BikeTrial Tutorial 5 - Rear Wheel Hop

The rear wheel hop was the technique that intrigued me the most when I first started learning BikeTrial. I never thought that such a move was even possible to do on a bicycle. And it was something that I had wanted to learn really badly during that time almost 8 years ago.

I was first introduced to BikeTrial while on a company trip to Krabi, Thailand, when a MTB friend showed me a video on his Windows mobile phone (yeah, before the Android and iPhone's time), Ryan Leech hopping on and over a hand railing on his Norco 26 inch bike. I was amazed and became a big fan of Ryan Leech's Mastering the Arts of Trials which I watched diligently on YouTube. The rest is history.

In this tutorial, I will share what I think is the fastest and quickest way to learn the rear wheel hop in a methodical way.

What you need to know

Before you can start to learn the rear wheel hop, you will need to have mastered track stand, pivoting and hopping. Without these 3 prerequisite skills, it will be a very painful learning process... LOL.

The Beginning

1. Practice balancing your front wheel resting on an object.

Position your bike with the front wheel resting on an object about 6 to 7 inches off the ground. Then start hopping on the spot to maintain balance and keep the front wheel on top of the object. Engage your brakes fully all the time when you are hopping. Also, lower your tire pressure. This will make hopping easier. See the animated photo below.

Rest the front wheel on the object. Next, align the wheels in a straight line. Similar to a track stand, with your favorite foot on the fore pedal, raise your left foot to the pedal and start hopping to maintain your balance.

Another way is to start off with a track stand, then quarter pedal down down to put the front wheel on the object. Next, start hopping and pivoting to maintain balance.

You can also use pivoting and hopping interchangeably to help with balancing the bike's front wheel on the object. Practice until you are very comfortable doing it. This will allow your body to remember and get used to the balancing and create the necessary muscle memories.

2. Practice balancing your front wheel resting on a object that is higher.

In this next step, you can raise the height of the front wheel by practicing on a larger or taller object about a foot or more off the ground. 

Similarly, rest the front wheel on the higher object. Next, align the wheels in a straight line. Similar to a track stand, with your favorite foot on the fore pedal, raise your left foot to the pedal and start hopping to maintain your balance.

The other way is to start off with a track stand, then quarter pedal down to raise the front wheel onto the object. Next, start hopping and pivoting to maintain balance.

This will allow you to get used to the height of your bike from the ground and how it feels to balance in an almost vertical position. Again, practice balancing by varying between pivoting and hopping. Practice until you are really comfortable and can do it at any time on demand.

3. The first rear wheel hop.

Now you are ready for the next step. Remember, do not disengage your brakes when doing this. Keep it on at all times!! Also, keep your tire pressure low to make hopping easier.

While in step 2 position on a higher object as described above, lean your body slightly backward when you are hopping. Lean until your front wheel is off the object and you are hopping on your rear wheel only. Then, rest the front wheel back on the object.

Lean your body backward while you are hopping on the object. This will allow you to only hop on the rear wheel. When you are done, rest the front wheel back on the object. Repeat this as many times as you like to let your body build up your muscle memories.

Keep practicing as you will need to be very comfortable with balancing on your rear wheel by hopping before we move to the next and final step.

Keep repeating the above move. Lean your body back to take the front wheel off the object and pull the handle slightly towards you, then rest the front wheel back on the object. Practice until you are very comfortable to hop on your rear wheel. The next and final step will be a dynamic pedal up to a rear wheel hop.

4. Use pivoting to transition to a rear wheel hop.

This next move will rely on pivoting and the "quarter pedal" to bring the front wheel up and into the rear wheel hop. See the following animated photo.

This is the most common way to transition into the rear wheel hop. Timing the braking and brake release is crucial to this technique.

Keep both your brakes engaged while pivoting. At the moment where you want to raise the front wheel, apply the "quarter pedaling" and release the rear brakes for a fraction of a second at the same time. Next, engage the rear brakes and start hopping on the rear wheel to maintain your balance. If you are very versed in the above step 2 and 3, hopping on the rear wheel will not be a problem.

That's it. That's all you need to know to get started on the rear wheel hop. Practice, practice practice. This is what you will need to do, to master this dynamic skill. It will be needed in many many situations and will be one of the most important BikeTrial skills that you have to master.

