How to 180 a Mountain Bike

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for another “how to 180” tutorial. this is pretty much the least practical thing you can do on a mountain bike, but it looks cool and gets you major style points, so let's get to it.

First you want to get comfortable coming out of a fakie. Rolling down a little slope or pushing off a wall is a great way to practice. Turn your bars and push down on your pedal to lift the front end up and whip around. You’ll eventually get this after a lot of trial and error. Once it's ingrained in your memory, drop your saddle as low as it can go and get ready to throw a 180.

You'll need a pretty decent grasp of either English or American bunny hops. I usually use an English hop to 180 a mountain bike, but it actually looks more stylish with an American bunnyhop. This method also lets you hop higher. The concept is the same though for both methods, so learn whichever way you feel most comfortable.

Now get going a comfortable speed and carve in the direction you want to spin. Preload your suspension while carving and then hop while twisting your body. You want to get yourself and the bike rotating, but also twist the bike into position. Once you land, you can bring your body back in line with the bike.

Once I carve and take off, I have a tendency to turn the front wheel in the opposite direction of the carve. This is a perfect setup for spinning back around.

If you want to roll fakie for longer then you'll need to have the bars dead straight when you land.

So now for some tips. A lot of people say they have trouble getting the full rotation. To them I say "jump higher and spin harder". You’re going to need to look with your eyes and commit to the spin, which I’ve said many times in the past. A lot of people whip the back end out, but this will only destroy your rear wheel. Concentrate on spinning, not whipping.

Another really common issue is that the chain pops off. If you have two chainrings up front this is almost inevitable. Having a good derailleur with a clutch is essential, and staying in sort of a middle gear helps keep everything straight. Mountain bikes are not really made to ride backwards on, so we can't blame Sram or Shimano for this.

So that’s it, hopefully you don’t taco you rear wheel learning this. Maybe next time we’ll talk about 360’s so you can taco your front wheel too. Thanks for riding with me today and I’ll see you next

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