Doing Drop-offs
There are two techniques for doing drop-offs. One is the well-known wheelie drop method and the other is the unnamed "airing off" method. Different situations call for different adaptations of these techniques, but the most important factor that determines how you drop off an obstacle is your speed. If you're moving at walking speed or less, chances are the best technique is wheelie dropping. If you are going faster than walking speed, it is most likely easier and safer to just air off. Other factors that affect the drop are grade (you'll almost never wheelie drop off a downhill drop), the nature of the landing, and the nature of the approach. So how are these techniques learned and how are they put into practice?
The wheelie drop
If you have ever seen the movie Torque, then there is nothing new that you will hear from me. However I disagree with what Wade described as a wheelie drop. He said that you pedal off the stunt, and stop pedaling BEFORE your back wheel clears the edge. With this, your front wheel starts to come down and you land both wheels at a time. This technique works well in BC and on most trail-based stunts, because the landings of these are almost always onto a downhill, where it is preferable to land both wheels at the same time. However, here in Ontario, urban riding is more common than stunts, and the preferable wheelie drop technique here is to land back wheel slightly first. This is because we land onto flat landings, which are usually concrete. Landing both wheels at once onto flat concrete usually means a loss of all forward speed and a really hard hit on the bike and rider. If you land a drop on your back wheel first, you can distribute the hard force of landing onto concrete through a longer time period by pulling back onto the handlebar as gravity pulls your front wheel down. This eases the stress on the bike and makes you a smoother rider. Notice that you will almost never see a trials rider land on both wheels. Trials riders do huge drops on rigid bikes, so they have to be very smooth. They always land on their back wheels.
To wheelie drop, come straight at your drop-off. Go slow (less than walking speed) and have your bike geared such that you can torque it without shifting. I prefer to use my middle ring and my third cog for extremely slow speed wheelie drops or when I drop from uphill stuff or my middle ring and fourth cog if I am doing concrete ledges or stuff where I have a little bit of forward momentum. When you are getting close to the drop-off, stand up and pedal hard, so that you unweight your front wheel. Lean back and pull up on the handle bar as if trying to mount a curb so that you don't have to accelerate too much to get that front wheel up. I always keep two fingers on the brakes when doing any sort of stunts, including wheelie drops. This provides insurance in case you lean too far back and start to fall over. It doesn't matter how far back from the edge of the drop-off you lift your front wheel, but about half a wheelbase is good for starting. You can go right to the edge and then pull up or you can pull up 3 bike lengths before the edge and wheelie towards it. (Remember to stand.) Pedal such that your front wheel maintains its height above the back wheel, but you don't have to be as high as when you are wheelieing down the sidewalk. When you get over the edge, keep pedaling and look for your landing. (Here is where my tip differs from Wade's) Keep pedaling until your rear wheel flies clear of the edge. When you begin to plummet towards earth, there are two things that you will need to do between the time that your rear wheel leaves the edge and the time that your rear wheel touches down.
The first thing is that you will have to find a good position for your feet. Many people refer to having a "chocolate foot", or a foot which they prefer to always have forwards when doing any sort of balance stuff on the bike. I find that with freeriding (as opposed to trials), the chocolate foot concept is dangerous. You must get used to landing with whatever foot is convenient at the time. Having a chocolate foot occupies riders' minds and they are not thinking about the other important things for proper drop-off handling. Also, having a chocolate foot bends your components. If you switch up your landings from right foot first to left foot first a lot, then you will find that your pedal axles, crank arms, and bottom brackets last longer.
The second thing that you should do is to stand up straight over your bike. This is so that you can move back more when you land and distribute the force of the landing over a longer time. You should be standing up and pedaling to find a good landing position for your feet at the same time, because you don't have that much time in the air…
When coming in for the landing, your feet should be level, and you should be in an upright position with the bike standing somewhat. The higher you bring the bike, the higher the potential for a super-smooth landing. Sometimes I bring the bike so upright that it's almost at my chest with the handlebar. But this is rarely, if ever, necessary. Just have the bike up somewhat. As your back wheel touches down, you should feel a tremendous pulling force on your arms as gravity tears at the front wheel to come down. You will also feel yourself getting pulled off backwards. If your arms are strong enough to resist these forces, then 95% of the work in smoothing your landing is already done. If your arms aren't that strong (read: if you're like me), then you really have to time the movement correctly to make your landing smooth. Make sure that the rate at which your body travels backwards is the same as the rate at which your front wheel is going down. This takes practice, and the best thing for fast improvement is to get a friend to videotape you from the side, so that you can watch yourself and know how to improve. I find it difficult to describe what exactly has to be done for the landing of a wheelie drop, because that comes naturally when you get the approach and takeoff right. Just practice and you'll figure it out.
Tip for making wheelie drop practicing easier: come at the ledge at an angle other than 90 degrees. I find that this make me more comfortable with the drop, because the landing comes into view sooner.
Airing off a ledge
This is so much cooler than wheelie dropping. You can go at any speed that is equal to or faster than walking speed. Also, this maneuver can be done without the use of a chain or brakes. You just go. Bomb towards your drop-off, and as your front wheel approaches, pull back (not up) on your handlebar and balance your bike side-to-side with your legs as you manual (wheelieing without pedaling) towards the ledge. As your back wheel drops off the ledge, you can do the same things as you do for a wheelie drop or you can land both wheels at a time, because the additional forwards momentum makes the down force feel more manageable upon impact.
As with wheelie dropping, the trick here is to practice. I learned how to do both of these techniques off curbs! That's a whopping 6" drop!!! When learning or practicing these techniques, keep in mind Leslie's tip (October 2000), which is to look where you are going. Don't watch your front tire in the air, and don't watch the ant that you are going to land on. Look back and forth between the landing and a few meters ahead of the landing. Looking ahead of the landing instead of at the landing is the difference between a lot of bad freeriders and the good ones. Good freeriders (who look like they ride smooth and in control of the trails) are looking ahead and planning their next move while in the air of the last move. The bad riders jump and only concentrate on the landing of the jump, and then after the landing realize that they are heading towards a street or a car or something, and have to jam on the brakes. Concentrate on where you need to go. Happy airing!
Mr. Huck
January, 2001 |