Takin' Big Hits
Ever been biking flat-out on some unfamiliar trail when you suddenly encounter
the "Wild Root Animals?" There are also the Trunk and Stump, close
relatives of the Root. These plentiful creatures seem to like to
"school" close to mountain biking trails and ski runs.(School, not herd.
Yes, I've heard of school but I don't go anymore.) Having little
experience with the latter of the two sports, I have met many of these
floor-dwelling creatures on mountain bike rides - and I mean "met"
intimately.
The first time a Root crossed the trail, it coincided with my first
trip to the Highway 9 trail at Skyline. The best way to describe the trail
is sheer elegance - "difficult".
Try to picture a slightly downhill section of aluminum loading ramp about
40 feet long. Now, replace the aluminum edges of the ramp with 2 to 10
inch intertwined, exposed tree roots. Next, take a 40 pound mallet
and make sure the center of the ramp is as smooth as a merger between
two software companies (Beat the daylights out of it).
Place about 200 ramps which match the above specification on top of each
other, like they were fan-folded. Put them at 60 degree angles from one another,
end to end.
Getting the picture yet???
It wasn't enough that you had to deal with "Lord Gravity" and the "Blessed
Mother of Accelleration", you also had to "stay within the roots" and
be prepared to turn a downhill 180 with a pantload in tow.
Now you may think that I was going to tell you I crashed - no. If you crash
there, I believe you would be very dead. If you did not die, I am sure
you will have wished you did.
Believe it or not, I made it to the bottom - with my wife!!!!!
You see, this was Day 2. Day 2 is the day after you get your first new
mountain bike - you may remember this. Day 2 is that day where you have
your new bike, perhaps some new gear, and with your new helmet you feel
like you could climb up the side of Everest without breaking a sweat.
You are not thinking of things like, "if the ride is downhill for 8 miles,
how the hell are we going to get back?"
We were also not aware that you could get rigor mortis without being
dead. But after going downhill with the brakes on, and taking the same
amount of time it takes the FDA to approve a new drug, you have a bad case
of "hands which will not move."
It took a few minutes to recover from all of our symptoms of Day 2.
Thank goodness we had water with us. We didn't know it at the time, but
without the water we truly would have been in poop creek without a
propulsion device.
I knew the ride back was going to be a bear, but I had no idea of the
magnitude of the task. It also never occurred to me that I had only seen
two people going UP the trail as I was coming down - until I started
pedaling.
The first 50-or-so feet went really well. It was the first Root I hit that
started all the problems.
Granted I had the same lung capacity as a luna moth, I was still mentally
convinced I could make this trail. I lunged the tire over the Root and
pedaled on. Boom, I hit the next Root. Corrected and back on the seat,
I forged on - again I hit a Root.
After about 15 minutes I realized I had gone about 40 feet and managed
to get off my bike about 8 times. My superior abilities of deduction
were telling me that something was wrong.
It probably took about 2 hours for us to get to the top of the trail, and
we ended up walking most of it.
Reflecting on the event with my wife, I knew our inability to lift the
front tire was what had slowed our ascent to a minor crawl. It became
clear to me that I would need to know how to take hits, big hits.
Now, before you go out to get some dry ice and an acrylic filtering device,
there are better ways to take big hits with your mountain bike.
When you are trying to pedal over an obstacle you have to deal with
the "Dean of Inertia". The Dean is rather strict about what can, and cannot
happen to you based upon the amount of inertia you carry. In fact, the
more you ride your MTB, you will learn that the more inertia you carry with
you the better. The Dean has some simple rules you need to follow to
prevent stopping prematurely, or stuffing your front tire onto some
immoveable object.
Yes, you have to practice this.
You see, the Dean carries a big stick. When you make a mistake, the Dean
is right there to whack you on the body part that most fits the crime.
If you want to avoid contact with the Dean, you must learn ways to carry
more inertia with you.
