 1/2 (or
less) turn of the wheel to get your feet where they need to be.
