Top 5 Most Common Mistakes When Jumping a Dirt Bike & Tips to Correct Them

hey what's going on everyone this is chase at rockymountainatvmc and today we're going to share with you our top five mistakes that riders make learning to jump [Music] congratulations you are learning to jump your motorcycle now i will admit that i think that for somebody who's just starting now learning to jump probably one of the most intimidating things especially if you've had a bad experience before i've had a lot myself when i was learning to ride so today we want to share with you our top tips or our top mistakes that we see riders making as they're learning to jump that can tremendously that if you can recognize these mistakes and if you're making these it will help you out tremendously because that way you know what you're doing wrong and you can make the corrections to be safe and learn how to jump now we do have a great top five tips video where adamantinet goes over the proper things you should be doing to jump your dirt bike so today we want to do the opposite and we want to point out what you might be doing incorrectly and help you do that better so the first mistake that we see riders making learning to jump is not having the correct body position as you're learning to jump first of all you want to be standing up i do not recommend trying to learn how to jump sitting down unless you're seat bouncing that's a more advanced tip we'll talk about that later but when you're first learning to jump you want to be standing up and you want to be in a good neutral position you're squeezing the bike with your legs your hips are out behind you and your handlebars are going to be right underneath your chest this is a good neutral position as you're going off the motorcycle you will see top level guys where they're really far forward over the handlebars as we're going off a jump that's because they're trying to really keep the front end down and compress the suspension that's an advanced technique don't try that when you're just learning you want to be in the neutral body position too far forward if you get a kick off the lip it's going to send you into an indo and if you're too far back what we like to call the boner air it's a rocket ship front end is really high and then next thing you know you're panicking in the air because you think you might loop out when you land so you want to have a good neutral body position as you go off the lip so the second common mistake that we see is hitting the jump in the wrong gear now look i guess you could say there's no wrong gear to hit a jump because as long as you've had the speed and you cleared the jump sounds good but here's what we recommend is try and hit the jump in a taller gear and here is why the lower the gear that you're in let's say you're hitting the jump in second gear when you chop the throttle and this is the mistake that a lot of riders make that will that will lead us into our next tip is if you chop the throttle as you're about to go off the jump you get the engine braking the engine breaking puts all the weight towards the front and you go into an endo and sometimes we're in such a bad endo you're saying your prayers because you think you might not see tomorrow so what you can do to help combat that is go into taller gear try hitting jumps in third or fourth gear now if you're coming out of a corner and you need that extra acceleration and torque to get over a jump yeah you got to go to lower gear but go to third go to fourth gear off a jump face that way if you do make the mistake of chopping the throttle as you're leaving the lip the engine breaking won't be as severe and you're not going to end up as badly and it will just smoothen everything out so that's a helpful tip try to hit jumps in a taller gear so tip number three is something that we just briefly talked about a big no-no is chopping the throttle when you're leaving the face a lot of riders and i understand why you're coming up to a jump and maybe the last second you get a little bit nervous you tense up or you just have that doubt in your mind so what do you do you chop the throttle right before you leave the jump that's a no-no because like we mentioned with engine braking chances are it's going to throw you into a nindo which sucks so what you want to do you can be in that gear taller if you can stay consistent stay steady on the throttle just keep that gas on all the way up and all the way off the jump face you don't want to be accelerating too much as you're going off the jump face you definitely don't want to chop the throttle and another little tip there is you know try not to accelerate too hard going up a jump unless you know you have good traction as an example riding today there was a section down lower where it was greasy i did a scorpion i thought i wasn't going to see tomorrow so be steady on the throttle that's gonna really help the bike stay balanced in the air as long as you have that good body position and everything's gonna work out so common mistake number four is guessing speed to hit jumps if you are learning to jump the last thing you want to do is just assume you know what gear or how fast you should be going to hit a jump now with some jumps like this little table top right here behind me it's easy you can see the takeoff you can see the landing so that's a pretty safe jump to assume okay i know how fast i should be going to hit that jump but if it's a jump that's maybe a little bit out of your skill level or out of your comfort zone don't just wing it don't just send it and hope for the best that's how bad injuries happen what i recommend if it's a tabletop start in increments jump halfway jump three quarters of the way and work your way up until you can clear the entire thing if it's a double where there's a lot of risk and reward don't just send it a great example of that is today we're out here at this amazing track literally on a golf course there is a booter it's over 100 feet it's a big risk versus reward because there is a big gap and if i come up short and i knuckle that thing i'm going to bounce off the planet basically and i could risk getting hurt really really bad there's nobody up here with me today that's done it before so i don't know what gear i should be hitting in i don't know the speed that i should be carrying in so you know what i didn't do it swallowed my pride and said live to ride another day and if there's another rider up here another time that's done it before i'll ask him what he's doing maybe i'll follow him off so i know the right speed but don't just guess on speed that's how injuries happen so either work your way up or talk to somebody that's at your skill level and ask them how they're hitting that jump to get some good advice all right last mistake that we see is riders not squeezing the bike with their knees as they're going off a jump you got to be squeezing your knees this is something that we always beat to death doesn't matter where you're riding your dirt bike on the track you're squeezing the knees and we all know why that gives you control the motorcycle you're squeezing your knees you're in that good rider attack position you're in the neutral body position over the bike but if you don't squeeze your knees as you're leaving the jump face you know not every jump face is perfect there's little kickers on them you have cuffed out jump faces and a lot of times your rear tire hits one of those and it kicks the bike left to right and if you're beginning and that happens to you and you're not squeezing the bike the bike kicks out left or right you panic a little bit you freak out because you think you're going to high side when you land a way to combat that and have more control over the bike so that doesn't happen is just focus on again squeezing the bike so if you do get a little kick left or right you're squeezing that's really going to help slow that down control it and it's going to make you more confident as you're learning to jump so there you have it those are our top five mistakes that we see riders make while they're learning to jump so ask yourself are you making these mistakes and if you are go out work on those watch that video with adamantiknap where he talks about some of the other good tips to help you out but in any case be safe out there please follow these tips don't get hurt live to write another day and let us know how your experience has been were there mistakes that you were making when you were learning to jump for the first time what were some of the tips and tricks that maybe other riders shared with you to help you get better at that if you do have more questions or comments leave those below if you like this top five tips video get subscribed to rocky mountain youtube channel because we have a lot more just like it i'm chase we'll see on the trails you

Channel: Rocky Mountain ATV MC

Views: 264,629

Rating: 4.9512196 out of 5

Keywords: Rocky Mountain ATV/MC, rmatv, rmatvmc, motocross, rockymountainatv, dirt bike, motorcycle, top 5, motocross jumps, motocross jumping techniques, how to jump on a motocross bike, dirt bike jumping tips, dirt bike jumping, mx jumping for beginners, mx jumping techniques, how to jump a dirt bike, jumps, jumping, dirt bike tips, top 5 jumping mistakes on a dirt bike, common mistakes, mistakes made jumping, dirt bike jumping mistakes, dirt bike beginner mistakes, dirt bike mistakes

Id: KncKeuzwp38

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020