In the next tutorial, we will look at the "pedal hop". This is another useful and essential skill that will help you enjoy BikeTrial!

BikeTrial Tutorial 4 - Pedaling

Pedaling, seems like the easiest thing to do. Well, in BikeTrial, there are techniques to pedaling. But for the purpose of this tutorial, we will only discuss one of them.

Our goals in BikeTrial are to navigate and overcome obstacles when riding paths or sections. Sometimes we need to navigate very small and tight spaces. We must always be ready to move forward in an instance at anytime anywhere whenever we need to. We will ride methodically and with precision.

Frequently, for the inexperienced, when moving over and pass obstacles, our pedals will get caught, or be at the wrong position where we are unable to leverage the momentum or apply pressure correctly to cycle forward. This is why we need to know how to pedal the BikeTrial way, that will help us to overcome these challenges.

So how do we achieve this? How can we always be on the ready to instantly boost our movement forward?

In this tutorial, we will learn how to pedal with our feet always at the ready to give us that boosted forward movement instantly and on demand.

Feet and Pedals Position

The placement of the feet on the pedals is very important. Similar to the track stand, you will need to position your "favorite foot" on the fore or forward pedal. See the animated photo below.

Like the track stand, getting your favorite foot positioned correctly is the first step. My favorite foot is my right foot. If you are left footed, switch accordingly.

Pedaling

Typically, when we are cycling our bicycles, we will pedal the pedals at full revolution repeatedly to move forward and gain speed the faster we pedal. For the purpose of this tutorial, we do not want to pedal at full revolution. All we need is a quarter revolution (for the sake of easy reference in this tutorial, "quarter" revolution also means less or more than a quarter depending on your needs).

Pedaling at quarter revolution, more or less than a quarter, depends on your need.

With both pedals aligned parallel horizontally to the ground. The "favourite foot" will lead by pedaling down applying pressure only a quarter way and then releasing pressure to bring the fore pedal back up to it's original position. Repeat the whole process to move forward. Easy as pie.. lol.

By pedaling using this method, you will be surprise at how easy it will be, to navigate tight and small spaces. When not pedaling down, always maintain your pedals aligned parallel horizontally to the ground while coasting or rolling forward.

Quarter pedaling will prevent the pedals from getting caught by low-lying obstacles.

Quarter pedaling used with pivoting and hopping to ride a tight section.

The usefulness of quarter pedaling will become more apparent later when used with other techniques. E.g. pedal hop.

Caveat

Let me put forward a caveat, you do need to pedal full revolutions in BikeTrial as some of the advance techniques will require speed, momentum and agility. E.g. pedal up, pedal gap, bunny hops, etc.

In later tutorials, we will discuss and cover more on pedaling and pedal positioning for these more dynamic moves. If you have any questions, please feel free to post in the comment section below.

BikeTrial Tutorial 3 - Hopping

Hopping has got to be the most important of all the 3 fundamental skills. Whether hopping on 2 wheels or one wheel, hopping will literally let you boldly go where no bike has gone before... lol. Could not resist that being a Trekkie and all. Lol.

Well, it is mostly true. Hopping will let you climb stairs, balance on steep boulders, set up other sophisticated moves, climb tables, chairs, jump gaps, etc.

For now, the hopping skill used with the other fundamental skills like track stand and pivoting will allow you to climb and navigate out of tight spots, which can be very satisfying and motivating.

In this tutorial, we will focus on learning the basic two wheels hop. We will learn 2 variations of the 2 wheels hop. That is, from track stand into hopping on the same spot and hopping while coasting or rolling forward.

You should at least know how to track stand before attempting to learn hopping.

Feet and Pedal Positions

The placement of the feet on the pedals is very important. Similar to the track stand, you will need to position your "favorite foot" on the fore or forward pedal. See the animated photo below.

Like the track stand, getting your favorite foot positioned correctly is the first step. My favorite foot is my right foot. If you are left footed, switch accordingly.

You will need to maintain both pedals aligned parallel horizontally to the ground. Your feet should tilt down on the pedals slightly and push backward maintaining a "grip".

From Track Stand Into Hopping

Next, from a track stand position, straighten the front wheel and compress downward with your body weight (hands firmly gripping the handles, feet "gripping" the pedals, bend your elbow and knees on compression) and "jump up" or "lift up" the whole bike on the decompression.

