You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
There's some trails near me (Yettington on Woodbury Common) most if which I'll ride fine.
In fact there's only one feature I can't seem to get my head around - a double with about an 8-10ft gap. So not even that big.
If it was a table top I'd hit it no problem, and I know I can clear it, but for some reason I've got the fear!
The trail it's on has a couple of other features, including a tree drop (which to clear it is probably 8ft out and 6ft down) again I do this with no worries.
I'm just overthinking it now. In reality I know I just need to do it and it'll (probably!) be fine.
OTOH we've all seen Friday Fails 😆
OTOH we’ve all seen Friday Fails
Stop watching Friday Fails, start watching Saturday Sends and you'll wonder why you're not pulling a back flip while clearing those doubles.
I'm just the same. Ended up building one with a bridge over it so I could clear it as a table first before removing, and I leave it there because the result is kid friendly. This is my own land but could you session it with something temporary to do a similar job just to take out of your mind the issue of coming up short?
The last set of doubles I tried I ended up breaking my hand, a full face helmet*, and nearly puncturing my abdomen. That a few deep cuts.
It was on a silly BMX though ..... I'm sure you'll be fine.
* This was sacrificed saving my teeth though that I was eternally grateful for. Still managed to cut under my eye.
Similar one on our local trails. Great run in and run out. Really well built. Don't have to do much but hit it at the right speed. I thinks it's 10 foot, others tell me it's closer to 8.
I've done it a few times. Some of those have been really close to failure. Or at least feel that way. Front landing on the top of the down ramp for example, or foot half off the pedal. Other gaps don't have that issue, I know it's because I'm scared and rigid!
I really have to follow someone in and then I'll commit. On my own tho, I nesh it 3 times out of 4. No advice other than stop watching Friday Fails (as above) and I have a commit line that when I'm past it, I'm definitely riding it.
I always think "al, you're 53 really you don't have anything to prove. Just leave it if it scares you. And yet EVERY BLOODY WEEK, I go through the same am-I or am-I-not at the start of the trail 😉
Yup, at 45 I seem to have suddenly developed a bit of a thing for wanting to jump. Lockdown for me seems to have precipitated a regression to childish aims. But I have technique issues. I can pop, but some psychological tick makes me flatted any jump with a steeper lip. Then I inevitably land nose heavy as well. Annoys me. I'm tempted to get a lesson.
YOu need to lose about 35 years in age, you'll nail them then.
For me, the best answer is repetition. Just keep doing things time and time and time again. Obviously with a double/gap that's harder as you can't warm up to it....
It's the gap, isn't it? I'm the same with doubles- if it was a table top, no hassle at all but once you dig the middle out everything changes. Having to (metaphorically) be at work in the morning doesn't help matters!
Hey someone who does do it to give you a metaphorical tow in, to a) judge speed, and b) distract you and psychologically set you up. Works for me 🙂
What's going to happen if you don't clear it really?
I don't know these jumps but my experience is if you give it a go and you don't quite make it its all fine.
If you try and change your mind last second nasty stuff happens. (From experience)
My mate followed the kids down a line last week and when I viewed his footage was genuinely the first time I'd seen the gaps from above. The kid reviewed and agrees he wasn't looking ahead .. still he cased and rode away.
Same day I did a ladder drop and cleared it then waiting for my mate who'd come off on a corner ... set off to do the double and realised I was in first but sent the gap anyway... didn't make it (as I knew before I tried)... another mate asked why I'd even tried it and I said the above.. I seem to hurt myself more when I try NOT to.
Most well built gaps and doubles the vertical might be huge at one end but at the landing end its usually tiny in comparison. In my head I'm aiming for the tiny end and looking ahead.
So my main tips (from experience not as an expert) are look ahead not at the gap/double and just commit, cases are never so bad as you think and trying to avoid it last second usually much worse.
Jedi / ukbikeskills training is great but one of the best bits for me was the hill and side-by-side tabletop / double he has.
Roll down from higher and higher up the hill until you're comfortably clearing the table. Then aim a few feet to the left and hit the identical profile double instead.
Jedi / ukbikeskills training is great but one of the best bits for me was the hill and side-by-side tabletop / double he has.
Roll down from higher and higher up the hill until you’re comfortably clearing the table. Then aim a few feet to the left and hit the identical profile double instead
IT's great i agree. My issue always was translating the jumps into real world trails. It changes things when you're out in the wilds and don't know the exact dynamics of the jump in detail.
OTOH we’ve all seen Friday Fails 😆
Yettington used to feature excessively on Friday fails! There was one from the tree drop further up the run which didnt look too nice though!
If you can clear the table at the bottom you can clear the double which is smaller, easier said then done though, I'd say if you have the fear, its going to be 70% mental and 30% actual skill to get over it, you could go elsewhere and practise or just huck it, if its the double I'm thinking of its not that tall and you actually land pretty deep as its downhill!
Easily fixed - just go gas-to-flat, ignore every feature including the landing!
Easily fixed – just go gas-to-flat, ignore every feature including the landing
Dammit you're right!
Anyone want to take bets on the outcome tomorrow.
I'm going to either crush it, or go down in flames.
Or I might take the suggestion of following someone in to gauge speed, etc.
You're all looking at it the wrong way
I can clear bigger doubles than I can tables. It's easier to commit to a double because you have no choice, with a table I will often brake check, because I know I can get away with it
At the local bikepark there's a black/red line that splits on a stepup. The black is a big takeoff over a gap onto a higher landing. You need to commit a couple of corners before and send it off the lip (some local legends seem to just roll off it and do flips but that's because they are not human) whilst the red is a tabletop of half the length with very slight stepup. I can make the black every time and I think I clear the red 50/50
The second black jump used to be a huge, blind stepdown requiring some hip to not end up in the bushes. Got that every time, whilst the tiny red tables I get probably 90% of the time. the black one is now a stupid big table, I doubt I will ever clear it, although the size of it means that it isn't really a caseable table I reckon. Good chance if you come up short you'll be getting a chopper out of the woods so that is some good motivation
I have no issue riding into stuff way beyond my skill level though so that helps. I know this has been said alot but remember to look down the trail and not at the jump
Another good tactic is to tell all your mates you are going to hit a certain jump, then you have no choice! Worked for me for several Alps trips (I did snap my frame, a wheel and a mech on the Oakley roadgap at SuperMorzine though, but rolled out of it unscathed. And it was my fault for doing it at the end of the day instead of earlier on)
Another good tactic is to tell all your mates you are going to hit a certain jump, then you have no choice!
More choice than having your sprog do it then you really have no choice. On the plus side I get a tow in.
Ha! I ride with my dad a lot and he doesn’t seem to follow that logic! He has the full bag of excuses
Did drag him down Champery WC once though and he was trying to go ride it again every day after that!
Don't think of it as a double, think of it as two nice small rollable mounds, slow down to roll them safely and ignore the angry shouts from behind you 🙂
Or I might take the suggestion of following someone in to gauge speed, etc.
what time? I could pop up and tow you in.
Is there a smaller one you can deliberately case the ever living shit out of to remind yourself that it's not THAT bad?
More choice than having your sprog do it then you really have no choice. On the plus side I get a tow in.
NAh, that window has now passed. He'll do stuff i wouldn't even consider !