Touch Hop How To .

[TRA]

The best way to do them is more like the Øhler method .

Which is basically doing a pedalup with a slight touch by the frontwheel.

This is a much more predictable technique and works best most of the times.

Basic mistakes when doing a tap:

Not bending knees before jump.

Jumping too late.

Pushing the bars in wrong angle.

Not extending and following through.

Not beeing able to jump/or hard enough.

Half a stroke tap is a easier way but requires heavier gear, its easier because you dont have to calculate the stroke lenghts as much, and it might be easier to bend knees. But if your going uphill, or want to do a rear tap this is not a good way to do it. This method is best for street.

1 stroke tap is more common and seemed as "the right way", this is where you lift with your bad foot. It requires more calculation of when you are going to start pedaling, but everything are supposed to be done with short runup, so you SHOULD be pedaling the whole way . Because your pedaling all the way this is the best way to do uphill taps and rear wheel taps aswell.

Basic tips on taps:

Finish pedaling and then jump with both feets.

Start jumping before your frontwheel hits.

Push bars down and towards you.

How you should tap varies from the object your climbing.

Straight edge tap:

Go for 1.5 stroke , here you have about 0.75 stroke to gain most of the speed, rest of the strokes is used more for the lift.

Make sure you have bent legs all the way , your albows should only have a slight angle as you lift , this will give you more "room" to absorb the impact and to throw yourself forward. Your body should be tilting forward so your ready to hit the wall and push feets down, dont lay back, this will result in kicking the bike forward. So near straight arms and body tilt at forward.

You are using both bad foot and good foot to lift the frontwheel.

As you are finished pedaling you have to make sure you start jumping BEFORE you hit the frontwheel into the wall, rear tire should lift off the ground just as frontwheel hits wall. Jumping means basically that your straightning out your knees, this takes a certain amount of time, but as the frontwheel is tapped until it shoots up takes just about NO time at all. So its only logic you have to start jumping BEFORE you hit !

Pushing the bars in right direction is critical, do not push them away from you, this might create height but you wont land on top of the wall.

Best is to basically pushing DOWN to create a good smack but not loosing too much speed, but as you have pushed DOWN you pull the towards you which will throw you longer forward and land more ontop of the wall.

At times pulling the bars more towards you then down is a good thing, this is mostly if you have SLOW speed or your tapping objects like a fence.

Hit the frontwheel "semi low" onto the wall , for best heights you need to hit it quite hard ! But this also stops you more, so the harder you hit the more SPEED you need to have. At great heights you might even try to "roll" up the wall just a little on frontwheel, REALLY hard on straight edges.

As your flying up the wall you should be leaning forward and then pull the bike up under you as you tuck in.

If the wall is very high you might want to try and "go to the side" , pick the side which suits you the best, i suggest right side for left footers. This technique should be planned so on the way up your already starting to go to the side, your landing with stretched out arms and ass on the side of the wheel, and then as your rear wheel has touched the ground you "twist" yourself and try to move your whole body and not just a mega tuck in. Because then your moving the center point of your body more forward and creating a stronger pivot point .

Slainted surfaces:

If you have a weak slaint you can fast get ALOT higher, because your frontwheel rolls easier up and your not loosing speed as fast , it doesnt go to a dead holdt. The more slaint you have the lower and harder you need/could hit with the frontwheel . Its also much more predictable.

With slaint you can throw yourself and lean more forward

If you have a medium slaint its time to think about REAR WHEEL TAPPING.

Hitting the rear wheel can/will propel you higher and push you more forward.

Still you should be finished pedaling before you jump, but you jump later and you pull bars more towards you, this will smack the rear wheel into the wall.

But with a medium slaint your front wheel should also be smacked medium hard. Also on this kind of slaint and more slaint you should push yourself forward and try to "roll" up the wall on your front wheel as your laying forward , you are WAITING until you loose speed and THEN you tuck the bike under you. This is more a mototrials technique which works really well!

If you have a big slaint you should focus more about only tapping the rear wheel, but not only that, you can also PEDAL on the bottom, this means that you can pedal further . So you should start later to pedal so cranks are NOT at the "right angle" as your hitting the wall, so your jumping and pedaling at the same time. You should throw yourself much more forward here as you hit then on other taps, get your weight onto the front wheel and roll up as you wait until you loose speed to tuck the bike in under you.

Very logically is it that the harder you jump the higher you will get , the harder you smack frontwheel the higher you get.

But It is more technique then how fast you can jump and how hard you can smack, The harder you jump/smack the harder the tap gets and the easier it is to f**k up.

And the more bent legs you have the earlier you need to start jumping as it takes more time.

There are also more ways to do taps, such as straight edge taps but you also use an obecjt infront of the wall to propell your rear wheel more up.

This is like a jump ONLY for rear wheel . You can not hit front wheel as hard here , then you might loose some teeths

I have NOT mentioned taps on low objects or half stroke taps from stand still. Nor any more "trick" taps . just the basic taps.

This is the first edit and i did it at school so it might not be perfect and i might change it some at later times.

Download videos of Giacomo Coustellier, Vincent hermance and Thomas Øhler, look closely and you will find all my points in these taps.

