Skip to main content

No-Handers, still a great trick

 Hello beautiful people. I promise this is still a mountain biking blog. I won't force my fiction writing on you very often.  I have a lot of stories that I start and then they just fizzle out. So I though if I posted the first chapters on here I would have to commit to finishing it. 


Since I spent my weekend mornings writing, and not hiking into the woods for trail maintenance, I'm very out of shape. Mountain biking is sort of like a deal with the devil. It will keep you healthy and happy, but the catch is you can never stop. Any time I break from mountain biking physical fitness, the years come flooding in and I begin to feel my actual age.

 I'm trying to get back at it. The smart thing to do would be to start with a strong cardio base and work from there introducing new challenges. Instead I wanted to make sure I could still dirt jump and do wheelies. Each new year I worry if I've lost any dirt jumping tricks. So I'm always happy to throw the first no-hander of the year.

This year it was at Erie Singletrack. We had made several runs and it was quite windy. Then as the sun sank to the horizon the wind quit. Aki was dropping in right behind me and a few people were hanging out at the top. I knew it was time. I'm telling you it is such a great feeling to be approaching a jump and confidently tell yourself, I'm going to pinch the seat with my knees then take both hands off and swing them way out to the side.

I bet Brandon Semenuk has his own version of that thought process. Except his is more like, I'm going to pull hard to initiate the backflip, then do a tailwhip clockwise, after that one, I'll stop the rotation and tailwhip counterclockwise, by then the flip will be completed and I can still toss in an bar spin.

Whips are cool, tabletops are cool. But I promise they are a dead end to your trick bag if they are all a dirt jumper focuses on. Taking off your hands or feet are the first step to all the bigger tricks. You can't bar spin with out no-handers. You can't tailwhip without no-footers.

Do yourself a favor make '24 the year you learn a pinch no-hander. I say pinch-no because they are easier than tuck-no. Pinch is only two ingredients, 1 pinch the seat, 2 no-hands. A tuck is three ingredients, 1 pull bike up, 2 tuck into your chest 3 no-hands.

If a trick has less ingredients it;s easier to make it a go-to trick. Also the pinch allows more room for variations. Happy '24 everyone let's ride!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

When disk brakes attack

 The first time I saw a brake rotor draw blood was with my old dog Seamus . Seamus loved to chase bikes, he was a great dog.  A black and white border collie lab, he was born in Crested Butte and later honed his bike dog skills on the singletrack trails of Bend, Oregon.   I wouldn't say he was cuddly and loving, he was more like a heroin junkie jonzing for a fix. As soon as he saw me or any other human he would find some item to drop at your feet and begin begging you to throw it. He would lift the stick or slimy tennis ball up and try to spit it into your hand. If you hid the ball he would find a stick. If you hid the stick he'd find a rock. He was relentless. His lower teeth were chipped and broken from his fetching habit and he kept himself in constant motion, desperate to chase or retrieve. He was a dock jumper, frisbee catcher and bike chaser. The first bike he learned to chase had Vee brakes. So neither of us were expecting what happened when he chased me on my...

The White Room (a short story)

FRIDAY After a short struggle I located Cliff at the airport. It was good to see him again. I had my bag packed and my skis on the rack of my Audi. Instead of going back to my house, we blew past the exit and cruised through Denver. We made a quick stop at a dispensary, then started climbing into the mountains. Five hours later we rolled into the town of Crested Butte. Matt had driven out from Arkansas the day before and we all converged on Kevin’s house. This was a reunion almost thirty years in the making. We pulled into Kevin’s driveway, kid’s bikes and other toys were poking out from the snow in the yard.  A master bedroom had been added to the house, but it still lacked siding, leaving the insulation exposed. Kevin came out to greet us wearing slippers, jeans and a tee shirt. He gave us each a hug. Nice addition Kev, that’s new since the last time I was here. Cliff said. Yeah I started it four years ago, maybe in another four I’ll finish it. Kevin’s just doing what he can...

What we pass on

 I was fortunate enough to meet some friends for a Valmont riding session the other day. I've known Jesse since the pre-child days and now both of us are fathers. My girls are both skilled bike riders but they really accell at the sportsball activities. They have inherited the gene for team ball sports from their mother. Jesse's son on the other hand is a cycling prodigy. He flows with incredible style over the biggest jump lines or across the finish line. At one point Jesse and another dad split for the slopestyle line and I went with the boys over to the trick jump. I may have mentioned before that I believe tricks are an important aspect of jumping bikes. I just think if you're going to jump bikes, why not do some tricks? The alternative route for progression is to just keep jumping bigger and bigger jumps and this can lead to a plateau with severe consequences. To me a cool trick on a medium size jump is more impressive than a dead sailor over a massive jump. Basically,...