5 Of The Best MTB Drop Off Tips!

Whether you're a seasoned MTB pro or a complete beginner, Mountain Bike drops can be a challenge for all, and unfortunately, this is where we at GMBN see most of your user-submitted crashes (OUCH!) So in this video, Neil Donoghue runs you through some simple, yet extremely effective tips & tricks on how to conquer any MTB drop!
⏱ Timestamps ⏱
0:00 - Intro
0:22 - Speed is your friend
1:46 - Know your limits
4:03 - Don't pull on the takeoff
5:23 - Your bike can help OR hinder you
6:41 - Don't assume
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[@gmbn]

Do you have any drop-off tips? Share them with the community down below! 👇

[@larry888888]

The thing i notice with almost all dropoff fails is lack of commitment...

[@uldi1s]

Expanding on my other comment below: - practice endoes (stoppies) so you develop a feel for how much range you have before your bum touches the wheel - it's common knowledge to keep a finger on the brake levers at all times. Stop this. If only for the moments when you're going to be in the air (ramps, drops). You can return the finger on top of the lever after you've cleared the drop and everything went well. - if you have access to a very steep ramp (not very high but one that throws you up rather than forwards), practice pulling (evenly of course) and stopping the rear wheel with your bum at the highest point of the jump. This will definitely make your brain record where is the contact point.

[@sjaan7370]

Mullet, mullet mullet! 👌

[@tbroadbridge2k23]

‘How to ride gap jumps’ would be a good video to do. I feel they are often a sticking point of progression.

[@jacob.rausch]

If you know how to ride a table, it's the exact same - just confidence

[@Coerced]

So check their videos, they have multiple on this topic

[@nelly5538]

I believe the proper technique is send it and pray

[@jacob.rausch]

@@nelly5538 what?

[@nelly5538]

@@jacob.rausch typo auto correct! Haha SEND it and pray

[@alhypo]

To get really comfortable at drops, find some low consequence drops at a skills park and practice them over and over. But remember to vary your speed. Do it as slow as you can and as fast as you can. The extremes will help exaggerate and dial in the techniques Neil demonstrated.

[@JMTBFLOW]

Just nose dived to commando roll off a drop about 40 mins ago, this was the first vid that popped up on my YT feed haha

[@ToddNZMTB]

Hardtail, relatable 👍🏻

[@KabirDhupelia]

Loved this format! I’d love to see something like this for steep slippery parts of a trail where braking isn’t your friend but confidence is

[@kisilvan]

Thanks Neil. After riding hardtails since the 80s and then stopping riding for 10 years in the 00's I have lost all my confidence at big drop offs and jumps. I could do more back then with the hardtail than I can now with the FS I've built. I'm hope the confidence will return but these vids certainly help.

[@KSIXRIDER]

Dropper post .....dropper post can also assist with the confidence

[@mcduckuk]

There's been a few good vids from you guys of late; excellent work. I'm crap at MTB skills, getting better slowly; I will try to think of the tips while hitting the trails Friday! One thing I struggle with is being able to think or visualise moving the bike while I'm in the air. I can't get my head round a bunny hop! That's why I struggle.

[@1p8Bar]

This was extremely helpful. Good video, thnx 😁

[@martini.2128]

Super helpful - especially the „do not pull“ advice. I totally get it. I always thought I was pulling, but it actually comes naturally when shifting your weight backwards and is not actually a „pull“…

[@EduardoGarciaCovers]

Another good tutorial video for a newbie like me 😊 thankz GMBN

[@METEORA_47]

with hardtail...im loving it 💪🤘

[@alexh.4068]

Like the editing and pacing of this one thanks :-). Also, seems like drop off technique has changed a lot from the how to do drops videos GMBN was putting out a few years ago. I got used to doing the weight back technique, this new push technique is something I need to get out there and practice.

[@familybrolsma1073]

You guys are so helpful, keep up the sick content

[@gmbn]

Great to hear that! 🙌

[@yehor4301]

Hello, hope everyone has a nice day.

[@Flyeso]

That's nice

[@biopower5160]

Thanks! U too!

[@SadiqueEntity]

Just what I needed 👍🏽 thanks GMBN

[@gmbn]

Hope it helps! 🙌👊

[@SadiqueEntity]

@@gmbn it definitely will 👊🏾

[@yengsabio5315]

Practice, practice, & more practice for me, especially that I only use a hardtail MTB! Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines! #KeepBiking

[@mudkayak6305]

keep 'em coming!

