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Flat Land

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    The area of freestyle BMX which requires the participant to have exceptional balance.  Flatland is where you only ride on a flat surface, you can do many different types of tricks on flat ground.

    In this section I aim to tell you how to set up your bike for flatland and to teach you a few basic tricks through explanation and sometimes photo's.

    The first thing that you need to be able to flatland is a bike.   I am assuming that you already have that.  Now, most bikes which aren't set up for freestyle riding don't have decent front brakes, a cable detangling device or pegs.   You don't necessarily have to go all out and get all these accessory's just to do flatland.  If you just want to dabble to see if you like it maybe you could start off by getting a front brake.  Then once you want to do a few more tricks maybe you could get some pegs (if you can only afford two at a time it's a good idea to put them on the back first, as there aren't that many beginner tricks for the front pegs!).  Then once you have pegs and a front brake you may want to get a cable detangling device because twisted cables can be kind of annoying.

    That's how you set up your bike for entry level flatland riding.   If you are wanting to set up your bike so that it will with stand the punishment of riding flatland you will most likely need to get a strong frame and some double wall 48 spoke rims laced into some high flange hubs (Chrome rims are a good way to go because they provide a very good braking surface).  Also for more advanced flatland tricks you will probably need to ditch those old nobby tires and get some slicks that will take a fare amount of pressure.

    On my bike I run Peregrine HP 48 rims laced into DMC fully sealed hubs (the rear axel is oversized).  I change the type of tire that I run quite often. I try to get them really fat which helps to give you balance for straight line tricks but they don't let you spin as easily as thinner tires do.  The recommended pressure for some tires is really low i.e., less than 50 psi but I run around 75 - 80 psi in my tires so I try to get tires that can hold a decent amount of pressure, at least 60 psi.  I run dia-comp 990 U-brakes front and rear. These give awesome braking power, but to attach the front one to my bike I had to buy a brake plate.  I also run FAT pegs, this means that your feet don't get that sore when you stand on them for long periods of time.  I also find that I have more control using the larger pegs compared to smaller ones.  That's pretty much the only flatland specific stuff that I have got on my bike, but if you want to know more have a look in the my bike page (like to see why my bars don't have much kickback in them!).

Now for some tricks:

Beginner: (full images) (mirror of full, just with thumbnails)
Beginner mesetup.jpg (28930 bytes)
Fast connections (full images)
Approx 56 sec. at 28,800 bps
Slower connections (Thumbnails)
Approx 18 sec. at 28,800 bps
Advanced:
Advanced BradDecade.jpg (14143 bytes)
Fast connections (full images)
Approx 28 sec. at 28,800 bps
Slower connections (Thumbnails)
Approx 12 sec. at 28,800 bps
 

 

 

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