Riddle me this... (why can't I jump a hardtail related)

[crashnburn'd]

It occured to me today that my jumping skills seem to be backwards. Everyone seems to love their hardtails and love jumping with them, but I'd like to throw mine in the dumpster... I have no problem at all jumping my DH bike. Gaps, tables, really lippy weird jumps, whatever. But, I can't do anything but small perfectly manicured jumps on my hardtail. I could understand if it was something like I was constantly casing jumps or nose diving. But, if you make me hit the same jump 10 times in a row, you're going to get 10 different versions jumping wrong.

Anyone else have/had this issue or have any suggestions? Maybe some way of contrasting jumping on a big, heavy bike vs. a hardtail?

I'm thinking it's just that I'm doing something inherently wrong, but can't figure out what it is.

[Dickeymotto]

DH bikes don't pump very well, making rythm sections tough to clear. They also have trouble getting up to speed in short approaches because of big angry tires and bad pedaling.

[flowtron]

It occured to me today that my jumping skills seem to be backwards. Everyone seems to love their hardtails and love jumping with them, but I'd like to throw mine in the dumpster... I have no problem at all jumping my DH bike. Gaps, tables, really lippy weird jumps, whatever. But, I can't do anything but small perfectly manicured jumps on my hardtail. I could understand if it was something like I was constantly casing jumps or nose diving. But, if you make me hit the same jump 10 times in a row, you're going to get 10 different versions jumping wrong.

Anyone else have/had this issue or have any suggestions? Maybe some way of contrasting jumping on a big, heavy bike vs. a hardtail?

I'm thinking it's just that I'm doing something inherently wrong, but can't figure out what it is.

I'm the same way. I started jumping on a HT, switched to riding a big bike for 4 years, and when I started riding my HT at the DJs this spring I felt like I had never done it before.
I think I've figured out that its a little different timing pump-wise, and I needed to relax my whole body. Instead of pressuring the big bike all the way up the tranny, just relax and let the bike use the tranny. Once you are in the air, think about lining up and matching the landing and that seems to turn into a natural transistion pump.

[kellen]

Don't overpower the bike, let it flow. It will take time to adjust in the air as you'll want to muscle around the bike like its a heavy DH rig. The smoother you are as a rider, the smoother your HT will ride (somewhat obvious with any bike, but very true with any sort of HT/BMX bike).

[crashnburn'd]

Instead of pressuring the big bike all the way up the tranny, just relax and let the bike use the tranny.

I spend about 5x more time on my DH bike than my hardtail, so this is something that I probably need to think about more... Thanks.

[SKISC]

I had that problem when I went back to a HT. The front end on mine liked to drop (kind of like using expert bars on a bmx bike and slapping the stem all the way down). Anyway, I started relaxing and keeping my body over the seat more when I jumoed and it is working so far and I am getting the feel of the HT back,