How to teach your girlfriend, others to skip stop
 

It took me awhile to learn to skip stop.
For whatever reason, no matter what tips, tricks, explanations, analogies, etc. people gave me, i couldn't quite fit all the movements together properly. Pretty frustrating.
When i fiinally did learn to skip, i was overwhelmed with a sense of accomplisment, which was quickly replaced with confusion as to why it took me so long. After all, once you get how it works, you realize what a simple technique skip/skid stopping really is.

I started trying to help my girlfriend learn to skip stop awhile ago, to no avail. She got it (i think) a few isolated times, but in no way had it down consistently. Shifting weight did nothing, positioning herself foward did nothing... nothing worked. We eventually gave it up, as she has no real problems stopping sans brake anyway, and has one when she needs it.

Fast forward to this morning. I woke up and decided to work on popping my back wheel (i want to start playing that game involving passing and hitting a ball into a net with your wheel instead of a polo stick). Unfortunately, i did a lot more locking of my rear than actually hitting a ball anywhere. After a few minutes, though, i'd realized i'd been inadvertently doing some pretty deep skips without wanting to. A lightbulb went off in my head.
I added an upstroke with my left leg-- even better.
I immediately texted my girlfriend: "I'm going to teach you to skid today."

After only a few minutes of her getting home, she was skipping up and down the block, consistently. She's stoked.
Here's the explanation i gave her:

1) pick up a bit of speed, but not much. go up and down the block twice, being aware of every time your strong leg (right side, in her case) is farthest back, horizontal with the ground.
2) on your way back the third time, do the same thing. this time, jump off of your back pedal (the same one you identified in #1) when it's in that "farthest back, horizontal with the ground" position. don't try to push down, but rather jump off of it like it was solid ground. remember to keep a good speed-- it's lots harder when you're going slow. Think 15mph or up.
3) if you haven't skipped already, come back up the block again, this time trying to jump high (remember, your pedal should be back and horizontal with the street right as you spring off of it). By the time you get to the end of the block, you'll be skipping every time. do not concern yourself with pulling up with the other leg yet-- just worry about jumping with the back leg.
4) after you can hear a little skip consistently, add pulling up hard with the front leg. Imagine yourself jumping to fly like superman; right leg springing straight out, left leg up in the air.

This technique worked perfectly for her. She's skipping as consistently as i was weeks after learning to skip stop myself. I bet by next week she'll be strong enough to hold her skids.
Incidentally, her gearing is 42 x 15. Not the easiest gearing, but not a tough one. Doing this might be harder as your gearing goes up. Similarly, she's probably 120lbs. Smaller framed people might also have a tougher time.
Anyway, this is the advice i'm giving from now on. Everything else will come naturally.

good advice. trying to explain some of these techniques can be difficult.

This is a very cool explanation. I will try it this week, as I have only been able to lock up on snow so far.

Clips and straps/clips/power grips make it soooo much easier. I get so much torque with mine I can spin the wheel the other direction while skidding.

the thing that helped me was learning the "hop off the back-catch the seat" dismount, because that showed me that the back pedal coming up will un-weight you, all you need to do is stiffen that leg, and then skipping, and skidding just came naturally.

the hop off move is done at lower speed, and will help build confidence, and should be easy to teach, THEN she'll get the un-weight technique, and once the weight is off the rear wheel, it locks, and skips quite easily.

also a concrete or asphalt bike path with some grass on the sides makes it a little easier too.

I found that when teaching people complicated, or unusual physical skills (skate moves, gymnastic moves, fly fishing(casting) etc,...) where you are performing several techniques in sequence, and trying to learn not only the move, but also the timing, breaking it down into sections, so they learn a step at a time, and then can string it all together, has been quite successful for me so far.

I'll try telling people that next time i know someone who can't get it down.

all it took for me was one day of trying and i had it down. i had a much harder time learning trackstands.

I've just gone with "back leg pushes on pedal, front leg pulls up" and bingo folks have it.

I STILL can't do em right:

the way that feels natural is with the wheel pointing AWAY from the front foot, and thats backwards, but I can stand longer like that, than with the wheel pointing towards the front foot.

I can't teach myself apparently :roflmao:

sorry but im lost... can anyone simplify this for me lol...

do u mean try to lift the rearwheel to skid?

I got off the interwebs looking for advice about skidding and spent keyboard time just roding with my GF. Now she can skid and I get get twice as many BJs in a week! Tis great!

Is there a difference between skips and skids? Or is it just two different words?

I can't master the sit down skid, I practice on snow a lot of the time, because thats usually how I learn to do things. I can do it when its icy, and for a quick second when the roads are slick with rain, but no luck on dry pavement. I've tried many techniques, still nothing.

its a skip instead of a skid. the rear wheel is lifted off the ground for an instant and done several times consecutively to slow yourself down. with a skid the rear wheel never leaves the ground

ok, here's a question for you.
i can skid, and skip, but have never really had to stop in a hurry (for oncoming traffic or an old lady or what have you)
which slows the most effectively?
and before one of you says 'a brake', i'm well aware that a brake would slow me down faster.
thanks

I think skips are good for scrubbing speed, although feel super squirrelly when you are actually spinning. Skids I think stop a little better but both depend on how much weight you keep on the back wheel. For max stopping power when I am not feeling like using my brake I will throw a skid and start to shift my weight back towards the saddle once it's locked in.

ahh good point.

i'm going to guess that the quickest change in momentum will come from a collision with said traffic or lady. (i should know from experience.)

^ also a good and valid point!
haha

i've found that whipping a skid out to the side is the fastest way to stop (sans brake). the more sideways your rear wheel goes the faster you stop. but you obviously cant do this in tight spaces (ie traffic) and it's hell on your tires.

This is wrong, I think. Once your tire has broken traction with the road it's lost most of its stopping power. Most of your power in a skid comes from the point just before the tire loses traction. So, other things being equal a series of skips will be better for slowing down in a hurry than a straight skid over the same distance. It's basically a very low tech version of ABS. Of course, adding a front brake makes a much bigger difference.

Disclaimer: I'm not a real bike physics nerd, I just play one on bikeforums... someone may correct or add to what I've said here.

in theory your statement makes complete sense.
but i think it would be a matter of riding ability, strength, and comfort.
the fastest way to slow down would be to resist forward pedal motion with your legs without breaking traction, and you would need some serious legs to effectively do this consistently.
skipping and skidding would take the muscle out of the equation without sacrificing tooo much stopping distance.
i think thats the real world scenario.
think of it as ABS, but for the Flintstones.

the combanation of both is the way to go think anti lock brakeson a car skip left foot back then right foot bck throw a qwick wippd out skid in the walla you standing on to feet at a dead stop

Hockey Stop.

Backed. Nothing says stop like turning 90 degrees.

Hey spooky, there is one minor flaw in your writeup. You say that people should put their strong leg in the back when learning to skip. This is true for a lot of people (since there are so many right handed regular footers), but not everyone. What you really want to do is have your dominant foot forward. As a right handed goofy footer, my strong leg goes in the front in my preferred skating/ track standing/ skipping position.

That just makes you a mutant.