"How-To" - Barhop

[The Snitz]

A Barhop is a fairly basic trick that alot of riders have in their regular bag of tricks, and is the basis for some of the biggest tricks in the sport like the Dead Body. Even so, some pro's don't even touch bar tricks such as the Barhop, because of the high chance of getting stuck and not being able to land. So Caution needs to be taken when practising this trick just like any.

There isn't many steps to the Barhop, it's more confidence than anything so keep practising and take each step slow and make sure you feel 100% with it all.

1. When approaching the ramp, just keep your body in the normal "attack" position and hit the centre of the ramp to keep the bike fairly flat throughout the jump.

2. When you leave the ramp, what you want to do is push your body up above the bike, hold tight to the bars and crunch your belly up. This will give you the most room to bring your feet up.

3. Now you want to bring your knees right upto your chest, and bring your knees together, getting your knees and feet touching together. Keep your toes pointed up the whole time.

4. What you need to do now, is really crunch your body up, straigthen your arms as much as you can, and begin to kind of swing your body forward. Firstly, keep your legs tucked in close to your body and don't move them yet. Try and swing your body up to the bars. Take this slowly... Get up until your boots touch the barpad... Then you can push it further so your feet go a little bit past the barpad, and then finally you can push your body far enough so that your ass is over the bar.

5. Once you feel comfortable with having the motion of "Swinging" your body forward, you can now begin to start straightening your legs out. When you get your ass to the bar, or even past it, you can now start to push your feet forward. This will naturally straighten your body out more whilst over the bars. This also gives some good extension that looks great.

6. Now to land, you want to bring your knees back up to your chest and crunch back into a little ball to get back past the bars and to get ready to land. Get your feet back and push your body down so your feet find the pegs for a safe landing.

Pic - This pic shows me in the "Swing" Phase. My legs are tucked in close to my body (For me even more, because my legs are quite long and it's hard to fit through the bars). My arms are straight and belly is crunched to allow as much room for my legs to get up to me and through the bars.

Copyright © Steve Sommerfeld 2004 All Rights Reserved.

[The Snitz]

Pic - And this pic shows me past the "swing" Phase, my ass is past the bars, and I'm now beginning to stretch my legs out. (I naturally keep my legs close to my body because like I said my legs are so lanky it's quite difficult for me to get back through, so Play it safe if you are like me and make sure you get back :))

[ALLEN]

yeh i reckon id screw up gettin back,how do you get back?i think ya better teach us how to land sterilizer.lol.

[The Snitz]

Hehehe. It's all about confidence and being able to judge exactly where your body is on the bike. Try out the 4th part of the trick. The "Swing" phase. So what you want to do is keep your legs and feet as close to your body as possible as I showed in the first picture. Get the feel for pushing your body through just an inch more each time. You'll soon see that you can just fit through depending on leg length and arm length lol. Some people have long arms like monkeys *cough* Sturto *cough* :p.

Like I said with the Landing aspect, when you start to straighten your legs out, for an extended barhop, when you come back, you want to make sure your knees come right back up to your chest and your heels pretty much touching your ass, so your in like a little ball. You will know by this stage that you CAN fit through the bars and you just have to pull yourself back onto the bike.

I Personally don't do the Barhop very much because of my long legs. To get my legs through, my knees nearly have to be touching my helmet as you can see in both those pictures, and in most cases I actuall pull my legs up that hard that my knees hit my helmet and it tips it back and I don't actually see because the mouth piece has come up infront of my eyes lol. Hopefully not all of you have that problem, because it does make it more difficult.
But... That being said, a tall person doing tricks like these, when they get it extended out fully, looks better than short people who have it much easier to do the trick, so there is advantages and disadvantages that go along with this trick :).

I'd recommend you DON'T try to land steriliser when your practising this trick, lol, simply because it'll be your first time doing a barhop, and your legs will be out the front and you've never had this experience before. You want to make sure you land both feet on the pegs every time :D

[meesh]

screw the sterilizer lol, i was havin a look at your resume steve, and seen you have the starfish, just wonderin if that is just a barhop but you sorta loop the bike out like a kiss of death??

[The Snitz]

G'day meesh, Yep, I just got the Starfish down the day I came off hard and did my shoulder in, so no pictures unfortunately :(. The Starfish is simply doing a barhop and touching your arse on the front fender, and then coming back through and landing like normal. The Kiss of Death style jump is called a highlighter which is a Deadbody but the bike is vertical and rider is pointing feet to the sky from a deadbody going through the bars.

It is easy to do the Starfish with the bike a little more vertical than usual, and thats why most pics have the people doing that, and it easier to leverage your body back through the bars :)

[meesh]

oh ok so the starfish is just an over extended barhop?? nah i'm not thinking of the highlighter i defenetly know that one, i reckon its one of the best tricks wish i could pull it oh well only over time the barhop will become a deadbody and a deadbody will become a highlighter lol, anyway cheers for that steve once i finnaly get my frickin bike back i'll be able to get crackin on some pics so you know ya guides are bein used, oh heres a pic of sic highlighter anyway. pretty bad quality but the extension more than makes up for it.

