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Can I get some tips for learning 180s?

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
Ok well I have almost fallen into a state of depression from not being able to 180. I serriously have gone out after school for 5 hours almost three weeks now and just practiced 180s. I even took off the chain so i wouldn't have to back pedal and i have a crapy rim i don't care if it gets bent.

I just don't know what to do at this point. If anyone has any advice, please post it!
 

ZHendo

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2006
1,661
147
PNW
you have to snap your neck around and look where you want to land until you land there. your body will go where your head goes. you also don't need to bunnyhop as high as you can to get a 180. in fact, by putting as much energy as you can into a bunnyhop, it's actually harder to get the bike rotating from what i've experienced.
 

Boxxer

Monkey
Jul 18, 2005
856
2
Dirty South
Everyone will tell you this, lead with your head. As you pull up on a decent sized hop try to turn to look at your own ass. It may take longer than 3 weeks.... Try it off a small curb the extra height will get you a little further around. Try and ride with someone who can do them better than you and listen to their pointers, thats what I did. Also you should know or practice riding fakie it will help once youre going backwards and dont know what to do next.
 

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
Ok well maybe you guys can diagnose my problem. There are two methods I have been using:

For the first:

  1. I go at an almost jogging speed
  2. I turn very sharply on the front wheel
  3. I kind of whip the back around while looking backwards
    I usualy get 160-175 degrees with this, sometimes I am able to roll out. This ALWAYS makes a loud noise and bends my rim

Then on the second one

  1. I pull up my bars in a slight angle like I am starting a manual
  2. I look back and lift up the rear wheel
  3. I brace of hard landing
    This one I only get 90 degrees or less. I usualy try this off a curb

Also I can ride up to a drive way and 180 fairly good, its just on flat that I am messed up.

Which method listed above is right? WHich one should I try harder to do?
 
Mar 10, 2005
479
0
Santa Cruz/Sacramento, Ca
Do the second one. Practice that method on your drive way. Get it down.

If you do try to carve into the hop, make it slow and graceful. Making a really tight turn before hopping is usually bad because it puts most of the weight over the front wheel.

Just watch loads of videos and see what you can get from that. Analyze what they do. Stop these things and look at them frame by frame if you have to.
 
May 12, 2005
977
0
roanoke va
i ride at a walking to jogging pace. i start by doing a little turn to the right, about 10-15 degrees, and preload my body by twisting to the left, leading with my head on good days. after going right less then two feet, I'll cut back left about twice as hard, around 20-30 degrees, and I only hold this turn for a foot or less while i continue twisting around and give a small hop, usually both wheels at the same time or with the rear leading slightly. in that tiny air time all i have to do is straighten that bike out under me so it's facing the same way i am.
this doesn't matter as much now, but when you go to transfer these skills to 3's, it's not good to turn the bike a lot as you take off. it's easy to get sloppy and cut the bike as far as 90 degrees as you launch, but it messes with your speed and can send you way off the side of the jump and in the bushes. no good. you do the preloading twist and you'll get predictable 3's no matter what.
 

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
i ride at a walking to jogging pace. i start by doing a little turn to the right, about 10-15 degrees, and preload my body by twisting to the left, leading with my head on good days. after going right less then two feet, I'll cut back left about twice as hard, around 20-30 degrees, and I only hold this turn for a foot or less while i continue twisting around and give a small hop, usually both wheels at the same time or with the rear leading slightly. in that tiny air time all i have to do is straighten that bike out under me so it's facing the same way i am.
this doesn't matter as much now, but when you go to transfer these skills to 3's, it's not good to turn the bike a lot as you take off. it's easy to get sloppy and cut the bike as far as 90 degrees as you launch, but it messes with your speed and can send you way off the side of the jump and in the bushes. no good. you do the preloading twist and you'll get predictable 3's no matter what.
Thanks for the advice. What are talking about in the part I made bold?


Thanks.
 

ZHendo

Turbo Monkey
Oct 29, 2006
1,661
147
PNW
preloading twist is when you squat and rotate your hips a little so that you can twist in a certain direction with more force when you get into the air. this makes it so the bike will turn without you having to turn the wheel to get the bike spinning.
 

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
preloading twist is when you squat and rotate your hips a little so that you can twist in a certain direction with more force when you get into the air. this makes it so the bike will turn without you having to turn the wheel to get the bike spinning.
Ok thanks, I don't think I have tried that yet. But I kind of gave up and put my chain and good wheel back on so ic an go to the jumps the weekend. ohh well, another day I have them.

