[chknkatsu]

i just picked up an '05 Kingfisher 2. i've always wanted to get into FR/DH but it was always out of my budget, but i picked up this bike for a very good price. i 've been BMXing(street) for about 2 years i dont know if that would help, the feel of a fullsized bike feels completely awkward to me and the fact that i have brakes. any tips for beginners? i can bunnyhop almost waist height on a bmx and what not, but its totally different on a full suspension.

im not sure how i should go about getting better. i have a fairly popular park by me (cunningham park, ny)

 

[Atlmark]

Same for me (bmx background) except I'm a racer and have been for the last 13 years. Going from a 20" to a 26" full suspension was awkward at first, not knowing how the suspension would react especially over jumps. I'm not a park guy at all but as far as FR the thing that helped me the most was training myself mentally that the big bike was capable of soaking up big obstacles that you would avoid like the plague on a 20".
Another suggestion is if you are planning on continuing to ride a 20" make sure that you split equal time on the bikes.

 

[chknkatsu]

im going to try to spend equal time on both bikes. but the main reason i wanted to get a mountain bike was because i got sick of my bmx and not having many places to ride. my only real complaint now is how complex these high end bikes are compared to my bmx bike that can be taken apart and put back together within minutes

 

[blackohio]

I can almost entirely tear down my dh bike in about 1/2 hour.

 

[max.broman]

BMX background is gonna help a lot. Everything on BMX happens much faster than it does on a DH bike, stuff will feel really easy once you get used to having a bigger bike that's gonna soak up big hits like no BMX bike could.