FIRE HYDRANT

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Of all the tricks that you will learn in the first year or so of freestyle the fire hydrant is perhaps the one that you will find most useful for the rest of your riding days.  It is the backbone of hundreds of tricks and is easily linkable to basic tricks such as decades as well as more advanced tricks like junkyards.

• Begin by rolling at a medium speed with your body on the left side of the bike.   Your left foot should be on the left front peg and your right foot should be on the left rear peg.
• Now WITHOUT touching the brakes lean to your right and push off with your right foot so that you spin 180 degrees around the bike on the peg (spinning the handlebars with you).
• You should actually go a little more than 180 degrees- more like 230 degrees.  At this point lean slightly backwards so that the rear (thanks kimix) wheel comes off the ground and starts to travel in the same direction that you are spinning.  It will take some practice to get the rear wheel to do this, but once it does start to come around you must be ready to grab the brakes.
• DON'T grab the brakes as soon as the back wheel comes off the ground- this will make you fall backwards.  What will happen is the back wheel will start to come around and you will start to fall forward.  When the handlebars start to fall away from you and the frame is coming around grab BOTH brakes at the same time hard.
• If you've done all of this correctly the frame will continue to come around and you will be able to catch the frame with you right foot (like with a tailwhip), step to the pedal and ride away.  Sometimes it is helpful to pivot slightly or hop slightly on the back wheel to get your balance- that is why you grab both brakes.

This whole process takes months to get perfected.  It may take a couple of weeks to hit just one fire hydrant.  Then to get it consistent enough to hit whenever you try them or be able to link them to various tricks will take quite a bit longer.  It is also possible to do double firehydrants and even triples without ever letting go of the front brake.  But that will take even longer- practice, practice, practice!

If you have a question about this trick please feel free to e-mail it in...