Philadelphia Mountain Biking Association - Forums

ok i started out at northwestern and went down the right side of the river, first rode down the path until i got to the road crossing where the first bike path goes right into a giant of a hill which i got about half way up then the trail riding went perfect until i got to what you guys call the bowl so i thought i would play around a bit i got the nerve up to hit that big double well i am not sure how it happened but i cleared the whole dame thing by 4 extra feet hit with my rear tire almost stright up in the air flipped and and rolled into the tree, other then a few scratch and a realinement of the brakes the bike was fine but i do not understand why i flipped foward in the first place is there a reason or was it just a bad jump

Gotta learn to crawl before you can walk. Sounds like a good ride!

Try pushing down on the bars - roll up and over... had too much speed as well. You'd be surprised how slow you can take them... butter sweet

i am scared to take them to slow cause i dont want to case the jump i think that would hurt alot more

That is the reason why all jumps should be tabletops. This is something I would like to fix in the future. Honestly I've seen people case the intermediate doubles at wiss and the crash was not that bad. Most of the time you can still ride it out. Unless you case with your front wheel which could be really bad. I remember when Jamie cased a jump with his front wheel and he broke his fork in half and cracked his helmet. Tabletops!

Tom is exactly right.Progressive tabletops.

I agree on the tabletops. Any legitimate skills park will have tabletops of all different sizes. However, until the building of these jumps are "allowed" they will continue to be built as "gaps" simply because they are much easier to build: not near as much dirt to move. I personally love the gaps, because 1) they scare the hell out of me when I look at them and 2) I can jump them  ;D

But it took me years to work up the skills to hit them, so get out there are jump and jump and jump and jump. I still get the knotty feeling in my stomach when I am rolling up to them at high speed... That's half the fun to me...

The key to these, in my opinion, is knowing your bike like it is an exension of your body. If you have suspension, you need to know how it will react when you hit the face, leave the face, and land. Try adjusting the compression and rebound knobs, if you have them, to get the optimal set up. It's all about the tragectory you want... Sounds confusing but the more you jump the more you will understand... If you are hitting these on a hard tail you are a man and that's crazy stuff. But there is at least one guy who is hitting these on a Dirt Jumper...   

I'll be there several times this week!

Pro line will not be table tops!   >:(

I've cased the first pro line by about 2 and a half feet and rode it out, it was rough, and I even left a divit where my bash ring hit the top of the landing!  The expert line could be table tops, but honestly, if you can't hit those as doubles, you should be riding the beginner run.

i have a hardtail with front sus. what should i set the forks on as far as jumping

It's all trial and error. There is no magic "setting" that I can tell you. If you're a beginner you better take your time and stay on the small jumps and avoid the gaps until you develop the skills. Just my opinion. You can get really hurt at the bowl if you are not careful.

Hunter, yea we know you cased the jump, and didn't even think of fixing your divot. That's bad policy pal... I agree that those should never be tabletops. Gotta have jumps that separate men from boys  ;)

So when someone does not make the gap, faceplants and slaps a law suit on the park, will they send men or boys to come and destroy the precious jumps. They make standards for a reason boys.

well, Tom, Who's going to prepare the complicated paperwork, site plan, and pollitics to get them approved to get the funding to get the equipment and dirt to make these "tabletops"?

Like the great Governor Jesse Ventura said, "You can't legislate stupidity!" His example was ice fishing in Minnesota. He said every year idiots drive their cars on thin ice and die. You can't expect us to put a fence around the lake! It's called natural selection. Hahahahaha...

Anyway, I plan to devote more of my free time towards this skills area/park once the Rally is done and I am back from Fruita. My  volunteer trail maintenance hours will suffer but it will be worth it. My goal is to have this park either approved or built before I leave office in Feb of 2009.

Stay tuned...

i am going back to wiss sometime this week and i will start on the smailer ones to see how to get my angles down and try diff. settings on the fork and then move my way up and i promise i will not slap a lawsuit on the park if i get hurt on the jumps.........which according to the doc i did crack a lower rib when i hit last time but no worrys it never happened ;)

Hunter my dog has more hours working on the trail that you do. I've personally been at this for about 5 years. Glad you are finally on board.

Hahahahahahahahaha. It's true. ANyway, let's not hack this thread from eshullett any more. Glad to hear you're gonna head back for more. It sure is addicting. Good luck man. Hope to see you out there.