"How-To" - Riding Tips

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Ok, bringing things back from the sky and back onto the ground, we can work on general riding tips. If you have a problem with anything related to tricky stuff on the ground, ask the question in here, it shall be answered

Wheelies

Wheelies are a big part of the tricky scene of riding. We all need to know this one to put on a decent show I believe

There are 2 types of wheelies in theory, the Slow wheelie, and the Fast wheelie. Both will be explained

Slow wheelie - This wheelie is great at a Freestyle Demo or Comp I believe, definetly one you want to keep up your sleeve, and does take alot of practise and balance to get it just right.

You need to be in First Gear for this, and stay only in first gear. You need to use the clutch a hell of a lot and have very good control of the throttle. What you need to do is ride along in first, idling along, just cruising, then to initiate the mono you firstly dump the clutch and add the gas to get the front wheel up, you need to be sitting on the seat and preferably towards the back. You should get the front wheel upto about 60 degrees.

Now see if you can just roll along idling with the bike at 60 degrees, then you just need to hold the clutch half in, and give the bike a fraction more throttle, just roll it on slowly to not spit you off the back. Ride the clutch until you can get the bike to about 80 Degrees, almost flipping off the back. This is your perfect Slow Wheelie. It takes alot of patience and control like I said, so give it time

Fast Wheelie - You can start this wheelie in first gear and click up through each gear getting faster and faster each time, or you can find a gear you are happy with, perhaps 3rd which is nice and cruisy speed. What you do for these wheelies that you can get big distances over, you need to be able to control the front of the bike in the air using your body and the throttle.

Ride in a straight line in 2nd gear about half throttle, now just pull in the clutch a bit, give the bike a rev, and let the clutch out again, hopefully just enough to bring the front up off the ground. As it's just coming up, sit back further on the seat and roll the throttle on more and more until you get the front of the bike up about 45 Degrees. You'll probably start to be revving the bike harder and harder to keep it there, and when you get to almost revving out, give the gas a quick flick to give it more power, then pull the clutch in, change into third and let out as soon as you can. (This has to be very quick so the front doesn't just drop down to the ground). Now you're in 3rd gear and just use your body to keep it at about 45 Degrees still, and once again you'll be revving it harder and harder to keep the front up, as you building speed the entire time. Now change to 4th, and the cycle starts over again and then change to 5th gear. Now you're in 5th Gear and top of the gears (generally) you need to give the bike a bit mroe gas, get the front up just past 45 Degrees where you're comfortable and sit back further on the bike, and you will hopefully be able to balance the bike up in the air and keep the same rev's up while the front wheel stays in the air . Hopefully you can do this over 200 metres or so (by the time you go through each gear) and then beyond

Also, for fast wheelies, some people prefer to Stand Up. This helps also when wanting to move your body forward and back to adjust the height of the front wheel. Keep practising and work on your clutch / throttle control
Enjoy

Endo's

An Endo is simply when you lock the front brake up and the bike comes up onto the front wheel like a reverse Wheelie. Once again there are 2 ways of doing these, where you ride along fairly slowly and stop on the front wheel, and then drop back down to the ground, or when you ride along at a cruisy kind of speed, and touch brakes and coast along on the front wheel for 15 metres or more.

On the spot Nose Wheelie - Generally this is quite an easy endo to do, all you need to do is cruise along about half throttle in first gear, and then let the throttle go until you're just cruising along at first. When you spot a nice hard patch of dirt, aim your front tire for it, keep the bike completely straight, and lean forward up on the bike. Now you want to lock the front brake up as hard as you can, lean forward, and the back of the bike will raise up nicely. You just need to centre yourself well and not let the back come up too much. If it does come up too high for your liking, simply let the front brake go and the front wheel will roll forward and the back will come down straight away.

Coasting Nose Wheelie - To do this Endo, you need a fair bit of speed, I suggest try second gear to start off with. What you need to do, is cruise along, about 1/2 throttle in second. When you are just cruising at a speed you feel comfortable with, what you need to do is tap the front brake and lean forward a fair bit as you will need to get alot of momentum forward, but without using too much braking power, otherwise it's flip time .

So you tap the front brake, but it's only a tap, don't hold it tight, you can tap it and then release it off, but still remaining with your hand on the brake but very little. This is a very hard trick to do well, you might be able to get 3 metres when you first start out, but it takes alot of front brake and body control to keep the bike going. The better you get, the faster you can do it, click it into 3rd gear and go 1/2 throttle, see how you do. If anyone has seen Shaun Richo Richardson do this, they will know what a really good Nose Wheelie is all about, the guy can do it for damn near 50 metres!!

