Gap distance for jumps

[bbspecial]

I am currently building some jumps at the moment. I am a fairly good jumper but have never really bothered to build any.

how do you judge how far away to have the landing. is there any mathermatical way to tell (eg. angle of lip + speed = distance) or is it just trial and error. do you guys have a special landing for when you are just starting to build the jump (eg. have the landing alot longer than usually or have the landing at a lesser angle of slope etc.)

and with the landing, do you guys have the landing at the same height as the jump, higher than the jump, or lower than the jump.

another thing, does carpet really help to protect the jumps, and what is the main thing it protects the jumps from, erosion from rain or from riders

any other tips would be good aswell

:)

[Plow King]

What type of bike are you on, what type of track will it be on?

Carpet protects from erosion from riders. I.e ruts forming. and probably other numerous reasons. All my jumps are really long and about 1-2ft high max, the landings are all smaller than the upramps but very long. It's basically trial and error. you make the jumps how hig depending on. run up speed, run out. ect. If your worried about casing a jump hammer some crates imbetween the gap (if its a double) first and then hit it

Cheers Chris

[cdfeto]

I thing NORCOHAVOV is building "proper DJs", not jump on a track. If so uoi probly want the kicker and landing at about the same hight, unless you want it to be a step-up or step-down. Landings should be fair steep, but it all depends on your style and "skillness".

About the gap, I'm not too sure. This would help me aswell.

[norco_maniac]

flat land it first then mark where to build the landing

[Gluey_trails]

As norvo_maniac said, jump and flat land it. It isn't a bad idea unless you are making large jumps and are using rigids. When i build my jumps i use a estimate. Don't compact it fully so if it isn't where you want it you can easily move it. When i was building my DJ's they were too close together and compacted really hard and took about 30 mins to move it 30 cm to make it perfect. Still was trouble and needed to move it again so just make sure you make a descent estimate. Another tip would be visualise you jumping the lip with your speed (no crazy daydreams:p ) but just use common sense and it should be good. Good luck

Gluey Trails:D

[GravityGuru]

As far as distance is concerned just roll a ball up the up ramp, or ghosty an old K-Mart special :D :D :D Works for me

[2 smooth 4 u]

It all depends on speed usualy,

but people say the gap is usualy about 2x the height of the kicker

when you build heaps and heaps of jumps, you can tell if a gap is too long or too short with the lip angles and run in

If the jump is the 1st jump of a set of jumps, you usualy have it a tiny bit of a step up, so it gives you lots of speed

[Joe_Dirt]

For proper DJ's you probably want the kicker to be the same height as the lander and your jumps, on a long track probably build them lower than the kicker because if you are building a jump on a long trail it will generally be down a hill which means if you want to go faster and over jump it you can. Also, its a lot more difficult to gauge speed and stuff on longer tracks so theres less chance of casing if your landers are low.
As for gaps it just depends how big you want your jump. Knowing your skill and ability is the key to building a jump the right size for yourself. People have these methods of gauging distance but seriously landing a jump flat is going to be lot differnet from landing on a landing ramp, same deal with the rolling of the ball and ghostying your bike. You'd generally only want to know this if you'd never built your own jumps before or havent paid much attention to other peoples jumps. So, assuming your are a n00bie to building dj's it is best to start off with a table top and slowly increase the length of it as you get more confident. If you want more height obviously you can make your kicker steeper and then see on your table top where your landing. Another good method is to build a gap smaller than you would want to do to a table top. then just go faster until you land on your lander, then take out your table top.
Fact is, Dirt jumps change very time they're jumped the only equation is confidence+speed=clearance so just pick a gap your confident you can make and go for it.

[Jacko Wacko]

its just a guess. if the jump is very lippy you may only want the gap to be the same length as the up-ramps height.

but personly, at my jumps they are quite lippy & steep downramps and the gap is about 1 1/2 times the height of the lip.

[leitch]

if you're making consecutive jumps (eg six pack) then what you want to do is vary the jumps a little to cater for the increasing spead you will have

eg:

1st jump: long-ish but less lippy, able to be speed jumped to prepare for 2nd jump (or else make as a slight step-up)
2nd jump: same length, but steeper
3rd jump: same steepness, longer

or

1st jump: steep, reasonably short
2nd jump: same steep, bit longer
3rd jump: bit longer again

and so on and so forth

[big coight]

dude if you're a "fairly good jumper" as stated you should be able to make simple judgements of how long your jump needs to be... Just make the downramp at a distance you think looks right then if it's not in the right place fix it.

[Patrick88]

yeh i agree.

i always take into consideration the angle of the jump. if the jump is really steep then you will need the landing closer unless hit with more speed.
it all physics if you have a steep jump and if you go up it even if it is vert you will still get distance just a little less.

pat

[spicer_spicer]

we just built a crapy tabletop, and worked out where we landed, then took the dirt from the tabletop, and moved it away from the starting jump, and turned it into a gap, but we do have 2 keep moving the landing further away as we get better and more confident:p

[aline_ryder_23]

please delete post