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Drop with a 270° back spin

Just to spice up your demos, you can spin the bike around its rear wheel as you eject yourself from an height, then land after you have completed a 270 or 360° spin.

Adding spin to a back hop

Add spin to a back hop.

Although quite spectacular and often unexpected from onlookers, this move is fairly easy to learn. You should be comfortable with the back hop and confident about pivoting over the rear wheel. In effect, the 270° side drop starts with a twist from your hips and a rotation of your shoulders as you lift the front wheel into a back hop. The spin will feel more natural on your lazy foot side (i.e anticlockwise if you are right foot forward and vice versa).

Step-by-step

Pull the bike into spinning as you jump off the obstacle.

Start from a trackstand position, your wheels aligned along the edge of the obstacle with the drop on your front foot side. The tyres should be virtually on the edge, or standing on the last two inches of the border so that nothing gets in the way.

Flex, push up on the front wheel and spin the handlebars to your back foot side to thrust your centre of gravity off-balance over the drop while crouching back over the bike. As you move backwards, pull the bars further to your back foot side, initiating a rotation with your shoulders.

Pull on the bars and launch a back hop while trying to look over your shoulders, this sends you spinning off the edge. In mid-air, carry on with your momentum and swing the bike in front of you to re-align it with your shoulders.

Force the bike past its alignment with your upper body to complete the full turn. As in any drop-off technique, let the rear wheel drop first and start crouching when it touches down to absorb the impact. If you land correctly balanced over the rear hub, you will be able to spin a bit further as you lower the front wheel to a full stop.

Click on any photo and use the scroll-wheel to animate the move.

Drop with a 360° back spin

1° Start from a trackstand position, your wheels aligned along the edge of the obstacle with the drop on your front foot side.

2° Flex, push up on the front wheel and spin the handlebars to your back foot side to thrust your centre of gravity off-balance over the drop.

3° As you move backwards, pull the bars further to your back foot side, initiating a rotation with your shoulders.

4° Pull on the bars and launch a back hop while trying to look over your shoulders, this sends you spinning off the edge.

5° In mid-air, carry on with your momentum and swing the bike in front of you to re-align it with your shoulders.

6° Force the bike past its alignment with your upper body to complete the full turn. As in any drop-off technique, let the rear wheel drop first.

Biketrial video Watch this move in slow-motion

Turning with a pedal kick
Another way to launch these sweet 360 degrees drop-offs is to use a pedal kick while thrusting your hips on the opposite side from your driving pedal. That feels a bit odd at first, but the pedal kick gives you extra power as you drive the spinning motion with shoulders.

This variation relies on the same technique you would use for a 180° pedal hop over a gap, since you can control the kick (in a back hop turn, you mostly pull back, with less control). Give a good swing to the handlebars (from your back foot side to you strong foot side) to initiate the rotation.