While on the up, prepare to compress downward again. Repeat the whole process and get into the rhythm. For now, it is not about how high you can hop, it is about getting the feel (muscle memory) and rhythm of hopping. Remember to keep the front wheel in a straight alignment with your rear wheel.

Start off with the track stand, then lead into the hopping.

Learn hopping by using your body weight to compress downward before lifting the bike on decompression.

You will likely struggle with gripping the pedals with your feet while maintaining balance. But you will know when you get it right, as it will feel natural.

Remember to breathe.. lol. Hopping takes some energy, but well worth all the effort.

From Coasting Into Hopping

The other way to learn hopping is while coasting or rolling forward your bike. This technique is commonly used in mountain biking, hopping or bunny hopping over small gaps or obstacles.

For our purpose, coast at a slow speed and keep the front wheel in a straight alignment with your rear wheel. Next, compress downward with your body weight (hands firmly gripping the handles, feet "gripping" the pedals, bend your elbow and knees on compression) and "jump up" or "lift up" the whole bike on the decompression.

Learn hopping while coasting your bike.

While on the up, prepare to compress downward again. Repeat the whole process and get into the rhythm. For now, it is not about how high you can hop, it is about getting the feel (muscle memory) and rhythm of hopping.

Use this coasting method if you have not mastered the track stand and want to get a feel for hopping.

I hope this tutorial on hopping will help anyone trying to learn this skill. Use the compression and decompression (of the tires) to minimize the effort required for hopping.

The next tutorial will show how to learn the rear wheel hop. It took me a long time to learn it. I will illustrate a few methods that will speed up the learning process. Cheers.

BikeTrial Tutorial 2 - Pivoting

Now that you have mastered the track stand, it is time to move on to the next fundamental skill of BikeTrials, pivoting, also referred to as "rocking".

Pivoting is all about leverage and momentum. By shifting your body weight and using the brakes to counter the forward and backward momentum, you are able to pivot your bike forward, backward or sideways to change the directions you intend to go. Get into a rhythm and the pivots become almost effortless.

What can I do with Pivoting?

You can use pivoting to easily lift up your front wheel onto a ledge, cross a gap or for balancing to set up another technique. Here are some examples.


Use pivoting to raise the front wheel into a rear wheel hop.

Start off with pivoting your bike to get the momentum and rhythm going. On the backward pivot, lift up the front wheel and pedal down to bring the bike into the rear wheel position. Then hop on the rear wheel to maintain balance. This is one way to use pivoting to set up another technique.

In later tutorials, I will give detailed steps and methods to show how to learn and master the rear wheel hop. You will need to master all 3 skills (track stand, pivoting and hopping) to be able to do this. Arguably, you can learn the rear wheel hop without learning the pivot. I will explain when we come to that tutorial.


Use pivoting to balance to setup the next move.

You can also use the pivot to balance by either adjusting the front wheel or rear wheel. Most riders use this method from a stationary position on the front wheel to line up the next move like the pedal up or touch up. The main goal is to align the bike's front and rear wheels in a straight line.


Get into a rhythm to use pivoting to change directions effortlessly.

By pivoting your bike, you can move the front or back wheel to face any directions that you want. When you have a very small space to navigate, pivoting becomes invaluable to move around.


Without pivoting, it takes more strength and effort to change directions.

The above animated gif shows how difficult it is to change directions by using the arms to jerk the front wheel into position. Pivoting makes it super easy and effortless.

Learn Pivot from Track Stand

If you have totally mastered track stand, then you can start pivoting from that position. Depending on your preference, you can start off by lifting either your front wheel or the rear wheel. Personally, I find that lifting the rear wheel is easier.

• Starting with the Rear Wheel - From your track stand position, lift your rear wheel using your feet (push backward and up on the pedals with your feet) and at the same time shift your body weight to lean forward.
  
  Next, when you let the rear wheel drop, using the leverage from the downward momentum, lean your body backward and with your hands lift up the front wheel.

• Starting with the Front Wheel - Similarly, from your track stand position, lift your front wheel with your arm and at the same time shift your body weight to lean backward.
  
