How to Recover From a White Screen When Booting a Mac

Other World Computing Blog How to Recover From a White Screen When Booting a Mac

This poor MacBook Air is experiencing the "white screen of death"

From time to time, you may experience one of the more frustrating Mac glitches — a white screen during boot. Usually this rare bug happens after updating macOS to a new version, but it can happen at any time. You'll know when you've been hit by this bug when you boot up your Mac and see a blank white display. There is no Apple logo on this display, nor will you see a progress bar showing where you are in the Mac boot process. It's just…white. In today's article, we'll describe some steps that you can take to recover from the dreaded white screen.

Reboot into Safe Mode
One time-honored trick to recover from a white screen is to boot into Safe Mode. This is very easy to do: simply hold down the shift key on your keyboard as soon as you hear the Mac startup chime. Keep holding down the shift key until the boot progress indicator shows up. This progress bar indicates that Safe Mode is running a directory and disk check on your Mac; this is like running First Aid from the Disk Utility.

Safe Mode is a way to troubleshoot some system problems that can keep your Mac from booting normally. Essentially, Safe Mode disables some macOS features, clears some caches, and prevents some third party kernel extensions from loading, all of which reduce the amount of work the Mac has to perform to get to the login screen. If you can boot a Mac successfully in Safe Mode, you either try to boot the Mac again to see if the next try is successful — perhaps just clearing some caches was what the doctor ordered.

How can you make sure that your Mac booted into Safe Mode? The login screen displays the words "Safe Boot" in red in the upper-right corner, or  you can launch Utilities > System Information, then click on Software and see what's listed after "Boot Mode" in the System Software Overview (see image below). If it shows "Safe", then the Mac is definitely in Safe Mode; if it shows "Normal", then the shift key may not have been pressed soon enough.

(System Information shows that this Mac has booted into Safe Mode)

If rebooting the machine normally (without Safe Mode) still results in a white screen, then it may be a login item that's causing the Mac to balk at loading. This usually happens after a specific app that's loading at bootup receives a buggy update. If you know what apps were recently updated, try removing them from the list of login items and then reboot normally to see if the problem is fixed.

Removing an item from login items is done by launching System Preferences, then selecting Users & Groups and clicking on Login Items. To remove an item, just highlight it by clicking on the item name, then click the minus sign ( – ) button below the list. After removing a login item from the list and verifying that the system boots normally afterwards, you may wish to contact the developer with a bug report, or try removing and re-installing that app.

Apple's knowledge base has an excellent backgrounder on Safe Mode that's worth reading.

Reset NVRAM
Resetting the non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) on your Mac can sometimes vanquish the white screen. Those who have been around the Mac world for a long time remember the common term "zapping PRAM" (parameter RAM) — this is essentially the same process with a different name.

So what does resetting NVRAM do for you? NVRAM stores information in between boots of your Mac, things like the startup disk, video and display information, volume for the system startup chime and speaker, time zone information, default system fonts, and more. When resetting NVRAM, this data is all wiped from the Mac so you may need to readjust things like your screen resolution, mouse or trackpad tracking speeds, etc…

To Reset NVRAM, the same old key combination that has been used for generations of Macs — Command + Option + P + R — is used immediately upon reboot. The Mac chimes once to signify that it has begun booting, then a second time to signify that the NVRAM has been reset. After this point, let up on the keys and let the Mac boot as usual.

Resetting NVRAM is often a fast and easy way to get out of the white screen conundrum.

Reset SMC
The SMC in your Mac is the System Management Controller, a low-level component of your Mac hardware that controls and manages system hardware. Resetting the SMC is another tool in your toolbox of white screen solutions. The reset process is different for different Mac models, so be sure to read the section below that pertains to your Mac.

MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Retina, or MacBook Pro with internal non-removable battery
For most newer Mac laptops without a removable battery, here's how you reset SMC:

1) Shut down your MacBook

2) Connect the power adapter to the Mac

3) On the keyboard, hold down the Shift + Control + Option keys AND the power button at the same time

4) Release all keys and the power button simultaneously. The charging light on devices with MagSafe adapters may change colors, indicating that SMC has been reset

5) Boot the Mac as usual

The Mac will lose power settings, so if you've customized those settings you'll need to adjust items like sleep again.

iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini
Apple's desktop Macs use a different process to reset SMC, but it still achieves the same ends:

1) Shut down  your Mac

2) Disconnect the power cord

3) Press and hold the Mac power button for 5 seconds

4) Release the button

5) Reconnect the power cord and boot the Mac as usual

MacBook or MacBook Pro with removable batteries

Older MacBooks and MacBook Pros with removable batteries use a process that's similar to that for the desktop Macs:

1) Shut down the MacBook or MacBook Pro

2) Remove the battery pack

3) Disconnect the power cord

4) Press and hold the Mac power key for 10 seconds

5) Release the power key

6) Reinstall the battery pack and reconnect the power adapter

7) Boot the Mac as usual

Reboot and Repair the Boot Disk
The next item on your troubleshooting list should be rebooting and then trying to repair the boot disk by entering into Recovery Mode:

1) Reboot the Mac and hold down Command + R to boot into Recovery Mode

2) When the Utilities screen appears, select "Disk Utility"

3) Select the hard drive, then click "First Aid" to diagnose any disk issues and attempt to repair them.

Sometimes a drive shows many errors or errors that cannot be repaired, which is a sign that your hard disk may be failing. If that's the case, make sure that your backups are up-to-date, then look into replacing the drive. This can be the perfect time to upgrade that smaller, slower drive with a new one from MacSales.com, so be sure to take a look at the storage page on the website to find one that works with your Mac, then check out the installation videos to see how you can do it yourself. If you're not feeling up to the task, check with Apple Support — especially if your Mac is still under warranty — or a local Apple Authorized Service Provider.

Boot the Mac into Verbose Mode
Booting a Mac into Verbose Mode is like booting a Linux machine without the fancy graphical user interface — you just see a lot of text scrolling by quickly, listing all of the various things that are happening during boot. Now there's no good logical reason why this should resolve the white screen problem…but sometimes it does. Mac consultants and developers like Verbose Mode when troubleshooting boot problems, because they can often trace the issue to a particular line of code that's causing the Mac to flake out.

To check out what happens during your Mac boot process and perhaps fix a white screen in the process, hold down Command + V as soon as you power on the machine or immediately after reboot. The screen will go black, and you'll see something that's reminiscent of a 1981 IBM PC booting PC DOS 1.0 (see image below):

(OS X booting in Verbose Mode)

If your next reboot shows up in Verbose Mode, just reboot again, this time holding down the Command + V key combination to revert to the regular graphical startup screens.

A White Screen with a Flashing Folder Showing a Question Mark 
Sometimes you may get a white screen that displays a flashing folder with a question mark on it. That's actually a sign that your Mac can't find a startup disk to boot from. This situation can indicate that a hard drive is failing, or it could just be that you were trying out a lot of troubleshooting tips and the Mac lost track of what the startup disk was.

If this happens, reboot the Mac while holding down the Option key on the keyboard. What should happen is that you'll see icons for all of the available drives to choose from, which on most devices will be one named Macintosh HD. Click on that icon and press the return key, and the device should reboot normally. Should that drive icon not appear, then you likely have a bad or failing SSD or hard drive and should replace it immediately.

When All Else Fails, Try Reinstalling macOS
Maybe none of these tricks work, but you know that the SSD or hard drive is fine. That's when you might want to ensure that your backups are up-to-date and reinstall macOS. You can do a clean install of macOS from a bootable macOS installer drive or use Recovery Mode to erase the drive and reinstall the operating system. Macs that are still experiencing the "white screen of death" after a complete operating system reinstall likely have hardware issues that will need to be resolved by Apple or an authorized service provider.

