WALL RIDES

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If you could go back to the very beginning of when street began to show up as it's own sport in freestyle you would find the wall ride.  People just coming up a slanted hill next to a wall and bunnyhopping up so that both tires hit the wall.  Some riders could even do pretty good wall rides just by bunnyhopping off the ground into a wall.  But things always change, and newer variations have people doing things like 540 wall rides, or huge barspins or wall walks.  It's incredible.  As it is, if you find a good small wall to practice this on it shouldn't be difficult to get the basics down.  But don't ever think you have the trick mastered....  there will always be someone around pushing the limits and doing something even more incredible!

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PREREQUISITES: jumping, how to air out of a transition and drop back in, mental confidence.

VARIATIONS: probably lots that I don't know of... barspin, x up, no foot, etc.

DESCRIPTION:  The wall ride is probably one of the oldest and burliest freestyle tricks out there.  When done in a big way it is VERY cool to watch.  Flip through any magazine these days and you will see a few big wall rides.  The basic wall ride is more a mental trick than anything. It doesn't take the skill or balance of something like an icepick, just good bike control, confidence and a lot of guts.  The wall ride uses elements of quite a few other tricks such as jumping, ramp riding, even fufanu's and tailtaps.  If you can do any of these things it will help you out.

The easiest way to wall ride is out of a transition that is backed up to a wall.  At the skate park I ride at there are 4 ft quarterpipes sitting against the back of the vert ramp.  A lot of guys can wall ride pretty close to the top of the vert ramp. I am hardly an expert wall rider, but I can explain how to get it done.

Approach the transition at a medium to high speed, as though you were going to do a good jump. The faster you go the higher you will wall ride.  Pump up the transition and jump out of it. many times you won't need to bunnyhop, it depends on what you're jumping out of and how far the wall is set back from the transition.

The arc of your flight will naturally take you into the wall.  It is important that you position yourself so that you arc out of the transition and keep your wheels pointed at the wall.

You will be sort of doing a 180 and letting gravity start to pull you back down front wheel first.

This is VERY similar to airing out of a ramp except that you are going to plant your tires on the wall for a second.

Stay loose and when you get to the top of your flight, push your bike into the wall...presto, you're doing a wall ride.

That was the easy part, this is the hard part.... Getting out of a wall ride is much harder than getting into it and also has a potential for relatively big crashes, this is why it's so important to be committed to the trick.  There is no halfway in this trick.

Once you're on the wall, let your momentum compress your body and legs as though you were going to do a bunnyhop... because that is what you're going to do.

As you're on the wall, compress and then bunnyhop back off the wall pointing the front end into your landing site.  As soon as you hit the wall you should be picking out where you want to land.  

The amount you need to hop off the wall depends on how far the landing is out from the wall. start small with these and if all else fails you can usually put a foot down (either on the wall or the deck of what you're dropping into) to get a feel of the re-entry.

Once you're headed down you must commit.  Stay low and loose on the bike and point it on home.

If you stay back you can usually ride through many mistakes such as casing it on the entry or hanging up on the coping of your launch ramp.

When learning wall rides it is best to have 2 launch ramps (about 2 feet tall but preferably VERY wide) set maybe a foot or 2 apart.  This way when you wall ride you sort of gap them...launch off one and land on the other.  This gives you plenty of room until you get comfortable with the trick.

On street you can do this trick down a set of stairs with a bunnyhop, or up stairs, anywhere there's a transition with a wall behind it.

Remember it is mostly in your head, that's what makes it hard and this actually holds true for most freestyle tricks.  If you can, picture yourself doing the trick before you try it and then go for it....  If you can't see yourself making it, try it another day.

Submitted By:  TR

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PREREQUISITES: it may help if you know tabletops

DESCRIPTION:  It would be a nice idea to practice on a wall with something to launch off of.  Like a bank, a portable launch ramp or whatever helps you getting some air.

First:  Head to the wall at about 40 degrees.  The more speed you have, the longer you'll 'ride' the wall and the higher you will go.

Second:  Hit the bank (or whatever) or bunnyhop.  Pull your handlebars up and bend your knees like if you were doing a small tabletop.

Your bike should be between 40 and 80 degrees.

Lean your body to the wall.

To ride out, pull your bars and do like a small hop (push with your legs and then bend your knees).

Submitted By:  Martin Fecteau


If you have any specific questions about wall rides in please click here.





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