Send questions to lee@leelikesbikes.com
Here’s a great question from our remote coaching student Stefan in Switzerland.
One last question to the drops and speeds: Is this reasoning right: given all things equal with the drop except its height, I could approach all drops smaller or higher with the same speed I‘ve been using now? With higher drops I‘ll land longer with smaller drops I‘ll land shorter? but other than that it‘s the same?
Stefan
lee
center of gravity acts as a lever
( between tyre-contact and cg )
distance x 2 – 1/2 force needed
( or torque x 2 )
for a taller rider
real-!-emergency braking is more a problem
by definition
a taller rider can move more ?
yes – but
distance is longer = more time needed !
and the saddle must be down … always
( and no luggage above the rear wheel )
do you agree ?
thanks
Hi Lee,
I recently dislocated my left shoulder for the 4th time (at age 30) mountain biking and am going through the process of looking into surgery or rehabilitation.
I can across your blog post discussing handlebar width and could immediately sympathize with the issues you spoke about.
I was wondering if there was a follow up post relating to this research as I couldn’t track it down? I’m riding 800mm bars on both my bikes even though I’m only 5 foot 8.
Any advice would be much appreciated. I’m happy for you to post this on your blog and reply I just didn’t want to ask something which may have already been written about.
Cheers and keep up the good work,
Andy
Hi Lee,
I’m building a pump track in the PNW where the soil is essentially always wet. What do you think an ideal soil mix would be? Would 60% sand / 40% clay be a good balance? Could I go with even more sand?
Thanks!
Alex
Hi Lee,
I was wondering if you can comment on how handlebar roll affects hand and wrist position while riding. I had a coaching session with a local guy here and he rolled my bar upwards so that I effectively had more stack height. It immediately felt more comfortable, it seemed like the way the bar sweep worked with that angle put my wrists in a more comfortable position. I did not think about it too much until I stripped down my bike and forgot to mark the handle bar to put it back. Obviously the way you roll the bar will also change the reach and stack but do you have any rules of thumb for getting forearms and wrists are in a strong comfortable position. Or am I barking up the wrong tree here?
Jarred
Hi Lee
I am a female rider on the wrong side of 40 with total hip replacement and an arthritic left shoulder just rediscovering the trails again. I have discovered some massive imbalances and what let’s me down is not cardio ( easy to improve) but strength, mobility and skill- I’m looking at the RipRow as a functional tool to learn the movement patterns that I need to nail in safety and then build strength and speed into these movements with less overall impact than smashing trails ( and embedding poor form) and less dislocation risk than heavy deadlifts . My question is do you typically replace traditional strength training with this or would you use in addition to say deadlifts, KB swings etc and how would you incorporate workouts into a training block- ie have you experimented with different sessions targeting strength over speed and visa versa during day a training block and using these to achieve different outcomes?
Would love to know your thoughts.
By the way, i have your latest book and I keep rereading sections all the time. I am still a low intermediate but it’s certainly helped me progress a bit. Unfortunately, my brain steps still steps in and puts the brakes on far too often!
thanks
Anna
Hey Lee,
I enjoy reading through all of your articles on your site, I have a question though that I have yet to find an answer to.
Is there a formula or proper way to figure how many feet away “y” the landing should be from the end of a man made drop that is “x” feet tall? I know that it has many factors such as speed, form, huckability, etc but I was just looking for a general rule of thumb on if it’s best to be 1:2 ratio, or what. (1’ height drop, landing 2’ from lip)
Thanks!
Jordon Mallett
Hi Lee
I thought I would get in touch and I hope you are doing ok in these difficult times.
I have been dreaming of a backyard pumptrack for a few years and with the coronavirus lockdown here in the UK I am trying to find the silver lining and so am planning a build!
I bought your great book Welcome to Pump Track Nation v2 and have taken to design package inkscape to try to plan out a track. I have a long but relatively narrow space which is on flat land and currently simple turf. I plan to bring in a mini digger but don’t have access to bring dirt in easily so will dig down to get the dirt and then put in drainage from the low points.
The design is attached and includes a simple oval with an s-bend berm in the middle and a mixture of simple rollers and a couple of bigger ones to try to give the chance for jumps – including in and out of the s-berm. The track will be used by myself (38 and a bmx/mtb rider since a teenager) and my two kids (11 and 5 yr olds).
It would be amazing to get any thoughts you have.
Thanks
Joel
Lee, I’ve been focused on legs strength and stamina. My legs are good now. My core feels like a bowl of jelly. What are some of the best exercises for building my core?
Hey Lee,
Have you ever flown with a trust fork? Looking at it, it doesn’t look like it would fit into my bike bag so would complicate things for my trips to the mountains. Any experience/ideas for plane travel with them?
Paul
Hey Lee,
I am thinking about building one of those giant slip n slides that uses a bungee cord to get people up to speed and sends them off a ramp at the end. I was thinking about doing a ramp somewhere between 45 and 60 degrees because I feel like going for more height than distance would be fun but I also don’t want to lose too much distance. Just wanted your opinion on that. Also I don’t have a clue how to do the curve of the ramp so any advice on that would help. At the moment I don’t know how fast we would be hitting the ramp because I can’t find a big enough bungee cord with a spring constant to do some calculations.
Thank you for your time,
Nolan
Hi Lee,
I bought the v2 of the pump track nation book. Gotta say super well written. I’m planning on building one in the back yard to keep my kids busy. They are 3 1/2 (good at strider) and almost 6 (he’s got a nice 20” bike and can ride mellow mtb trails)
My space in the yard is 35 feet wide and 32 feet deep but the SW corner has a shed so need to keep entrance clear so will likely do a trapezoid shape. That includes room for the back of berms.
My main question has to do with the 10 foot peak to peak number you mention as ideal for rollers. How tight can I make rollers. I assume since the kids are on small bikes they can handle tighter spacing. What’s a smaller spacing that would still be manageable for me. I’m advanced rider on a dj bike. I can pump my way around a pump track without pedaling but by no means an expert. Though I’d like to practice now that I have time. We are working from home for the next foreseeable future and we have the kids home too. All schools and daycares are shut down here for the next 2 months at least. Our local pump track will also be shut down for the foreseeable future.
Thanks
Bogdan