Riding 'switch-foot'

[Stephen Morris]

I was chatting with Sam Nichols the other day about riding with my weaker foot forward; we both gave it a try, with varying degrees of success. I was under the impression that it you were riding with your weaker foot forward it wasn't too dissimilar to throwing in an x-up or a crank flip - you're essentially making things harder for yourself to 'style it up' so to speak.

Last night I was out riding and it finally clicked. I've always known that Chris Akrigg can ride pretty competently with either foot and doing so helps him link lines together and eliminates the need to keep re-adjusting his pedals.

Take this clip of me for example. I need two pedal strokes to get up from the bench to the wall, but have to re-adjust because my stronger foot is already at the front and needs to be the second stroke of a two pedal motion. The same thing happens when I drop down again. I like to use a left pedal stroke to get onto the back wheel, but my right foot is at the front causing me to re-adjust the pedals again.

http://youtu.be/Pd_TZU3-08Y

The result = messy riding.

So my question is, do people purposefully use their weaker foot? Do you ride switch to help you link obstacles together and keep the flow in your riding? Do you use both feet without even thinking about it? Am I the first person to have bored you with such a dull topic?

Stephen.

[AdamR28]

Am I the first person to have bored you with such a dull topic?

Yes

Seriously though - I've never practiced it, because it's so hard... and I think most others are the same? Can't believe how competent you are with your wrong foot!

[J.KYDD]

Riding switch-foot is an arse! So difficult, especially with proper 'hoppy hoppy' trials.

Benito is an absolute god at it.

[FamilyBiker]

i am just riding and not thinking about where my feet are.

some situations force me to have the wrong foot forward though,like doing a tailwhip.after this my bad foot is forwards in most cases.

everyone has a dominant body half,distracting your brain doesnt help your riding imo

[TOMTRIALS123]

I've tried it a couple of times even though I am new to Trials on my MTB and I still can't do anything remotely hard! Just to ask do you think it is normal to ride with your left foot forward but to use your right foot for pedal kicks and 'power moves' ?

[Stephen Morris]

Let's see if we can make this topic even more dull.

I can now:

- gap about 4 foot

- get up (to two wheels) about 2 foot

- drop about 4 foot (any higher is too scary)

I'm having so much fun it's like I've started trials all over again, but I do look like a wally.

[AdamR28]

Haha. It's a bit like brakeless - learning it all over again, but in rapid time!

[aener]

I've been doing it a little recently, but not properly in the way you're talking about. I don't do anything that requires a lot of power wrong footed - only things in setups.

I've been introducing myself to half-ET's during a move if the next bit of the line requires a half-pedal stroke. Landing wrong footed feels gross, but it means you don't have to backpedal half a rotation to get set.

It's a lot of fun in a really horrible way

[nicolasp1405]

Yes its pretty much like everyone says, its hardbut it can help alote for flow and to link moves... Gille coustellier is like that i think.

[Ross McArthur]

Gille coustellier is like that i think.

Stop destroying everyones image that its only super cool street riders who can ride switch foot!

[nicolasp1405]

He is riding pure trial..

[Ash-Kennard]

Stop destroying everyones image that its only super cool street riders who can ride switch foot!

firstly LOL

but yes, alot of the better athletes in the sport practice things both ways, so sometimes it makes sense going the other way, they need to prepare for this as comps can be ridden completely differently like this. if a right footed rider is riding a comp set out by a left footed rider, this kind of thing happened ALOT in the hampshire comp series, was very annoying. but would have been much more annoying if at a world championship for instance.

I tried it many years ago before the days of the half bash! when middleburn ruled the world. I mostly just couldnt get the power for the bigger moves, and for rolling moves it did my head in and i had a few stupid bad crashes. Now a days i only ever have the left foot forward for lining up a 1/2 pedal stroke up/gap, when pedalling and when skipping from one foot to the other on the back wheel, which can be useful for lining up to a wheelie tap, but mostly for fun!

cheers, ash

Edited October 16, 2013 by Ash-Kennard

[chimpanzyyyy]

there was a little french dude that was pretty good at it a few years back

not a big rider or anything but he had the ability to switch foot all the time

and from what I remember he said back in the day, he just learn riding that way so he didn't had a weak foot at all

here's a vid of him

he's the dude on the 20"

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4hhe2_mini-video_sport

as I said, don't be harsh on the riding, he was young and still learning

[Stephen Morris]

there was a little french dude that was pretty good at it a few years back

not a big rider or anything but he had the ability to switch foot all the time

and from what I remember he said back in the day, he just learn riding that way so he didn't had a weak foot at all

It still appears that he favours a certain foot for certain moves which is interesting. You can tell that he still adjusts his feet from time to time - amazing though, he looks comfortable on both.

[Mark W]

There are a couple of BMXers who are similar. Danny Hickerson does it all the time (evidence here) - he has one foot forwards for whips, then the other foot forward for barspins (and spins from what I can remember...).

[Blake]

Rode with a guy once who would keep swapping foot

Think his name was kyle, he didn't do massive shit but he'd sidehop a 2foot wall to back with his right foot forward then gap about 5 foot or so with his left, it was proper strange to watch but really cool.

[AkuskaUK]

I start on the switch foot to flick the front end up, tried pedalkicking with switch and it failed miserably

[Sam Nichols]

You are weirdly good at switch-footed riding, Stephen.

All I can do is ridiculously laboured switch-footed boons.