TRICK SCOPE 1: A "SIMPLE" FIRE-HYDRANT

Disclaimer: The tricks described here can be dangerous and cause injury. Flatlandin does not endorse practicing these trick without protective gear like a helmet and wrist or ankle guards. Tell your moms to buy you a helmet and make sure your bike is working properly, is tightened with no loose screws, nuts, and cables. Also make sure you have adequate and high tire pressure. Try these tricks at your own risk. We want you to learn Flatland and skateboarding, but not to get hurt or kill yourself. Ride/Skate safely.

You would be surprised how far you can go with this trick. It is one of the "building block" tricks in Flatland BMX and a necessary one to perfect. It is actually an older trick that has stood the test of time because it can be linked to so many others. Basically, you can never get too good at doing a Fire-Hydrant because once you have it down, more moves will come naturally. So practice this trick as well as other ones just as hard. Soon all of it will start to come together after all that practice.
Peace,
FLATLANDIN

1. First ride at a medium speed holding the handle bars steady with your right foot on your left rear peg and your left foot on your front left peg. (Note: make sure you get this first part very comfortable or you can fall pretty badly when you start to turn too slow, even falling on your face.)

2. Second, keeping the bars steady turn quickly putting slight pressure on your left foot that is on the left peg. You will pivot 180 degrees. At this stage you can also practice kicking the tire backward and even try a front peg wheelie. You want to be comfortable in this position as well.

3. Lastly, swing the frame around in a way that the frame is "springing" back at you. If you get the pivot point right, it should come up naturally and here is where the work lies to catch the frame with your right foot. At this point you can stall for a bit in a 'fork stand" position if you want. I hop a bit if I land unbalanced and just place my right foot back on the pedal when I am stable.


In short as I heard a kung fu master tell a lazy student who was complaining that he was paying allot of money just to learn one move. The kung fu master replied, "you pay 80 a month, what do you expect? With that simple move, you can beat anybody! " Then he proceeded to school the student with the patented and perfected move, a trapping hands kung fu elbow. Hell, that is how you learn. The bike will beat you down but it will make a better rider.

Here is a video of the completed trick... I tried to go slow but my legs are short and it throws be off balance. You have to measure this on your own and how it "feels"... Go ride!!!