Whose got the trick to doing this while manualing? I've heard that you grab the saddle between your knees and then spin the bars. Do you guys have any tips for someone just starting to learn this trick? What do i do after i have mastered it using my knees? Thanks
How to Barspin
- Thread starter MTBSully
- Start date
Pinch and throw.
First put your back tire against a fence and lean the bike into manual position sitting on the seat w/ your feet on the ground. Then throw and catch to get the hand motion.
Then later add that to the pinched manual. To learn the pinch learn how to ride no handed standing up. Just let go of the bars while pinching the seat between your knees.
First put your back tire against a fence and lean the bike into manual position sitting on the seat w/ your feet on the ground. Then throw and catch to get the hand motion.
Then later add that to the pinched manual. To learn the pinch learn how to ride no handed standing up. Just let go of the bars while pinching the seat between your knees.
Great advice Sir.
My boy got this trick first and just told me to pull up, pinch and throw. Nothing more. Once you get comfy with flat bar spins you should be able to catch your bars before you drop your front wheel. That's when you should try manual bar spins. Pinching is preference tho. I'm trying to not pinch, too much thinking. Plus I wanna 180 bar spin and when I pinch I push down on my pedals. So after the 180 I can spin the bars but the bike leaves me. Not good
You've heard right bro, just lean back on the rear wheel, pinch, and throw. Pinching the seat IS the "trick" to doing this trick. The pinch and throw both happen pretty much simultaneously. Just as your fingers are leaving the bars your knees should be coming in contact, or already contacting your seat. Your seat height should be set up so when both pedals are even (3 and 9 o'clock), your knees are at a comfortable level to pinch the seat with a good grip. Knee pads help, otherwise you'll have bruises the size of a fist on the inside of each knee by the end of the day. You are literally holding onto the bike, and maintaining the manual, by leaning back into the wide part of your seat with your knees pinched tight on the narrow part of the seat. I naturally ride left foot forward, so I normally throw with my right hand and catch with my left, although spinning the other way is equally easy without changing your feet. Just make sure that you are throwing the bars towards and across your body, then catching with the opposite hand. One hand throws, the other catches. Be careful during the catch not to pinch the brake lever while grabbing the bars. That's pretty much it.
A good way to learn is just by doing a half barspin hand off. You never need to completely let go of the bars, just hand them off. This will get you safely familiar with the motions of pulling up your front wheel, pinching the seat, and spinning the bars. Definately practice the manual from the beginning. Trying to spin a barspin with your front wheel on the ground is both stupid and dangerous.
Once you feel comfortable with the half barspin hand off, do the same thing, just thow the bars a little faster and wait a little longer before you grab them. You don't even need to really "catch" the bar, just stick your hand in there and they will spin right into your palm.
Once you feel comfortable doing barspins on the ground, take it areal, it's all the same motions.
Hopefully this helps, Good Luck
True, lot's of insanely talented bmx riders run thier seats too low to pinch. Sacrificing easy barspins for more manuverability and therefore a bigger bag of tricks. It is much, much, harder though. I'd recommend learning with the pinch, then dropping it later as new tricks are introduced that require you not to pinch. If you're losing your bike, you should probably be pinching.
Nothing really, I just like to pretend.Yeah, good advice nvd, but what do you know about riding?
Ground is fine but Ive yet to get up teh balls to try airborne, I have this vision of a barend to the sack...
I have those visions too. Easy barspins off manuals, but yet to try them off a double.
Do a mental inventory, if you're freaked, walk away, ride something else. But, if you feel dialed with them on the ground and you're calm and stoked, thow it. I threw my first areal barspin at the skate park. Got as much air jumping out of the bowl to the deck as I could. First a half, next run a full. After you get the feel of how much time you need and your comfortable with it in the air, take it to dirt. Best advice is go as big as you are comfortable. It's really sketch to get a little air and try to spin the bars, but if your boosting and have lot's of time, they're more psychological than difficult.
im going to go try one today.
I hit barspin airs on a step up so far. I think it's the motion of my legs as I spin the bars when I try 180 barspins. It might be that I'm trying to straighten my legs to clear the bars so my feet are pushing downward.
nvd is right, when you first learn barspins it's good to pinch. From there I think I need to ween myself off of pinching. I can do em on flatground w/p pinching but it doesn't look as clean.
nvd is right, when you first learn barspins it's good to pinch. From there I think I need to ween myself off of pinching. I can do em on flatground w/p pinching but it doesn't look as clean.