- Mini horns means full thin.
Big horns means you're just too rad.
That is like, dude, respect.
(laughing)
Load of rubbish anyway.
(musical sting)
- [Simon Richardson] Long-time viewers of GNC might remember
that before I was a professional road cyclist
I was actually a professional cross-country
mountain biker.
In which case you might be thinking then
that I should already be able to do this
and you're probably right.
However, although sometimes my wheels do leave
the ground and at the same time,
the only way that you could tell is by looking
at my terrified face and not by
the tiny amount of air beneath me.
As much as I love road cycling and as much
as I love gravel biking and cyclocross
they're not as spectacular as mountain biking.
(heavy metal music)
Nowhere near.
And I think the main reason for that,
is that we don't jump, we tend to stick to the ground.
But what's stopping us?
Can anyone learn?
Is there an age limit?
I'm going to find out.
(heavy metal music)
I'm going to have to go right back to basics
and you are coming with me.
To teach us, we've got Blake Samson from GMBN
a master of the art and you've been doing this
pretty much longer than you've been walking right?
- [Blake Samson] Since I was five years old yes.
- Okay Blake I guess we start with a bike.
- Yeah.
- I've brought one of mine I'm feeling pretty
good for the purpose.
It's really fast, super stiff, mega light.
It's like a properly.
- [Blake Samson] probably go super high
and take off but mate, it looks really nice.
How heavy is that?
- It's like six and a half kilos, probably.
- [Blake Samson] (whistles) It's like you've brought
a sword to a gun fight.
Have you been going to the gym?
- No.
- Well you're going to need this.
(clicks fingers, heavy metal music)
That's 14.5 kilos this is a Canyon Strive.
- (groans)
- It's a bit overkill really, it's 170mm
of travel up front 150 on the back
but it's got loads of gubbins you can
lock out that.
It's going to help you it's going to fill you with confidence
that's for sure with all that travel.
- I think it probably will actually won't it.
- And, flat pedals.
We're going to eliminate the clipless pedals
and, you know, cut that bad habit of you
bringing up that back wheel with just your feet.
- Okay cause that is a bad habit I've been
quietly cultivating for 25 years Blake.
And so, you've filled me with confidence
with this bike and then stripping it all back
with these pedals that my feet are going to
fly off but okay, no, looks great mate.
I'm definitely going to look the part,
that's important.
- I'm going to scrutinize you and pull out some points
and you're probably going to do well cause you've done
mountain biking before.
(guitar music)
- [Blake Samson] All right, jokes aside let's
talk about this bike in itself it is a full blown
rage machine it's 29 inch wheels.
It's got a lot of trave which you don't really
need when it comes to learning to jump a bike.
Why mountain bike?
Because your body position.
You're in that attack position,
you've got a wide stance on your handlebars
so it keeps you more in control.
You've got thicker rubber
that's not going to puncture.
Not one of those crazy little thin tires
these things can take a lot of impact.
Also, tire pressure is a key,
you want to run nice tire pressure at 31
like in these tires right here.
Now we've got to drop the post chair as well
we want to lower that all the way down
and if you don't have a droppable post,
just bring your post down a little bit slightly
cause you want to get that away from your bum
cause it's going to hinder you getting in the air.
- Next up then we've got to find ourselves a jump.
What is the prefect beginner's jump?
- A tabletop jump.
Now that is a perfect jump.
Two foot high is a pretty good height to work
towards to get air off your bike.
- What's a tabletop?
- A tabletop is a jump from take off to landing
is a flat surface so if you don't really make
the landing you can land on top without landing
in a chasm in the middle.
And, you know what, you don't want to look at
a lip, you don't want to look at a poppy lip.
This is quite a mellow take-off.
So, it's going to help you.
It's going to fill you with a bit more confidence.
- What's a poppy lip?
- So a poppy lip, what that means,
is it's quite steep.
- Okay.
- So a steep take-off
- So it's going to send you.
- It's going to send you or it's send you over
the bars if you haven't got the right technique.
First I want to get you on your bike,
have a run through and I'm going to see
where you're going wrong cause I don't know
if you can actually jump.
- No, okay.
- So, I'm going to scrutinize you.
You, and give you guys pointers, and you,
on where you're going wrong.
- Okay.
- Yeah?
- I'm going to do a practice on foot.
(groaning)
- Close, I think you can get further
than that on a bike.
(laughing)
Right, here he comes.
(claps)
Yeah.
Wow.
- [Simon Richardson] Did I do a jump?
- [Blake Samson] That was a pretty good jump.
You kind of nosed in a bit.
It felt like you pressed it too much
and you went.
So we're going to walk you through this
when you're coming in to the lip this is where
you're going to pre-load.
So, what I mean by pre-loading is your dropping
your bike into the ground,
you're dropping your body into your bike.
