Should you land front OR back wheel first? | How to land mtb jumps and drops smoothly.

front wheel first back wheel first or both wheels at the same time is any one of those landing techniques more correct than the other and how do some riders land so smoothly this video is all about learning how to land today we'll be looking at what we need to do to land jumps and drop smoothly and we'll be comparing the advantages in disadvantages of landing front wheel first versus back wheel or both wheels at the same time now before we look at how to land smoothly it may be easier to understand if we look at what makes them landing feel harsh a flat landing is the best example there's nothing to help redirect the riders downward momentum which comes to a sudden stop the more abrupt this transition happens the harsher the landing will feel the opposite of a flat landing is a steep transition like the ones you find on dirt jumps or in a skatepark a steep transition helps redirect the rider and their downwards momentum is slowed down much more gradually the best practice to land smoothly is to match the slope of the landing strands ition I'll illustrate this point by using some brightly colored golf balls the closer we can get to matching the transition of the ramp the less the ball bounces on the other hand the more perpendicular the ball lands on the transition the bigger the bounce landing smoothly on a bike is a very similar story so here are a few tips to land smoothly when you can match the transition aim to land on the backside of the knuckle as high up on the landing as possible the knuckle is where the top of the jump meets the downslope and sort of resembles the knuckle on your hand the higher up on the transition wheel and the more time we have to absorb the impact on larger transitions there is plenty of room to work with landing with both wheels at the same time is often the best and safest method however on smaller jumps landing with both wheels on the transition at the same time is not always possible in those situations we need to maximize small transition we have available by landing front wheel first we can land earlier and begin to absorb the impact sooner as a result we have more time to set up for the next feature while it is a more advanced maneuver landing front wheel first gives us more precision and better control in some situations there are some situations where we cannot match the transition or there's no transition at all if you can't try a straight line from the take-off to the landing matching the transition is not possible if there is a downslope landing with both wheels at the same time will give us the most stable platform with a full suspension bike the impact is distributed through both the shocks and tires at the same time this can be handy when trying to avoid pinch flats but do notice the impact is still being absorbed mostly with our legs in the absence of a downslope landing a back wheel first will give you the most impact absorbing potential as it puts you in a more natural position to absorb the impact with their legs however it is easy to lose balance side to side or even loop L landing back wheel first can be one of the most dangerous ways to land if you're not careful I find myself laning with both wheels at the same time for any drop under two to three feet of height I personally hate landing flat so let's talk to somebody who's made a whole career out of doing drops to flat hi i'm jeff lenosky and i'm here with some tips on how did you drop the flat now you're not always gonna have a perfect landing when you have good speed and a down slope things should go really smooth but when you're landing on flat there's a few things that you could do to make your landing as soft as possible so I would approach this drop just as I would any other drop you want to fly in the air with body in a neutral position but when you're landing on a downslope you're gonna use your arms and your legs to point the bike a little bit down to match it when you're landing on flat you want to bend your elbows and bring your handlebars to your chest and you want to extend your legs down so you'll see me pushing my legs straight down that's going to allow me to get in more of a vertical position and then as my back wheel touches down I'm exorbitant it's gonna feel like your handlebars want to rip out of your hands so you're hanging on to those and slowly letting them pull away from you and you're using that energy to make your landing as soft as possible if you do those tips you'll be able to land too flat nice and smooth and they'll keep you going down the trail thanks for the tips Jeff now let's talk about bike setup as with any skill we discuss maximizing our range of movement and will make it easier to learn this means lower and rusty I know some of you may be groaning because you don't have a dropper post but let me give you an analogy you wouldn't jump off a picnic table and land with your legs straight would you your legs are the most important part about absorbing the impact if you don't have a dropper post you can always lower your seat the old-fashioned way either with a quick-release or an allen key a good way to practice back wheel or two-wheel landings is by riding off a ledge the key is to focus on absorbing the impact as gently as possible with your legs the quieter you can land the better when landing with two wheels at the same time your weight should be centered over the bottom bracket you should almost be able to land with no hands on handlebars [Music] learning to land front wheel first maybe a bit more intimidating I recommend practicing on a small jump that you're comfortable with approach the jump with enough speed that you can get your front wheel to land past the knuckle when your front wheel touches the ground weight your front wheel while keeping your legs and hips bent keep your pedals unweighted until your back wheel has past a knuckle if you let your back wheel drop too soon you'll feel it hang up that's called casing now you're probably wondering why is it called casing well the term originated from dirt biking when a rider would come up short on a jump their suspension would compress and the bikes crankcase would hit the ground hence why it's called casing if you continue to case jump besides for needing a lawyer you may want to practice back wheel lifts in the parking lot focus on holding that back wheel up this will get you familiar with weighting your front wheel all right now let's go take a look at a few real-life scenarios to see when we should apply these different landing techniques in this situation we have two jumps that are pretty close together I find that landing front wheel first allows me to get set up sooner for the next jump there is enough space where you could land with both wheels at the same time but as you can see my front wheel is only touching the ground a few feet before the next jump in this situation the rollers are spaced much too tightly and landing front wheel first is the only suitable option okay so there are a few more options but landing the manual is definitely a little beyond the scope of this video in this situation it's easy to match the transition which is long enough where we can easily land with both wheels at the same time though here again I prefer to land with my front wheel first as it allows me to get on a break sooner and set up the turn which is just out of frame here we have a sizeable job with an awkwardly placed rock this rock has a decent transition but it's both short and steep for that reason landing front wheel first is my best option if I want on land smoothly but this is a super risky move if I were to weight my front wheel too much did be pretty easy to go over to bars notice I have to give it a little hop to match the transition that allows me to reach the landing without going any faster the slower you go the steeper the angle how they gone any faster my angle of approach will event too shallow to match this transition these are just some of the things we should consider when learning how to land smoothly if you have not already be sure to check out my how to jump in how to drop videos those videos cover many of the other aspects that I left out from this video I'll leave a link to those videos as well as a link to jeff lenosky channel in the description below as always my name is Phil Metz thanks for playing bikes with me today and I'll see you guys next time

