Originally Posted by FreeRidin'
Or you could start taking drops like trials riders, wich is just crazy what they can do.
15feet to flat, pfft no prob
Yeah, it's funny to me to hear people saying what the OP said:
(...I land the drops properly, back tire first)...
Fact is, just landing with the back tire first doesn't mean you're landing properly. If you watch a trials rider, they use their entire body as a shock absorber. The pivot point becomes the point where the rear tire meets the ground. The bike is very vertical when the rear tire touches down. As soon as the rear tire softly touches down, the rider doesn't immediately put all the weight of the landing on the rear. He slowly allows the front to come down by compressing his body down and back and he steadily increases the force that is being applied to the rear tire. By the time the front tire reaches the ground, the speed at which the rider is moving toward the ground has decreased drastically. The front shock absorbs the rest of the impact.
It's not just a matter of letting the rear tire touch first and then the front end slams down and hopefully soaks up all that crap while the rider compresses himself to within a few inches of the handlebars. That kinda riding still puts loads of strain on wheels.
Heck, a person with awesome landing skills can land a 10' to flat concrete with a rigid fork and still come away looking like there was no strain to be had.
Now...if you're doing stair gaps, that's another story. (jumping off the top of stairs and landing on a staircase before you reach the flat. That just needs to be done like a dirt jump or something. Try to stay with the angle of the stairs as much as possible. If you jump up really vertical and land with a huge downward force on the staircase, you'll ding those rims badly. Try to jump low and long.