[@Kenshiken]

Absolutely love those videos

[@doctajuice]

The know your limits part is also important to consider your fitness. I have extremely good technique and I'm very comfortable with drops but lately I haven't been riding as much and I have to consider having the strength to take the impact without blowing my hands off the bars or letting my arms cave in too much

[@SUBcyclist]

Excellent video, The Don.

[@peterago1082]

THANK YOU!!!

[@oliverstrid4545]

good timing! Me and my buddies built a pretty big drop at our bikepark that has a flat landing that I haven't tried yet. This is totally giving me confidence to master it. Thanks!

[@robpel1]

Send it lad 👍

[@jonathangraham5764]

Great video, nice combination of what to do to nail it and what can go wrong with fail clips explained. I like all the presenters but this guys my fav.

[@gmbn]

Glad it was helpful Jonathon!

[@JoseGonzalez-nw6ml]

Thank you

[@mtbville]

Good stuff guys 🤩👍

[@suspicioustumbleweed4760]

It’s cool that you use a hard tail when discussing form because we could all learn bike control from hardtail riders.

[@stefang.2937]

Hey Neil, thanks for the Tips. But you need a Nukeproof Scout Riders Group Sticker on your Scout.

[@markyp1965]

Still not done the ‘Slab’ on GBU, although I’ve done the wooden one further down the trail countless times.

[@garybrown5769]

A video on suspension set up with actual click values would be good, as riding bike park compared to natural trails has a completely different set up . Too much rebound at a natural trail can be dangerous but at a bike park a life saver

[@neildonoghue2399]

You know what, i get mine setup and i rarely change it in different terrain. I'm sure a couple of clicks here and there could help, but i'd rather get used to one setup

[@aliens1990990]

Couldn't agree more neil

[@stulpnerkarl6062]

U're absolutely right Neil, doin it the same. But I think it depends hard on the actual suspension. If U not havin the opportunity to set up both High and Low Speed Rebound and Compression on your bike, then I think it's nearly impossible to find the right setup for all conditions.

[@shemshem9998]

agree with niel here. Additionally, rebound setting should safe you, that only happens if your technique is wrong to start off with, with drops and jumps most of the "rebound" should come from your strength and how hard you push off the floor. if you feel like you need extra rebound in order to do certain drops or jumps your not using the propper technique and relieng on the bike to do all the work. actually on the contrary, racers are the ones with the highest rebounds

[@ashleytombs]

I love these remakes they make it interesting every time my favorite drop off video is from 2017 it’s called ride big drop at Wind Hill My favorite bit is when Chris Smith sends that massive 20f drop those sort of drops pretty scary because they are blind landings which some people find scary like he says you just gotta grab your balls and go for it it’s kind of a black art on how to judge the speed If you’re asking that question you shouldn’t really be doing it

[@ICE329]

Great info

[@gmbn]

Thanks for watching!

[@ICE329]

as always @@gmbn, I love watching your videos.

[@tagzedawg]

You guys should do a video about how to ride drops.

[@yengsabio5315]

7:37 That is really scary! Track reading is truly paramount.

[@SirDShaw]

That’s the best part. Being reckless and yoloing it

[@rockport27sends]

@3:01 i think this is one of those disadvantages of the 29wheels as its taller. if ur coming of a bounce the rear tire will even be taller

[@bobothericefarmer1878]

Sickkkkk

[@seowgila]

finally someone doing this with a hardtail instead of a monster full squish

[@chrisridesbicycles]

I struggle with berms that are more than 180 degrees where you can‘t see the exit on entry. Can you make a video about all things you have to ride in blind?

[@stevenagel6096]

Issue I have is getting my rear shock rebound speed right. I find if I have a small feature just before a drop the rear shock tries to rebound to fast and chuck me off.

