Stoppies

[G]

[Excert from Zimm&G's Stunt training manual]

Make sure you have warm tyres.... They can be done on cold tyres but you need to puit all your weight over the front and there's no quarentees it wont slide... so it's best avoided.

First start coming to a stop quite quickly a few times (emergency stop style... but harder braking and leave the rear alone).... notice how the back kinda bumps up as you stop.

Now start increasing the pressure on the brake just as you are about to stop... the back should jump up a bit more.
Repeat untill the back starts to come off the ground a little. Once you are happy with that start increasing the pressure more so you're getting it about a foot or two up.

You can now do a 'basic' stoppie

Now try riding along quite slowly <20mph and do the hard braking like before... but now suddenly increase the pressure a second after you've started breaking. This should unweight the back significantly, if it doesn't lift it up. Release the pressure immediatley.
Repeat until you can reliable get the back off the ground for an instant.

Remember that you should allways start braking progressivly to weight the front wheel. If you don't there won't be enough force pushing down to give the front wheel grip, so the front will just slide.

Now start holding the brake on for longer. It takes a while to get used to the 'feel' of the brakes.

Try and keep the back wheel at a specific level (just a coupla feet is fine to start with)... don't just let it come up then dump it straight down again when it get's too high.

You can now do the proper 'rolling' stoppie

Start to increase your height... Once you are getting high one's you will find you need to 'modulate' teh front brake by releasing and reapplying pressure to keep it a the desired height.

But be carefull it's quite hard to judge the 'balance' point was you've overcome the general fear. Once you have pased this point there is nothing you can do (throwing your weight back is your only opiton.. but unlikely to work).
In theory if you got a stoppie in the balance point it could be held for the length of the road you've got (assuming a very slight downhill to overcome friction). However unlike wheelies once you've gone past it a quick dap on the back brake won't help so it's not an area you want to be explroing.


Voice of Reason section:

Doing stoppies makes you a better rider because you can accuratley judge the right braking force to come to a stop as quickly as possible. To get the most effiecent braking you need to be at the point the rear wheel is *just* about to lift off the ground. By sustaining stoppies at a set height you gain the control not only to know when the rear wheel is leaving the ground but to keep it at that point and thus ensure maximum braking.

Next weeks lesson: One handed stoppies



One last bit of advice... if someone's showing you how to do them... make sure they don't go over the top... it probably won't help your confidence.

[Trunecka]

On most bikes it will also help to grip the fuel tank with your knees.

This is not essential but does help transmit the braking force (and momentum) into rotation around the front wheel, rather than trying to throw you forwards.

You can try this from the very beginning when trying the emergency stops.
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"I'm gonna get free, Ride into the sun..."
-The Vines

[Smoto Bob]

also make sure your forks bushes or head bearings aren't worn/loose
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F'it DO WHAT EVER MAKES YOU HAPPY!!!!! Even if it screws over everyone else :p
Titz wrote: "..and my 3rd accident was when this police car....."

[Sparks!]

And for added style, no footers

https://www.cwimedia.co.uk/other/misc/stuntpractice/stoppy.jpg



Anyway, enough tarting.. a bit of advice..

It may just be me, but with stoppies the rear end is usually a lot higher than it feels, at least it does for me anyway, unlike a wheely which usually feels a lot higher than it looks ... so don't get too cocky with stoppies thinking they aren't high when they are probably higher than it feels...

Also try not to put your feet down before you land, try to land then put your feet down, trying to put your feet down before you land looks amerturish and I find that it makes you lose balance a bit.. maybe that's just me though..
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