Some people go out and buy all kinds of cool gear, or fancy jerseys with
lots of pockets. Other people go out and get a suspension fork for their
mountain bike thinking that this will allow them to clean any obstacle at
any speed. This will do nothing for you in the real world, and you can
expect the sting of the Dean when you try your feats of momentum without
the proper amount of inertia in tow.
When you hit an obstacle with your front tire you start a process of
energy-transference which is akin to the old toy with the five suspended
metal balls. If you recall, you can swing one of the metal balls and
it will hit into the rest of the balls and cause the ball on the opposite
end to start swinging also. The result is that the balls on opposite
ends take up the energy and pass it back and forth until it is all
spent.
When I was hitting the roots on the trail, I did not have sufficient
inertia to push the bike over the obstacle. The front tire would
contact the Root, and without the proper inertia, the tire had nowhere
to go. The energy of bumping into the Root was then transferred from the
front tire of the bike, down the length of the bike, and into the rear of
the bike. The unwanted result was that the rear tire was "lofted" off
of the trail and into the air - even if only for a few millimeters.
By the time the energy reaches the rear of the bike you have lost some
of the initial energy you had, and you have caused the front tire to
completely stop rotating. Once the energy makes its way back towards the
front of the bike you better have your feet on the ground, or you may
go over the bars.
Sound familiar??
If not, think of a case where you were riding and you did something to
cause the front tire to get stuffed into something. You know you have to
put your feet down, or you are going to fly off the bike like a stuntman
in a Chick Norris film.
>From the point of view of the Dean of Inertia, you did not carry enough
inertia to clear the obstacle. The problem with the Dean is that he has
no understanding of broken bones. There are obstacles you can clear if
you have enough speed, but you may die about 10 feet past the obstacle
if you try.
You can trick the Dean if you know how. There are no rules that you have
to be on the ground to clear an obstacle. In fact, the less of you and
the bike which is on the ground, the less inertia you need to get over
something, and the more forgiving the Dean can be.
Instead of hitting Root's, one could lift the front tire over the Root as
it is approached. By doing this, you need less inertia and you run a
much lower risk of stopping abruptly and unexpectedly.
Doing a Wheelie:
This is actually the easier of the tricks needed to foil the Dean. The
trick to a wheelie is your pedal position. You need to know where you are
on the pedal stroke to determine the height and duration of your wheelie.
Start with your standard 5 inch sidewalk curb. See if you can find a curb
with grass on the other side of it - this makes run-ins with the Dean
much easier as you learn to wheelie.
Approach the curb at a speed which is a bit higher than you think is
necessary (Trust me). As you approach the curb, stop pedaling and get
your stronger leg just past the top of a pedal stroke. About 1 wheel
diameter (26 inches) before you hit the curb, press down hard with your
pedal and thrust the bars back and up into your face. (Note: do not let
the bars hit your face) As you press on the pedal and pull on the bars,
lean back a little bit. This takes some practice, but you will be able
to get the front wheel off the ground high enough to clear the curb if
you prctice a few times.
Unfortunately, you still have the rear tire to deal with.
About the time you realize you are successful at getting the front tire
to clear the curb, you may be abruptly stopped when the rear tire hits
the curb. This is where you have to foil the Dean of Inertia.
Somewhere between clearing the curb with the front and hitting the curb
with the rear, you need to shift your weight forward - perhaps even
pedal if you want to make it easier. If you do this right, the rim will
hit the curb with a thud, but it will keep rolling up and over the
edge of the curb and you will still be rolling!! Sound amazing? It isn't!
A wheelie is a great survival tool. You can use a small wheelie to
get your front tire over a Root or a bigger wheelie to get onto something
for a climb.
As with anything you try the first time, there is a bit of excess
enthusiasm involved. So, in case you are wondering, you will not need the
extra 2 feet of air you may get while you are learning to do a wheelie.
