Launching drops

BLACK TRAIL SKILLS

LAUNCH DROPS

Picking the front wheel up to launch off an edge and land flat on two wheels is an essential skill for any mountain biker. It’s also one that we see a lot of riders struggling with, whether through dropping the front wheel too early or not picking it up at all, at the risk of catching a chainring or going over the bars. We reckon most people’s problems come from either wrong body position, timing or speed, or simply a lack of confidence. If any of these ring a bell, read on and, with a bit of practice, soon you’ll feel much more confident diving headlong into technical trails.

1 TIMING

The two key elements to riding a drop-off are driving your feet forward through the pedals and shifting your weight back, in order to make the bar go light and so lift the front wheel. These must be done as one simultaneous movement as you reach the lip of the drop. Too early and you’re likely to drop the front wheel before the back wheel has cleared the lip. If you just try to pull up on the bar without changing your body position, you’ll struggle to lift the front wheel.

2 FIRST STEPS

Playing in the street might sound a bit juvenile, but a kerb or small step is definitely the best place to learn drops. The definite edge gives you a clear cue for when to initiate the movement, but the height isn’t so big that if you don’t manage it you’ll clip your chainring. Get the basics dialled here and then start increasing the size of the drops to build confidence. 3 SPEED IS YOUR FRIEND Well, relatively speaking – you need to approach the drop with enough speed to easily generate the upward momentum required. Creeping off the edge too slowly means you’ll have to really yank back on the bar or add a pedal stroke to lift the front wheel, and makes side-to-side balance harder too. Similarly, don’t go in flat out, as your speed and trajectory will do the work for you and you won’t learn the proper technique.

4 FASTER AND BIGGER

Whether you’re plopping off a kerb or sending a cliff at Red Bull Rampage, the principles stay the same. Once the mechanics become second nature, you can concentrate on spotting your landing. Going at full speed into a drop that doesn’t have a gap (ie. not a step-down), you’ll find you actually need to push down on the bars a little to scrub the drop so your bike meets the landing earlier, rather than thinking about lifting the wheel up as you would when learning.