Mountain biking is a dangerous sport. These tricks require a lot of skill and should NEVER be attempted by ANYONE. If you do try any of these tricks, then you do so entirely on your own choosing and at your own risk.
The following are a few examples of mountain biking maneuvers that are performed while riding or stopped. It is imperative to wear adequate protection for your body...meaning at least a biking helmet. I would not think you're a geek if you wore shin pads, knee pads and elbow pads. I have a set of these myself and do use them. Expect that when you first try new things that you will fall and expect that when you're experienced at these things that you will fall.
The bunny hop is where both the tires come off the ground at the same time.This is a relatively simple move but comes in very handy. You start by pushing down hard on the cranks and handlebars. This loads the bike up with compression. You then remove your weight from the frame and the bike literally hops up. You can pull the bike up to you to get even more height. Very useful for geting up curbs, rocks, etc.
Stairs
Stairs are one of my favorite things to do on a bike. There's nothing quite like stairing down at a long, steep stretch of stairs and thinking to yourself why the hell am I doing this??? To go down stairs, the most important thing to know is keep your weight back. If you lean too far forward, you could go over the handlebars facefirst into concrete steps. Trust me- very painful. I usually slide off the back of the seat and hover somewhere over the back tire. When you get into the stairs, you will probably want to keep your speed down by laying on the brakes hard. Use the back brake as much as possible or you'll do a front flip. If you think your tough or have a nice full suspension, you can fly down the stairs pretty fast. This actually smooths out the bumps a bit, but increases your pain potential enormously. Use your arms and legs to absorb most of the shock. When you get near the bottom let go of the brakes and pull up on the handlebars. This trick is lots of fun, but has potential for lots of pain.
The Pogo
This is a variation of the bunny hop performed while stopped. All you do is bunny hop, then bunny hop again. Do this several times in succession and it's called a pogo. This trick is useful for going up stairs and getting on top of objects.
The Wheelie
A wheelie is simply when your front tire is off the ground and you are ballancing on your back tire. This is a more dificult trick that requires a lot of ballance. Start off in a low gear and come almost to a complete stop. With your cranks at a 45 degree angle, (best foot forward) start pedaling hard and pull up on the handle bars. Keep pedaling and try to stay up. This is really cool but not as useful unless you can do a rear wheel hop.
The Endo
An endo is a reverse wheelie. You have the front tire on the ground and the back tire in the air. This can be done at fast or slow speeds. I reccommend trying it slow first. All you do is lean forward and clamp on the front brake. This throws you over the handlebars, but if you do it right, you can ballance on the front tire. This is particularly useful if you can swing your back end around like in a 180 switchback.
The Rear Wheel Hop
The rear hop is definately a more advanced maneuver. It is also a very impressive move. You can get much more height than a bunny hop and it looks way cooler. The rear wheel hop is where you do a wheelie and hop on your back tire while stopped. I'm not real good at this but I'll tell you what I do know. While ballancing on the back tire, keep both brakes locked and push down on the tire like in a bunny hop. When you release your weight the bike literally acts like a spring and flies up in the air. This is even more exaggerated on bikes with rear suspension. By doing this, you can get up to very high objects and really impress your friends.
The Directional Pogo
This is another useful trick. All you do is a bunny hop or a pogo off to the side. Just lean over to which ever side you want to jump and do a bunny hop. With your weight off to the side, the bike will jump sideways instead of straight up. This is useful for getting up or down curbs while riding parralel to them.
The 180 Switchback
This is another really hard but useful move. To do this you need to be pretty good at doing an endo. At a low speed, turn your tire one way, endo and stop. While your ballancing over your front tire and staring at the rocks in front of you, swing the back end around so you're facing back the way you came. Then let off the front brake, let your back end come down, straighten out the handlebars and start pedaling again. This move allows you to turn very tight corners without having to disengage clipless pedals. Of course you don't have to turn a full 180 degrees to use this move, but then you couldn't quite call it a 180 Switchback, could you?
