Definitive "The Right Way" Rear Hoop?

[mmattockx]

There's a lot of "fiery death" talk around the rear wheel touching the hoop, but in all reality, when the rear tyre hits a hoop it tends to bias the weight to the front of the bike and unloads the tyre. Obviously you want this not to happen at all, but your bike wont spontaneously combust or anything like that...

To add to the no doom talk, MX racers will sometimes modify the rear subframe to suit short riders and end up with the rear tire jamming into the fender on big jump landings. This does not cause crashes and is just ignored as the consequence of making the bike fit the rider better. The second thing to realize is that the only way you will hit the hoop with the tire is by bottoming heavily on a large bump. This is an instantaneous condition that goes away immediately as the suspension rebounds. If it slows the wheel at all it is a momentary burp and then the wheel is clear again and will keep rotating just fine.

As you say, you don't want it to happen, but it shouldn't be the end of the world, either.

Going to do my best not to ride the ****a out of my bike until I've developed the appropriate competentancy to ride hard.

No offense, but as a new rider you won't be capable of riding the sh!t out of your bike for some time. You may well exceed your personal limits (this happens all the time and is the cause of a large majority of crashes) but you won't be overriding what the bike is capable of.


Mark