Dirt jump (DJ)
Riding a line of hand-built dirt jumps on a small, stiff hardtail — for height, flow and tricks. Close to BMX in spirit, and where many riders learn to fly.
Also known as: DJ, dirt jumping, dirt jumps
Key facts
- Bike types
- MTB
- Typical travel
- 80–100 mm
- Wheel size
- 26″
- Terrain
- dirt jumps and pump tracks
- Protection
- Light
- Racing
- slopestyle and dirt-jump contests
The bike
A small, strong hardtail with 26′′ wheels, a short fork of 80–100 mm, one gear and often only a rear brake. It is built to be thrown around in the air, not to pedal up hills.
What riders do
- Pump the line: speed comes from the jumps and rollers, not the pedals.
- Jump every double in one rhythm, then add style.
- Tricks: tabletops, whips, 360s, and for a few, backflips.
Jumps need people
Dirt jumps are shaped and watered by the riders who use them. Ask before you ride someone's spot, help dig, and never ride the lips when they are wet.
Related articles
- Hardtail — A mountain bike with a suspension fork and a rigid rear end: light, simple, cheap to keep running — and the bike that teaches you to ride well.
- Freeride — Riding for the line rather than the clock: big drops, jumps and steep natural terrain, chosen and ridden with style. Judged on creativity and flow when it is raced at all.
- Manual — Riding on the back wheel without pedalling, balanced by shifting your hips back. On the trail it lifts the front over holes and roots and smooths out drops and rollers.
- Bunny hop — Lifting both wheels off the ground without a ramp — front first, then the rear. It clears logs, roots and holes and is the base of every jump and trick.
- Jumping — Leaving the ground off a take-off and landing smoothly on the far side. Good jumping is less about launching yourself than about letting the lip do the work and staying relaxed in the air.
- Jump line — A trail made of jumps in a row, built so that one landing sets you up for the next take-off. Ridden at a steady speed, it feels like one long flight.