onzajorge Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 Hey people, I have just learnt how to pedal kick and have got it down quite well now, but now i want to learn gaps. I can rest front wheel on a curb then hop to back wheel and pedal kick the length from ront wheel to back ish. I was wondering if anyone can post maybe a video or info or advise or anything really to help me learn how to gap bigger distance from pedal kicks. It's really frustraing me so any help at all would be great!! I was told to dip from front lower to get further distance but when i tried this i just found it alot harder to pedal kick at all. Is this advide right or wrong?? Please post anything which might help in the slightest Cheers, Onzajorge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannytrialskid Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 (edited) Ryan Leech Tutorial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1du5z1fhc3w OR If you want to do it pedal kick style. VIDEO BELOW: What you do is you go on your back wheel, when you get your balance, lower the front wheel and preload, when you kick on the pedal you will go in the air, extend your body and your back wheel will go on the obstacle. If you want to go further you bend your legs in the air and then extend them back out when you get near the obstacle,that's it. - Not exactly a good tutorial, but I learn better from videos.(found this video in the video section of Trials-Forum) Edited July 28, 2010 by dannytrialskid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris4stars Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 I know its hard...but really (in my opinion) you should be focusing on your pedal kicks and getting comfortable with those rather than working on distance. The second video in that post is a pretty good example of why! pushing yourself too much can make you much more prone to accident, or developing bad habits in your technique that may be harder to fix later down the line...Longer gapping comes with time, just enjoy riding and put away the tape measure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannytrialskid Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 (edited) just enjoy riding and put away the tape measure Very well said! Edited July 28, 2010 by dannytrialskid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stya_bear Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 I have to agree with chris4stars. The more you ride the bigger you can go, I doubt anybody could do the size of gap they do today without alot of practise and getting to grips with the techniques. I started with trying to gap frm a line on a road to another marker, or from a curb to a road marking, now I can gap 5ft, which I am quite proud of as I have only been back riding a month or so. But moral for me is, practise, hone technique and have fun! Take it to serious you lose the reason you started to ride Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ant Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 Just get out and ride with other people check the organised rides on this site and go and meet up with people, you will have loads of fun and learn much more just watching riders at different levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris4stars Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 haha, thanks for the support with my initial reply post... a few extra bits...when you get pedal kicks, or rear wheel hops in general sorted look first into doing the following perhaps: - holding the bike on the edge of the gap (ie - where youd be before you jump). being able to hold it there, making adjustment hops or small pedal rotations to roll forwards/backwards. when you get to an edge, you dont want to feel rushed into doing the jump (see the secong video again). you want to compose yourself and be in a position to bail if necessary. - with the landing, try landing to rear and staying on it, in position to pedal kick again. when you come to going larger you will want to be in control of the landing, alot of lines may not even give you the space to let the front drop. - (something i found) dont rush the movement! let me try to explain that. i was finding that when i was gapping bigger, i was inadvertantly snatching and the whole movement was jerking and didnt flow. making an effort to slow things down, helped a huge amount. i think the reason behind this is that sharp explosive movements just make any flaws in technique even bigger. - think about what yorue trying to do....jump far, you want to get height and distance at the same time. dont forget the height element! - relax, let the front drop naturally and try and make the move flow. try not to do the move with legs stiff and straight...its a whole body movement, not just a kick - one little add-on....i found that making sure the bars came to my waist mid gap helped quite a bit, may just be me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stya_bear Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 When you have nailed the gap, you can add a lil bit of style to it really make it look amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted July 28, 2010 Report Share Posted July 28, 2010 How good are you on your back wheel? Can you backhop on the spot for as long as you need to get setup right or are you more of a hop forward onto the edge of something and then gap off the end? If its the former then your better getting settled on the back wheel before you start trying to master big gaps so you can get comfortable and sort your preload out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onzajorge Posted July 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2010 Cheers guys, All these posts are really helpful yeah i get what you all mean about just enjoying my riding... Thanks and about the rides from this webbsite is there generally any rides not too far from stockport and if they are further away what does everyone do about travel because whe i have tried the bus and train companies go all funny about my taking my bike on. Erm... these pointers are realy helping thanks, And i agree i need to just take my time i can gap the length of my bike as i mentiond befor but its pretty sketchy, so guess i will just keep trying that distance and not worry bout it. Th second video posted really helped and showed me to take my time thanks. "Dannytrialskid" when you say extend your legs in the air do you mean a second