So this weekend, I was racing arenacross. All weekend the finish line jump was pretty doable for me with a decently hard seatbounce in 2nd gear. But the daytime qualifiers for the first night, they hadn't tuned up the lip, and I kept coming off close to looping out. I was sitting back on the seat and really hard on the gas in 2nd gear on a YZ250, but i wasn't getting popped up on to the front of the bike like I usually do.

Anyone have tips to get the attitude more forward on jumps like this?

Brake tap in the air

Yeah about half of the people were doing a brake tap every lap, but is there no way to get the front end lower with body position or timing on a seat bounce? I could come off level if I jumped it standing up and leaning forward, but then I didn't have the distance to clear it. I was landing on top instead of hitting the downside.

I'm barely comfortable with brake tapping, and I kind of like to have that in reserve in case it doesn't go according to plan, rather than plan on brake tap and have nothing left if it all goes south

Usually what I do when I seat bounce is stand up over the bars as I leave the jump face. Its hard to do because of all the G forces hitting you at once, but I haven't learned the break tap trick, nor have I found a reason to use it. Most of the time I can combat nose high with a slight body position change mid air. Though I will admit, learning how to break tap seems like a good still to have for sure.

don't forget that you don't have to do a full clutch break tap, in the air you can dab the rear break a little, enough to bring the front down a little bit, but not enough to stop the back wheel or kill the motor.

When your seat bouncing, you can control your pitch in the air before leaving the face through throttle, body position, seat position and how much you load the seat with your rear. The further back you are on the seat and the harder your bounch usually puts you front end low. A little less throttle as you leave the lip and a more leaned foreward body position will also help bring the front down.

Timing the seat bounce will also effect the bikes pitch. If you preload to early and the suspension starts to rebound to early you will usually go nose high. Also sometimes the face will limit how much you can seatbound with out going nose high. When the last bike length of the face is strait intead of concave seat bouncing is more likely to cause a nose high pitch.

Sometimes brake tapping isnt the answer. Try to lean forward as far as possible or try to roll your shoulders forward to atleast get rid of that air wheelie for the hard impact

Die_trying, on 06 February 2012 - 10:40 AM, said:

ah thanks! that explains it. The concave lip was pretty much worn off in the racing line.

How do you time the seat bounce later? do you soak up some of the G-out, and then drop onto the seat closer to the lip? or do you sit through the G-out and just use throttle to keep the suspension compressed?

Thanks again, I really like the new things I'm learning in arenacross... but man it's so fast I hardly have time to think!

Sometimes the face forms to the condition that you can't traditionally seatbounce it. By traditionally i mean exagurating the compression of the suspension as is compressed on the face with your bodys momentem and this is done through out the curve of the face so it all unloads as the suspension leaves the face. When you start getting that strait part at the end of a curved face the suspension isn't unloading off the face at the same time the compression from the curvature of the face is unloading. The suspension is uncompressing part way at the end of the curve then again with when you finally leave the lip resulting in the final preload being weak. You either correct this with a more foreward body position, or bounce into the seat timed so that the suspension rebounds at the time the bike is leaving the face. This seat bounce should promote nose low jumping. So instead of a longer extended seat bounce through out the face, you do a sharp seat bounce right before you leave the face. You can do the same thing standing and the result will be more pronounced because you can get your weight more foreward.

I lean forward and push the front end down with my arms. My local arenacross track had a table to single right out of a corner. To triple it I had to seat bounce and give it a lot of gas, wich was bringing the nose high. I'm not the biggest fan of a brake tap, and have learned my body postion is key to the way I like to adjust in the air. I grew up riding bmx (where a brake tap wouldn't do much) and it shows in my riding style. I'd learn both ways though.

When you guys say lean forward, are you still sitting all the way back on the seat and just hunched over? or do you slide forward a bit to get closer to the bars? I'm usually pretty good about rolling my shoulders to get level on regular out door jumps, but usually when I seat bounce I'm pulling myself forward with my arms as I leave the ground, so unless I get that 'pop' from the lip I don't have a lot of reach left.

Just my opinion and I am no expert by any means just my personal experiance. When I am hitting a steep lipped jump that requires me to somewhat seat bounce it I am sitting down off the face and as I go off the lip I stand up on the bike and lean forward then center myself on the bike mid air. This helps me pitch the bike forward and arc the bike to land even with the landing slope.

http://www.google.co...:88&tx=80&ty=94

I hope that works.........dont sit too far back, you see the pro's do it maybe, but we are not pro. Between central and rear, this way, you still get the bounce, but weighted further forward to drop the nose. Also, being 'too' far back can make the bike kick forward violently in the wrong situation.

When I mean lean forward, its when the bike is llifting you off the seat. Im not really hunched over to much, but definetly prepared for it to come up if im really accelerating hard. Watch some vids of people seat bouncing. The bike gently makes you stand up when you get it right. It really does take some practice to time everything right.

Washougal450s, on 11 February 2012 - 02:13 PM, said:

Yeah that was what was odd, I usually seat bounce just fine. I usually get popped up onto the front of the bike, but with the face all chewed out it wasn't working normal. I think it's what dietrying was talking about. The face wasn't concave all the way up, so it would rebound after the G-out before I got off the ground. I wish I'd had time to play with it, I'm sure I could have learned something if I could have rode it a couple times without traffic....

I see..... I wasn't sure if you were already comfortable seat bouncing or not. That really sucks when your wanting to try something different, but are restricted with traffic. Theres only so much room indoors :-(