  Next, when you let the front wheel drop, using the leverage from the downward momentum, lean your body forward and with feet lift up the rear wheel (push backward and up on the pedals with your feet).

Learn Pivot from a Roll

This is the easiest way to learn the pivot if you have not mastered the track stand. What you need to do is to pedal your bike into a slow roll moving forward. When you are ready, apply your front brakes. When your bike is coming to a full stop, lift your feet up to allow the momentum and leverage to lift up the rear wheel.



When the rear wheel is coming down, lean backward to bring up the front wheel using the same momentum and leverage. You can basically keep going for a long time without much effort.

Once you get the rhythm of the pivots, it will be very easy to just shift your body weights forward and backward. After you are comfortable with the forward and backward motion. Try shifting the front or the rear tires left or right to change directions. Used together with the track stand, pivoting will give you more control when navigating a tight section.

In my next tutorial, I will be explaining Hopping. One of the most used techniques in BikeTrials.

BikeTrial Tutorial 1 - Track Stand

In this tutorial, we will explore the various ways to learn the age-old track stand. The track stand is used in all types of biking styles and disciplines ranging from regular cycling, technical mountain biking, BMX flatland, cross-country, etc. It is one of the most useful biking skills that can be used anywhere anytime.

In BikeTrials, the track stand is one of the most crucial skill to master. At any time, you may be required to track stand on or between ledges, rocks, water features, planks, logs, etc. It is the first step in mastering the art of BikeTrials.

Brute Force Method

Let's start off with learning the track stand using what I called the "brute force" method. This method requires the rider to try to balance on two wheels as stationary as possible without any aid.

1. Firstly, determine the "favorite foot". The "favorite foot" is the foot that you want to use on the pedal when you want to cycle forward from a stationary position.



2. Secondly, you will need to know how to hold and engage your brakes. From a BikeTrials perspective, you should only use 1 finger (index finger) to engage the brake lever as shown in the following photo. One finger braking is a must. This will be explained later.



3. After you have determined your "favorite foot" and versed in the braking technique, we can begin our tutorial. For the ease of explanation, I will refer to the "favorite foot" as the right foot or right-footed.

4. If you are right-footed, position your front wheel pointing roughly 45 degrees to the left. Vice versa, if you are a left footer, position your front wheel pointing roughly 45 degrees to the right.

5. Start by ensuring that you have the front and rear brakes fully engaged.

6. Put your right foot on the right pedal. The pedal position should be placed in the forward position as shown in the following photo.



7. Next, slowly lift up your left foot while constantly adjusting your balance by slowly shifting your body weight around. You can also try lowering your center of gravity by bending your knees. Tilting your bike left or right will also help you to counter your off-balance points.

8. Having your brakes fully engaged is very important. Depending on the quality of your brakes, you may struggle with this. Sore index fingers are a norm.

If you practice on a hard surface like the tarmac, you may want to switch over to a grassy patch. Make sure the ground is not too soft and overgrown with grass.

The grass will provide additional traction so that you do not have to rely on your brakes too much. Another tip is to lower your tire pressure, soft and bouncy is just right.

You have basically covered the techniques to learn track stand brute force style... lol. The next learning method is the "assisted" method

Assisted Method

There are a few ways for you to accelerate learning the track stand using various techniques. Before you can start to learn balancing, you will need to make sure that the bike is stationary. Hence a lot of emphasis on good brakes and braking techniques.

1. The Drain - This is by far the best and easiest method to learn the track stand. Simply put the front wheel of your bike across and over a shallow drain. If the front wheel fits nicely over the drain, you do not need to use the brakes at all. After you have secured the front wheel from moving, you can use the techniques described in step 6 & 7 above.



2. The Object - This method is simply using the front wheel of the bike to lean against a large immovable object like a wall, a large rock, a bench, a pillar, etc. Basically any object that will support the weight and pressure you will put on it when you lean the front wheel against it. But be warned that the front wheel tire will leave dark rubber marks on the object.



3. The Slope - This is a popular method used by many to learn the track stand. Simply point the front wheel perpendicular to the gentle slope. (Remember the above 45 degrees angle to position the front wheel respective to the bike body.) You will pedal into the slope to move forward and releasing your brakes to roll backward. This method will lead to the brake-less track stand as explained in the next section.

Look ma! No Brakes!

