"These days, more so than ever, the amateur and recreational crowd is imitating the look of their favorite pro riders" a great stocking stuffer for your favorite recreational rider.

Actually the take-offs are only like 7 feet tall (the hip take-off is only about 5.5 feet) but they do feel big because they have steep-ish lips and the gaps are pretty big. i think the slight downhill grade and tall/long landings is what makes them so fun to hit, and actually really safe too. It wasn't us or anyone riding the jumps that coined the "fmx" name, originally the 2 larger gaps were a little bigger, 25 and 40 feet. They looked like fmx jumps to all of the local "old school" soccer dad types that pedal around everything fully armored. Exaggerating the danger of anything they can't ride is how most of them keep their pride intact, so referring to the jumps as mx jumps made them feel better about not having the skills to ride them. The fact that the name has stuck shows how badly the soccer dads out-number the shredders around here..

So this bike is effected more than most bikes by chain stretch, enough to noticeably spin the rear wheel on impact. What happens when the wheel isn't already in the air (floating between rocks and free to spin) and you have a hard impact? Your drivetrain would have to backpedal to compensate, right? How would that not create noticeable pedal feedback? If the suspension actuates the drivetrain, won't it effect the rear wheel's ability to independently react to the terrain as well as it should? Kind of like adding unsprung weight?