Hey everybody! I got my scanner, so take a look at the photos
below!
I was at the local track last night, throwing down some
skills and generally impressing myself, when I heard a rider ask
my wife, "Did that guy on the big bike ever race?"
"Yes," my loyal partner responded. "He races now, too."
"Can you race when you,re that old?" the kid inquired, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.
"Sadly, yes," Mrs. Boswell replied. Another reminder that the sun is setting on "old" Jim Boswell. Like old folks everywhere, though, I have a lot of stories to tell, and maybe even a bit of useful information. Let,s talk about jumping. New riders, particularly older Rookies who haven,t put a lot of time in on their bikes lately, usually have more trouble with jumping than with any other part of BMX. Most of that trouble stems from the idea that everything has to be jumped. That is never the case. There is always a safe way over an unclearable jump, and there is, sometimes, a quick one.
There are three basic strategies for getting over an average track obstacle. I have named them Compress, Lift, and Hop. If you master these three methods and consciously apply them throughout your race, you will make it to the finish line in one piece. As George Zimmer would say, "I guarantee it."
The photos below show trail jumper and 14 Novice Steven Hamilton applying the three methods of Compress, Lift, and Hop. We took the photos on a local trail to drive home the point that most jumps are more rideable than you would think.
Let,s start with the Compress technique. Compressing is designed
for jumps that are just too big to "speed-jump" or clear.
It is the easiest, and slowest, of our three methods. To Compress
a jump, we will ride straight at it, stopping our pedalling about
one bike length before the beginning of the slope. As our front
wheel rides up the slope of the jump, we will slowly bend our
elbows, as shown in Photo 1. By the time we reach the top of the
jump, our elbows will be fully bent and our head will be close
to the handlebars. As the rear wheel comes up the slope of the
jump, we,ll also bend our knees. Take a look at Photo 2. Steven
is at the top of the jump. His elbows are fully bent as his front
wheel goes over the top of the jump. His knees are bent a little
more than halfway because his rear wheel is about halfway up the
slope.
Steven isn,t the world,s biggest rider, so his body is centered above his frame. The bigger you are in relation to your bike, the more you will lean back while Compressing. As your front wheel passes the top of the jump, extend your elbows and "push" the handlebars away from you, as Steven is doing in Photo 3. When you do this, you will feel your bike speed up a bit. As you ride away from the jump, straighten your legs and begin pedalling.
We,ve used a small jump in our photo, but Compressing is even more useful on a wall-style jump. Simply time your Compression so that your elbows aren,t "maxed out" until you hit the top of the jump, and everything will work out fine. You,ll see in the photos that Steven,s front wheel left the ground a little bit. That,s okay, and usually pretty safe. I can Compress most jumps hard enough that I never leave the ground, but I have a little bit more weight to hold me down than our photo model. If you are Compressing over a rhythm section, try pushing down on the back of each hump, which will speed you up and extend your arms again so you can Compress the following hump.
The next technique is called Lift. This is faster than Compress, and is the basis of so-called "speedjumping". You can actually learn to Lift by riding speedbumps in your neighborhood. Get that right, and sooner or later you,ll be Lifting up seven-foot wall jumps.
In Photo 4, we see Steven riding up to the same jump as in
the previous photos. This time, however, he,s picked his front
wheel up off the ground. You,ll want to pick your front wheel
up about half a bike length away from the slope of the jump. You
don,t have to have your front wheel nearly as high as Steven does;
the technique in the photo is a bit exaggerated. Photo 5 shows
Steven beginning to ride over the jump. Notice that his shoulders
and head are a lot closer to the bars than in the previous shot.
That,s because his rear wheel is coming up the slope of the jump.
He,ll even his front and rear wheels out on the top of the jump,
as shown in Photo 6. Once his rear wheel starts to ride down the
back of the jump, he can start pedalling. If he,s really interested
in going fast, he can "push" his handlebars away from
him on the back of the jump, just like he would if he had chosen
to Compress.
Lifting is pretty simple. Ride hard up to the jump, pull your front wheel up half a bike length before the slope begins, and push the bars down once you,ve gotten over the top. On a tabletop, you won,t need to push your bars down; you,ll simply level out on top.
