Bar-turn
Simply turn your bars to the left or the right. Turning your bars the
full 90 degrees gets you extra style
points, as does twisting your head & upper body either direction.
Kickout
As soon as your back wheel leaves the jump, swing the rear of your bike
around to the right or the left
by using your hips and legs. Swing the rear of your bike way out, and
then right back in. Don't stay
sideways very long. You can get away with landing a little crooked,
but too much of a sideways
landing will cause you to crash. Gradually swing the rear of your bike
out farther each time you jump.
Try to eventually reach a "full swing" of about 80 degrees.
One-footer
There really isn't any explaining to this one. You simply take your
"preferred foot" off your pedal, kick
it out to the side, and stick it back on before you land. Your cranks
will rotate downward when your
foot comes off, so be sure to get it back on in time to return your
cranks to a level position. That's it...
it's pretty much self-explanatory. As with most tricks, start out small
and gradually go bigger each and
every time. Practice makes perfect.
One-hander
There isn't much explaining to this one either. Although not necessary,
it may be easier to learn this
trick by pulling up hard on your bars, getting your bike into a near-vertical
position (with your bars in
your lap), and then taking a hand off (just a little at first). Try
to keep your bars straight the whole
time. After you get them fully extended consistently, you can work
on various variations, like a
tire-grab or a seat-grab, which will help you out later on in trying
different tricks. That's it.
Can-can
Same as a one-footer except you take your leg across the top tube of
your bike. Example: Take your
left leg and stretch it way out over your top tube to the right of
your bike. Then, of course, pull it back
over before landing.
Cross-up (X-up)
First, before you jump, make sure you can spin your handlebars all the
way around without the seat
getting in the way. Lean back and spread your legs apart in the air
(to give room for the handlebars to
spin). Turn your bars a full 180 degrees (again - to the left or right,
whichever you prefer), and then
"whip" them back in the opposite direction (if you turn your bars to
the left when you "cross up", then
turn them back to the right before landing, and vice versa). Don't
get discouraged if you can't get a
full 180 rotation at first. You have to kind of "stretch" your shoulders
and arms a bit to get it fully
extended.
Tabletop
This is another trick you can do to the right or left. For this example,
I'll use right. Push down on your
handlebars to the right and turn them down to the left at the same
time, while using your right leg and
lower body to push the rear of your bike up and to the left into a
horizontal position. Gradually level
your bike out more and more each jump, until you achieve a perfectly
flat position. Flat like a table -
hence the name tabletop - SUPRISE!
Note: simply reverse right and left if you feel more comfortable trying
this trick in the other direction.
Nac-nac
Kind of the opposite of a can-can. Basically a one-footer, but you swing
the rear of your bike to the
right and take your right foot and swing it way back around your back
wheel (to the left side of your
bike). Again, reverse the directions if you feel more comfortable doing
this trick the other way.
No-footer
First of all, I strongly suggest wearing shin pads when attempting this
trick. Also, you need a little air
time to get this one extended good. It is also helpful to have your
cranks tightened up, so they won't
spin around when your feet come off. Start by taking your feet off
just a few inches and then pulling
them right back in, well before landing. Make sure you land with your
pedals level. As you gradually
spread your legs further apart each jump, you may notice the rear end
of your bike drop down some.
This is natural, but try to keep the bike fairly level; doing a no-footer
with the bike in a vertical position
is not a good thing. If you mess up, you can usually get away with
landing one-footed, but higher
speeds and bigger jumps will be less forgiving. In most cases, if it
just doesn't feel right, and you don't
think you are going to pull it off, you should just bail. Toss the
bike and crash. It's better than slipping
your pedals and having your legs scarred for life. There is an art
to crashing - seriously. With practice,
you can minimize injuries by knowing when and how to bail.
No-hander
Pull your front end up hard as you leave the lip of the jump. Get your
bike in a near-vertical position.
Your bars should be in your lap before you take your hands off. This
will keep you from losing
control; your legs will actually be holding the bike up while your
hands are off. Little by little, take your
hands off more each jump. Start to level your bike out as you put your
hands back on the bars. Make
sure the bars are straight and your hands are securely back on the
handlebars before landing.
"Straight out" No-hander
This no-hander method is very different from the regular (above) one.
Instead of lifting your arms
straight up with the bike in a vertical position, you take your arms
straight out to the sides with the bike
in a horizontal position. This method is a bit more difficult, because
the bike tends to nose-dive when
you take your arms off in this manner. So, when you take off, lean
back and pinch the seat with your
knees. Leaning back will shift your weight to the rear of the bike,
balancing things out nicely. Pinching
the seat with your knees keeps the bike straight and controllable.