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Do you have your own tips on banishing the white screen? Let us know in the comments below.

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Best wireless router

Macworld Best wireless router

A good wireless router is an essential element of tech life, whether you're building out a smart home or you just want the best experience streaming music and video at home. Even those of us fortunate enough to have ethernet drops in every room have devices—smartphones and tablets, for instance—that depend on Wi-Fi to connect to the home network if not the internet.

Twin and sometimes conflicting demands for high performance and ease of use are powering a thriving and rapidly evolving market. Innovation is one of the biggest upsides of this dynamic, and confusion its biggest downside. Today's hero could be tomorrow's has-been, as established brands like Linksys and Netgear try to one-up each other while simultaneously fending off new challengers such as Eero and Luma. But it's those challengers who have innovated the most, starting with Eero, the first manufacturer to bring mesh networking to the consumer router market.

The home Wi-Fi router market can be divided into two broad categories: traditional routers designed to cover an entire home, sometimes with the aid of wired access points or wireless range extenders, and whole-home Wi-Fi systems that consist of a base station with one or more satellite nodes. Our most recent router coverage has focused on the latter, so our initial picks will be in that category. We'll circle back later and make recommendations for traditional routers as well. Scroll down a bit and we'll discuss the features you should look for in a wireless router and explanations of some of the jargon you'll encounter when you shop for one.

Best Wi-Fi system: Netgear Orbi RBK50

The secret to the Orbi RBK50's success is Netgear's dedicated 4x4, 1,733Mbps radio used for data backhaul between the router and its satellites (the RBK50 comes with one satellite, which Netgear says is sufficient to blanket 5,000 square feet). We also like the fact that the Orbi router has a built-in three-port ethernet switch (the satellite has a four-port switch), because those ports provide so much flexibility in terms of connecting other devices to your network, be it a NAS box for media streaming and data backup, a network printer that doesn't support Wi-Fi, or an older ethernet-only A/V receiver in your entertainment center.

The Orbi RBK50 is not the least-expensive solution at $400, though, and it's overkill for smaller spaces. We'll have reviews of the scaled-down Orbi RBK40 and RBK30 soon.

Runner-up Wi-Fi system: Linksys Velop

Like Netgear's Orbi RBK50, the Linksys Velop is a tri-band router that dedicates one Wi-Fi channel to data backhaul. Unlike the Orbi, however, the Velop uses a narrower 2x2, 867Mbps backhaul channel (it chooses which of its two 5GHz networks to use for backhaul on the fly). Two Velop nodes proved to be the sweet spot in blanketing our 2,800-square-foot test home with Wi-Fi, which would save us $50 over the cost of an Orbi RBK50.

Best budget Wi-Fi system: TP-Link Deco M5

TP-Link's Deco M5 is a mesh Wi-Fi system, which makes it distinctly different from Netgear's hub-and-spoke topology (scroll down for deeper explanations of those terms). All Deco M5 units are identical, but one gets configured as a router and the others as mesh nodes. If your client is close to the router, it will communicate with it directly. If the client is closer to a node, it will communicate with that and the data packets it sends and receives will hop from one node to the next until they reach the router. Since the same channel is used for data backhaul, a dual-band mesh network generally delivers less bandwidth than a hub-and-spoke system or a tri-band mesh router that has a dedicated backhaul channel.

Best Wi-Fi router for smart home enthusiasts

Securifi's Almond 3 isn't the fastest Wi-Fi router we've encountered, but it is one of the smartest. In addition to handling all of your web-browsing, media-serving, and other home-networking needs, the Almond 3 includes a ZigBee-based smart home hub that can control your home's thermostat, lighting controls, smart door entry locks, and much more.

