Yo Hoots Jay - Q&A from the man with style

This time: flat nutties, foot position,
not breaking your ankles, and riding street

Welcome to the latest Q&A Yo Hoots Jay article. Thanks again for the questions, and please keep them coming! Remember the only bad question is... No, wait, there I go setting myself up. D'oh! Read these quick, and get out and ride, everyone. - Hoots Jay

Hello Hoots Jay!

I have a question about how to flat nutty. When I try to table my bike, the back flies around and when I am about to land and flatten my bike out, it goes aligned with my direction. I turn my bars and pull on one hand and push on the other to get my bike out beside me. What is another method of tabling that you find most effective? - Flat Nutty

Yo Flat Nutty Butty!

Sweet name for a trick! You seem to have things cooking in the table department, however, it's time to add the spice. To get the table to flat or invert and not have the bike turn on you in the air, requires that you take your top leg or forward foot and turn your toes in toward the crank, tilting your knee down below your toptube.
It's all about the knee pointing...
You can crank the bar or not, but the knees pointing down are the true secret. Go run around the house quick and grab some riding mags with Brian Lopes in them - that dude is the table master. Seeing the ads he is in is like looking at a flatty patty table ad, textbook Yoda styles! Knees, knees, KNEES! Mmmmmm, table-E-licious!

Hoots:

I have read your article on how to bunny hop, but I still have a question. When getting your rear wheel up, I have heard that if you point your front foot up to the sky, and your back foot down to the ground, and pull, this will help you get your wheel up. It forms sort of a 'v' position with your feet.

Have you ever heard of this? Have you used it? I have been doing nose stalls for a few weeks, and I use this v-position. This helps me to get my back wheel up for the stall. Is this a good idea? Am I using the wrong techniques? Thanks for the help - Derek

Hey big D,

For the life of me, I can't remember if a day was ever brought to us by the letter 'v' on Sesame Street. Hmmmm. I don't think we should have a letter 'v' day, either. One thing to remember is that when you do your stalls, you are adjusting your feet based on forward inertia, but your momentum came from stopping so you can have the time to play with foot angle because your shoulders balance and buy you time.

I have tried your theory and it sorta works, but I must admit I feel much more comfortable with the toes pointed down. Here's why. When in a bunny, you are having to pull the bike up using twisting of grips and pulling back with your feet while moving forward continuously, so you don't have the time luxury to pop your feet different angles. It doesn't seem so natural.

The thing about pointing the toes is that you have the same pull from both feet when in the bunny, making it much easier to balance and land, and giving you better body/leg position. Think about how much flexion you get when your knee is bent and you have to bend your foot up for the other side of the 'v' - it limits the height you will be able to get. Hope that helps!


Ridin' the concrete wave

Hoots Jay,

How the hell do I learn to jump a double without killing myself or breaking both my ankles from bailing out? Thanks - Mark

Yo Mark,

Well, thankfully very few riders have ever suffered death from not making a double (insert collective sigh of relief here). I understand your concern with your ankles, as I have a broken ankle that will not heal (tender foot, LOL). The thing to do is get uber-comfortable with smaller jumps or safer jumps. Session them 'til you can do them eyes closed. No, wait, bad advice - until you get them dialled.

My quick trick is to train another rider, one you trust. Ask him/her to take the double 10% faster than what you need. I think we all hesitate just a bit on inaugural runs at stuff, so this should cover that base. If no one else is doing it and it's up to you, take all your refined skills, step up to the plate, and frickin' give'r like a Skidoo! I like to jump and tail tap my back wheel as to almost manual when doing doubles for the first time, for added control. At least if I case, my back wheel is closer and I am in a more ready position to take punishment. Ride on...

Yo Hoots!

I have a question for you. I want to become a good street rider, yet when I go ride around and I see places that have the greatest street to ride, such as the university here in Reno, Nevada, I don't know what I should do on the stuff.

Anyway, my question - are there any base tricks, or tricks that I need to know how to do in order for me to do other tricks? Fundamental tricks, I guess you could call it. Maybe a manual, bunny hop, etc... just tricks you must know how to do in order to progress? Thanks Hoots - Sutter


Up, up, and away

Yo Sutter,

Street riding, eh? Let's try this approach. When I started mountain biking, I had a strong command of bunny hops and catwalks.

As my mountain biking got more and more into creative style, I moved into BMX, so for three years I rode trails and Flow Shows, and then I would grab my BMX and go rip street and park.

All my BMX friends could rip concrete huge and I had no real trick that I could pull, so I worked on manuals - but my bunny hops were what pulled me through!

I could bunny rails, bunny on curbs, bunny off things and heck, I could use my bunny to do stair sets. So as I worked on manuals, I felt like I could keep up with my buddies.

Soooo, now that I can rip with my BMX friends and I have a more diverse trick list, I still rely on my bunny to get me on rail, over rail, on top of things to manual, and to get off of things to manual.

You can bunny 180, bunny no foot, bunny one foot, bunny no-hander, bunny bar spin, bunny table, bunny seat-grab, bunny... Rip it up, desert boy! - Hoots Jay :)

Send your questions to Hoots Jay, and he'll do his best to answer them in this column.