Jumping / drops???

[scaley187]

Anyone got any suggestions on where a good, safe (as in I won't kill myself) place is to practice hitting some larger jumps or drops than places like leb / mammoth have to offer? Anywhere near or in the twin cities? I'm down with the urban free ride options but I just was wondering where some choice options are? Any natural stuff?

[TrailSquirell]

easies id say would be stair gaps for jumps, landin maybe half to 3/4 the way down, depends on the size, or ride some skinnies and drop off em. Find a dh trail with some good size jumps and slam those hard. Thers always stuff around town... say a ledge you can ride on.

[scaley187]

Yeah, I'm up in NE MPLS and there are a fair number of concrete drops/stairs, warehouse docks (haven't worked up to that yet) but I didn't know if there were any dirt jump tracks anywhere or some nice rock cliffs near the river or whatever...

[TrailSquirell]

rock cliffs by the river yes, i live up near duluth so i got plenty of stuff to learn on up here, advance skills ecsetera. haha, i can't spell! but loading docks... they ares hard at all. Pull a trials landing (land rear tire first, not both tires at once, major jar on the bars even with a few inches of travel), with your tires pumped up a lil bit more than normal, so you don't pinch em flat.

[scaley187]

Yeah, I'm riding a hardtail Jamis Komodo 2 and even with the 150 mm travel front fork I've noticed that the landings on anything over 2.5 feet can feel a bit hard. That and I've got to learn to get my damn right foot to find the pedal on anything much bigger than that. I don't know what it is but my right shin takes a beating! Left sticks to the pedals like glue. :)

Anyway, the riding in Duluth is pretty good then for freeriding? I've got to come and check it out up there!

[TrailSquirell]

its fun up here, we have a few hidden trails that are hush hush, otherwise we have downtown duluth that is much like down town miniapolis but more fun for me, thers hills lol

[scaley187]

Yeah, its not fair - but on the plus side we do have a great set of trails around here and plenty of urban variety.

But back on topic - you got any suggestions on sticking bigger landings?

[TrailSquirell]

like i said before, trials landings, it takes alot of time to get up to big heights. I'm runnin 100m in the front on my se racing x4 flyer 26", and i just made an 8ft drop last night, and i'm not guna do it agian, it hurts when you get that high. The trials landings help alot thow, how you do it is pretty much a controled wheely off something, start small, like 2 feet, and work up. I did it off picknick table seats and the tops for a long time for practice, and i've been doin it on docs for about a year now, its really not that hard, it just looks harder than it is.

[scaley187]

Trials landings would help. I am currently building a trials specific bike now so maybe with both options I'll finally be able to nail the landings. In a quest to find more good down hills with "jumps" I've also been hitting the lips and slopes of retention ponds in my neighborhood. Turns out they also have nice tiered concrete retaining walls too for side hopping. But I guess if I want a good clean line for drops, etc. I'll have to head north to Duluth or east to Wisc.

[TrailSquirell]

i live in superior wi, so it can get fun up here.

if you really wanna practice doing jumps, go to a local skate park, it helps alot, or go to some dirtjumps, ask around, i'm sure ther are some close if not in the cities

[manual63]

If you find one of those concrete loading docks that have the slope, you can practice on that. They are usually easy to find in warehouse districts. The slope allows you to start out at a lower height and keep working your way up to the higher height. I did the opposite back in the 80's when I wanted to learn to bunnyhop higher. I found one of those variable height loading docks and kept working my way up. I even marked it and I progressed over the months. They probably wondered why there were little slashes in the concrete after awhile....:)