Next, take both arms off evenly, at
the same time. Hopefully, that will keep your bars from rotating too
much when you let go. Finally,
after you get your arms stretched straight out, pull them in, grab
& straighten the bars, let go of the
seat, and prepare for landing.
No-footed Can-can
Same as a can-can except you take both legs over and across your top
tube. There's not much
explaining to this one; just takes practice to learn.
360
First of all, I'd suggest learning this trick on a tabletop or a small
double. You don't really need much
air to do a 360. Before you jump, it would be best to practice on flat
ground. Simply try to do a
bunnyhop 360. You probably won't come anywhere close to a 360 on flat
ground, but try to at least do
a 180. When you go to bunnyhop, start turning before your bike leaves
the ground. Turn your head
and handlebars hard to the left (or right, whichever you prefer) and
turn with everything you've got.
Remember - where your head leads, your body follows. This bunnyhopping
is not necessary; it merely
helps you some by practicing the rotation on flat ground first. When
you go to jump, you need to start
the rotation before the bike completely leaves the jump. Don't go too
fast at first. Going slow, you can
usually get away with an under-rotation (like a 270 or so), but at
full speed, things are less forgiving.
Once you can pull a clean 360 consistently, then you can begin the
real fun; 360s at high speeds over
big doubles. That's where the difficulty comes in; it takes some guts.
Toboggan
When you leave the jump, push down on your front end and hit the rear
brakes (to bring the front end
down). Turn the handlebars 90 degrees as you are pushing down the front
end. Simultaneously, take
your left hand off the bars and grab the seat. If you turned the bars
to the left, then take off your right
hand; conversely, if you turned the bars right, then take off your
left hand. While you are doing all this,
you also need to be leaning way back to the back of your bike. Your
butt needs to be behind your seat
and right there at your rear wheel. When fully extended, the bike will
be in a near vertical position (in
an endo - with the front wheel well below the rear), you will be at
the very back of the bike with one
hand grabbing the nose of the seat, the other hand will be on your
bars - squeezing the rear brake
lever in, and the bars will be turned 90 degrees in a "straight line"
with the seat. Gosh, this one is hard
to explain. When it's time to return to Earth, let go of the brakes,
then the seat. Grab your bars,
straighten them out and get your bike level for landing. For a challenge
and for extra style points,
throw in a no-footer during all of this.
Barspin
It's best to practice this trick on flat ground first. Pop your front
end up, lean back slightly, spread your
legs, and spin your bars around 180 degrees. Try to catch the bars
before or right as your front wheel
hits the ground. Next try a full barspin. You'll have to get your front
end up a little higher and spin the
bars a little faster for this one. Then, try this in a manual. Manual
along (at slow - medium speeds)
and then spin the bars hard. The front end of your bike will drop quickly;
be prepared to grab the bars.
Go for just a half barspin at first, then build up to a full. Apply
this to jumping as well; a half barspin,
then a full. I'd suggest learning this on a small jump, preferably
a tabletop. You really don't need a
whole lot of air time to pull off a barspin. Simply lean back (to balance
out the bike), pinch the seat
with your knees, and spin the bars. Now that sounds simple, but it's
easier said than done. Just make
sure that you are familiar with spinning the bars and catching them
before jumping. Get it wired first.
Note: If you don't have a gyro, make sure your brake cable is long
enough and that your bars clear the
seat.
Street/Ramps
Wheelie & manual
Gee... a wheelie - that's pretty basic. Umm, pull up on the bars and
pedal - what more can I say?
Anyone can do it. I just want to clear up the pretty simple difference
between a wheelie and a
manual. In a wheelie, you pedal, in a manual you don't. To do a manual,
you just pull back on the bars,
lean back, and use your legs to keep you going. Lean way back - get
your butt back by your wheel.
Keep your arms relaxed and "kick" with your knees when you feel the
front end dropping. By
"flexing" your arms and knees in and out, you can keep the front end
up for quite a while (assuming
you are going at a decent speed). It's easy to do, but hard to explain.
Bunnyhop
A bunnyhop is simply coming off the ground without the help of any jump,
ramp, drop-off, etc. Pick up
the front end with your upper body, and then pick up the rear end with
your lower body (mainly your
legs). That's it - it just takes practice. This move is essential for
street riding! Keep practicing until you
can get at least 2 - 3 feet high for hard-core street riding. The bunnyhop
is a simple, basic trick, but
one of importance - learn it.
