Last week a buddy of mine drove 200 miles to give me a birthday present. And he didn't give me a sweater, or a tie, or any of that stuff you hate to get for a birthday. No, he gave me a new videocassette of the movie "RAD". I hadn't watched that movie in six years. If you haven't seen "RAD", it is worth your time to rent it. It's a blast from the BMX past that contains a super"important lesson.

When "RAD" was filmed, the sport of BMX was divided into racers and freestylers. Most racers didn't style, and vice versa. The people who made the movie kind of chose to ignore that. In "RAD", everybody styles and races. Pretty wacky, huh? At least most of us old-time BMX guys thought so. Most of us believed that freestyle and BMX would get farther and farther apart as the years went on. Needless to say, we were pretty much wrong about that.

I think it's safe to say that the old divisions between racers and stylers are fast disappearing. There's no reason why you can't be interested in going fast and getting rad. Riders such as Todd Lyons and Jimmy Levan are blurring the distinction between hardcore racers and flashy tricksters. And I don't mind trying to imitate them one bit. With that in mind, then, let's work on some basic street tricks. None of these will win you any sort of trophy, but they'll help you improve your ability to control your bike---which, needless to say, might well win you a trophy some day.

The ability to do an "endo" well is the key to a lot of styling. Endos aren't too tough if you have a good front brake. If you don't have one, there's still no reason to miss out on the fun. Why not try a curb endo?

Observe our photo-model rider as he rides up to the curb on a CRUISER! (Yes, you can do curb endos with a 24". Heck, it's even possible to pull endos with mountain bikes!) His elbows and knees are slightly bent, and his weight is over the front of the bike. His pedals are absolutely level, and will stay that way during the entire trick. Curb endos are performed at a walking pace. Go too fast, and you'll bust your fork or front wheel. The closer our rider gets to the curb, the more he will want to lean forward.

Now, if you simply ride up to a curb without paying attention, chances are you'll hit the curb, fall forward, and go right over the bike. That's your momentum talking. It wants you to keep going when you hit the curb and stop. In order to avoid doing that and to perform a proper endo, lean far forward and bend your elbows considerably right before hitting the curb.

When you do hit that curb (slowly!) lean a little farther forward, so that your head is even with your front hub, and push on the bars. Extend your elbows as you do this. What you are doing is transferring your momentum to the bike. You are pushing at the bars, which sends the bike forward and keeps you right where you want to be. Again, look at our model dude. His elbows are extended, and he is tucking behind the bike like a racer going low over a jump---or a bunnyhopper at full tuck.

That is no coincidence. The position of full tuck is the most stable riding position possible. When you've reached full tuck, hold for a moment, then reverse the process, pulling the bars back and bending your elbows. When your rear tire hits the ground, you're done.

Like most things in BMX, explaining an endo isn't the same as doing it. Chances are that you're going to bail a lot of times before pulling perfect curb endos. And once you have them perfect, they still probably won't always work. Just make sure that you don't go too fast. The secret to high endos isn't hitting the curb hard---it's pushing the bars hard and keeping balanced.

Get into the habit of squeezing your rear brake once you are into the endo. Not only will you better stabilize the bike that way, you'll be able to bust variations. What are variations? Good question.

I can't guarantee that doing a perfect curb endo will land you factory rides, free bikes, and appearances on ESPN2. Variations, on the other hand... still won't make it happen, but they sure are neat to learn and do! The basic variation is the one-footed curb endo.

One-footed curb endos work like this: Make sure your rear brake is locked up tight. I know you followed the advice given in the "BMX Basics" of some months ago, and that your brake works great. When you are in the middle of the endo, take whichever foot is on the back pedal off and stick it out like Fuzzy Hall doing a big fat one-footed jump. Hold it like that. Then put your foot back on.

This is the reason we keep our pedals level during curb endos. Your forward foot will stay put because your brake has the rear wheel locked up and the pedal isn't going forward. If your brake will not do this, it's a sure sign of a weak or maladjusted rear brake. I've had people tell me their pedals move because they're "big dudes" and are too heavy for their back brake to hold the wheel, and thus the pedals, still. I don't know---I weigh 235, and my pedal stays put.

From one-footers, we move to can-cans, as demonstrated below. The big difficulty with can-cans is getting your foot back over the top tube before you hit the ground. Failing to accomplish this will hurt, because you'll bail. The ability to maintain your endo balance is a must for can-cans, since it does take a bit of time to get your foot over and back.

When all of the above is second nature to you, try no-footers, as inexpertly demonstrated in the photo below. Start off like a normal endo, but don't tuck behind the seat as normal. Instead, let the seat hit you in the rear. Ow! This will take the weight off your pedals if you do it right. Once your weight is off those pedals, pull your feet off and extend! Hold it as long as you can, then return your feet and lower the bike.

You'll notice that our photo model isn't doing a very good job of extending his feet. There's an explanation for this. (No! Really!) Doing no-footed endos is easy when you have your seat set nice and high. A high seat keeps your knees straighter and makes it easier to stretch your feet. The bike pictured in these photos had a pretty low seat, so it was kind of tough to pull the trick. I know, I know... it would have been easy to simply adjust the seat, but we run on a pretty low budget here at "BMX Basics," and we didn't have an Allen key. So what. You'll have an easier time of it. Put your seat up high and get rad.

After picking up a bit of experience at this, try riding out of an endo. It's not as tough as it sounds. Let your momentum roll you backward a bit, then hit your brakes and pull your front end around. Ride away. Or, you could pull the front end up and start hopping on your back wheel. When you're done hopping, put the front end down and ride off.

Over the next couple of months, we'll work on some more basic street riding tricks, including 180-degree and 360-degree bunnyhops, foot plants, rollbacks, and a few others. In addition to that, consideration will be made of "trails", and "spots", and what you can do with them. So kick back, stay warm, (where applicable) and GET RAD!

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