You want to keep your body quite central
to the bike.
Now when you come to the lip,
you want to be driving your bike up.
So you're pushing forward and you're going to pop up.
This is where that bunny hop technique's
going to come into it.
So you want to pop off this lip.
What I mean by pop is you're pulling up
like you're basically standing up like that.
- Okay
- Yeah?
So you're going to drive your front wheel up
you're going to pull your front wheel up into the air
then when you get to this point,
this is where you want to curl your feet
on your pedals and bring your back wheel up
so you're whole backs going to follow your front
just like that.
- [Simon Richardson] Yeah.
- And that's basically going to level
your bike up there or there,
it doesn't matter where it is depending on
how big your pop is and then this is when
you want to relax,
you're in flight, first class, you're relaxing
but you want to focus straight away on your landing.
And then you want to drop your front wheel
or land two wheels depending on
if you're landing flat or into a landing.
- Right
- [Blake Samson] You've got a good stance
on that mountain bike dude.
- Yeah, I like it mate.
- [Blake Samson] Mountain biking suits you.
Do you know we're looking for a GMBN presenter?
(laughs)
Oh! That's pretty good.
- [Simon Richardson] Yeah?
- Yeah, that's pretty good but your kind of
squashing it and pushing down with your bike
you're not letting the bike ride the lip as much.
- So what should I be doing?
- So what you want to be doing when it
comes to the lip,
you want to get down a bit more it's kind of
you're standing up, you're exploding to get the height
but what you're doing is you're standing up
and pushing your bike down, it's like,
hell no I don't want to go too high.
- Okay.
- You're squashing it which is good if you're racing.
- That's what I'm doing yeah.
- Exactly, but we want to jump.
(heavy metal music)
- Oh!
- That was it!
Bring your bike up a little bit more with your hips.
Bring your legs up.
- Okay.
- Cause you're kind of stretching your legs up.
- Okay, let's do it.
- Oh yeah.
I still feel like you're leaving your legs behind.
- What I could do with a set of clipless pedals
that would be really good.
- Yeah, that's, no.
It's good, but no.
(laughing)
Do you want me to ride through on my bike
and see how I get air?
I'm going to over-exaggerate getting air
- Yes that would be brilliant actually.
- So you can see I'm going to over-exaggerate
the technique and go stupidly high
but you can see how it works.
- [Simon Richardson] Well that's it cause I've
watched you a million times on videos
and you make it look so easy and actually
you don't sense that whole, kind of like,
compress, going to pull up, lift your hips,
lift your feet.
- [Blake Samson] Yeah.
- Okay yeah that would be wicked, thanks mate.
- Again, compress, pull up.
- [Simon Richardson] Whoa!
To be fair that did actually just look like
a really big bunny hop.
- [Blake Samson] Yeah.
- And that's exactly what you've been telling me to do.
- Exactly the same thing and you can see I
brought my legs up up into me,
curling my feet on my pedals,
bringing my legs up.
But then when you're coming to
your peak of your air,
that's when you want to drop your legs,
drop your arms because that is going to act
as suspension when you land as well.
- [Simon Richardson] Okay.
To be fair, if I was allowed to wear Lycra
to do this I would beat,
I would probably be going a couple of foot higher.
- We don't mind Lycra on GMN.
(bossa nova music)
- Yeah.
If you got a little bit faster,
give you a bit more time to actually
get in the air, like more time in the air
- [Simon Richardson] Yeah.
- and then bring the bike up,
that would be perfect.
- Okay.
- That means you're bringing the bike up
at it's peak.
- Faster.
- Yeah.
- My arms are too weak to actually control
the handlebars when I'm
- No it's all about confidence when it comes to that.
Like you say when you're going a bit fast
and you feel like you're going to ping off
that's confidence you want to, kind of,
focus and be confident in yourself
that you can actually do it.
- So that's not necessarily a technique thing.
- No it's, you don't want to freeze up
when hitting a jump cause that's the worst thing
cause when you tense up on a jump,
wherever your body position's going to be
your bikes going to follow your position
so if you stiffen up to your right, like this,
your bike's going to go that way
because you're turning basically in the air
or off the lip.
Relax, yeah!
You brought out the rear end a bit then as well.
- [Simon Richardson] Yeah I just,
that kind of style comes quite naturally to me.
(laughing)
- Style with ease, that's stease.
- So that was a very small but slightly steasy.
- Slightly steasey.
- [Blake Samson] Oh! (laughing and clapping)
- Yeah we're getting there!
That's it that's where your back wheel landed
- Hey!
- That was actually pretty good.
- Thanks man.
- You've got that much air.
I reckon a few more gos the best thing about
jumping is you're having fun
you can loop and also being a small jump like this
you don't have to go very far to drop in.