Conservation of energy will make the wheelie easier - only go as high as
you need to. Low-altitude wheelies are also more indicative of safe
landings.
Before moving on, you need to know about your front suspension fork (if
you have one that is). If you have a front fork, you will need to actually
practice harder than if you had a rigid fork. In the case of a front
fork, you need to only get the front wheel high enough to kiss the curb
as you hit it, thus making a smooth transition. If you think this is easy,
it is not. The reason is simple though. You do not want to compress your
fork on the sidewalk if you can avoid it, and yet you are hammering it up
the curb like a tractor going over school bus. (hey, I didn't do it!)
Let's look at our fork work in macro-vision.
If you violently jerk up on the bars to start your wheelie, you are going
to rapidly extend the front suspension to its limits. This is called
"topping out." You will be extending the fork as you leave the earth,
but you want to do this in an even, upward thrust. This will keep the
fork from using all of its extended travel when you leave the ground.
This will help you and the fork land the front tire better!
After you have left the ground, your fork is in a state of "rippling"
from the launch from the terra firma. It was extended when you started the
wheelie, and now it has reached the full length of its travel and is
beginning to rebound towards compressing itself back down again.
All of a sudden, you put the tire on the curb with the grace of a
jackhammer. The fork starts to compress, the fork bottoms out, the
fork flexes to one side a bit, the tire deforms....It is an ugly sight!
If you can loft the tire right onto the curb as you approach it, then
the tire will not hit so hard, the fork will not compress to the limits,
and you will land smoother with more of your inertia intact. This, in
turn, will confuse the "Dean of Inertia" into letting you
pass. It is Sheer elegance!
Bunny-hops:
These are not recommended. You cannot jump yet. Come back to this after you jump a
bit.
Jumping:
It seems strange to me that this is called "jumping". It should be called
"landing" because if you do not land right it can turn a beautiful body
into something that looks like it followed a corpse through a keg of nails.
One thing you never stop learning about are jumps. Just when you think
you can catch air on the slightest irregularity in the trail and land with
the grace of a Harrier jet, you will screw up some simple air-opportunity
and end up on your butt looking like the Harrier landed on your face!
There is no wisdom about jumping to impart other than the landing. One
can speculate about how to react to the incline of the 'launching ramp',
but the secret in the jump is the landing.
At first, you will want to practice jumping to land on both tires and
maintain control of the bike. You will also want to practice pedaling
out of, and braking after a jump. This sounds completely silly, but if
you cannot land you cannot jump well. The amount of "air" you catch will
grow in time. Do not be in a hurry to get 4 feet in the air - the
landings are a real pantload and mistakes are met with swift repercussions.
Using the same curb (make sure someone else has not read this and is
practicing in the same place), practice going off the curb. When you go off,
try to do a mini-wheelie to keep the front end level. If you do this
right, you will land on both wheels at the same time on the same
line you took when you left the curb. If you pull too hard you will
probably feel your rear tire hit first, and if you do not pull hard enough,
you will feel the front tire hit the street first (sometimes followed
by rock entering your nostrils).
Make sure you have this down well. You need to be able to come at the curb
from the sidewalk at any safe angle and leave the curb smoothly while
landing on both tires at the same time. You should then still have
control of the bike so that you can pedal on, or you can stop if needed.
As you get better, see if you can land with a bit less intensity. You will
find that you can land much softer than you could when you first start
practicing.
The next variation on this is to see how far you can "fly" before you
hit the street. If you are not landing real hard, you are ready to
see how far you can go. Find some soft, innocuous object like a piece of
a garden hose, an old glove, or something which is soft but has a
"unique" side/look to it.
Place the object on the street about 15 inches from the curb. Now try to go
off the curb, clear the object, and still land smoothly.
For those of you who are forked, concentration on smooth take-offs and
landings is most critical here also. Just like with the wheelie, if
you are muscling the bike or hammering on the fork, you will have a real
hard landing, and in this case, you may not be able to stay on after a
botched landing.