Do you guys think the crappy geo of my p2 has anything to do with this?
 
May 12, 2005
977
0
roanoke va
Thanks for the advice. What are talking about in the part I made bold?


Thanks.
twist your body in the direction you want to spin before you jump. you're winding up for the snap. watch some bmx vids frame by frame and it'll be clear.
it's easier to learn on a bmx, but the p2 isn't holding you back relative to other 26s.
 

cmc

Turbo Monkey
Nov 17, 2006
2,052
6
austin
Ok well I have almost fallen into a state of depression from not being able to 180. I serriously have gone out after school for 5 hours almost three weeks now and just practiced 180s. I even took off the chain so i wouldn't have to back pedal and i have a crapy rim i don't care if it gets bent.

I just don't know what to do at this point. If anyone has any advice, please post it!
are you on a 20", 24", or 26" ?

if you're on a 26, go get a 20 and learn on that first, then go back to your 26 and do em.

you have to be able to do a good 2-part bunnyhop first. as in pull up front high, THEN lift the back off the ground.

you cannot do the both-wheels-at-once bunnyhop to do 180's.
 
Mar 10, 2005
479
0
Santa Cruz/Sacramento, Ca
you have to be able to do a good 2-part bunnyhop first. as in pull up front high, THEN lift the back off the ground.

you cannot do the both-wheels-at-once bunnyhop to do 180's.
This is the most important part. I used to throw 180s with a 2-wheel-at-the-same-time-hop and when I realized that the move is completely impractical and useless done that way, I had to spend loads of time relearning all the movements again.

I cannot stress this enough. Don't learn it with both wheels at the same time. Learn to hop 180 by pulling up your front wheel first.

Try doing some tiretaps on your drive way. Hop up with your front wheel first, turn 90 degrees, and then grab some break and balance on your rear wheel for a second. After that, hop back the rest of the way around. This motion is pretty much the first part of a 180.
 
May 12, 2005
977
0
roanoke va
you cannot do the both-wheels-at-once bunnyhop to do 180's.
I wonder why my both wheels at once style isn't considered *ahem* "proper." I have no problem doing both-wheels-at-once bunnyhop 180, on 26s even. I do the same thing with 3's, not bunnyhop but over a jump, and it's been fine there to. It does make it so you have to suck up the back tire up after you pop to clear the lip, but that always helped me keep the front end down, stay on axis, and land front wheel first. I just learned 3's off drops and that came super natural. come to think of it, I remember studying bearclaw 3ing the road gap drop at crank works when i was learning, I think that's how he did it there.
but then looking over some of these BMX vids i see a lot more of the front-rear hop. I could see how this could be helpful getting extra pop and keeping the back tire from smacking the launch, but I've never been able to compensate for the back tire going side ways for the last second, it always killed my rotation speed. could someone clear this up for me? how is it impractical?
not to be offensive, I'm just curious to figure out why ya'll don't like doing bunnyhop 180s like that.
ed: I just "took it to the streets," if you will. i tried doing a front-rear bunnyhop 180 and got closer to 360. huh. deff see the advantage, but I'm still more comfortable doing them my way.
 

Savage_Animal

Monkey
Feb 3, 2008
658
0
Norcal
Yeah I can bunnie hop 30" the right way, with front wheel first then back wheel.

Also I DO have aBMX bike, but the parts are old. It weighs like 42 pounds and the bars are only 20" wide (You can't get any leverage)

Any more suggestions?
 
Mar 10, 2005
479
0
Santa Cruz/Sacramento, Ca
Just do it.

Suggestions on the internet wont really help you. Learning tricks on bikes is just that, a learning process. There is only so far trick tips can help. It doesn't matter how many times someone tells you how to do a trick, you'll never start doing it their way until you start trying for yourself and learn from your own mistakes.

Oh, and on the double wheel hop gig. I used to do those all the time. The second I tried to 180 up or over anything, it all went south. Not to mention, learning to do the front wheel first will help with airing out of quarter pipes and make spinning off of jumps less ridiculous. I tried to do a double-wheel 3 off of a ledge today and got pretty close, but the way momentum carries with that type of hop is crazy. I landed just a couple degrees off and got thrown off the side. If I hop 3 front wheel first, I can land pretty far off and still roll away.
 

Arkayne

I come bearing GIFs
May 10, 2005
3,738
15
SoCal
Don't forget to search google videos and youtube for some tutorials. Seeing the movement in slo-mo should help you visualize: