I think I was riding for three hours today – uni is an awesomely addictive hobby and a great escape. One hour or so in the morning down at Cramond – enough riding and freemounts to start getting properly used to the new muni, plus some hopping practise up and down a staircase next to the beach. In the afternoon, I rode out to Ocean Terminal and practised riding off kerbs, riding off kerbs avec grande vitesse, hopping up kerbs and my first attempts to rolling hops (ie. riding forward and launching up into a forward jump). I tried about ten times and landed it properly once … for an airborne journey of about a foot!
It’s always fun trying new hard stuff, because the other stuff suddenly feels easier. When I’m focused on riding down drops, I don’t really think about the hundreds of freemounts and hops and little balance-recovery moments I do as setup. But they all contribute. Nowdays, 180 jumps aren’t a trick per-se .. they’re just a useful way of changing direction to set up and try another attempt at a rolling hop.
Going down kerbs fast was interesting. Going off fast is much easier than going down slowly, because there’s less of an along-down-along transition. And it’s the first time I’ve had to deal with freezing the pedals whilst in mid-air .. something that I need to nail for rolling hops.
The new muni is great. The big tyre is way bouncier than the old uni’s – great for drops. It’s way stronger too, which is good news given that I broke the old one!