Old blokes who should know better.....

[dobbyhasfriends]

pfffff...50!!! Im 69 and still hitting ( often literally!) whatever the trail throws at me.

join the infamous silver machines !

 

[Gary]

only watched the first 20secs and skipped to the last 10

Take the ramp to a landing (or build one)

 

[Zimmerframe]

only watched the first 20secs and skipped to the last 10

@dobbyhasfriends you should be proud, you've created a video he can watch in the same way he watches his porn !

 

[Rusty]

I'm 61. Started MTB 20 years ago after a massive crash racing the MX nationals made me realise that 40 year old bodies don't bounce like teenage ones. To be fair, I had been off the MX bikes from about 18 or 19 after an industrial accident until my mid 30's so I was trying to catch up on missed opportunities.
The first thing I found on the MTB is that when you are jumping body position is far more critical than on a MX bike. I also learned quickly that my 100kg+ weight is not conducive to gap jumps...oh, and that panic peddling is not like twisting the wrist for a panic rev.

One other thing I found initially was that we were doing this shit in the 60's on Raleigh touring bikes with the 3 speed Sturmey Archer hubs. Used to make our own handlebars based on the motorcycle ones or just use those and and weld them to the stem.

 

[Howz]

Being a 56 year old child myself, this is a great thread

 

[Changleen]

IMO you’re standing up much too tall on your approach. Watch some Redbull TV and/or crankworx vids.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Definitely missing my daily update on the "Dobby Does" channel .. well ok, "OBSKB".

Still waiting for :

Dobby Does Dives :
Dobby Does Massive Bunny hops (on the trampoline)
Dobby Does Drops :
Dobby makes a new kicker ramp with a sound box and strings on the ramp face so it strums a tune as you ride up it.

 

[#lazy]

“Thrills and spills at Dobbies Compound”, Pastrana beware there’s a new kid on the block ?

 

[Zimmerframe]

Once he's a bit more famous, he can join the likes of Pilgrim and start doing some international video's .. like "Dobby does Dallas"..

 

[#lazy]

Once he's a bit more famous, he can join the likes of Pilgrim and start doing some international video's .. like "Dobby does Dallas"..

It’ll flop ?

 

[Gary]

TAKE IT TO A DOWNSLOPE

 

[Zimmerframe]

TAKE IT TO A DOWNSLOPE

Other than the greenery, I'm not really seeing much difference between that and the dobby video ? Except that Dobby seems to be able to keep the bike much straighter in the air than those guys, who, lets face it, are just all over the place !

 

[Gary]

SHUT UP AND WATCH NICO'S MANNY

 

[Zimmerframe]

SHUT UP AND WATCH NICO'S MANNY

I just watched the first 20 seconds and the last 10 seconds .. all looked the same ..

I think Sam got more air though and he didn't even need a bike.

ok .. yes, that manny was pretty impressive. It's important to practice those skills for the times you stick the bike in the truck but forget to take your front wheel with you.

 

[Akiwi]

That's a bloody good idea. I have a few ramps behind the house that my kids have built. Problem is they are sometimes MASSIVE. I don't think we have anything as small as yours. I have biked all my life. Unfortunately as a kid the bmx and mountain bikes werent invented yet, so I couldn't develop any jumping skills as I kept trashing my bikes.
When my kids were racing BMX I did a few years on the Cruiser untill a big crash put a stop to that. so I have to get over the mental problem too.
I suppose I will soon fit into the Old Blokes class at 58.
I have a nice BMX cruiser with 24 ich wheels that I could dust off.
I'll keep you posted.

 

[Gary]

Who's Sam?

 

[Gary]

Unfortunately as a kid the bmx and mountain bikes werent invented yet, so I couldn't develop any jumping skills as I kept trashing my bikes.

Same here. We learned to jump on whatever bikes we had. (I learned to jump in 1975) Some bikes broke. Some didn't. (no different to today really) the smoothest of us could still do pretty big jumps on those basic bikes without damaging anything.
BMX was for sure a game changer when it arrived. MTB not so much.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Who's Sam?

Well if you don't watch all of the video(s) you won't know the whole story will you !

You probably missed the naked chicks standing at the window of the airbnb let as well didn't you ?

 

[Gary]

You probably missed the naked chicks standing at the window of the airbnb

I was kinda busy behind them

 

[B1rdie]

Who's Sam?

Sam, the toothless ya mean?
I’ve been trying to excel and smile just like him.

 

[Akiwi]

Same here. We learned to jump on whatever bikes we had. (I learned to jump in 1975) Some bikes broke. Some didn't. (no different to today really) the smoothest of us could still do pretty big jumps on those basic bikes without damaging anything.
BMX was for sure a game changer when it arrived. MTB not so much.

My parents gave me a Raleigh 20 with a banana seat.
I broke several axels, and my parents warned me, if I didn't look after it, I wouldn't get a new one :-(
Yeah, that was about 1970 something.

 

[dobbyhasfriends]

Definitely missing my daily update on the "Dobby Does" channel .. well ok, "OBSKB".

Still waiting for :

Dobby Does Dives :
Dobby Does Massive Bunny hops (on the trampoline)
Dobby Does Drops :
Dobby makes a new kicker ramp with a sound box and strings on the ramp face so it strums a tune as you ride up it.

Some good material there, dobby does drops is definitely on the cards.... midweek is too hard to do anything but ‘dobby does air source heat pump installation’

 

[Zimmerframe]

Nice job !

I take it the first tank is a heat exchanger ? and the big tank a 300 ? litre hot water storage tank ? - does that have an element too for backup ? and it's hurting my head following pipes as you can't quite tell where all of them join, but you have an expansion tank on the inlet side and on the main water tank for obvious reasons.