Choosing the right type of router

While our picks above focus on whole-home Wi-Fi systems for the time being, this guide will help you sort through the facts, figures, and specs associated with all types of Wi-Fi routers to help you determine which type best fits your specific needs. And that's really the first decision you need to make: Do you want a traditional router, a Wi-Fi system, or a dual-purpose router that can also perform as a smart home hub?

Wi-Fi systems, as we've already explained, blanket your home with Wi-Fi by using multiple nodes or satellites. They can be very effective, but they might not be the right choice for gamers because they can introduce lag as the data packets hop from one node to the next. You can get around this by hardwiring your gaming PC directly to the router (plug a switch into the router's LAN port if you want to hardwire more than one device to it). You could also try hardwiring the wireless nodes to the router so they use an ethernet cable for data backhaul.

Netgear

High-end conventional routers offer high-performance features you won't find in whole-home Wi-Fi systems. The Netgear Nighthawk X10, for instance, has a 10Gbps ethernet port for network storage.

Traditional routers tend to offer more granular control over your network, with tweakable settings for features such as QoS (Quality of Service), port forwarding, VPNs, FTP servers, and much more. Most have built-in ethernet switches (four ports or more), so you can hardwire network devices directly to the router. And they typically have one or two USB ports that can be used to share a printer or USB storage with all the devices on the network. I'd venture to say that most people who buy traditional routers never touch most of those settings or even use many of their advanced features; they buy them because higher-end routers deliver faster Wi-Fi performance.

A dual-purpose router with smart home features will have a ZigBee or Z-Wave radio that can communicate with sensors, smart lights, smart entry locks, motorized window shades, and lots of other devices that use the same protocols. Some smart home devices use Bluetooth, but all the routers with Bluetooth radios that we've seen so far use that protocol only for initial router setup. Securifi's Almond router series is the most well-known example of a dual-purpose router, although Samsung has announced a Wi-Fi mesh router that will integrate a SmartThings hub that supports all three protocols (ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Bluetooth).

Securifi

Securifi's Almond 3 router can also perform as a smart home hub, thanks to the presence of a ZigBee radio that can talk to sensors, lighting controls, and more.

Features to consider in a Wi-Fi router

You'll encounter a thicket of jargon when you shop for a new Wi-Fi router. We'll explain some of the most common terms you'll encounter (in alphabetical order).

AP steering A mesh-network router that supports AP steering will automatically direct its wireless clients to connect with whichever access point (AP) offers the strongest connection back to the router (and thus to the internet).

Backhaul The side of a network that carries data packets back to the router and out to the internet. Some tri-band whole-home Wi-Fi systems, including the Netgear Orbi and Linksys Velop, dedicate an entire wireless channel to backhaul. You can also set up a wired backhaul by connecting the access point to the router using an ethernet cable, but that would require drilling holes in your walls and pulling the cable through, a job most people are reluctant to tackle.

Band steering A router with this feature can detect if a client device is dual-band capable (i.e., the client is outfitted with a Wi-Fi adapter that can operate on either the 2.4- or 5GHz frequency bands). The router will automatically push dual-band clients to connect to its least-congested network, which is usually the one operating on the 5GHz frequency band.

Beamforming An optional feature of the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard that improves wireless bandwidth utilization by focusing the radio signals so that more data reaches the client and less radiates into the atmosphere. Click here for a more in-depth explanation of beamforming.

Netgear

A beamforming router knows where its clients are located in physical space and can pack in more data by focusing the radio signals they exchange.

Dual-band vs. tri-band A dual-band Wi-Fi router operates two discrete networks, one on the 2.4GHz frequency band and a second on the less-congested 5GHz frequency band. Some tri-band routers split the 5GHz frequency band, using the lower channels to operate one network and the upper channels to operate a third network. Other tri-band routers operate discrete networks on the 2.4- and 5GHz bands, and a third network on the 60GHz band.

