\”Look before you leap.\” Who hasn\’t heard that bit of advice? How many MTB riders have to \”jump blind\” in spite of the admonition?

If  you get seriously into MTB, learning to jump is crucial. It can be difficult or impossible to see what\’s on the other side of even a small hump; so if you don\’t want to have to \”jump blind\”, you\’d better ride the course ahead of time if at all possible. Look before you leap! At the very least, study the course\’s printed description.

For MTB jumping, you might want to consider using a helmet like this Leatt DBX. It looks like it combines a mouth guard with head protection, which seems like a good idea to me.

There\’s a kind of \”jump\” that I\’ve heard of in the context of bicycle racing. It involves putting your bicycle in a very hard gear, and starting with a very hard push of the pedals, i.e. jumping. They say it can put you ahead of the rest of the riders: while they\’re shifting through their cassettes as they work to gain speed, you\’re already in a high gear and off the front.

Another kind of jump is shifting into harder and harder gears while pedaling, then suddenly putting very hard pressure into pedaling; I believe that\’s called a \”surge\”. It\’s a way to pull ahead of the rest of the pack as the finish line nears.

Oh, dear. All that talk is making me feel jumpy!