|   FLat pedals for the new year-need help | doctordirt2000
Jan 1, 2002 7:43 AM | | I am a basic cross country mountain biker who has decided to ride with flat pedals for this entire year to work on improving technical skills, and stuff I hesitate to do clipped in. I have been clipped in for years and before that used toe clips and straps. I figured this was the place to post this question.
My question is: what is the technique to get the back of the bike into the air for say a bunny hop or a speed jog jump? And is is it the same technique? Or how about something real basic like getting the back end of the bike over a large log. Before I could just pull my legs up and with a weight shift and get over. It is weird not being connectedto the bike, but also liberating.
I am riding a nornal sized FS mountain bike and I am looking for some basic moves to get me going. I have no BMX/ dirt jumping backaround-unfortunately. Thanks! |
| its not that scary actually! | Joe Schaeffer
Jan 1, 2002 8:18 AM | | I have been riding technical XC with different SPD pedals for years and for 2001 I started riding a lot of urban freeriding where I of course used flat pedals and not SPD. I thought it should be scary and without control, but it is basically the same thing. I never had any problems staying on the pedals.
Regarding the very theoretical description of proper techniques, I will leave that to the real trials guys. On the concrete, I'm just a happy amateur. :) |
| re: FLat pedals for the new year-need help | ~ScaryFast~
Jan 1, 2002 8:24 AM | | That's quite the new year's resolution! I really don't know if you'll want to be riding XC for an entire year on flats, because I assure you that you'll be yearning for clipless after a couple weeks. I suggest you keep riding clipless now and then, to keep your sanity and to watch your new skills translating over from flatpedal riding.
In any case where you want to pull up the rear of your bike, you will want to perform two things basically - pulling up with the foot and rolling the grips. Eg. for a simple hop, compress your body and as you jump, you will want to pull back and up with your feet, while simultaneously sort of rotating your wrists forward to help bring up the rear of the bike.
As you first compress, your feet will be more or less horizontal, but as you pull back/up, your toes will be sort of pointed downward.
If you keep at it, you'll find that when you go back to clipless, you will rely less on your clips to perform a hop, and as such there will be less occurence of feet popping out of the pedals while hopping, and you won't have to have the tension crazy high. As you get better on flats, you won't have to rely much on the 'wrist roll' action. A grippy pedal/shoe combo definitly helps.
If you start doing more radical stuff, or more trials, then i'd suggest shin pads especially if you have gnarly pedals, cuz when you're learning, if you slip up you'll get a pedal full of sharp pins gouging out your shins. Yum.
Good luck |
| re: FLat pedals for the new year-need help | Regder
Jan 1, 2002 3:09 PM | | just to add to what everyone else has been saying.
To lift the rear end, tip your foot a little bit forward. You will gain a good amount of traction on the pedal, where otherwise you foot might simply come off. |
| Thanks for your answers. Follow up questions | doctordirt2000
Jan 1, 2002 6:53 PM | | Am I using both feet to pull up or just the back foot(It seems like you need real strong hamstrings and glutes)? It sounds as if you are relying on the friction between the pins and the shoe soles to carry up thet weight. As for the bike shoes, will my regular biking shoes cut it if I take out the cleats, or should I just get some sort of bmx flat bottom shoe? Can your recomend a low cost but worthy shoe?
Yes, I know I will miss my clipless pedals(Times). I put on flats once (super cheapo ones) for one day and hated it. After a good sprain a couple weeks ago and a worse one a couple months before I had begun to realize that all my crashes over the past several years has actually made me a more timid rider, and not grow, improve and try new things. Strange, but I have great FS bike, all the smart protective gear, but much less willing to take a chance. I used to better with much less!
So I am hoping the flat pedals will help restore some confidence, and reduce the pain penalty for misshaps. And of course I hope to learn a few nice moves that I would't do clipped in-at least now.
I will throw in the clipples pedals here and there to see the progress as one of you suggested. Thanks again! |
| friction and shoes | grandma
Jan 2, 2002 2:31 AM | | To use the foot to lift with the pedals is a good tip but don't see it as the main force.
The main effect comes from unweighting the rear or complete bike and then pulling the bars. This is done by really jumping off upwards with your body or by shifting your weight forwards towards the bars depending on what kind of obstacle you want to clear. JUmping upwards allows you to really get you and your bycicle in the air like when bunny hopping while shifting your weight forwards can get your rear wheel across or up obstacles your frontwheel has already cleared.
After jumping off you then have to pull up and forward on the bars. This in combination with the unweight bike/rear will lift up the rear wheel.
The foot work just will give you additional height and control but for the beginning it is not absolutely crucial. If you have problems concentrating on everything at once, just visualize and concentrate on pulling the bars.
with shoes you should get some bmx or skate shoes. Run into a store and buy some comfortably feeling no name skate shoes. The soles should not be too thick to guarantee good feel. Just look what kind of shoes skaters wear. You can of course buy in a skate shop but those shoes are more expensive and not neccessarily better than the no names.
Your clipless bike shoes will maybe suffer from the pins of the flatpedals. Nevertheless they might have too hard soles providing not enough feel and what is important not enough grip. I would advice you to get some skate shoes for cheap and not stress your clipless.
hope this helps
good luck
grandma |
| Good tips! Thanks! (nm) | doctordirt2000
Jan 2, 2002 5:53 PM | | |
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