While ramp to ramp practitioners are surgically precise with regard to speed or they simply die, flatlanders throw caution to the wind and typically have no device with which to ascertain their velocity. It matters not whether they jump a little short; they'll never suck ramp. It matters not if they jump a little long; they can't miss the landing ramp, which is no landing ramp at all.
True, ramp to ramp jumpers land softer, but at a price in danger. Their launch ramps can be significantly steeper than the launch ramps used by a flatlander, so they can fly four times as high and come down at a steep angle, only to be intercepted from their trajectory by a steep landing ramp, landing softer than the flatlander. If the ramp to ramp jumper misses his landing ramp, his impact with the planet is horrifyingly powerful, and survival then hangs on a thin fiber indeed.
Flatlanders, in an attempt to hype up a long, flat trajectory ramp to ground, might say that what they are doing is more dangerous than what a ramp to ramp jumper does, but that is simply not accurate. Simply landing harder on flat ground does not make the jump more dangerous. Sure, a flatlander might break spokes, bend rims, break hubs, bend footpegs down, break footpegs off, break handlebars, stretch frames and bend forks, but those "collateral damage" items pale in comparison with sucking ramp or flatlanding from four times as high.
Regardless, in a strange way, we have to keep ramp to ground jump listings alive. Maybe someday motorcycle suspension will be so advanced, with 36" of travel, that a rider will be able to hit a 25 degree launch ramp at 100 miles per hour and jump 500 feet, ramp to ground.
Not that long ago, the world records in ramp to ground and ramp to ramp weren't that far apart. Nowadays, the world record in ramp to ramp fully doubles that of the ramp to ground category.
It wouldn't be wise to jump ramp to ground much farther than 200 feet. Motorcycle suspension technology has a long way to go before a motorcycle can comfortably flatland at 300 or 400 feet.
And sure, a guy can go out there and stay ultra-low, going ultra-fast, and do it. Any way you look at it, you pay a price in either speed or suspension.
Flatlanding is easy, it's low-tech, but it hits like a conventional Peterbilt with sleeper, right in the shorts, and it's bringin' the pain.
JA
--Previous Message--
: Bob Gill comes to mind
:
: --Previous Message--
: Some British dude named Flyin' Ryan (he's
: not
: Hawaiian) is going to try to break Eddie
: Kidd's long-standing record of 195 (194?)
: feet on May 30th.
:
: The idea of flatlandng on purpose is beyond
: my comprehension.
:
:
:
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