Jumping - What happens if you pull your back/front brake in the air?

Question

What happens if you pull your back brake in mid air?

What happens if you pull your front brake in mid air?

Does your bike go lean forward or backward?

Someone told me you can use these techniques to control your jump.

Answer 1

If your wheel is spinning hard in the air, and you apply a brake hard, the rotational momentum has to go somewhere.

However your wheel is rotating forward, and stopping it will make your bike rotate so the front drops. Often that's not what you want.

Also the time available is really small and your reaction time shortens the effective window too.

If your wheels are not spinning fast then there's no stored momentum there so applying the brakes will do nothing.

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The question you didn't ask is "What happens if I land with the brakes hard-on?" and that generally means badness if you land with any forward momentum.

The front wheel will be locked so it will either make the brake slip or it will make the tyre slip on the ground, starting a front-wheel washout. There's also a chance your front wheel will turn sideways which will lead to a taco or a complete OTB (Over The Bars). Doing this is most likely to put you in hospital or worse.

Answer 2

My Test

To anyone curious, I tested this tactic at the local dirt jump bike park on my BMX. My BMX has only a back brake, so I have not tried yet with the front brake.

It is true your bike will slightly nosedive if you grab brake in the air.

How I integrated this technique into my riding

I have started to use this technique if I am too back-seat in the air and want to bring my front-end down.

It isn't very abrupt (unless you are going really fast), so it's useful to fine tune your landing if you are too backseat.

The faster your wheel spins, the more you nose dive - so be aware of that. On bigger jumps, you want to do it closer to the end of your airtime, because if you do it too early you might go over the bars.

It is a correctional technique

Note: this is a correctional tactic. You should not be doing this on every jump!

I have seen some riders at the bike park who are reliant on this and grab back brake on every jump to bring their front-end down. Only use this technique if something went wrong.

How do I start using this technique?

If you are thinking of trying this out start on a small jump and get used to how it feels... simply tap your brake to stop the wheel about halfway through your airtime - DO NOT under any circumstances hold the brake in the air; if you hold the brake, there's a chance it will be engaged when you land and this could cause you to fall (especially if you are doing this with your front brake).

Why only the back brake?

I suspect using both brakes would cause even more of a nose dive effect, but I have not tried it yet... TBH, I only want to make small adjustments, and I fear tapping both brakes will be too abrupt... however, it might work... try at your own risk.

Motocross riders use it

Motocross riders use this technique all the time - (e.g. they gas if they're too far forward, and pull brake if too far back). Watch a video of a motocross backflip, and you'll notice they are gassing as hard as they can (to bring that bike around). I assume when moto guys do front flips, they grab brake, but that is only speculation. The effects will be much more abrupt on a motorcross bike - this is because moto bikes move much faster and are heavier.

Differences between motocross and bike

There is no gas/throttle on a bike, so if you nose dive your out of luck; if you are learning, nose dives / nose cases are your biggest concern for bad falls. Remember when learning how to jump, it's always safer to be a little backseat than too far forwards.