DAY 28

Two days to go before the 30 day challenge is over! I like how mine has unfolded though. It was pretty fun. I'm home for the weekend again so I couldn't ride my bike today. I did ride it some Friday, to and from class. In the time I was riding I did try to pop a wheelie and hold it; but I could only hold it for a very short amount of time. That's it for today though.

DAY25

today I felt whorrible and my alarm didnt go off. So I didnt go to my A.M classes. I did ride my bike later in the day to my 4 AM though. jumped over some curbs and rode no handed. However I was in a hurry. not a productive day at all...

DAY 24

Today I experimented with trailing people on my bike, it's increasingly harder to petal because of the added weight. I have also been trying to bunny hopp more, I pretty sure i can hop higher now. If I practice right after someone gets off the back it makes hopping alot easier for me. I'm also going to start jumping off of stair cases on campus. This will help me with my landing. other than that i just ride no handed more now and havent done much else.

DAY 23

Today I got home late  so again no bike riding =(. I did however work on my English for a couple hours today (like3), taking pictures, clipping them together, and writing the reflection. other than that it was a pretty slow day. I feel kind of bad, things haven't been going in my favor, and I'm pretty sure I have legit ruined my life. Sorry this is pretty short, again though, no bike riding today. tomorrow for sure. 

DAY 22

Today was a fun day. I didn't get to ride a bike but I did walk around the Greenfield Riley Festival. I ate some really greasy pizza with a couple of cute girls and then got Taco Bell for everyone before we left tow. Hopefully tomorrow though!

DAY21
Today I didn't ride my bike much before I came back home for the weekend. Mostly because it was raining pretty bad outside. I did ride to Woodworth for a bite of pizza however. It was really to wet to do much today though. Maybe I'll practice some tomorrow if I can find a bike, since mine is back on campus.

DAY20
Today I rode my bike all over the  place... mostly no handed.... I tried jumping from low range to high, However it didn't work so I'm just jumping and  hoping it'll make it past the curb. wish me luck ;)

DAY 19
today I rode my bike everywhere. I also practiced the bunny hop and riding with no hands. That said, I think I'm actually better at riding no handed now. I still don't quite trust myself riding around people no handed though. I think tomorrow I might really start on trying to ride a wheelie. It's kind of complicated; but I feel I can do it by the end.

Day 17

DAY 17
    Today I didn't ride to much it was another slow day. I did ride to my classes and to the library later in the day. I tried hopping over a curb on the way to my TCMP111 class and the back tire didn't quite make it. This is extremely bad because it stresses the rims and tires beyond belief. If you have low tires it can actually pop them, or bend the rim. The bike I had before this actually had a pretty bad back rim from where I hit it on the curb.
     This challenge is A LOT more challenging than I had imagined. It takes quite a bit of time to learn new tricks, even simple ones. So far I've learned that I'm pretty clumsy with a bike. Only a couple more days of this challenge though!  

DAY 16
Today I got back from my hometown. It's okay but kind of boring. It's real small, so I used to ride a BMX bike all over the place. Then i figured that you could use them for tricks. Kind of late, However I saw a guy jumping onto a ledge taller than a bike, in my hometown. Iv'e also seen someone ride a bike like it was a skateboard (standing up). That's hard though!

180

DAY 15

It's been a couple days since I posted, Thursday I was feeling ill and didn't get on my computer at all. Friday I came back to my hometown once again, my mom usually makes me feel better, so i figured this was the best option. I haven't really rode my bike much since I was pretty drained from feeling bad and it takes quite a bit of effort to swing it around. Before I left Friday I tried hopping up and swinging the back of the bike around to complete at best a 180. This means the bike lands facing the opposite direction I hopped in. Since I haven't really gotten very far off the ground it was really challenging. At best I got close to 90 degrees. Part of it is the fact you need to lean the bike the opposite direction your wanting it to travel. If I want to swing it around towards the right I have to actually lean to the left rite before I jump. That's only half the battle though, When you land you have to do a "fakie" and roll backwards to keep going. Here is a clip of someone on a 24" BMX bike doing a 180. ENJOY!