Nosepick
To do a nosepick, do a bunnyhop, hit your front brakes, then push the
front end of the bike down into
an endo (all this while still in the air). Aim for the edge of whatever
you are trying to nose-pick (curb,
wall, bench, whatever). Hang there on your front wheel for a second
(with your front brakes still
locked, of course) and then do a little front wheel hop just prior
to jumping back off. This trick is not
limited to a bunnyhop. For example, you can jump a hill or a ramp,
nosepick a wall, and then jump
back into the ramp, hill, or whatever. There are different ways you
can "hop back in." You can
nosepick something at an angle, turn a little bit on your front wheel,
and hop back in front wheel first.
This is ideal for hopping back into a jump; it's not recommended to
hop back in front wheel first onto
flat ground. You can also hop back in backwards and fakie out of the
trick, which is somewhat more
difficult. I'd suggest learning this trick well, as it is used quite
often in street and ramp riding. There
are also many variations of this trick (nose-pick to tailwhip, nosewheelie
to nosepick, etc.).
Icepick
An icepick is simply stalling on a surface with your rear peg. A small
wall (2-3 ft.) would be a good
place to learn this trick. Simply bunnyhop up on the wall and land
on your rear peg. Stall there a
second, and then hop back down. The front wheel should be in the air
the whole time; your bike
should be in more of a vertical position. Don't try to stall too long,
as that will make it harder to hop
back off the wall. You may find it hard to jump back off the wall at
first. You have to bunnyhop from
the rear peg; just lean and hop away from the wall with everything
you've got. That'll do it.
Toothpick
A toothpick is the opposite of an icepick. Instead of stalling on the
rear peg, you stall on the front peg.
You can do this trick like you would a nosepick, only plant the front
peg on some surface instead of
the front wheel, and use of the front brakes is not necessary.
Feeble grind
A feeble grind is a grind where your rear peg grinds across a surface,
and your front wheel rolls
across it. This trick can be done on rails and other obstacles, but
for learning purposes, I'd suggest
trying it out on a small, downward sloping concrete wall. Waxing down
the edge of the wall is
recommended, as it will make things easier as well as make your grind
faster and smoother. Regular
candle wax should do just fine. Most people grind on the left side
of their bike, but either side will
work fine - do whichever feels more comfortable. As far as the pegs
are concerned, I'd use a
deep-well socket type of peg instead of the thread-on variety. I'd
suggest that these pegs be smooth,
chromed steel and 4 to 5 inches long. Ride up next to the wall at a
medium speed and bunnyhop up
onto the waxed section, with your rear peg grinding across the wall
and your front wheel rolling
across it. Before you come to a stop, bunnyhop up and away from the
wall and ride off. That's pretty
much it - it just takes some practice to hit the wall just right with
your rear peg and front wheel.
Again, this trick is not limited to a bunnyhop. It can be done across
the coping of ramps or done by
launching off a jump and feebleing across some surface.
Icepick grind
The procedure for this trick is the same as the icepick, only you need
more speed and balance.
Icepick grinds are usually pretty quick, because they are fairly hard
to do over long distances. Just get
up some speed and do an icepick (only stay up there a little longer),
and that's an icepick grind.
Double peg grind
Same as a feeble grind, except both pegs (on the same side of your bike,
of course) grind across a
surface. This trick is done primarily on handrails and on ramps' coping.
When you grind, you need to
"lean into the wall" some in order to stay up there.
Smith grind
A smith grind is the opposite of a feeble grind. In this case, your
rear wheel rolls across a surface
(such as the top of a wall or the deck of a ramp) and your front peg
grinds across that same surface.
Do this trick like you would a feeble grind, only land your bike in
an endo with the front peg and rear
wheel resting on the surface you're grinding across. Landing and grinding
in this awkward position is
usually more difficult than other common grinds.
Flatland
Tailwhip
This is another trick that can be done several different ways. This
version does not require front
brakes. Take your right foot across the top tube, over to the left
side of your bike. Stick your foot on
the front tire, up against the fork. Swing the rear end of the bike
around using your right foot and take
your left foot off the pedal (simultaneously). Keep your left foot
up high, aim it at the top tube, and use
it to catch the rear end of the bike when it whips around. When the
rear of the bike comes back
around, firmly plant your left foot on the top tube (by the seatpost).
With your left foot still on the top
tube, take your right foot off the tire and put it back on the right
pedal. Balance yourself out and then
put your left foot back on the left pedal and ride off.
Whiplash
This trick is the same as the tailwhip, except you place your right
foot on your left pedal, and your left
foot on your left-front peg. This trick is basically a rolling (no
brakes) version of the tailwhip using
your front pegs. Lunge forward to bring the rear wheel off the ground.
