I feel for ya… I tried dirt jumping a few times and I think for me, the unnatural feeling of the bike pitching forward off the lip is what I couldn’t get over. I would freeze in the air and basically land how I took off… no presence of mind while in the air. I imagine if I had a stuctured, bike park-like setting to instruct me in safety, I may get the hang of it.
Then again, maybe I’m too old to learn new tricks. http://resource.pedaltrout.com/old_site_images/5ec3bb4781c8e43a51d3a1a948b98fc0.gif
I’ve had my Spec. P.2 jump bike for a couple of years now, and it’s been a great investment. I have a lot of fun on it, and it’s been great for fitness - I really enjoy pump tracking on it, and I ride the skate park, although I still don’t really do much there beyond pumping the walls of the bowls and hitting some small jumps out of the bowls.
…but I’m only just hitting the bigger dirt jumps at the bike parks now. Still not very good at it, and just starting to get backside. Too busy riding trail to spend enough time to get good, and I’m a scared old guy.
One thing I’ve noticed I’ve been doing lately, is when I get nervous going up a bigger jump than I’m used to, or faster than I’m used to, I back pedal going off the lip! What’s up with that? It’s distinctly unhealthy because it throws off my balance, and doesn’t set me up for the landing. How do I stop myself from doing this?
A great chef once said start with brussel sprouts, and work your way up to cabbage…
Go back to some smaller jumps, and see if you still back pedal, to some extent. If you do, work on eliminating it somehow, and keep using that technique on bigger and bigger jumps. Hopefully you can unlearn it somehow.
All this advice comes from a non-dirt jumper mostly, so grasp the sodium chloride between your thumb and pointer finger.
