Easy Mountain Biking tricks you can learn anywhere!

Today, we're going to be looking at several tricks you can do just about anywhere. In fact, most of these tricks can be done with just a simple parking lot. Alright, let's not waste any more time. Let's go play some bikes. This first trick is called a revert. It's when you go backwards and revert to your normal direction. The best way to learn a revert is using a bank or any other small incline. Use the incline to bring you to a stop and then send you backwards. On the way down, backpedal one full revolution. As your dominant foot approaches the forward position, turn your bars slightly and apply forward pressure on your drivetrain. As you apply more pressure, your front wheel should come off the ground. Now, once your front wheel is off the ground, turn your bars in the opposite direction and start pedaling forwards. Once you get this down, see how long you can ride backwards. You can also try reverting in the opposite direction. When reverting, you want to turn in the direction of your forwards foot. When I revert towards my right, I keep my right foot forwards. And when I revert towards my left, I keep my left foot forward. If you find one direction easier to revert than the other, that is completely normal. I personally find it easier to revert towards my right. The second trick we're looking at is called an endo. To do an endo, you need a decent front brake. Now, you don't necessarily need disc brakes, but they certainly help. To initiate an endo, roll into it at a slow, comfortable speed. Grab your front brake and shift your weight forwards. While keeping your weight forward, lock your arms out. At the same time, bend your knees and suck your legs up. This will seem weird and unnatural at first, but as you keep doing it, it will feel more comfortable. As long as you roll into the endo at a slow speed, it's rather difficult to go over your bars and crash. If you do find your back end coming up too high, let off your front brake and your back end will come down. Once you get the hang of an endo, you can start adding in more tricks. If you sit down during an endo, you can take your feet off and do a no-footed endo. And if you find that's still too easy, flick your pedals to do a crankflip endo. Crankflip endos are one of my personal favorite parking lot tricks. They're easy and really fun to do. The opposite of a revert is an endo turn. Sometimes, this is also referred to as an endo 180. The motion is almost identical to doing an endo. The biggest difference is that you carve into the endo, and then as you endo, let your front weight pivot around your front wheel. Sometimes I find myself hopping into the endo 180, but when you're just learning, it's easier if you let your front wheel just stay on the ground. If this is too easy, try doing an endo 180 crankflip. This trick is called a nollie. To oversimplify things, in skateboarding, an ollie is when they jump. But when a skateboarder ollies with the front of their skateboard called the nose, that trick is referred to as a nollie, a nose ollie. The motion of doing a nollie is a combination of doing an English bunny hop and an endo. Without using your front brake, get your back wheel off the ground by springing upwards and leaning forward. That step is similar to endos. When your back wheel is about to reach peak height, yank the bike upwards and off the ground. That step should resemble an English bunny hop. Once you get good at nollies, you can try and jump over objects, but in my experience, this is easier said than done. This trick is called a back wheel hop. It's when you hop, but only on your back wheel. Now before you storm the comments, even though I'm doing this with a full suspension bike, just take my word for this. Back wheel hops are easier to do on a bike that does not have rear suspension, such as a hardtail or even a full rigid bike. To initiate a back wheel hop, start off by doing an endo, and when your back wheel comes off the ground, lock up your back wheel by grabbing the brakes. As your back wheel falls, let your momentum carry you backwards, and then spring upwards, jumping up and down on your back wheel. If your bike is a full suspension, you will need to compress your suspension before jumping up and down. The evolution of a back wheel hop is called a pedal kick. By doing a similar movement but punching your drivetrain each time you jump upwards, as well as feathering your brake, you can travel forwards. A pedal kick can be used to jump up and over objects, and even onto them if need be. To be honest, I don't know what this trick is called. This is just something I've done and seen others do when we were bored. With that said, if you know what this is called, be sure to let me know in the comments below. But for now, I'm just going to call this the seated sideways bars feet on wheel balance thing. This one is pretty simple but takes a little getting used to. To start out, I like to turn my bars keeping the side with my back brake lever in between my legs. In my experience, I've found this is easier to initiate if I lock up my back brake, and then maintain balance by keeping your feet at the 2 and 10 o'clock positions. The balancing aspect will take a little bit to figure out, but once you get it down, it should be pretty easy. To make this a little bit more difficult, you can try removing both hands from your bars and balancing just using your feet. This last trick is another one of my personal favorites. This is called a nose bonk. It happens when you jump up in the air and bonk your front wheel on the ground or an object. To be considered a true nose bonk, your front wheel must then come back off the ground after you bonked it. A nose bonk is much more difficult to do on flat ground. It's easier if you have something to nose bonk over. When you get good at nose bonks, you can use the nose bonk to get a little bit more hang time and carry your back wheel over an object. You can nose bonk pretty much anything that's elevated. Stumps, cinder blocks, and even traffic cones can be nose bonked. From back wheel hops to endos, there's a bunch of things you can do in a parking lot. Now, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's a bunch of tricks that I missed. So, what are your guys' favorite parking lot tricks? Let me know in the comments below. If this is your first time here, I'd love to have you guys subscribe and check out what else I have to offer. As always, my name is Phil Kmetz. Thanks for playing Brakes with Me today, and I will see you guys next time.