Ethernet ports A router must have at least two hardwired ethernet ports (either 100Mbps or gigabit per second). One (the WAN, or wide area network) connects to your broadband gateway (a cable or DSL modem, for instance). The other (a LAN, or local area network) connects any hardwired client. Most whole-home Wi-Fi systems have two auto-configuring ports that become WAN or LAN based on what gets plugged into them. Most traditional routers have a dedicated WAN port and an integrated ethernet switch with four or more ports. You can increase the number of ethernet ports available on your network by plugging an ethernet switch into one of the LAN ports. You can do the same with the access points in a whole-home Wi-Fi system.

Michael Brown/TechHive

High-end conventional routers, such as the D-Link DIR-890L, have four-port ethernet switches and USB ports.

Guest network This is a virtual network that gives your guests access to the internet while blocking access to your own computers, NAS boxes, and other network clients.

Hub-and-spoke vs. mesh network In a hub-and-spoke network topology, each wireless access point exchanges data packets directly with the router. A wagon wheel makes for a good visual metaphor here. In a mesh network, wireless access points that are distant from the router can exchange data packets with their closest AP neighbor until the packets reach the router (and vice versa). In this instance, you might visualize a fishing net; or perhaps abstractly, a firefighter's bucket brigade.

MU-MIMO The acronym stands for multiple user, multiple input/multiple output. MIMO describes a method of sending and receiving more than one data signal using the same radio channel. This is accomplished using a technique known as spatial multiplexing. In its original implementation in routers, client devices had to take turns communicating with the router, round-robin style. The switching happens fast enough that the interruptions are imperceptible, but it reduces the overall transmission speed. This is known as SU-MIMO (single-user MIMO). As you've probably guessed, MU-MIMO lets multiple client devices communicate with the router at the same time without interruption, significantly increasing transmission speed. Both the router and the client must support MU-MIMO for the scheme to work.

Michael Brown/TechHive

A parental controls feature lets you filter the types of content that client device can access from your home network.

Parental controls The internet can be an unpleasant and even dangerous place for children to visit. Router-based parental controls promise some protection by restricting where a person can browse and what they can do while they're online. Such controls can also restrict the hours that a device is allowed to be online—at least while the device is on that router's network. Methods and practices—and effectiveness—vary widely. I've yet to see a system that's better than just having an open and frank dialog with your kids, but that's just my opinion.

Quality of Service (QoS) This concept describes a router's ability to identify different types of data packets traveling over the network and then assign those packets higher or lower priority. You might want your router to give network traffic such as streaming video or VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) calls higher priority than file downloads, for example, because the former don't tolerate interruptions. Waiting a little longer for a file to download is vastly preferable to watching a glitchy video.

Spatial streams The multiplexed signals described in MU-MIMO above are called spatial streams. The number of radios and antennas in the router determine how many spatial streams it can support; and the method used to encode the data, combined with the channel's bandwidth, determines how much data can fit within each stream. An 802.11ac router using channels that are 80MHz wide can deliver throughput of roughly 433Mbps per spatial stream. Spatial streams operate in parallel, so adding them is akin to adding lanes on a highway. Where a 2x2 802.11ac router (two spatial streams to transmit and two to receive) can deliver throughput up to 867Mbps, a 4x4 802.11ac router can deliver up to 1,733Mbps. These are theoretical numbers, however; they don't take into account protocol overhead and other factors, so you'll never see real-world performance that high.

Wi-Fi speed ratings Vendors commonly market their 802.11ac routers (and 802.11ac Wi-Fi client adapters) by combining the throughput numbers for each of the router's networks. A dual-band router capable of delivering 400Mbps on the 2.4GHz frequency band and 867Mbps on the 5GHz frequency band might be described as an AC1300 router (rounding up from 1,267, naturally). You'll never experience 1,300Mbps (or even 1,267Mbps) of throughput, of course, because it's not possible to bond the 2.4- and 5GHz networks together. But the classifications at least provide a point of comparison.