Anyway, keep practising and good luck and enjoy

Pic - Our very own Lars (1Madgerman) showing us how to do the Endo with a lookback for extra style

Donuts

The donut is another great tool in the Bike Riders bag of tricks. There are a few ways of doing a Donut, and each is special in it's own right

Sitting on the bike with one foot on ground Donut
This is the conventional donut, you're sitting on the bike in a stationary position, and you want to spin your back tire around and do a full circle. What you need to do is pick the side you're most comfortable with first, then put that foot on the ground and make sure you balance you and the bike on the ball of your foot. Now it's as easy as holding the clutch in, revving the bike in first, or maybe second gear, and then letting the clutch out so the back wheel loses grip and starts spinning in the one spot. Now you just need to lean the bike over to the side and direct the front wheel in a circle. This is quite an easy donut, but when first starting, it make take a little practise to get the feel for the bike being somewhat out of control and spinning in circles.

Standing up, no footed Donut
This is quite a hard trick to do, and not many riders can do it. What it involves, is simply standing on the bike like normal and then going into a donut without putting your foot down.
The best way to do this trick, is you need to be already in motion, first gear and just idling. You then want to lean to the side of the bike that you want to donut on, and lean as far forward as you can to allow the back wheel to slip. Pull the clutch in, rev the bike up about half throttle and then let the clutch out until the wheel spins. Now you need to lean to the direction you're donut-ing too, and keep the throttle up at all times, if you give it more you might fall off or it might bite in, and if you let the throttle off the donut stops. So keep the throttle going, keeping leaning and hopefully you'll be able to have the front wheel stay almost on a pivot as the back wheel goes around and around and around

Off the bike Donut
This Donut is purely for $hits and giggles. All you need to do, is stand on the right hand side of your bike on the ground, hold the clutch in, and rev the bike, then let the clutch out and lean the bike down and it will start to spin and go around in circles around you. This looks pretty cool and you can also let go of the clutch and take your left hand and hold the throttle with the right hand OR throw your left hand up in the air to accept you're applause for a job well done
There's only one problem to doing these, it's pretty hard to recover the bike when it's spinning without dropping it. Slow the revs down a bit, and try reach your left hand back over to the clutch, pull it in and then pick your bike up.

Good Luck (I don't have any pictures of donuts, so if you guys wanna throw them up you're more than welcome )

180's Wheelie / Nose-Wheelie

180 Wheelie
This can only really be done in first gear from a stationary position, or very slowly rolling in a straight line. What the 180 Wheelie is about, is popping the front wheel up, and turning the bike around on the back wheel into the opposite direction and being able to ride out of it. One of my personal favourites . To begin this trick you might find it easier to start on a mound of dirt. Keep the front wheel on the mound, with the back wheel flat on flat ground. What you need to do, is drop the clutch with not to many revs, just enough to keep the bike going the entire time. When the front wheel goes up, put either foot down that you want to 180 to, and put the bikes weight onto that leg. Rotate your foot and let the bike turn around with you. When the bike comes around, you can take your foot off the ground and try hold the front wheel up, but this is quite difficult as you keep somewhat of rotation on the bike, so you need to balance yourself quickly.
When you get better at this, you can do it on flat ground and do it normally, and then when you are quite advanced at it, you can ride along in first gear at almost less than walking pace, and then drop the clutch, bring the front up and turn the bike as fast as possible, without it biting into the ground and spitting you off.

180 Nose-Wheelie

This is quite a hard trick to do, and has quite a high failure rate haha. Essentially you are doing a nose wheelie, and as you come to the very peak of the nose-wheelie and your about to stop, you simply spin the bike around on the front wheel and try land with the bike in the opposite direction to where you came. People sometimes view this as a mistake, but we really are trying to do it

When you've locked the front brakes up, and the back starts to rise up, you need to make sure your almost at no speed what soever, so the bike is on a pivot. What you do now is use your legs to try swing the back end of the bike around, why you lean forward to keep balance over the bike. Turn your head if needs be as it helps your body to turn the bike aswell (Where you're head is pointing is where your body will go). When you feel like you've got the bike to 180 Degrees and you're lookin in the direction you came from, simply let the front brake out and let the back of the bike drop to the ground for your 10/10 landing

Good luck and enjoy

Wheelie to Nose-Wheelie to Wheelie to Nose-Wheelie

This is my favourite of them all I think. I don't see many people doing this, maybe it wrecks gearboxes and clutches and chains and stuff, but dammit it feels good, and I say if it feels good... Do it haha.

Pretty much this is to be done quite slowly, in first gear so it's not too much pressure on the bike. Firstly get a wheelie happening, doing this very slowly, you can get it upto 80 Degrees if you so wish, only makes the combo look so much better. Then you want to let the throttle off, and as the front of the bike is coming down, you want to hold the front brake on straight away and lean as far forward as you can, as you do, the back of the bike will begin to lift again. You can now grab the clutch and start to rev the bike while the back is in the air, now let the back come down, and as soon as the rear wheel touches, dump the clutch, and let the gas open again to bring the front wheel back up, and so on and so forth

Try it out, I do this all the time just for the hell of it. It teaches you good timing with both clutch and throttle and also timing of when the wheel hits the ground to let go and the like.

Good Luck and Practise Hard

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