One thing that everyone wants to be able to do is to jump a mountain bike. Maybe not upside down and god-knows-how-high like Sam Pilgrim, but just to be comfy if you find yourself air born or fancy getting a bit of air here and there.
Learning what your bike wants to do naturally is the first step.
Pump your tyres up hard, set your suspension as firm as possible, get your saddle down and hit your local BMX track.
At first don’t try and jump anything- just roll over the shapes and learn the feeling of how the bike wants to get airborn as you push in to a take off, and how you can generate speed as you push in to the landing transition.
Get faster and use your arms and legs to suck up the take off, and stick your bike to the ground- this will further teach you how your bike wants to get airborn once you reach a certain speed.
Bit by bit build up your speed and confidence on something safe, like a Tabletop jump- which has a flat top rather than the hole in the middle of double jumps. Without someone showing you, it’s up to you to get a feel for the jump, and to judge the speed you need to clear it safely. Study others hitting similar jumps and watch their body language. After a while- you’ll be able to tackle it too.
Once you’ve learned the basics here, you can take the skills to the places you ride- look for areas where jumps naturally occur. Look for landing transitions within the trail- they won’t be as obvious as purpose built areas, but there is normally somewhere to land tat will lessen the impact.
Use roots to pop you in to the air and get over slippery roots and obstacles- use undulations to clear puddles. Experiment and find what works well, and what doesn’t. A good jump will flow and have you feeling like Steve Peat, but a bad jump will have you picking the dirt out of scabby elbows…
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