Bicycles are wingless flying machines

mind the gap

Learning to jump bikes takes time.

Doing this as a middle aged dude is foolish to say the least.

Luckily, there’s a path to progression.

Start with the table top jumps. Those are the ones that are built like they sound.

You ride quickly to the transition, pull up, leave the ground then land with both wheels on the transition on the other side.

If you don’t quite make it, it’s not a problem, the top of the jump, the table is there to catch you. Sure landing short can be a bit rough. Rough and generally easy to survive.

Another issue might be if you come into the table top with too much energy and overshoot the transition. The transition out of a jump is there to catch you and absorb the energy from your flight. Overshooting can be jarring and at times painful. Luckily, most novice jumpers come up short more than they overshoot a transition. Tabletops are tame terrain for the timid.

From table tops, move on to step ups. A step up is fun because the landing is higher than the take off. Th…