Mountain Biking - Drops to flat

How big have you taken a drop to flat without damaging your ride?

Mine is over a 5' ish stairset, on a 4" travel bike. Comments on the subject of drops to flat are welcome too!

My ride is never damaged, it's always rims and spokes... :)

Gotta keep that psi up!

Joe

I think the biggest drop I've ever taken has been about 4', and it was a new trail, and I was in the air before I knew what was happening!

I usually keep my drops less than 3'. I'm a big guy, and I tend to break things (me and my bike), so I minimize doing what you "Crazy Kids" (sounding like an Old man) are doing.

I have been doing more and more stunts. My local trail has some "Crazy Kids" building more and more elevated trails with drops and teeter totters. I like the teeters, still working on my "skinnies" ability, but I avoid the drops to flat. Drops to tranny don't bother me, but to flat, I stay away from!

L8R

When riding urban i will do up to 5 but on the trail i wont do anything over 3. The funny thing is i have a rs judy tt fork! hahah. All the people i ride with bash the fork but its been ok with the drops :).

Nothing wrong with the TT!! Check out these shots of drops to flat with one:

http://www.mtbkanata.com/Photo_Galleries/urban_04182003/pages/Ottawa_Urban%20073.html
http://www.mtbkanata.com/Photo_Galleries/urban_04182003/pages/Ottawa_Urban%20161.html

Whole Gallery (Lots of Drops to Flat in this one!)
http://www.mtbkanata.com/Photo_Galleries/urban_04182003/index.html

Joe

Why even drop to flat? The ones in those pictures are small, but once you start getting over 6' why even do it? Its not even fun.....I dont think I have even gone over 5 feet to flat, its so dumb. Like that Mike B guy....dropped that wall which is only like 5-6 feet and bottomed the F*** out of his bike. Or maybe he didnt, but it sure dosent look fun.

My bike is an XC rig with about 4.5" rear travel and 3.5" front so I'm not risking drops larger than 5'. Even then I usually don't do anything larger than 3' on a regular basis. I am a fairly light weight rider however and the 5' drop was off a staircase with a wheelchair ramp on one end leading up to a flat section and the steps on the other. I was able to build up a good amount of speed and it was more like a jump.

KleinMp99: Heh, I took that photo of Mike on the PDP.. I agree with you.. WHY! Oh well, Mike has Avalache shock and forks, and seems to like it...

Here are a few other Mike Shots I took...

http://www.mtbgallery.com/albums/NewUploads/Mike_n_Fozzman.sized.jpg

http://www.mtbgallery.com/albums/NewUploads/Mike_B_PDP.sized.jpg

Joe

Hey Joe,

Does your camera have an option to do that or are you patching those frames together in Photoshop? I use the Nikon Coolpix 4500, what's ya got.

-Joe

Originally posted by Wait
Hey Joe,

Does your camera have an option to do that or are you patching those frames together in Photoshop? I use the Nikon Coolpix 4500, what's ya got.

-Joe

Naw, I have to do that in Photoshop.. I have a Fujifilm s602 Zoom.. I love it!

Joe

Nothing wrong with drops to flat. I do alot of it, and on my hardtail. Biggest ever was probably in excess of 6 or 7 feet, I don't really carry around a tape measure tho :o


I've trashed 2 sets of wheels that way. The campus is an awesome place for urban assault and trials riding... so many obstacles. The only limitation is your skills and your imagination.

Originally posted by mtbkanata
Naw, I have to do that in Photoshop.. I have a Fujifilm s602 Zoom.. I love it!

Joe

Very nice, I see the quality in the purchase... Kind of like buying a bike. "You paid how much for that thing"... lol :D I tend not to talk about the price of either item for that very reason.

-Joe

0ft drop with my bike. I hate drops...no offence. But i do cliffdiving at sea ...about 40-50ft high cliffs direct dive with the head (provided i have explored the underwater region first).

I am a roadie.... I do bunnyhops and ride off the kerb (slowly) and stuff but yeah thats it

Brendon
:beer:

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
I am a roadie.... I do bunnyhops and ride off the kerb (slowly) and stuff but yeah thats it

Brendon
:beer:
So he should add a new category to the poll for 5-8"? :p

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
I am a roadie.... I do bunnyhops and ride off the kerb (slowly) and stuff but yeah thats it

Brendon
:beer:

Whoa, on those skinny little tires, that's still cool!!

:)

Joe

Originally posted by Jim311
Nothing wrong with drops to flat. I do alot of it, and on my hardtail. Biggest ever was probably in excess of 6 or 7 feet, I don't really carry around a tape measure tho :o


I've trashed 2 sets of wheels that way. The campus is an awesome place for urban assault and trials riding... so many obstacles. The only limitation is your skills and your imagination.

And of course wanna-be cops would be a limitation here to :)

Originally posted by NZLcyclist
I am a roadie.... I do bunnyhops and ride off the kerb (slowly) and stuff but yeah thats it

Brendon
:beer:

Be careful! :eek: :D

Maelstrom I soo here you. I live in princeton (as in Princeton University) and there are rent a cops all over. Luckily, on a bike, they have a very small chance of catching you, they cant run 15 miles an hour, or drive their cars down stairsets and off drops! But yes...definitely a pain, it gets to the point where you have to have lookouts if you want to setup on something technical or slow!

Bleh.. the University cops around here will at most just tell you to leave. And it's rare to see a cop on campus at night anyway. We're pretty fortunate. I have been ticketed for riding without a light, tho.

Maybe we were just lucky but three of us were doing some urban assault at the UW campus one summer day. The busy term was out for the most part and there was barely anyone around. We ran into some campus cops and thought for sure we'd get in trouble. Instead, they asked us if we could ride some walls and stairs. We happily obliged.

lol... that's funny.

-Joe

back when i was at the University of Texas the campus police used to ticket people for not making a complete stop on the bicycle... and they also used to hassle people for riding through "pedestrain zones" or riding "too fast"... anyhow, a number of times they would yell at me as i rode by abd i would just look straight ahead and keep on riding... a few times someone on a mountain bike with slicks tried to catch me, but i would hit some stairs and loose them...

in 5 years riding my bike every day, almost never making a complete stop and of course not riding slowly (p.s. i always rode safely and only had 2 accidents during the 5 years - both off campus - one while riding w/o lights at night on a dark street, and one when someone jumped off a bus and landed directly in my path!)... i never got a ticket although most everyone else i knew did.

drops: i'm still learning and have done very little over 3'