This will sound contradictory to what I said earlier. The best track stand is when you do not need to use any brakes at all. When you reach this stage, you will totally own the track stand. It will be effortless and requires little or no strength at all.





Basically, you "roll" the bicycle forward and backward to adjust your balance. This continuous forward and backward rolling motion allows your body to unconsciously adjust itself to maintain constant balance on the bike by keeping the center of gravity positioned correctly. There is a whole field of science that explains this. If you want to know the details, go check out this article on Wikipedia :)

BikeTrial Tutorial 0 - The Fundamentals

There are 3 fundamental skills that must be mastered before one can progress further in BikeTrials. They are track stand, pivoting and hopping.

These skills will be used in various combinations with each other to achieve more advanced techniques by the rider to over come the challenges of riding over obstacles of varying height and surfaces.

1. Track Stand

The track stand is used in all types of biking styles and disciplines ranging from regular cycling, technical mountain biking, BMX flatland, cross-country, etc. It is one of the most useful biking skills that can be used anywhere anytime.

In BikeTrials, the track stand is one of the most crucial skill to master. At any time, you may be required to rest by track standing on or between ledges, rocks, water features, planks, logs, etc. It is the first step in mastering the art of BikeTrials.

2. Pivoting

Before attempting to learn pivoting, you will need to make sure that you are comfortable with track stand on demand. Pivoting is a skill used by riders to maintain balance, move between small spaces, climb, drop-off, cross gaps, etc. It is a very useful skill to learn and less tiring than hopping. It is also a skill to set up the next technique. For example, using the pivot to bring up the front wheel to transition into a rear wheel hop.

3. Hopping

The prerequisite to hopping is the track stand. Before attempting to learn hopping, you will need to make sure that you are comfortable with the track stand. Hopping on 2 wheels is the starting point to the rear wheel hop. Whether hopping on 1 or 2 wheels, it is a skill that must be mastered, as it will be needed in various forms. Hopping requires the rider to lift the wheels off the ground with the intention of either maintaining balance, setting up for the next move, achieving momentum, crossing a gap, riding in narrow spaces, climbing, etc.

All the advanced BikeTrials techniques will incorporate any one, or a combination of these fundamental skills. So, you will need to be able to execute these skills on demand to be able to progress any further.

In my next post, I will be explaining the age old biking skill, the Track Stand.

As a footnote, although I am still very much a newbie, I hope I can contribute a little bit to the progress of BikeTrial in Malaysia. Peace and have fun on trials!!

BikeTrial Basic Tutorials

Now that my kids are getting interested in BikeTrials, I plan to work on a few tutorials to cover the basic BikeTrials skills and techniques. They are track-stand, pivoting or rocking, hopping, pedal hop, pedal up, rear wheel hop and pedal kick.

If possible, each tutorial will show the various ways of learning a technique and how to use it in combination or together with other techniques to achieve a specific goal.

I am hoping that eventually I will have the opportunity to build a BikeTrials park for all to enjoy. So training my kids to ride BikeTrials is the first step towards that goal.

In the weeks to come, I will be posting tutorials using animated photos (or animated gifs) that are 5 seconds long. If necessary, I will use photos and graphics to illustrate the technique.

Cheers.

Two Brothers Learning Track Stand

After about a 2 years hiatus, I managed to get the boys interested in BikeTrials again. It took some convincing and inspiring videos to get them off their game consoles and out of the house.

In the 2 years, they have grown much taller. The younger one is now able to grip the handles and brakes firmly but still lack the strength to hold the brakes over a sustained period. Over the next couple of months, I hope to get them into a training regime. More updates to come. Cheers!!

European BikeTrial Championship 2016

The European BikeTrial Championship organised by BIU will start on June 18th in Bolotana, Sardinia Island, Italy this year.

I really hope they will post videos on YouTube or Vimeo on the same day of the event. I don't think there will be any live coverage. Really looking forward to it!

So far only 38 riders have registered for this competition. The latest BikeTrial Technical Rules for 2016 is available for download from here.

Check out the map of the location below. It is a beautiful island off the coast of Italy.

• Check out the registered riders - http://www.biketrialinternational.com/index.php/result-list?eve=22
• Event Agenda - http://www.biketrialinternational.com/index.php/documents-list?id_cartella=58