- We've all got our basic skill set
when it comes to hitting the trails,
but something inside us drives us
to hit that jump faster,
hit that corner faster,
do that bigger jump or drop.
Thing is, things can get nasty out there
if you try to progress too fast.
Today's video, we're going to
be showing breaking it down,
taking those steps,
hitting the trails safely,
and progressing.
(rock music)
(electronic buzzing)
The process to progressing your skills
on your e-bike is fundamentally the same
for every obstacle, skill, or trick.
You need to start small and work your way
up slowly in bite-sized chunks,
then repeat over and over
until you've got it nailed.
(rock music)
So let's talk progression on drop-offs.
Drop-offs can feel pretty
awesome on your e-bike,
floating up that vertical face,
touching down nice and smooth,
and blasting down the trail after,
but there's a few tips on how to progress,
or how you even do a drop-off first.
Let's take a look at those now.
(stick scratches)
So first step, what you need
to do is make a mark on the ground.
Just make sure you've
got that technique dialed
before you even go and
attempt those drop-offs.
If you haven't got the technique dialed,
you're just gonna go
straight into the handlebars.
It's not gonna be pretty.
So just get that technique dialed first.
So first things first, we
come into the marker we made,
we're loading that front wheel up
with a little squish on the forks,
transferring our weight backwards,
picking that front wheel up.
So once you've got that technique dialed
on the flat ground, it's
time to find a small drop.
We need to find something
that isn't gonna be too much,
gonna send you over the handlebars,
but enough to generate
that front wheel lift
and make it into a drop-off.
So then like around a curb height,
something around this
sort of high is ideal.
So now I've found that nice drop-off
I was describing earlier.
It's not too big and it's not too small,
so ideal to learn that technique on.
Need to find something that isn't going
to hit your bottom
bracket or your chain ring
if you do get that technique wrong.
So just something that a
bike will glide over nicely
if it does go the wrong way.
So we're just gonna come into this,
and just work on lifting
that front wheel up nicely,
loading that fork up.
Doesn't matter if I land front wheel,
back wheel, just getting that
used to that drop-off size.
Then we're just gonna dial it in
to hopefully after you
progress further on the drop,
we're gonna start
landing back wheel first,
'cause there's a flat landing.
Then we're gonna look at
moving that into a nose dive
to get the smoothest landing possible
on a transition landing too.
So as I approach a drop,
I'm really confident
in the skill that I've already learned
on scraping that line.
I've come in, I've lifted
that front wheel high,
I've floated through the air nice,
front wheel high, I land
the back wheel perfectly,
nice and smooth.
It's time to step it up the next level
and find something a little bit bigger.
So we found our next step
up in the size of drops.
This one in front of me
is a little bit bigger,
so next step up the ladder.
If I was to roll off of this one,
straightaway my crank's gonna hit,
and I'm gonna go straight
over the the handlebars
if I don't get my technique dialed.
What it has got also is a gap,
so there's a slight landing on this one,
so I'm gonna need a little bit more speed,
a little bit more pop,
basically the same technique,
but it's a little step up the ladder,
which is gonna progress you
onto that next bigger thing.
So I'll hit this one three or four times,
get that technique dialed.
If you mess up one, I tend to go
for like three successful ones in a row.
Three in a row, you're a pro.
(rock music)
So that drop felt really good.
It felt perfectly balanced and I rode
away really nice and smooth.
What I'm gonna do is
just hit that drop over
and over again, get my technique dialed.
But if I can get it dialed on this,
I know I'm ready for that
next step up the ladder.
With drops the same
technique really applies,
doesn't matter if it's
20 foot or two foot,
that same technique is exactly the same.
It just requires bigger bulge,
you're gonna be in the
air for a lot longer,
but if you're confident, work your way up
in those little tiny baby steps
and you'll be landing those drops smoothly
before you know it.
(rock music)
Let's talk progression on a line choice.
In front of me here we've
got two different lines.