[Ash-Kennard]

very, very good description and explanation, well impressed. fortunately i already have taps sorted though

[montyrider]

thanks i am trying to learn taps atm cheers tra

[ben_travis]

was u bored tom?

[Greetings]

That's great! I was hoping somebody would write something like this, might help me get my technique right.

[Ali C]

my taps suck! I will be following your advice mr TRA, thanks

[Luke Rainbird]

Read this on OTN earlier - shall be playing around next ride

[joe b]

you might loose some teeths

I love you TRA .

On a serious note, though, that was an amazing explanation and your English grammar is stupidly good .

Well done and thank you...

Cheers,

Joe.

[Token]

Pretty good descriptions! Always wanted to be able to tap stuff rather than pedalhop but there's always the fear of just smashing into the wall.

Anyway, hope this year I can master some taps.

[hugh_b]

sorry to bump this up guys but i needed to ask tra or someone something about this description. firstly i want to say this has helped me a great deal. I was practicing today and got much better having my knees quite bent going up to the obstacle. However when you say you have to jump before youve finished pedaling, do you mean you jump into the air then hit the front wheel or you begin the move by pulling the front up and begin to pull the bike whilst still pedaling slightly? cheers-Hugh

[Rusevelt]

Whats wrong with the touch-up how to on trashzen? julien explains it pretty through.

Edited April 26, 2007 by Rusevelt

[hugh_b]

Whats wrong with the touch-up how to on trashzen? julien explains it pretty through.

i havent seen that one, i have been using this one as i found it amazing helpful.

PS:FIGURED IT ALL OUT NOW.

Edited April 26, 2007 by trialsntrials

[poopipe]

Whats wrong with the touch-up how to on trashzen? julien explains it pretty through.

he's got them on rails now - is there a tute on that up yet ?

[Greetings]

Can't do them anymore

The worst thing is that I'm blaming the bb rise on my frame and not myself

[B.E.A.U]

amazing description but i tried your way of taps the bit where you jump before you hit or something.

I ended up in great pain lol

tapped 51 though today woop

[hugh_b]

amazing description but i tried your way of taps the bit where you jump before you hit or something.

I ended up in great pain lol

tapped 51 though today woop

51, cant really imagine getting that just yet. i was getting 7 blue pallets to back wheel in my garden with not alot of run up (1 pedal stroke). i measured this at about 46-47 inches. As i got more and more tired i couldnt do it lol. Deffo got get my technique dialled in to get them bigger.

[B.E.A.U]

51, cant really imagine getting that just yet. i was getting 7 blue pallets to back wheel in my garden with not alot of run up (1 pedal stroke). i measured this at about 46-47 inches. As i got more and more tired i couldnt do it lol. Deffo got get my technique dialled in to get them bigger.

lol i didnt think ide do it me and danko was pissing about lol

i thourght this bike was shit for taps but turns out i set my pb lol

[hugh_b]

lol i didnt think ide do it me and danko was pissing about lol

i thourght this bike was shit for taps but turns out i set my pb lol

wikid bud, 51 is just huge really. Donno what the average is probs about 46-47 but i guess every 1 is doin that quite comfortably except me . Ahwell just keep trying i guess. Well done anyway dude. No doubt youll do it bigger soon enough. -hugh

[B.E.A.U]

wikid bud, 51 is just huge really. Donno what the average is probs about 46-47 but i guess every 1 is doin that quite comfortably except me . Ahwell just keep trying i guess. Well done anyway dude. No doubt youll do it bigger soon enough. -hugh

atleats i think its 51 lol best be looked like it lol.

just try tapping the top of the wall and geting up and falling off or to bash then one day just give it some pasty

[NirZionTrials]

Thanks

dont know them yet, hope to now.

[Ash-Kennard]

51, cant really imagine getting that just yet. i was getting 7 blue pallets to back wheel in my garden with not alot of run up (1 pedal stroke). i measured this at about 46-47 inches. As i got more and more tired i couldnt do it lol. Deffo got get my technique dialled in to get them bigger.

45.5... 6.5x7...

anyways, nice lads, TRA's advice is very good but i fuind thinking about tapping is a major put off, just go at it and twat it, you will be surprised with the outcome

Edited April 27, 2007 by ash-kennard

[Luke Rainbird]

45.5... 6.5x7...

anyways, nice lads, TRA's advice is very good but i fuind thinking about tapping is a major put off, just go at it and twat it, you will be surprised with the outcome

Kennard, don't be so f**king anal!

[craigjames]

45.5... 6.5x7...

anyways, nice lads, TRA's advice is very good but i find thinking about tapping is a major put off, just go at it and twat it, you will be surprised with the outcome

ash not all pallets measure up the same! ive been learning to tap again and atm can only manage 6 pallets which with the fathers trusty tape measure comes up at 40 and 3/8 inches. the problem ive got is i can get up to two wheels at that height ok, but if i try and keep the front up im coming up short any ideas why? sounds like i need some kennard tap magic?

does anyone else find taps really bloody hurt their forearms?

craig

[Ash-Kennard]

takes practise. but seriously, dont tap it, whack it

[ogre]

i fuind thinking about tapping is a major put off

How're taps offputting there one of the few things i can actually do ok and i've never been put off from doing them+i'm a pussy