droppin smoothly to flat

yeah i haven't seen anyone else jump those stairs either, and i was wondering. i've been really making progress with the manuals the past few months, though lately it's getting kinda icy which makes me have to skip em in the morning. i usually manual down the middle of a car lane whenever the light turns yellow up ahead… wicked fun! i'm assuming manualling down the stairs can't be that hard, but i must admit haven't tried it yet.

any other good sections on the way? i ride from kits over burrard bridge. there's a few good sections going back to hit, though not sure if you're heading in that direction…

something i learned riding my BMX is that I can take a smaller drop to flat by bunnyhopping and absorbing the impact with arms and legs, landing "light" and ready to let my body absorb

but once I go over about 5 foot its got to be to the back wheel and let the bike rotate onto the front wheel once the back has touched down, otherwise its really harsh and you get a nasty "concussion" shock going up your back into your neck and head….and sore wrists, ankles, etc. (it feels like hanging up on a dirt jump)

I made this mistake jumping out of a skatepark bowl over a 4 foot high fence into a grassy downslope behind the fence, 1st time landed on both wheels and had a headache all day :(

every time since, to the back wheel and no problem

Yeah, for the big stuff you definitely want to land on the back wheel first and absorb as much as you can with the legs before transferring to the front wheel and upper body. It takes some getting used to and I'm still not as tight on big drop to flat form as I want to be.

As far as other places to practice on, I like the art gallery on Robson [HTML_REMOVED] Howe. There's a little loop I practice on when it's dry by dropping down the stairs past the fountain (3 stairs or so) towards Hornby, head up the sidewalk towards Robson and drop down 4 stairs or so on the left path (made of brick), meander into the south entrance and climb up the stairs (5 or 6?) and then jump off the 5 or 6 stair drop onto Howe… repeat. There's another smooth run of stair gaps on the east side of Burrard past Georgia. I think it's 3 consecutive 4 stair drops that eventually leave you on Dunsmuir. Then there's always the Bench With AIDS under the Cambie Bridge and even the seawall has some concrete bonafide drops to flat (no stairs). If plaza's clear of too many skaters then it's a good option too.

You can do the trials style to flat - basically landing soft to rear wheel and absorbe with your body and the bike as a lever.

Or, if the run in and out is clear - speed possible - go faaaaaaaaaaaaast; forward momentum will overcome the flat if ya just go faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaast…. badump.. (and land even wheeled)

gonna have to check out the art gallery!

maybe i'll try manualling the stairs tomorrow… i "manualled" the stair part only, just by keeping the front wheel in the air and then landed on two wheels on the flat part… gonna try just keeping the wheel up a bit more and see what happens.

I recently got a lung infection, so I haven't been riding very hard in the last week or even attempting any gnarly urban stuff. I'm don't think I have the cahones to manual that stair drop yet. I'd like to try it with a helmet and some pads first, maybe. I usually ride urban sans helmet and pads, so duh.

Everyone in this thread has spelt "tranny" wrong. The correct spelling is "tyranny"…

tyranny? i thought we were talking about transvestites.

i did some trialsy shit at my old highschool in white rock over the holidays. practiced smooth drops. think i made some progress (but now my wrist is a bit sprained from a bad hop up stairs, so can't do any stunts for probably another week).

if i were to theoretically drop reall fucking smoothly, would i still get chainslap? i got 24 gears on the sasquatch, so the chain is not super tight.

sorry to hear about the lung infection dude. smoke something and maybe it'll clear it up! :)

gotta love stairs

You can only land smooth on d0rps to fAlt.

ok i've seen the trial guys do big drops on rigid bikes slowly and smoothly. my question is -- can you do it going fast?

every day on my commute i launch off couple of sets of stairs, maybe a each set is a few feet high. i'm trying to learn how to land it smooth but so far i can't seem to get any progress. anybody has any tips? not even the ryan leech instructional videos teach you this…

this is on my 2005 norco sasquatch -- hard tail with a so-so front fork.

thanks!

swine

don't drop the stairs, pump down them, you will go faster and smoother

don't drop the stairs, pump down them, you will go faster and smoother

Pump what part of the stairs? The lip before they start?

pumpin is borin

I usually do what this chap does - http://youtube.com/watch?v=4aC2O4qQVn4