On the left-hand side is
a nice, straight entry,
a few roots, and a nice,
smooth transition down.
On the right-hand side we've got a bigger,
steeper line, a lot more roots at the top,
and shear face, coming in
it's a lot more technical.
So if you're gonna
progress in this section,
obviously just go steady, working your way
down this nice and slow.
Get comfortable with this side,
and we're gonna switch it across,
get more technical a lot faster line,
but a lot more scary line.
But this right-hand side
is the one's we hit,
and if you want to progress more.
So that chute felt pretty sketchy to me.
The way we're gonna
progress on this section is
by going over and over
it again, session in it.
So I just mean this little
short section of trail,
I'm gonna ride over and over
again 'til I feel comfortable.
There's no point in practicing the stuff
that you're already good at.
You need to feel practiced
and get that stuff dialed
that's making you feel sketchy.
So you need to do that sketchy stuff.
The other bits come really easy.
(rock music)
So jumping your e-bike can feel amazing.
It's the best feeling ever getting the air
underneath your tires, flying high,
and landing smoothly, but
sometimes that isn't the case,
especially if you're just starting out.
Things when it comes to
jumps can get quite scary.
As with everything on your e-bike,
it's best to start small
and work your way up slowly,
dialing the skills and techniques.
Before attempting to get any
air underneath your wheels,
you really should check out this video
that Don did on how to
jump your e-bike first.
- So when you translate that body hop
to the jump it's all about the pump
and that's in this
transition from the flat
and the jump starts going up.
So you're trying to squash the bike in,
and then you're not manualing,
you're just driving the front wheel up
so you're behind the bike.
Then as the rear wheel
lifts, that's when you stand
up and forward and lift the back wheel.
- But how do we break
down something like this?
This is a 25-foot top, a
25-foot long table top.
So we're just gonna go
into it in baby steps.
First of all we're just
gonna get comfortable
with that transition.
Okay, so this is my first
hit on the table top.
I'm gonna come into it nice and steady,
just work out my entry
speed, how kicky that lip is,
things like that, just nice and gently
just literally to get up
on the top of the jump.
So I'm squashing in.
I can feel the jump isn't too kicky.
It's gonna be perfect to progress.
So next step I'm gonna
try and land roughly
about half way to where I am,
get that front wheel nice and high,
that protects me from
going over the handlebars.
So I'm just jumping that jump,
keeping that transition
floating free there,
front wheel nice and high, and aiming
to land about half way.
Coming in a little bit faster, popping it.
Okay, so that's about half way across.
So I can see now I'm gonna need
to increase our speed if I'm gonna clear
this jump nice and smoothly.
So I'm gonna go a little
bit further up the track,
inject that bit more speed into it,
bit more pop, hopefully that's
gonna generate enough speed
to send me right the way
over this nice and smoothly.
Let's see.
Okay, so combined with that extra speed,
a bit more pop on the lip, I've managed
to work my way across
this jump bit by bit.
The jumps can seem quite
intimidating at first,
but breaking 'em down a little bit by bit
becomes quite achievable
for most of you out there.
So there we go, progressing
onto those bigger jumps,
pushing myself to do
some more tricks as well.
That's the end of today's
video all about progression.
Key stuff to remember from today is taking
those baby steps, working your way up
in tiny little steps at a time.
Go too fast too soon and you will be
on your face before you know it.
Just take things easy.
If you do crash, try and
get rid of that memory,
erase it, and push yourself forward again,
just repeating those processes
that you know that you can already do.
Stay confident and you will progress.
We've got loads of cool content on EMBN
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so make sure you subscribe to the channel.
If you liked today's video,
we've got more videos over here.
We've got the slab videos, epic ride,
me and Steve did, climbing
the world's steepest climb.
Just below that we've
got the speed challenge.
Did I hit 100 kilometers
an hour on an e-bike?
Check that one out for
sure, give us a thumbs up.
If you liked today's
video, drop us a comment
in the box below.
Be good to hear from you guys,
and we'll see you in the next one.