time after leaving the ground, just sounded odd or did you mean just extend legs further from initial hop?? Cheers, Wb Onzajorge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted July 29, 2010 Report Share Posted July 29, 2010 Off topic but are you from stockport or just around there? I live in Chapel en le Frith which is bout 20 mins away if you've heard of it? There's nothing to stop you taking a bike on the train as far as I'm aware as long as it has a carriage (spelling?) for luggage and bikes. As for riding spots near stockport the only one I know is in New Mills down by the river called The Torrs, where an old mill used to be, some alright spots down there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam T Posted July 29, 2010 Report Share Posted July 29, 2010 (edited) When you gap, you need to go up just aswell as forward. I seem to find that if you bend your knee's up into you; And then straightening out your legs; Just before you land, it makes you gap alot further. Also looks cool if you do it quick enough. Hope this has helped, Sam Edited July 29, 2010 by TrialsSam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannytrialskid Posted July 29, 2010 Report Share Posted July 29, 2010 If you want to go further you bend your legs in the air and then extend them back out when you get near the obstacle When you gap, you need to go up just aswell as forward. I seem to find that if you bend your knee's up into you; And then straightening out your legs; Just before you land, it makes you gap alot further. Also looks cool if you do it quick enough. Hope this has helped, Sam 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onzajorge Posted July 31, 2010 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2010 Off topic but are you from stockport or just around there? I live in Chapel en le Frith which is bout 20 mins away if you've heard of it? There's nothing to stop you taking a bike on the train as far as I'm aware as long as it has a carriage (spelling?) for luggage and bikes. As for riding spots near stockport the only one I know is in New Mills down by the river called The Torrs, where an old mill used to be, some alright spots down there! Yeah i live in stockport and i heard of it but never been, and not sure about where the mill used to be?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isitafox Posted July 31, 2010 Report Share Posted July 31, 2010 It's here matey if you fancy having a trip down http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=torrs+new+mills&fb=1&gl=uk&hq=torrs&hnear=New+Mills,+High+Peak,+Derbyshire&cid=0,0,754648687629281701&ei=GD9UTN-WEo-RjAeyk_3DBA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBYQnwIwAA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liam n Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 (found this video in the video section of Trials-Forum) YES!! my video is mildly helpfull Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandeeebeach219 Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 I know its hard...but really (in my opinion) you should be focusing on your pedal kicks and getting comfortable with those rather than working on distance. The second video in that post is a pretty good example of why! pushing yourself too much can make you much more prone to accident, or developing bad habits in your technique that may be harder to fix later down the line...Longer gapping comes with time, just enjoy riding and put away the tape measure Yeah i agree with that chris4stars. i have also just learned to pedal kick, and i thought it was important to learn to kick gaps, but when i tried that, i developed bad habbits like leaning to the side my advice is just practice your pedal kicks untill you have got that sorted, like, good balance on the back wheel and good technique, then move onto gapping Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Vandart Posted August 1, 2010 Report Share Posted August 1, 2010 (edited) haha, thanks for the support with my initial reply post... a few extra bits...when you get pedal kicks, or rear wheel hops in general sorted look first into doing the following perhaps: - holding the bike on the edge of the gap (ie - where youd be before you jump). being able to hold it there, making adjustment hops or small pedal rotations to roll forwards/backwards. when you get to an edge, you dont want to feel rushed into doing the jump (see the secong video again). you want to compose yourself and be in a position to bail if necessary. - with the landing, try landing to rear and staying on it, in position to pedal kick again. when you come to going larger you will want to be in control of the landing, alot of lines may not even give you the space to let the front drop. - (something i found) dont rush the movement! let me try to explain that. i was finding that when i was gapping bigger, i was inadvertantly snatching and the whole movement was jerking and didnt flow. making an effort to slow things down, helped a huge amount. i think the reason behind this is that sharp explosive movements just make any flaws in technique even bigger. - think about what yorue trying to do....jump far, you want to get height and distance at the same time. dont forget the height element! - relax, let the front drop naturally and try and make the move flow. try not to do the move with legs stiff and straight...its a whole body movement, not just a kick - one little add-on....i found that making sure the bars came to my waist mid gap helped quite a bit, may just be me! All this + learn to drop off things properly first, like getting right to the edge and dropping the front end till it's level and your tyre has stared coming off the front edge, put a bit of pressure on the pedals so you just drop off. A gap is a progressin of this technique, the difference is that instead of letting yourself drop off you preload the tyre into the edge (and yourself) and the kick off into the distance. Can't be arsed to find a video at the mo but I shall return with one. Edit: there you go at 1:07mins Click to see preloading off the edge of an obstacle at 1:07 mins Notice he has dropped his wheel down to -horizontal, if you do not preload when you do this, when you kick the rear tyre will roll off real fast and drop DOWN, preload and it will go UP and Forwards Edited August 1, 2010 by Matt Vandart Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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