[Tanti]

Hey snitz you can turn that second pic of the bar hop into a dead body so easily man. You are miles over the bass anyway, Good work

[The Snitz]

hehe, Thanks Hucky, thanks for the vote of confidence :). I'm not a fan of the Bar tricks because of my legs are quite long But, with practise and getting over my fear of bar tricks, Dead Bodies may hopefully be just around the corner. When I'm back riding when my shoulder is sweet and I start getting close to doing dead bodies I'll let ya know :) Thanks mate
Steve :afro:

[troop of doom]

oi snitz whats gonig on with your biek now that your off it liek whos been riding it?

[The Snitz]

G'day Troop, I've been riding it a little bit, just kicking it over and keeping it going... but the first time I rode it after about 2 months it took me about 10 minutes to start and then get to idle properly, but yeah it's all sweet now :) I'm riding it around now, just putting around but not hitting ramps or jumps by any means....maybe in 2 months I'll be back hitting ramps properly if everything goes exactly to plan with recovery :D

[sik_50]

the highliter looks sick...an aussie invented that trick didnt he..and he called it the rigmortis

[meesh]

It sais in the tricktionary that it was invented by a bloke named Dave Lowe, I'm not sure if he is an aussie or not, I've never actually heard of him before, either way it's a mad ass trick.

[mad_mike56]

hey, where can i find a tricktionary

[The Snitz]

You can find it in past issue of FreeriderMX
Unfortunately, my mum has cleaned up the computer desk at her place where I had it... so I have no idea what issue it was.
Just lookin Freerider and you should find a number for Subscriptions, or just ask Goba he will be able to let you know :)

[meesh]

It was issue 22, dec/jan, shuie made the cover, thats were the tricktionarys are at my good man.

[5th pinned]

Steve mate your guides work... even though you took this pic i want to put her up coz i like it...
Adam.

[Tanti]

Rite on adam, i bet you got em huge now ay. Steve said he is going to try some today at Lairs. Come on stevo its barhop picture time mate. hehe

[5th pinned]

Hey martin.... Yeah i have got them going a bit bigger than whats in that pic... But no where near as big as that... Mad props to ya man...
Adam...

[Tanti]

Ahh your so modist Adam :p haha thanks champ, have you got any pics?

[FREESTYLEMX17]

hey i learnt barhops over my little tabletop, but what do u do if u get ur feet stuck and how can u stop em from gettin stuck

[sik_50]

if you get your feet stuck dude try and stay calm and leave them there for a sterlizer or see if u can get at least 1 foot back to the peg. you really dont have much to do beside leave your feet where they are if they get all caught up.

[FREESTYLEMX17]

oh ok cause i landed full sterilizer last night and when i bounced of the seat got my feet back on just,, got a bruised ass and it hurts,, but how big was tanti doing barhops over,, this jump is only 40footish and not that high

[Tanti]

Hey mate, Great work bro!! Depends what bars you are using. Personaly didn't make a diffrence for me but I say your legs may be getting stuck because your not sucking in your gut and getting your legs right over and maby geting the heil of the boot caught? Good work anyway mate, A barhop opens alot of new tricks, Congrats :)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y133/Tantifmx/Marto-onehanderbarhop.jpg

Marto

[Tanti]

Oh sorry mate, Didnt read that last one, This barhop was 15ft :)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y133/Tantifmx/hopa3.jpg

Marto

[FREESTYLEMX17]

ok thanks marto so would a table top in this pic be big enough to do it over

and when crunching ur stomach do u lean more back or what...

and these barhops arnt full extended im just gettin my feet ova the bars,, and having size 15 feet dont help,, if i got some pics would u be able to help

[Tanti]

ey dude yeh Ill help ya, This is probly the same size as your table top? Depends on how ballsy you are haha j/j. Yeh you should be aright :)

[{SLAYER FMX}]

Oh sorry mate, Didnt read that last one, This barhop was 15ft :)

Marto

15 feet? your a nut dude seriously! thats pretty sick, i think im going to have to give these bar hops a go soon. need to get em down on the tramp first ey...

[FREESTYLEMX17]

ok man i just gotta make my downie a bit bigger tonight and then i will see what happens,, ill post pictures either tonight or tomoz,, ok guys talk soon

[robb170]

oi u recon id would be easier 2 start off with a candybar???

[robb170]

i also havnt been able to get my feet over the handlebars so wot whould be done 2 solve this???

[The Snitz]

Hey mate, Candybar will be much easier to try generally. To solve the problem of getting your feet over the bars is to pull your knee as high to your chest as you can get. When you do, then push your body forward so your foot goes over the bar and then bring in a tidy manner :) Just keep thinking of bring your knee to your chest

[Tanti]

Mate just jump off the pegs and throw em over, Maby try getting some lower bars so you can learn, But I seemed to go fine with the cross bar on

Marto

[robb170]

thanks mate ill try that next time i head out to blackduck..

[Fmx117Dude]

Just wanted to post my progress on bar hops, This is my first BarHop pic of me but I love it , and you can see my toes pointed up over the bars, this is an accomplishment. Just wanted to inform the good news, Barhops ar truly fun to do, I like 'em. I'll post some progress soon.