Next, use your right foot to
'kick' the rear end of the bike around. Then, take your right foot
and place it on the right-front peg and
lift your left foot to a position where it can easily 'grab' the rear
end of the bike when it whips around.
When the rear end swings back around to you, place your left foot on
the top tube. Once both wheels
are on the ground and you are 'balanced out', put your feet back on
the pedals and ride on dude. :->
Infinity rolls
Start with one foot on a back peg. (left foot on left peg or right on
right) Push off backwards with the
other foot and use that foot to scuff the tire backwards in circles.
Continue in circles by having your
bars turned at 45 degrees and a finger on the brake. Have your peg
foot on the outside of the circle
you make. You can start this with an endo.
Rockwalk
After carving a small arc, lock your front brakes and lift the back
of your bike up and around 180
degrees, like an endo, only with a turn. After the back wheel comes
down, use your momentum to
spin another 180 degrees on the back wheel. It is hard at first to
keep the momentum up for the
second rotation.
Backwards Steamroller
Start with the bars backward and position yourself at the front of the
bike facing the seat. Have one
hand holding the seat and one foot on a front peg. Push of backwards,
stearing the bars to balance.
Once you have this, lift the back wheel of the ground a few inches,
and roll on just the front wheel
using your free foot to balance. This is the first one wheel rolling
trick you should be able to learn, as
you don't need to scuff the tire or feather the brake.
Firehydrant
Start rolling with your right foot on the left back peg and your left
foot on the front left peg. With a
dab on the front brake, turn the bars and swing your body around to
the front. You are now facing the
seat going backwards. With another dab on the front brake, use your
momentum to lift the back wheel
and swing the rest of the bike around. If you can decade, this is a
common trick to link after a
firehydrant.
Decade
Have your left foot on the back left peg, your right foot on the top
tube. After a small endo, put your
back brake on hard, rock back onto the back wheel, and bring the front
wheel up high. Then, jump
around the head tube clockwise landing with a foot on the top tube
or pedal.
Backyard
Start facing backward on your bike, holding the grips. With the back
brake on hard, lift the front of the
bike up. Put one foot on the back peg, and after pushing off, use the
other foot to scuff the tire. At the
same time, let go of the bars with one hand, using it to balance and
the other to feather the back
brake. After some practice the brake will not be needed much, as you
can both push and brake the
tire with your foot. This is the easiest and first real scuffing trick
you should be able to get. After you
have this good you can go into a locomotive which is the same, only
with no hands and the bars turned
at 90 degrees.
Frontyard
While rolling slowly, put your right foot over the bars and be ready
to scuff the tire. With a dab of the
front brake, do a small endo while shifting your weight forward and
moving your left foot onto the
front left peg. At the same time, start scuffing on the front tire
while modulating the front brake to
stay balanced on the front wheel. Some prefer to have the right hand
off the bars, using it to keep
ballance. This is an easier scuffing trick; you can start it like the
backyard. Once you can scuff in one
of these positions, many other scuffing tricks will come a lot easier.
A frontyard can also be done with
both feet in front of the bars.
Funky Chicken
Scuffing in the same position as a front yard only with the rest of
the bike in front of you and holding
the seat with your right hand. With your right foot to the right side
of the frame you will be going in
circles.
Squeaker
Put your left foot on the front left peg and do a small endo with the
brake. Then use your right foot to
scuff/scratch? the front tire backward. You need your brakes for this;
put them on and off as you
scratch the tire. It is easier to let the seat rest under your butt.
Pinky Squeaks
This combines backwards squeakers and whiplashes. Start with your right
foot on the left pedal and
your left foot on the front left peg. After rolling slowly, do a small
endo and kick the frame
anti-clockwise with your right foot. Then use your right foot to work
the front tire backwards in
between jumping over the frame. To do more than two turns of the frame
you will need to get your
squeaking in a bit of a rythem, like two scuffs in between hopping
over the frame.
Hang Five
While rolling forward, put your left foot on the front left peg. Without
using the brakes, thrust yourself
forwards with your wieght on the peg with the other free leg used for
balance. Let the seat come up
and rest under your butt with your arms out stait and your head up,
looking forwards. It would be good
to be able to do a steamroller or back peg wheelie before you try this.
Lardyard
Your feet may be in the same position as a Backyard, only you are holding
the bars with one hand and
letting the bike hang on an angle to the ground. This makes you go
in circles. This takes a lot of
practice. The skill can be applied to a stick b / caboose / dumptruck
which is similar, only with the bike
upside down holding the forks.