Usually, when you’re mountain biking across extreme terrain and you make a leap of faith, it’s the landing where you come a cropper.
But not always, as the video below proves.
Because when you take off, it’s not only inattentive birds (or pro snowboarders) you need worry about. Deserts winds can suddenly appear from nowhere, and even the most experienced MTB riders can struggle to keep control, as Rob Nichols did here. In the middle of his jump he is literally blown off course, lands badly just off the path and ends up chewing on dust.
Warning: the video contains a bit of naughty – but completely understandable under the circumstances – language towards the end.
Brain malfunction. from r/MTB
Rob, though, puts some of the blame on himself. While in the vid he’s left cursing the gust for his crash, he explains on Reddit that there was also an element of human error:
“For a warm up jump I normally jump front wheel high for safety. Hitting the back brake then helps drop the front of the bike and meet the transition with both wheels simultaneously. I hit the front brake which then scrubs all gyroscopic force stabilizing the bike. In the wind I then became a sail.”
Which sounds like some pretty advanced bike handling knowledge to us. But now you know – keep the front wheel spinning, even when you’re airborne.
But Rob seems cool with crashes. “I like how you held your breath so it couldn't be knocked out of you on impact. You've done this before!” says one commented on Robe’s post, to which he replies, “I would be lying if I said it was my first.”
