How To Jump A Bicycle

 A Guide for Old People

 First, I don't mean how to jump over a bicycle.  I mean how to go over a jump on your bicycle.  I hope that was clear.  If not, let's probably don't bother to read on.

 Online you'll find... I don't know - hundreds? of videos breaking down every moment of the act of getting air and successfully landing.  Watch all of those you want.  I don't think they'll be of any help.  From a technical standpoint there's really only one thing you need to know; stand up.  Don't try to do it while seated.

But that's it.  Otherwise the way to do it is to just go do it.  Sadly, this perfectly serviceable advice nugget has been ruined by people trying to sell sneakers, but if we can get past that for a moment I can explain what I mean.  Then you can go buy your sneakers. 

It just isn't possible or even reasonable to expect a video to break down every critical moment of a jump for you, and you wouldn't have time to recall all of it in real time anyway.  You eventually just have to jump and feel it out.  You have to put yourself in the situation and feel your way through it.  That's the hard part because a healthy, sensible fear will stand in your way.  

The way to break through that isn't strictly mental toughness.  I mean - that doesn't hurt, but the answer is to become super comfortable with bike riding in general and develop a keen sense of balance.  With both wheels on the ground, get good at taking your bike over all sorts of surfaces and become generally adept at negotiating the everyday turns, hills, and dips etc.  You need a ton of confidence with the bike on the ground before you're ready to get airborne.

Crossing that line to liftoff still takes guts, but more confidence gained = less guts required.

If you have this foundation going in, your first attempt shouldn't be the disaster you might fear.  You might come up short or land a little wrong, but with solid fundamentals you're hedging your bets that you'll be able to ride out of it.  

Denouement: when you're up there in the air even for that brief moment you should quickly get a feel for it.  It should make sense to you.  That's where you learn.  Then it's just a matter of dialing it in the same way you did with everything else.  

Now go shred some gnar, brah!