TRIALS TRAINING: HOW TO HOLD PRESSURE ON A TRIALS BIKE

These notes are from our Youtube video Holding pressure and subject to our disclaimer here.

As you become experienced at climbing bigger obstacles, a handy advanced skill to learn is holding pressure. The idea is to keep the bike in a wheelie at the top of the obstacle which is useful in a number of situations:
– a descent from an obstacle is too steep and you risk going over the handlebars
– there is a second obstacle that you will need to land your front wheel on
– there is a gap your front wheel needs to pass over.

You definitely need good skills for the double blip, zap, wheelie and covering your rear brake before learning to hold pressure.

To avoid flipping the bike, you need to train yourself in covering the rear brake until it becomes second nature to use the brake instead of jumping off the bike if past the balance point.

As with any technique, start small – begin with small rocks and logs then work up from there.

When climbing the obstacle with a double blip or zap, instead of backing off the throttle you keep it applied to do a wheelie.

Keep your legs straight and your weight to the rear of the bike. Normally you would bend your legs to de-weight the rear of the bike but this will work against keep the front end up.

If needed, you can pull the clutch in and apply the rear brake once on top of the obstacle in order to ease the front wheel down. However, if you need to clear a gap then keep the throttle on until you have wheelied your front wheel to the next part of the section.

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

A very advanced technique is holding pressure while you hop the bike along on the rear wheel. Try holding pressure in a series of zaps and covering the rear brake. Although few of us will reach A grade and apply this technique, it is still a great way to develop your sense of balance with wheelies and covering the rear brake effectively.

See our Youtube video Holding pressure on a trials bike for visual demonstrations.