Since the object has that "unique" side, it will tend to move or roll over
if you hit it. If you clear the object, it will not move. As you get
better, keep moving the object farther from the curb until you get about 5
to 7 times the distance of the curb's height.
You will know if you move it too far. You will not be able to land with any
control (lofting it) or you will never clear the mark.
Bunny-hops revisited:
You jumped ahead didn't you!
If you really practiced wheelies and jumping, you are about 75% of the way
to being a bunny-hoppin' fool.
If you did not practice wheelies and jumps well, this will be frustrating
and time-consuming.
To be clear, it is assumed that you can wheelie up a curb without crashing
or stopping, and it is assumed that you can do this smoothly.
It is also assumed that you can jump twice as far as a curb is high
and land smoothly.
If you have a fork, you must be able to land without bottoming out. If
you find this is hard, you may want to dial the preload or damping
to a higher setting. Personally, I hate suspension changes as they can
make something you previously learned hard to do again.
Ok, now that you have signed your own mental disclaimer, let's go hop
something. How about a 2X4?
Take a section of 2X4 and lay it down in your practice area (street,
driveway, roof, whatever). The idea is to start with a wheelie and
try to get over the board without hitting your tires on it.
Start your approach to the board with enough speed to keep you moving
after you clear the board. Just as you are about 1 wheel diameter from
the board, start your wheelie. As soon as your wheelie is high enough to
clear the board, pretend you are jumping off the curb by pressing down
a bit on the bars and rolling your wrists forward.
This is hard, so plan on spending a few hours practicing.
Unknown to you, you learned how to load the tires for a jump when you
were trying to clear the curb. If you think about it, you have to
put weight on the rear tire just as you want to leave the curb and then
"spring" up to get the tire to leave the curb and land smoothly on the
street. The concept here is the same, but you have to use your wrists
to adjust the altitude of the wheels a bit more.
Let's try the hop again.
Start towards the board. Just before you get to it, load the tires up with
the weight of your body by crouching down just before you do your wheelie.
Start the wheelie by bouncing up from the slight crouch you are in, and
as the front wheel leaves the ground, pull up on the bars a little and
start to roll your wrists forward slightly. This will cause the rear tire
to meet the altitude of the front tire. You are now in the air.
If you did this right, you will clear the board with no problems. If you
are having problems, try for a bit, but then take a break and go work
on wheelies and jumping some more.
Bunny-hops have the side effect of being hard to master and easy to
perform incorrectly. Do not spend a ton of time working on bunny-hops as
you will usually get into the rut of learning bad habits. Once you learn
the basics, you will find that time on a trail will help you the most.
Also, it takes some strength to get a good bunny-hop. Do not be discouraged
if you cannot bunny-hop the first month after you get your bike or start
training. It can take a few months to master as you build muscles and
coordination. For now, if you can jump and wheelie, you can survive on
the majority of your chosen trails.
One other last note about hopping on trails - it can hurt when you do
it wrong. If you are approaching an obstacle and you are not sure you
can hop it, don't! Unless you are sure you can clean some object in
your path, do not even try. Confidence will help you more than the need
for speed. There is nothing wrong with stopping your bike, getting off,
and walking around some insurmountable object instead of slamming into
some tree or rock becuse you misjudged your abilities.
If you always err on the side of caution, you will usually be able to
get home with you and the bike in one relative piece. This is generally
referred to as "winning".
So the next time you see one of those brutal little trail creatures
obstructing what could be a perfect line, take to the air and pass the
rodent like a bowl of Mongolian BBQ. Keep yourself aware of the rules
governing the "Dean of Inertia" though, or something will knock the air out
of you!
Flyin Al
Got a question for Flyin' Al?
If you have any fishing or mountain biking questions for Flyin' Al,
you can send an email to:
aeb@adobe.com
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