Any Advice On How To Do Front Wheel Hop's

[hazr27]

g'day.

I'm struggling to do more than two hop's on my front wheel.

after I've done two my weight shifts and my rear wheel starts to fall back down to earth.

any tricks or tips?

any advice would be much appreciated. thanks allot.

[PaRtZ]

Seriously, the ony problem is your weight isn't forward enough - I.E. You're not vertical enough! Make sure you endo and push your bum backwards towards the rear end before you start hopping, but other than that its just being more vertical.

Its scary to get used as you dont fully know where the point of no return is, but you got to keep practicing getting it higher and higher.

[walker]

advice: dont break your forks doing it! hehe

[Danny@phatworks]

advice: dont break your forks doing it! hehe

[hazr27]

haha, is it easy to brake them Then?

[Reinis.]

I've never thought about breaking my fork, learning front wheel hops (although I can do only 4), but I have broke my fork doing a gap to front. But in my opinion, when doing front wheel hops, the fork can't break. That's only what I am thinking. Maybe no true.

[Danny@phatworks]

I've never thought about breaking my fork, learning front wheel hops (although I can do only 4), but I have broke my fork doing a gap to front. But in my opinion, when doing front wheel hops, the fork can't break. That's only what I am thinking. Maybe no true.

Well I have only ever snapped 1 pair of forks whilst actually doing front hops - but yes front hops put an immense amount of stress on forks and if time is going to be spent learning them just be aware.

Any way my advice is to go out and find your balance point on the front wheel on some nice soft grass, once you know your balance point you should pick them up quickly with time and practice.

[haydon_peter]

When you learnt to back hop I'm sure you fell off the back of the bike quite a bit, when your learning to front hop the opposite will happen.

While learning if you are not falling off over the front of the bike you are not leaning far enough forwards! Falling off forwards may sounds bad but all you have to do is take your feet off the pedals and put them on the ground near your front wheel.

Good luck, front hopping is really hard to get your head round but once you have got it you will be fine

[Ross McArthur]

haha, is it easy to brake them Then?

Only if your shite.

Na youll be fine, just try and practice getting your weight further over the front of the bike. try and learn to save yourself properly when you fall over the front of the bike so when you do you dont hurt yourself.

If you fall youll find that youll hit your thighs on the bar and the back wheel will hit your ars/back, so be prepaired.

Practise is the key. Hold the front brake and with your chocolate foot forward lighten the back end up and keep your weight over the front wheel.

If you dont own "tricks and stunts", buy it. tricks and stunts.

[Greetings]

You need to keep your legs bent, that's quite important. Rear wheel should be quite high up.

Basically when you're hopping on the front wheel and starting to fall backwards, just correct it by jumping back.

Basically hopping on the front wheel isn't only done by the arms, your whole body including the legs comes into it.

[psycholist]

Fronthopping forwards is still wrecking my head - hopping backwards because my weight isn't far enough forwards is easy enough, but I can't get my head around hopping forwards (In no small part because my weight isn't far enough forwards I reckon).

As for breaking the fork - sometimes the fork isn't the problem

This may not have been designed for trials use of course - but very little available at the time and on my budget was ...

[Al_Fel]

I found facing down a very slight slope helped me a lot. It forces you to lean forward more. If you find a kerb where it slopes to nothing that might help.

[Tony Harrison]

The most important thing is getting comfortable with going over the bars. Once you're not afraid of that, you'll be fine. I learnt on a GT Arrowhead with standard forks, which promptly bent. I then went home (a 14 mile train journey), fitted some sus forks and went back out (another train journey - that's how dedicated I was back then!!) and continued practising it. Eventually the damper cartridge in the forks went into meltdown and I bought some Fatty R's (from Autovogue!!!). Next, the headtube snapped clean off the front of the bike, so I had to have it welded and gussetted - it was then fine for a good wile longer. (Also, I remember Rich Johnson letting me ride his bike at Bike 99, and showing me how to hook my back foot shoe under the chainstay to stabilise the back of the bike to help turn on the spot - that was back when people used USE forks and they flexed like a bitchspaz)

HOWEVER... the kids of today probably won't suffer from this, as modern trials frames are build to take this kind of stress (unless you're Adam from Merseytrial, who's murdered a fair few forks doing monster taps/hooks!!), and you can front hop to your heart's content. Plus most people tend to run tractor tyres on the front which give a little more cushioning.

On the whole now, it's rare to see it ever done. Like 'on-offs', standing on the back tyre to do various things before dropping off and x-ups it's not all that useful, but unlike those things it just isn't fashionable! Besides, squeakers and g-turns were always far more fun...

[Ross McArthur]

squeakers and g-turns were always far more fun...

Too right man, learning to hop on the front wheel is a must! Just to be able to do these moves/tricks.

Edited September 22, 2008 by Ross McArthur

[hazr27]

shame to see your bike got broke, i bet you shit your pants when that happened?

thanks allot for all the tips and that.

I've got tricks and stunts, isn't it sick how good Ashton was back then? in my eyes he's the guru. immense!

[Tony Harrison]

In T&S I remember first watching the bit where Hans talks about learning backhops, and he mentions front hops then. I remember thinking, shit, people can do shedloads of hops on their front wheel!? I just had to go and learn them after that. And I think that's what was good then - you had a rough idea of what was possible, so to go and achieve it was really inspiring. You'd only see stuff done elsewhere on videos, or if you happened to bump into anyone in town riding. But hey, I'd better not get started on the old days...

(Special note for Anal Teflon: I need to find one 6mm bolt in my box of bits and inflate a tyre and my bike is ready for action)

[Al_Fel]

(Special note for Anal Teflon: I need to find one 6mm bolt in my box of bits and inflate a tyre and my bike is ready for action)

You beauty, I've been loving riding the last few weeks. It will be good to get you out so we can sit round and chat shit instead of riding.

Back to front hops. The classic saying of practice practice practice can't be left not said. Its like everything the more you try the better you get.

[Rich Pearson]

I found facing down a very slight slope helped me a lot. It forces you to lean forward more. If you find a kerb where it slopes to nothing that might help.

That is the best bit of advice you can give to some one learning front hops, was about to post it myself.

I actually learnt by facing down quite a steep incline - 30 degrees or so - and it was almost like I was trying to just sustain an endo. Go and try on a meduim slope and you'll see what I mean; you'll almost immeditely feel the difference.

Rich

[Endohopper]

Given my username I feel duty bound to reply to this thread . However , Mr.Harrison pretty much made my point :

The most important thing is getting comfortable with going over the bars.

Learning how to screw it up correctly inspires the requisite confidence to focus on the move instead of dental reconstruction .