World Record - Long Jump…
Posted on March 28, 2007 @ 9:00 AM
Can you even begin to imagine what it must be like to be towed along behind a motorbike at 82mph, aiming directly at a twelve foot high take of ramp that is about to send you blindly into orbit? It’s not really a problem for Jason Rennie, because Jason is used to jumping massive distances on two wheels, he usually has an engine attached and has been known to clear 250 feet…read it and weep.
It was a freezing cold day in early February. Visibility fluctuated between 20 and 100 metres but that didn’t really seem to be bothering Jason and his team. It was quite an eerie scene, walking down a forestry track in the middle of nowhere, fog surrounding you, not a breath of wind and frost still on the trees at one o’clock in the afternoon. Then as we got closer we could just start to make out a shape through the mist, all the light-hearted jokes went out of the window. As we stood next to the huge wooden structure we soon realised the gravity of what was about to happen. The ramps at this stage were around 80 feet apart for the ‘warm up’ jumps! And then Jason appeared. Tall, thin and softly spoken but with pure determination in his eyes. He had one of those faces that at one moment could be calm, friendly, thoughtful and contemplative, and the next could be faraway and scare the living daylights out of you (with the possible look of a mad man). You could just tell how focussed he was as he carefully went through everything with his crew. And make no mistake, even though he was the one on the end of the rope this was a huge team effort: from grading the run in, setting up the ramps, organising the press, prepping the bike and a million and one other things.
But what do we know about Jason Rennie? A quick search on Google and I soon found out that we were dealing with someone who is used to jumping a long, long way. In 2000 he set a new world record of 253’ for a ramp to ramp jump on a motorbike, and then in 2004 he set a new world record for jumping indoors of 162 feet. His outdoor distance jump has been beaten since then (the new record being 320 feet!) but why would he want to do it on a push bike? From asking around it didn’t even seem that he rides mountainbikes that much. I thought that maybe it was just one of those ideas thought up on a drunken night out down the pub but Rennie is a teetotaller. So where did the idea come from? Well it turns out that Jason is really good friends with the people at the newly opened Coed Llandegla mountainbike centre in North Wales. In fact he has worked on the trails, designing, building, and of course riding them a little. Coed Llandegla is special because it isn’t owned by the Forestry Commission, but by a company called Tilhill UPM and is operated by One Planet Adventure. Tilhill have invested a lot of time and money into the centre and they wanted something big to advertise the opening, hence the jump. And of course Jason was up for it.
And what about the bike? Was it to be a specially designed and spec’d bike with factory tuning and top secret components? Well…no. The guys at Kona had become involved with the jump a while back and they had supplied Jason with one of their downhill Stab Supreme bikes from last year. It actually turned out to be Ian Collin’s (Kona UK team manager, mechanic and tech head) old bike but that didn’t really seem to bother Jason! Ian had come along to act as mechanic, and I think he might have been more nervous than Jason. He carefully went over the bike checking for loose bolts, spoke tension, the condition of the tyres, etc. But it was generally assumed that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. Jason seemed pretty relaxed about the whole bike set up. A harder spring and heavier oil was put on and in the rear shock but everything else was pretty much standard. There was nothing special, no re–valved rebound circuit or special internals, just an off–the–shelf bike.
As soon as we heard the throaty rasp of the tow–in bike (a Yamaha YZ250) start up we knew that it was show time. The atmosphere went from relaxed to serious in a split second.
They did a few passes and then stopped back in the pits again, checked a few things over and then got ready to go. It was only then, up close, that you could see how Jason was holding on. The rope was attached to a T bar kind of thing, a bit like you would use if you were water skiing, he then put his index and middle fingers of each hand through the two loops and held on to the handlebars with his two remaining fingers and of course his thumb! Pretty nuts.
Jason had told me earlier that he was more worried about the first jump of the day than the others. You see he had already cleared 114 feet two days previously in preparation for the event, so coming back down to around 80 feet was going to be a little tricky. But no worries he cleared it easily, then he did it again…no worries. The ramp was then moved back around 15 feet, there was a quick check over the bike and then they were off again. These boys knew what they were doing, everything was precise. They knew how fast they needed to be going to clear the gap, an extra 5mph could make a massive difference. There was a big red oblong shape painted in the middle of the landing ramp, this was what Jason was aiming for, the landing zone. If he hit this spot everything was going well. And the technique was important too. He had told us that he felt that other people who have been trying to attempt this kind of jump have been going too high. His plan was to keep it low and long, and it was working, his landings were smooth and quiet.
So two more jumps and the take off was moved back again. Then two more jumps, a check over the bike, a little chat, then the ramps were moved again. It was soon obvious that the record was going to be broken. This was one hell of a solid team, this was no loose bunch of cowboys ‘having a go’, these guys knew exactly what they were doing. Jason was being towed in by his life long friend Tim McBane, and I felt that he was almost risking as much as Jason! He was the one pinning it at almost 80mph down a frozen forestry track (the air temperature was two degrees below zero, even in the middle of the day) and then diving out of the way at the last minute. And he held a lot of responsibility. Miss a gear, slide around a bit or not hit the desired speed at the release point and…well, I don’t really want to think about it.
Everything seemed to be moving along at a pace and before you knew it we were there. The take off was set in its final position, everything was lined up, and then it was GO. On the previous jumps they’d been hitting around 70–75mph, for the final jumps it would be closer to 80. The bike was screaming down the fireroad…release, jump, landing. Jump one was over, perfect landing but not the record. They decided to add a bit more speed for the second attempt…release, jump, landing. And that was it, the world record was his. He had beaten the late and great Colin Winkleman’s current world record of 116’ 8” by a few inches (done on a BMX with 20” wheels!). But it wasn’t enough for the Welshman, he wanted more, and he got it. He hit the final jump having been towed in at 82mph (Tim told me later that he was taking no chances so added a few extra mph). A perfect take off, solid in the air and a textbook landing. Jason had demolished the record, landing at 133’ 6”.
So he’s thrown down the gauntlet. A relative unknown in the mountain bike world has come along and just done it. It was all just so professional and focussed. There was no glitz, glamour or hype. There was just a feeling of ‘job done, what’s next?’. Jason was no prima donna, he thanked his team and all of the people that had made it happen and then went down to the caff for a cup of tea. Evil Knievel would have been proud. And I tell you, he can go further.
www.coedllandegla.com
www.konaworld.uk.com
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