Motocross Jump Rider Coloring Page: Free PDF Sheet

Motocross Jump Rider: History & Fun Facts

Scrambles Racing Learns to Fly

Early scrambles racers in 1920s England rode over hills and ditches without ever meaning to leave the ground, since their machines were barely modified street bikes with no suspension travel to spare. Jumping only became a real part of the sport once tracks started including deliberate mounds and dips, and riders realized a bike with enough suspension could clear a gap faster than one that rolled through it.

By the time the sport crossed the Atlantic and picked up the name motocross, American promoters were already shaping tracks with jumps built specifically to test a rider's nerve and a bike's suspension.

Supercross Brings Jumps Indoors

The first Superbowl of Motocross ran inside the Los Angeles Coliseum in 1972, packing tight jumps and turns into a stadium track instead of the wide-open countryside courses riders were used to. That indoor format, later shortened to Supercross, forced tracks to stack jumps close together, turning every lap into a rhythm of takeoffs and landings rather than a single big leap.

Outdoor motocross national championships still run on natural terrain tracks with longer, higher jumps, so professional riders often specialize in one discipline or the other depending on which style of flying suits them best.

Reading a Jump Before Landing

A tabletop jump, one of the most common jump shapes on a motocross track, has a flat top between the takeoff ramp and the landing ramp, giving a rider a safety margin if the bike does not clear the full gap. A step-up jump instead rises higher on the landing side than the takeoff side, forcing a rider to commit to extra speed and height to clear it cleanly, exactly the kind of moment drawn on this page.

Riders shift body weight forward or backward in mid-air to level the bike before landing, since a nose-down or tail-down landing at speed can throw a rider straight over the handlebars.

Gear Built for a Hard Landing

The chest protector strapped over a rider's jersey spreads out impact from a fall or a rock kicked up by another rider's tire, while a full-face helmet with a chin bar protects against the kind of face-first landing a jump can cause. Goggles seal against dust and mud thrown up by every other bike on the track, since losing sight of the next jump for even a second can end a race early.

Knee braces and tall boots that lock a rider's ankle in place round out the protective gear, letting a rider stand hard on the pegs through a rough landing without twisting a joint.

The Whip and Other Freestyle Tricks

Freestyle motocross riders turned the simple act of jumping into its own sport, adding tricks like the whip, where a rider kicks the rear of the bike sideways in mid-air before straightening it out just before landing. Events built entirely around big-air jumps, rather than lap times, grew out of that freestyle scene and now draw crowds who come just to watch riders fly.