[@peaslaker]

Between the lip and the landing ... your centre of mass drops. The more it has to drop, the heavier the landing. You aim to leave the lip low and land tall. The awkward bit (where the front wheel has left the lip and the back wheel is still supported) needs a game plan and 90% of drop technique is about this. "Pop a manual" was never a great solution to this - it keeps the weight back (on the lip, so still high) and you have no range of motion to become "tall" in flight. I feel Neil is describing something much more like squashing a jump: on approach he's standing tall (to see) and then lowers his body weight progressively over the last bike length or so, sucking the last bit up (hips/knees/buzzing his rear end once it is only the rear wheel on the lip) in a dynamic motion. In flight, Neil recovers to a central, tall position to have maximum range of motion to absorb the landing. One last drop tip... you also need a game plan for the landing. The primal fear of having been in the air can make you grab at your brakes when you land... DO NOT DO THIS - progressive braking can be needed but not as a kneejerk reaction to just being back on the ground. Visualise the landing when you're scoping out the drop. After you land you need to absorb the impact and recover before you are reliably in control of the bike again. You don't need to absorb like a marshmallow - it takes too long to recover; find a balance where you're strong enough that you're not crumpling but you're still absorbing the hit.

[@rustgrime9897]

Mezzer! ❤

[@superschwitzer]

Which Manitou fork do you have on your Scout (name/travel)?

[@MirkoScherrer]

Great video, Neil. But please align the tire logos with the stems. 🙂

[@gmbn]

Must have been in a rush!

[@a.sarmiento5116]

Wow nice vid specially the slow mo. Seems to me you don't break even when landing that drop off? Just go with the flow is that it?

[@gmbn]

You don't want to jump on the brakes as soon as you land to be honest, unless it's really urgent, but even then you need to be careful! Hard braking and the bike compressing and rebounding can throw your weight in weird places

[@AssassinAgent]

I don't have problems with drops. But even the smallest of jumps, I'm helpless

[@skarabyll1458]

same brother

[@larry888888]

its that big fuckoff lip on the landing with "im gonna hurt yi" written along it that gets me

[@mudkayak6305]

Start with jumps that are straight, meaning no radious. Make sure the jump itself is long enough for both wheels to be on it before getting airborne. Start low and keep raising it. Once comfortable at height and speed start in on jumps with a radious. All about building confidence and skill.

[@BIIIKES]

Watch The Loam Ranger's jump video. Best one I've seen. Stand up when you jump.

[@TheFartfish]

Food for algorithm ;-)

[@dreadsanddirt5966]

Oh man, the remark about all drops are basically blind landings really held true last weekend! Was at Angel Fire bike park and on a trail I'd never ridden. Not overly rowdy but a single black tech trail. Riding about half trail speed as it was the first time down it and we see this drop that looked fun. Knowing how things tend to go we rolled up on it just to get some perspective and yep, glad we did! It wasn't a tall drop, maybe four or five feet but it was easily a 16 foot gap to the landing! Had we hit it at our safety speed there's no way we'd have made the landing and there was no way to tell until you were right up on it.

[@mtbalpinecounty]

💪

[@teambailalot8468]

I’m usually quite good at drops but that drop at FOD scares the willies out of me! For one you are turning into the drop, and then the landing is steep and narrows fast so you have to be 100% sure you’re heading in the right direction!

[@gmbn]

It's a tricky one! Definitely one to approach once you've got the technique down!

[@simonchaddock3694]

Random questioan for neil do you use ergon downhill grips cheers

[@neildonoghue2399]

Yes I do

[@simonchaddock3694]

Good guess eh

[@LetRippr]

Good one to practice there at Forest of Dean in the opening scene, it's totally blind on the approach, looks much worse than it feels going over it 👌🤙

[@biopower5160]

Guys!! Ride safe✅

[@chrisridesbicycles]

Question on "don't assume": In quite crowded bike parks like Saalbach, you can't just stop and walk around because other rides might not expect that and crash into you. What to do in these situations.

[@gmbn]

The rider in front has right of way! If you're not comfortable doing something, you shouldn't feel like you have to do it

[@DOCWHOK9]

I imagine most bikes are well balanced and without a rider, will bare an even weight on F+B tyres. My eMTB came with a kickstand and also has a rear hub motor. On every jump I felt the rear end plummet. The kickstand had to go, and this made a huge difference. Is there a golden ratio or best recommendation for weight distribution?

[@neildonoghue2399]

I've heard racers using bathroom scales under front and rear wheel to try and get weight balanced across both, but personally i use feel to get bar height right. But that is to a really small margin, you cant normally unbolt stuff on an non emtb i suppose

[@okidoke4822]

Hmmm, now I feel even more intimidated by drop offs lol

[@jaynus08]

gap jumps are really scary

[@zkcir]

What mountain did you use?

