Every rider remembers the first time they lined up a gap jump. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Getting the courage to send it can take forever. But when you get it, it’s the absolute best feeling.
In a recent video, BMX race legend Barry Nobles breaks down the fundamentals of jumping a bike. And whether you’re riding BMX, a dirt jumper or a full-suspension mountain bike, all these fundamentals apply.
“How do we jump higher? How do we have the air awareness to stay in control? And most importantly, how do we land safely?” Nobles asks at the start of the lesson.
The answer, he says, isn’t simply riding faster and pulling harder. Good jumping starts long before the lip.
Step one: The approach
According to Nobles, many riders make their first mistake before they even leave the ground.
“I see so often kids want to pedal all the way into the lip,” he says.
Pedalling into the takeoff leaves little time to set up the body position needed to jump properly. Instead, riders should build speed before the jump and stop pedalling as they approach the transition.
“Make sure you come in with speed. Get your speed way before the actual jump,” Nobles explains.
That setup gives riders time to prepare for the next step.
Step two: The preload
Jumping a bike relies on the same mechanics as a squat jump.
“If I were to stand here and have you do a squat jump, you would squat down before you extend it up,” Nobles says. “Same thing for the bike.”
As the front wheel reaches the base of the jump transition, riders should crouch down into the bike. Compressing their body and loading energy into the bike and suspension.
This movement, known as the preload, sets up the lift off the lip.
“If we just ride this bike up the lip, we’re going to get to the top and we have nothing to pull on,” Nobles says.
Timing matters. Riders need to crouch as the bike begins climbing the transition and begin extending upward so that the body reaches full extension right at the top of the lip.
“The goal is to get that full extension right at the top of the lip,” he says.
Too early and the rider wastes the remaining ramp. Too late and the bike simply rides off the edge.
Step three: The pop
The final piece is the pop. The explosion of power that lifts the bike into the air.
The movement is basically a bunny hop (with flat pedals). Riders pull through the handlebars, extending their body as…
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