I'm used to ruts in corners, but this past weekend, the track i was at had some pretty major (about 8 inches deep) ruts all over the face of their big jumps (70+ft). What is the trick to these? I'd line my bike up as best as possible, didn't feel like i was cross rutting, but the bike would still swap sideways. How do I fix this?

Ride around the jumps!

rutted faces are scary looking, it's mostly a mental thing. I know when I was first learning i wasn't riding 'far enough infront of my self'. Think about the jump when it isn't rutted, a lot of times before you even hit the face, your already focusing on the landing. When your uncomfortable with ruts, you get that pucker factor coming up to the rut, tense up, and are usually focused on the rut all the way till you leave the jump. For me the key was picking the rut early, relaxing and looking past it like you would on a regular jump. Early in the day sometimes you can avoid the ruts, but as the face ruts up, its dangerous as that is the easiest way to get cross rutted. Relax, commit and own the rut.

Edited by Die_trying, 29 February 2012 - 02:48 PM.

^^^ I agree

I also tend to find the widest rut on the jump face. Sometimes I don't even try to jump really badly rutted jump faces, the risk factor isn't worth it and flat landing ONE or two jumps on the track isn't the end of the world. The worst is a clean jump face and ruts on the landing, that is more challenging then you'd think.

Have a rut picked as soon as possible so you have plenty of time to get lined up for it. Relax on the way up the face and be ready pull the bike back if it goes sideways off the launch. Just ride a lot of ruts and they will get easy. The jumps at my house get really rutted so they are kind of second nature to me. I still hate ritted landings though.

not all ruts are created equal make sure you can be ready to adapt for kickers etc.

This is a great subject.  I need work with these. Last week I hit a jump with  relatively small ruts on the face. I was accelerating hard up the face and my rear tire kicked sideways. I landed on the down side of the jump, but the bike was sideways.  I took the handle bar in the rib. Nothing broken but lots of bruising.....
I'm thinking it would be better to be steady on throttle, having all the speed before the face, instead of accelerating. I think thats what caused my rear end to kick out...

Dirt Addict, on 13 March 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

I doubt being on the throttle was what messed you up. There was probably a little kicker or something in the rut or you may have been putting a little more weight on one side to keep your balance. I am pretty much always on the throttle up a rutted face just in case there is a kicker at the end. If I have too much speed going in I will give it some throttle close to the top to avoid an endo.

What DA is saying is that you are better off getting speed before you get into the rut rather then coming in slower and having to pin it through the rut, which i agree with. The back tire can do weird things when spinning in a rut, like try to climb out of it and throw your back end around.

I had a riding buddy today telling me a story about watching D Henry and J Dowd intentionally cross rutting on the face of a huge booter just to practice correcting in the air.  I guess thats what its all about- learning how to  deal with being sideways like it is routine.  My balls shrivel though.

Die_trying, on 14 March 2012 - 10:54 AM, said:

Thats what I was trying to describe. I'm pretty sure it's what caused my crash.  I had been hitting the jump all morning. No kickers, but the ruts were forming and my rear  tire was starting to climb out to the left side.

Getting on the back of the bike usually helps keep your rear tire planted in the rut. The best thing to do is pick a rut early and just stay on the gas. The minute you hesitate or let off its gonna bite you.

Dirt Addict, on 13 March 2012 - 06:51 PM, said:

^this

Get all your speed up, maybe even a little more than you would normally so you for sure won't clip the landing.  Then just stay really neutral and light on the gas and coast off of it, soaking up the kicker with your legs if there is one.  That's another reason to go just a little faster than usual, is so that you can squat down on the bike a little bit off the lip, and then you have more reach with your arms and legs to move the bike around in the air compared to if you were preloading it.

The other thing, if you're not really comfortable with the ruts, is to go outside a little more in the corner before the jump, and square up to it so that you hit the face exactly parallel to the ruts, and have more time to get up to speed.

Really good practice is to ride downhill single track.  The idea is the exact same.  Not much gas or brake, just super neutral and loose on the bike while you're looking way ahead and focusing on where you want to go.