Our latest router reviews

http://www.macworld.com/article/3190190/network-router/best-wireless-router.html#tk.rss_all

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How to Ride a Dirt Bike

Great article on getting into dirt riding. 
RideApart - Recent Articles How to Ride a Dirt Bike

Feature photo by Greg Sharp 

Riding dirt never crossed my mind when I first moved out West. I was so immersed in road bikes, asphalt and twisty roads that I was content to be a street rider. But then, twisty roads turned into race tracks, and those tracks prompted me to actually race. Up until this point, I had tunnel vision: sportbikes were life, man.

Then, one day, I failed to get my road-racing license the first time I tried for it. At that point I knew I had to become a better rider, and a few folks told me that one of the best ways to improve my skills was to start riding on the dirt. The reasoning behind this is that the dirt teaches you how to feel what it's like to ride on something that has less traction than pavement. Additionally, the dirt changes every lap (if you ride MX, TT or oval track), so you need to adapt your riding style on the fly. Finally, you must really be smooth with your inputs so you can stay upright. These reasons were enough to convince me to get out there and start riding dirty. I decided to take a school (because as we all know, I love riding schools) so I can start riding dirt the correct way, right out the gate.

You're Going to Go Down

I must emphasize that it is imperative that you wear the right gear when riding off-road. Before I get into the specifics of how to ride a dirt bike, I'm going to share my thoughts on the proper equipment. Why? Because you're going to probably fall…and if you're like me, you're going to fall down early and often. I'm not saying it's guaranteed, but I've seen a lot of spills by first timers; I've also seen folks who rarely fall.

Oopsies! Crashing on the dirt usually doesn't hurt quite as bad as the street either.

The point is, you don't know when or why you're going to do it, just that the odds are that you will crash. So, just to be safe, get yourself a good set of elbow guards, knee guards, a chest guard, motocross or road racing boots, goggles, and a helmet. I was able to borrow a lot of these items from family and friends before actually having to go out and purchase them, so if you can't afford to spend that much money on gear right away, ask your buddies if you can get a hold of some loaner kit first.

What Size Bike Should I Ride?

The first dirt bike I ever rode was Honda CRF150F. For me, it was the perfect size since it's not big and it was fairly light, making it more approachable and easier to ride. After trying the Honda on for size though, I actually decided to go a little smaller and picked up a Suzuki DRZ125R. At that time, I not only wanted something small, but something that I could afford. As you will later see, I take this bike everywhere: I ride it on oval and TT dirt tracks, but also on trails and MX tracks with whoops and jumps. The little DR-Z can handle anything this grown ass woman can put it through!

Small bikes can handle a grown man, too. My pal Wiles and I getting dirty on our 125cc bikes.

However, I'm not advocating that you have to start on small bike. My husband picked up a full size Honda CRF250 and that bike's insanely tall for me, but works perfectly for him. He learned how to ride on the big Honda and has rarely taken a spill on it. The point is, pick a bike you're comfortable handling.

Body Positioning

Alright! Let's get to riding. You're on your preferred dirt bike, now what? If you come from a street background, you need to learn new body positioning techniques that are specific to dirt. Everything from how you sit on the bike to how you turn the bike is different. When you first sit on the dirt bike, make sure you sit all the way up on the bike—get your crotch as close to the gas tank as possible. From there you're going to want to lift your elbows. I know—it feels super weird at first, but there's a reason for it (I'll get to it in a minute).

Once you get going and start taking a corner, you want to have your butt on the outside of the bike. You actually want the middle of your butt crack to be on the edge of the seat. For example, if you're going into a left-hand turn that means you should have your butt off on the right. Additionally, when going into the turn, get that inside foot down to help with adjusting the bike's lean angle.

Finally—and I can't stress this enough—stay loose! Do not keep a death grip on the bars or straighten your arms; the more relaxed you are, the more the bike will do what you want it to do (in a good way). If you tighten up, both you and your bike will more than likely meet the ground at some point.