Channel: Skills With Phil

Views: 872,263

Rating: 4.9532461 out of 5

Keywords: Mountain biking, mtb, mountain bike, bike, phil kmetz, evil calling, how to land jumps, how to land drops, mountain bike jumps, mountain bike drops, landing on a jump, landing a drop, skills with phil, How to jump, How to Drop, Front wheel, Back wheel, Both wheels, Bicycles, Bike skills, mountian bike skills, Mountain bike skill tutorial, Skills with phil drop, Skills with phil Jump

Id: Ycsbf6ZevtY

Length: 8min 47sec (527 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 10 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/emuchop]

Holy cow! Where ya been?? Ive missed yer vids!

[u/cloudofevil]

Great video. Channeling those bmx skills by having the rear touch down way before the front takes a lot of sting out of big landings to flat. That's a skill I see mountain bikers struggle with.

[u/samuelignes]

Man, watching this was weird. No one ever taught me how to jump, and I never really paid super close attention to how other people were doing it, it's just something I sorta did and do all the time now. Everything in the video 100% accurately reflects my reflexes when I've left the ground and am about to hit it again, even though I never really gave any thought to it until watching this. Teaching people this was always a big roadblock when I was giving lessons, since I didn't really know what I was doing myself and focused more on doing drops and other bike control stuff that could lead to being able to confidently jump, but now I have a much more direct, powerful teaching tool for getting there. Great video! Thanks!

[u/Andy1272]

Lol casing on the ramp: wasted. Thanks for explaining that term. Seems like it's used wrong in a lot of vids I've seen.

Welcome back Phil!

[u/[deleted]]

Ok I'll watch this once at home, but holy balls that thumbnail on the right really looks like he's going to loop out real bad and eat shit. It may just be a photoshop, and of course it also depends on how the bike is rotating in the air, but that seems like an extreme version of landing rear first!

[u/havok1980]

Phil's back, baby!!!!

[u/Chance4e]

Phil, glad to see you’re back to making videos. And this one is phenomenal. I hope your time off gave you the break you needed to do what was right for you.

How stoked were you to get Seth to pull off his first backflip?

[u/Dezal666]

Great video man! I love seeing your stuff, as Im a New Hampshire native myself. Was hoping to run into you at Highland haha. Keep making great content and thanks for the tips as always!

[u/BenoNZ]

Great video. Ben Cathro did a video looking at some of the pros and how they were landing off certain features as well. Very interesting. Front first seems to be the best unless you can't for reasons Phil pointed out. I always poop myself a little if I feel like I am going to land front first however..