You don't have to go very far down there to stop.
So you can just keep looping this jump
over and over building that confidence
building it, building it and you just,
it takes time.
- Yeah.
(rock drumming)
(heavy rock guitar)
- [Blake Samson] Yeah, how are you finding your bike?
- It's quite nice isn't it?
- It is.
- I mean it's very different to my road bike
but actually it does climb remarkably well.
I mean, the landing you don't need to worry about
do you when you've got this amount of
suspension underneath you.
And actually the front is so controlled
if you're not used to riding with suspension
it's not like it's going to spring back at you
and flick off so I guess,
is that rebound damping?
- Yeah.
- It's therefore set quite low
- [Blake Samson] Yeah.
- [Simon Richardson] Which is very good.
- Yeah.
It's like I said it will fill you with confidence.
And that, dreams.
- Yeah.
- That is dreams.
- It is actually.
Actually, I didn't say that on record.
Delete that now.
(laughing)
(electronic music)
(laughing)
- Ah! The pop!
Ahhh!
(clapping)
You even know he's doing on the second really well.
And the last one.
What do you think?
- That felt good man.
- [Blake Samson] That was really good.
- That was really good.
- [Blake Samson] That was, I'm not just saying that,
that's really good.
- Thanks mate.
- Really good.
(heavy rock guitar)
- [Blake Samson] It's kind nearly the same distance,
same length of table so bike, to a bike and a half,
and that's what you're clearing over there.
The only thing is with this is you're going to
go a little but higher.
- [Simon Richardson] Yeah.
(laughing)
- This will be an extreme corner in a GCN show.
- Ah mate! Yes, fucking make it into extreme corner
by staying on my bike.
As opposed to falling off it,
that would be a good thing.
Okay.
(bossa nova music)
- Yeah, mountain bike.
Mini horns means full thin,
big horns means you're just too rad,
like over-rad.
That is like, dude, respect.
(laughing)
A load of rubbish anyway.
Yeah!
(laughing)
Yes!
I like how you take it easy,
you don't just go like a bull in a china shop
and smash everything,
you go in small, gauge your speed,
you're thinkin it, which is key.
Think out your skills first before sending it
because you don't want to live by just sending it.
- That's a nice spin on basically being
too scared to do it properly.
(laughing)
straight off the bat.
- No you are assessing the situation,
- Yeah.
- You're calculating,
you know you're going to do it,
you just want to know what that lip feels like.
I do it, I don't even jump it.
When it's a big jump I roll up the lip
and roll down.
And that basically fills me with, like,
confidence to how that lip feels.
Does it feel kicky cause that's when
the jumps get massive.
Yeah, and I don't, yeah.
- Like this one.
- Like this one for instance yeah.
This ones pretty big actually.
(laughing)
- To be fair it doesn't actually feel
quite as bad as I thought it would.
- No, it looks bad but it doesn't feel bad.
It's very mellow.
- It is mellow.
(whistling)
A roadie.
On a mountain bike.
Oh!
(laughing)
Yes!
You got it.
Oh my gosh, oh mate,
I reckon we can get you down there.
- Yeah?
Okay let's do it.
Anything on technique?
- Its the same I think, again, bring up your legs.
- Okay.
- Yeah. Your legs are kind of quite straight.
You're pulling but you're kind of leaving your
back wheel behind.
- Okay.
- Oh!
(clapping)
I even heard the front suspension go "chu chu".
Like you popped it,
I could hear the suspension.
Oh! He cleared it!
I can officially say you can jump.
- Graduated from the school of Blake Samson.
- Yes yeah, that's my first student.
- Thanks man.
(laughing)
- That is good.
I'm blown away.
First little jump that is
Oh!!
(laughing)
Whoa
Whoa!
No way!
- Cheers man.
- [Blake Samson] You cleared every single one.
- Blake, thank you so much.
- You're welcome mate.
- That was absolutely brilliant.
I appreciate not everyone is going to have
the luxury of a top tutor to guide them through,
point out their mistakes and then a will to follow.
But hopefully, those tips are going to translate
for everyone out there.
- Yeah yeah.
- If you've got one little tip to end on
what would it be?
Golden rule.
- Practice, practice, focus on that technique,
start small, don't throw yourself in the deep end.
Get a friend to film you so you know exactly
where you're going wrong on that technique.
That's a good way of doing it.
- Yeah, yeah it's true actually cause, well,
I don't look like you do when jumping
so it's pretty clear that there's some
work to be done.
Anyway if you want to check out more videos
on jumping there's a whole load of cracking ones
over on GMBN, in fact, there's one on the screen
now, jumping mistakes with Blake here as well.
Yes, Oh man.
- That was good!
- Yeah?
- Yeah!
- That was really good.
- I think maybe I better leave it there.
- Good, that's good.