OK, so why would anyone want to do jumps on a dirt bike or an ATV? Well, for one thing, it is fun! And, of course, some people do it just to show off. However, believe it or not, it is a useful skill you just might need unless you only ride on flat, familiar tracks or trails. And you may encounter jumps even on familiar terrain. If you do any desert or cross country riding you are likely to encounter sand washes and other obstacles you may have to negotiate. We did a lot of riding in the Mojave Desert and ran across LOTS of sand washes. Some were shallow and easy to cross, some were deep and you either had to jump all the way over them, jump down into them, or stop and find a way around. If you come on one of these unexpectedly, you don't have time to stop and find a way around so you either have to jump over or into them! You may also encounter other obstacles that you need to jump over. So I consider jumping to be an essential skill, not just a trick for show-offs.
As I contemplated what I would do if I encountered a wash and couldn't stop in time I decided it was time to at least learn how to jump down into one safely. To do that I rode around until I found a shallow wash, about 1' deep and began jumping down into it. No big deal. As soon I got comfortable with that I moved along the wash to where it was a little deeper and began practicing there. I kept moving along until eventually I could comfortably jump down into a wash 5 or 6 feet deep. Having accomplished that I felt a lot more confident in being able to safely handle coming on a deep wash by surprise. We took some videos of us jumping down into a wash about 6' deep and quite honestly they were disappointing. Jumping into a wash like that looks pretty easy on film (and actually it is!). However, it FEELS a lot more scary and exciting than it looks until you get used to it. You don't want your first time to be a surprise when you suddenly come upon a wash and don't have time to stop or room to turn. It takes some practice to build up the confidence to handle jump safely and successfully when required. Unexpectedly finding yourself flying off the edge of a sand wash could result in a really bad landing if you don't know how to handle it.
You can learn to jump obstacles in a similar way by starting small. Find or build a small bump and learn to launch off of it, then move up to larger and larger bumps as you get more comfortable. You can practice riding whoop-de-doos, where lifting the front wheel from the top of one whoop to the next can significantly smooth out the ride. Another little trick I learned for smoothing out the whoops is to stand up, kind of relax your arms, and let the bike pivot on the foot pegs beneath your feet as it rolls up and down the whoops, but jumping every other one lets you go faster.
Motocross and Supercross tracks have big jumps that may send bikes and riders 50' - 80' in the air and 100' or more over the ground. That kind of jumping isn't something the average recreational rider is likely to find necessary but you may still encounter hillocks on a trail that may make you airborne for a little bit and it is a good idea to know how to handle them. Again, the key to learning how to handle such obstacles is practice. Start with small jumps and work your way up. Sometimes being able to jump over some of the whoops in long section can save time and hammering on your bike -- and your body, but you need practice so you can land in the right place to launch over the next set successfully. It takes more than a little practice to learn how much throttle you need to clear a particular size of obstacle but is well worth learning.
No matter whether you are jumping into a sand wash or over an obstacle, it is best to know what it looks like where you are going to land. Out in the desert we often encountered mounds of dirt in the middle of an otherwise flat plain. When you see something like think about how it got there. Most likely it is the result of someone digging a hole. Believe me, you don;t want to jump over a mound of dirt and find yourself landing in a big hole on the other side. When he was a teen my eldest son found himself looking down into a deep mine shaft when jumping a pile of dirt. Fortunately, he managed to make it far enough that his back tire barely caught the far edge of the shaft and he landed safely. Same principle applies to jumping over sand dunes. Very often the far side of the dune may be hollowed out and you will find yourself much higher off the ground than you expected. The teenage daughter of an acquaintance of mine was killed jumping her ATV over just such a dune. It wasn't a particularly large dune from where she approached it but the back side was hollowed out more than 40' deep! Riders often expect the dunes to be symmetrical, with equal slopes on both sides but often that is not always the case.
Another tip for jumping is to always keep the front wheel up so you land on the rear wheel first. Landing on the front wheel first can bend the forks, twist the steering, or simply compress the suspension and cause you to "endo" (where the rear of the bike flips over the front wheel throwing you over the handlebars). In such cases you often experience two very painful impacts: one when you hit the ground and again when the bike hits you as it tumbles. Landing rear wheel first makes it easier to control the landing. Landing on the front wheel first has the risk of the wheel turning to one side or the other and sending you out of control. The front forks are also more likely to bend if you land wrong. The fixed rear wheel won't turn sideways and the center of gravity brings the front of the bike down whereas if you land front wheel first the center of gravity of the moving bike wants to rotate forward and up and toss you off. Jumping ATVs is very similar to jumping dirt bikes but you also need to keep the machine level side to side as you leave the ground and when you hit the other side. Larger UTVs (side-by-sides) can handle limited jumps, but the added size and weight are something to always keep in mind. I've seen dozens of UTVs with broken front wheels and suspensions from bad landings.
UTVS or side-by-sides are capable of handling some jumps, but the added size and weight makes jumping them not nearly as feasible as it is with dirt bikes and ATVs. No doubt you have seen impressive vehicle jumps on TV shows and videos but what you may not know is that unless they were specially modified most of those vehicles had to be towed away from the landing. Normal cars and trucks are not designed to handle the impact of landing from being jumped. The Dukes Of Hazard busted up almost all the Dodge Chargers like the General Lee in Southern California, wrecking between 250 and 325 of them during the six year run of the series. If I owned a UTV I certainly wouldn't go out of my way to jump it! But I would want to know how to do so if I had to. Many UTVs have almost as much wheel travel as dirt bikes.
Jumping a dirt bike (or an ATV) is not always for the professionals or showoffs. Sometime it is a valuable skill you may need when you encounter obstacles when riding off road,
Jump safe!
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