[@Frorideism]

I think the first and foremost tip would be: DON'T FILM IT! We can all agree that most people on friday fails wouldn't have dead-sailored all those drops if it wasn't for that damn need to film it.

[@rupedog]

I sometimes have a strip on the back of my shorts... on the inside😨😁

[@jamesweldon8118]

You shoulda led with the last one

[@jamesraney7232]

Did y’all re-shoot this video or reupload?? I swear I’ve watched this same video before Neil at the slab talking about how to do drops.

[@gmbn]

We shot one about the broad drop technique a while ago, hopefully these specifics help some more people out with a variety of drops

[@SirDShaw]

Let’s be real. Most people who watch these videos are people who already know most of what the content’s about. We just watch because we’re addicts

[@ishmaelnperezmd]

How long is the travel of your fork in this video?

[@neildonoghue2399]

140mm

[@thomassantilli2188]

Hard to break the bad habit of pulling the bike up with my arms , has sent me sideways and made me crash before

[@jacquie212]

Don't worry... after a big drop i also have a stripe on my shorts...

[@taneliharkonen2463]

two long unskippable ads.. monetization knobs turned all the way through the roof much? 🤔

[@FreediveRN]

what about a little pop before the drop to be straight in the air?

[@dutchpug4208]

Do that, it will give you more control in the air

[@milesfinch]

Don't go blaming the tyre for the brown line on ya shorts!!! ;-)

[@danshilling4240]

I just go around drop offs so I don't destroy my bike in one season.

[@jacquie212]

"This is really bad, not good"... "uploaded here" button appears.

[@someitguy2175]

Now you tell me...

[@Yayo11111]

I feel like this has been done about 10 times

[@jamesweldon8118]

Yet people still never learn

[@sandrinho27ss]

29er rear wheels suckkkk !

[@mioutdoors426]

How to ride drops for the 14th time

[@Coerced]

Just checked and it's the 5th video within the past ~year about how to ride drop offs. The repetition is becoming a bit much now

[@jakelesnake]

Yeah, it's a bit much. Atleast use Blake if you're going to do this stuff because he's always entertaining to watch

[@Chris-de2qc]

You realize there are only so many topics to talk about?

[@AlexGelinas42069]

@@Chris-de2qc Maybe they should slow down and move away from daily uploads

[@KevinT3141]

Meh. Very few people dig into the back catalog and there's new subscribers all the time. For me I find there's always something that clicks and fills in another tiny detail of the big picture when I see a topic presented a bit differently than I've seen it before. Also you don't have to watch every video every time, there's some I skip because certain topics just don't interest me, and that's okay because there will be another video out tomorrow.

[@codyg294]

I agree, it's too much of the same content.

[@ZOB4]

Didn’t you guys just put out a how to drop video a month ago? This must be version 372 of how to drop

[@alstuart8801]

probably true.. but if youre as useless as me you need all the help you can get! :-)

[@beardyjay3680]

F**k me Neil, all you've done is terrify me more about drops 😅

[@gmbn]

😅 Sorry Jay

[@fcsaldanha]

First

[@tristanridesmtb1035]

Nice, I always try to 😂

[@gmbn]

🏆🏁

[@ryandarcy1715]

Unfortunately, this is completely incorrect. If you follow these instructions you risk landing nose heavy and going OTB. Please GMBN , put content out the is more likely to help beginners rather than confuse them into bad crashes. If you’d just stuck with teaching a simple manual concept, it would keep a whole lot more tires on the ground after a safe drop.

[@gmbn]

Hey Ryan, Neil is a qualified MTB coach and wouldn't put disinformation out there to confuse people or teach something dangerous. Every drop is different, and whilst there is a 'covers-all' drop technique, Neil is highlighting intricacies here which help with specifics. A manual technique like you describe risks loop out with the front wheel being high. Match the angle of the landing with your wheels.

[@ryandarcy1715]

Hi GMBN, to be precise, I would suggest it was misinformation rather than disinformation as I doubt Neil wants his viewers to crash more. While drops vary, the physics of gravity is universal. Unless you’re riding backwards, gravity will pull the front tire down and we agree about any technique that allows you to match your wheels with the slope of the landing. Where in the video was this taught? Take note of the number of times the video shows Neil landing nose heavy and the fact that two of the four crashes weren’t even drops , they were jumps with kickers. Love your stuff, but this one missed the mark. Suggest you own it and do a fun follow up, as even the best of us crash from time to time.