Dirt Trails are So Much Fun

When it comes to trail riding, you want to remember (again) to stay loose because you become a part of your bike's suspension while going over uneven, rough terrain and whoops. To tackle such rough (yet fun) conditions, you want your butt off the seat (stand up). From there, you want to slightly bend your knees, get on the balls of your feet, and clinch on to the tank with your knees. Next, lean forward a bit and remember to stay loose. Again, I know it's hard to do, but remember to tighten that core a bit when standing up.

Photo by Greg Sharp

When going up steep hills, make sure you have good momentum before climbing. Once you start your ascent, lean forward over your handlebars to make sure you keep weight on the front of the bike. You'll also want to be in a lower gear to make sure you can get your bike successfully up that hill.

Photo by Greg Sharp

When going downhill, make sure to scoot your butt back as far back as you can. From there, use your rear brake and only a touch of front brake to modulate your downhill speed. Your gears are actually the best way to slow down when you're on a steep descent, but make sure you don't hold the clutch in while going downhill until you really figure out how to use your brakes effectively. If you simply pull in the clutch you remove any natural braking that occurs because of the engine compression, which will result in a freewheeling downhill blast that is sure to result in a panic situation and likely a crash.

It is alright to slightly extend your arms on the way down the hill, in an effort to help you keep your weight bias towards the back of the bike. Remember this is dirt bike 101, and as you advance your riding skills, some of these basic tenets will change a little bit depending on the nature of the terrain and the seed you are riding it. For now, take it slow and easy.

Photo by Greg Sharp

How to Survive Jumps on your Dirt Bike

Oh, jumps—we have this love-hate relationship. They really aren't that hard, but sometimes, they are difficult to nail. I have to admit that I've hit the ground hard a few times when learning to jump. I've even flown off a berm and smashed face-first into a rock. However, I've had plenty of successful ones too. Jumps require a lot of practice to get confident and the key is to be consistent. I do feel like I'm getting better at them, and fortunately, I even learned how to do them during my schools.

Okay, so first you need to make sure you have good body positioning going: crotch to the gas tank and elbows up. Then, stand up on the bike (as I described earlier). Additionally, when you start the jump, make sure you're getting your butt back a bit on the seat (but not too far back) and get on the throttle. However, once you hit the jump, it's important to hold a steady throttle; if you chop the throttle, the front wheel will drop. (This is commonly called "The Flying W," and is a signature move of the rookie dirt rider). Be careful here, because this is the fastest way to a broken collar bone!

Don't chop the throttle, okay? I'm looking for divine intervention right about now! 

There's a fine balance between too little and too much gas, too. If you give it too much throttle as you leave the jump, the front will come up. One thing that's important when you're first starting to figure out how to jump, is that you want both wheels landing on the ground at about the same time. In some instances you will have the rear hit first, but the front needs to immediately fall right behind it.

I'm yelling, "woo-hoo!" which is required to successfully land a jump (just kidding, sort of).

Remember the action of doing a jump should all be in one fluid motion: Get on the gas on the approach, back off a wee bit (not too much), knees slightly bent, butt back, yell "woo-hoo," and then land. Jumps can be fun, but as I mentioned above, the consequences can be painful if you don't get it right. Make sure to stock up on ice when first trying it out!

Even though it requires a different skill set, dirt bike riding has definitely taught me to become a better rider and racer. It showed me how to digest information a lot more quickly since riding dirt requires you to react on the fly. Also, by riding in the dirt, you get to learn how to crash and how not to crash. The dangers are decreased a bit because the speeds are down, and the damage you do to your dirt bike is far less expensive than it is on the street. To this day, when I'm not getting the lap times I want on the race track, I hop on my dirt bike the next day; I know I can push my limits and can (hopefully) get back up to try again.

https://rideapart.com/articles/how-to-ride-dirt-bike

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