I'm defo going "Super nice "

2021 .. Dobby does replacement Levo frame in copper pipe after a big off ...

 

[Gary]

My parents gave me a Raleigh 20 with a banana seat.

Mine got me a Raleigh Chipper somewhere around '74

(Not mine ^^)
I loved that bike, made me feel like my hero, Evel Kneivel.
It ended it's life still entirely in tact and bolted to a local fairground's merry-go-round ride my mum had donated it to. The town is no longer a seaside holiday destination and that fairground is now demolished so who knows what happened to it. Would be nice to think it's still around but more than likely it just became landfill/scrap metal.

 

[Akiwi]

Mine got me a Raleigh Chipper somewhere around '74

(Not mine ^^)
I loved that bike, made me feel like my hero, Evel Kneivel.
It ended it's life still entirely in tact and bolted to a local fairground's merry-go-round ride my mum had donated it to. The town is no longer a seaside holiday destination and that fairground is now demolished so who knows what happened to it. Would be nice to think it's still around but more than likely it just became landfill/scrap metal.

That would have definitely been better than my Raleigh 20!!
Though I had a good crash on my cousins Chopper. Can still show the scars from it.

 

[Gary]

Choppers were so dodgy handling. Scary as.
The Chipper was the little brother of the Chopper smaller wheels with not quite so messed up handling.
Learn to jump on a chopper and you'll be able to jump any bike.

Your old 20 wasn't too far off the geometry of the first 20" BMX bikes.

 

[billwarwick]

Nice job !

I take it the first tank is a heat exchanger ? and the big tank a 300 ? litre hot water storage tank ? - does that have an element too for backup ? and it's hurting my head following pipes as you can't quite tell where all of them join, but you have an expansion tank on the inlet side and on the main water tank for obvious reasons.

I'm defo going "Super nice "

2021 .. Dobby does replacement Levo frame in copper pipe after a big off ...

Dobby Does.. have a client who will soon regret not having the ceiling plastered and the walls painted before the impressive installation...

 

[Mikerb]

Back to jumping the biggest advantage of learning bike skills, like jumping, as a kid, was that the only critera for success was landing and not crashing. No skills advice, no yt videos, just find a ramp and hit it. My main sport is windsurfing and for years yt gurus would explain the 6 steps for a successful planing gybe. The problem is that a full planing gybe probably has a total duration of 3 seconds so there is no way the brain can process that many steps in that time. Just like when a kid, you just have to create auto muscle memory through repitition. There are a couple of things that do help howevrr with any motor skill. The first is that your body will invariably try to follow your line of sight. So if you want to go up....look up. The second is that muscle memory can be helped to develop through visualisation.

 

[Gary]

Basic jumping technique can also be split into steps. As many as you like really depending on how indepth you want to get but I'll use 6 too.

1. Visualization - Just as it sounds. first visualise the entire run from start though to take off, landing and coming to a stop. If you can't visualize pulling off a jump don't even try. find something smaller/safer/easier (this goes for noobs right up to Expert)
2. Approach - Guaging correct approach speed while looking ahead and deciding when to freewheel and apply your aproach stance. (it's still a neutral stance)
3. Hitting the ramp - Where to look (it's still straight ahead BTW), staying neutral while pre-loading the bike at the correct time
4. Leaving the ramp - timing the release of that preload while otherwise remaining neutral and (still) looking ahead
5. controlling the bike in the air - remain in that neutral stance and enjoy the air beneath your wheels
6. landing - spot the landing while at the highest point in your trajectory (but don't fixate on it). if you stayed weighted neutrally for all the previous steps and your aproach speed was correct and the jumps lip and landings were built properly you will natually come in to the landing at a very close to perfect angle and not leant off to one side/squint etc.
   If you are a little off you'll need to shift your weight slighty to allow both wheels to touch down at the same angle as the landing ready to absorb it with your arms and legs (and a little core too if it's a bigger jump). On steeper jumps your in order for both wheels to match the landing slope you're actually going to have to land very slightly front first.

Now this is important! Don't confuse me using the word "neutral" with being stiff and remaining in the one position. it's far from that. to remain neutral while a bike changes gradient/angle still requires your body to balance the bike's change in angle to hold the neutral weight balance. by making slight fore/aft positioning movements while allowing your arms/legs to suspend you/bike.

All of the above steps (apart from the visualization) are also over in under a few seconds. And as @Mikerb says need to be ingrained in muscle memory. This simply means repetition. The issue here is knowing the difference between what you're doing (and repeating) correctly and what you're doing wrongly and correcting it.
Learning to bunnyhop and manual (and generally just becoming playful on your bike) will help massively.
Once you have basic straight lip to landing jump technique dialled then it's time to learn a bit more style, larger/steeper jumps. how to boost a jump or pull on unattainable jumps etc. all of which are getting towards the more advanced end of the scale. so just focus on simple/basic jump technique first.

When you have advanced a lot further. Then you'll be able to come into a jump with your weight almost anywhere you like. eg. manualling into a take off, scrubbing and be able to still land straight and smoothly.

Hopefully some of this is helpful.

No one told me any of this shit BTW. No internet, Youtube, forums, magazines, books etc. I suppose that's the difference between learning at 5yrs old in the mid 70s and nowadays when you're a lot older.

 

[GrahamPaul]

I suppose that's the difference between learning at 5yrs old in the mid 70s and nowadays when you're a lot older.

Now I know where I fucked up... I was 25yrs old in the mid 70s.

(Ah well, had the advantage of being a teenager in the 60s I suppose...)