New riders are often afraid to Lift because they think they,ll fall off the back of the bike. There,s not too much chance of that, because your rear wheel will start to even you out the second it starts riding up the slope of the jump. The only way you,re going to fall off backwards is if you keep pulling up after you pass the jump,s lip.
The last way to get over a jump is to Hop. Photo 7 shows Steven preparing to Hop. As he rides up to the jump, his elbows and knees are already bent. As his front wheel touches the lip of the jump, he will more or less bunnyhop, as shown in Photo 8. Finally, Photo 9 shows Steven in the air with his rear wheel down. This is called "Eighties-style" jumping by people who don,t like it, but it is a pretty safe way to start learning to clear a particular jump. If Steven hits the ground with his front wheel up like that, chances are that he will manage to get his front wheel down sooner or later. If he does fall off the back of the bike, he has a pretty good shot at landing on his feet. If you land front-wheel-first in the middle of a double, you,re in trouble, as I found out at the Evansville Nationals last weekend.
Hopping is a lot like riding a small wooden ramp or "backless" jump. Use your legs to "spring" the bike up, and keep your elbows bent so your front wheel stays high. This isn,t as fast as Lifting the jump, but if you do it enough over a pesky set of doubles, you,ll clear them sooner or later.
Now that you know the three techniques, how can they make you a better rider? Simple. Walk the track before your first moto and decide which technique you are going to use over each jump. When you are in the race, remember what you decided and stick to it, if possible.
If you,ve been reading "BMX Basics" for a while, you,ve no doubt noticed that I constantly talk about walking the track and making decisions before a race. What,s the point? Just this: A BMX race shouldn,t surprise you any more than necessary. If you have already planned some turn lines and jumping techniques before the race, it frees up some of your attention. The classic Superbike racing handbook, A Twist Of The Wrist, tells us to imagine that we each have a dollar bill,s worth of attention to spend at any given time on the track. If we don,t have a plan for the jump coming up, we have to spend, say, fifty cents on that. If we don,t remember a line to take through the next corner after the jump, we spend ten cents thinking about that while we,re going up to the jump. And if the guy next to you wrecks? You,re "overdrawn" and can,t devote enough attention to getting around him and up the jump at the same time.
There are some serious, boring, laws-of-physics reasons for why there are only really three basic jump-riding techniques. Here,s an easy rundown. Your center of gravity, or Cg, can be manipulated in several ways. When you Compress, you are using your arms and legs like shock absorbers. Your bike is moving up the jump, but your Cg is staying in the same place. Over a large jump, your Cg will move up, but it will be closer to the ground because your body is lower on the bike. This is important, because a vertical motion of Cg can lead to the dreaded "dead sailor" jump.
Lifting is faster than Compressing because the Cg does not slow as much as it would with a Compress. As your front wheel rides up and over the jump, slowing down and speeding up, your Cg remains at the same speed. Finally, Hopping throws your Cg up and behind the bike. When you land, your Cg moves forward with the impact and settles your front wheel on the ground, letting you safely ride away.
Those of you who want a further discussion can visit my Web site this month and click on "Cg discussion". It,s a question-and-answer session designed to bring out the physics behind riding jumps. I know, it,s borrrrr-iiing, but if you want to truly understand why your bike behaves the way it does you should check it out.
Have we made jumping easy, as promised in the title of this month,s column? Probably not, but I'd like to think we,ve made it easier, and maybe more fun. Don,t forget---BMX is about having fun, even for us "old folks".
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: I couldn,t have developed the three-part system without some help from other riders. 32 Rookie Douglas Madden and new 24 Cruiser rider Bert Noblitt were patient while I screamed at them to "No, do it THIS way!!!!" An impromptu discussion at the Pizza Hut in Evansville with some Superclass and Pro riders helped me refine the explanations and theories contained within. And, of course, thanks to photo model Steven Hamilton, who was so worried his trail buddies would see him riding a jump on film, but had the guts to do it anyway.
Boy, did the Westerville trail guys come down hard on me about this one. Using their precious hardcore trails to take photos like the ones above! Never mind that trail riders who don't race are getting a "free ride" on the back of all the real racers who put money and time into the sport, just so a BMX culture exists to provide these kids with bikes and stuff to put on them. Ah, don't get me started---JB