DAY 12

Today it was raining so again I didn't ride much. I did ride between classes and practiced my hops a bit coming off the sidewalk ramps. I also tried jumping on to the curve without touching it, usually this isn't a problem. Today however my bike was soaked so I couldn't get the grip I needed to launch it all the way over. I'm increasingly finding that this challenge is actually really hard and it will take allot longer than 30 days to learn a proper BMX trick. What I mean is one most people can't accomplish as a beginner (like me).   

DAY11

Today I rode my bike more than I did the last two days. I just kind of rode it around my block trying to improve my hops. I have found there are different ways to do a bunny-hop. For instance, i can jump and land flat by leveling the bike in the air. I can also however land one the front or back tire depending on my preference. I can control this by leaning either frontwards or backwards while in air. This can be useful for hopping over small things. I still need to get the bike higher in the air though as i can barely make it over probably half a foot into the air. This isn't much considering I've seen non pros hop onto ledges over a foot tall and ride them. Personally i feel like my technique is improving so hopefully one day soon I can try to measure how far up I can actually get. 

DAY10- the start and the classic
 I didn't really do anything with my bike Sunday, I got back from my hometown late. I should have taken my bike with me. I didn't though so the only bike i had was an original Schwinn Stingray. While the stingray is thought to be the first form of a BMX bike it would be very complicated to do much with one without modifying it. Which wasn't hard back when they were big. I would also like to keep mine all original. Beside is a picture of a vintage Schwinn compared to a newer "chopper" Schwinn. While the new Schwinn's are alright bikes they aren't very purposeful seeing as you have to sit down to ride it. 

DAY 8 

Today I decided to do another simple "trick" it's nothing big and I've  known how to do this for a while. Riding no handed, some people can some people cant. It's really not that hard though, the most complicated thing is letting go. I'm NOT recommending just riding down the road and randomly letting go thinking you can ride your bike with no handlebars(HA HA). It just isn't hard to learn, everything is about balance when your doing something like this. If your handlebars start to sway the wrong direction you have to lean them back the other way. At the same time you have to be careful peddling so you don't sway to much and crash. Another thing to look out for are big holes or curbs, depending on your experience level, because these can really throw you for a loop.

Below is a short video of me riding down the side-walk no handed from my perspective.

DAY 7

Today I’m going to do a longer post. I haven’t really self-reflected through this so I figure I’ll start with that. I love riding my new BMX bike. My old was more expensive but do to the newer technology even the price and quality of cheaper BMX bikes has changed for the good. Their quality and flexibility have changed over the last 6 years and now their cheaper. I liked this fact seeing I was on a bike that had seen some bad times… I can be pretty hard on them when I crash.

This was actually a really hard challenge because it is kind of dangerous. I’m actually hoping I can overcome my fear of pushing them to their limits. When I was 15 I could stand on the back two pegs and ride no handed. I did this all the way to the bottom of a hill the last time; and when I got to the bottom I hit a smaller rock with my front tire. From the bad weight distribution it went almost vertical. Then it proceeded to land 90 degrees parallel to me and send me through the air into a curb. It was actually kind of funny because when I stood up I didn’t feel that bad. #addrenalinerush. I calmly asked the guy across the street that saw the whole thing happen if he would call my mom. He replied shocked saying he was calling an ambulance. What I hadn’t realized was how bad I looked. I had blood literally streaming down my face from my forehead and chin, one arm was scrapped practically all the way up, the other felt like it almost broke when I caught myself, and on top of all of this I was missing half my front tooth on my right side. I had stitches in my chin and told not to go to sleep for a while. Needless to say I wouldn’t go over 20 on a bike for a while. So this is why I feel this is even more challenging for me than a person who has never wrecked one real bad.

 

This is just a short clip of me doing a bunnyhop (at the very end). I still need to get the technique down and start working on getting more air so I can do more complex tricks. 

not a BMX trick post, but has anyone ever got weird looks riding a bike?? people look at me when I wiz by like im crazy for riding a bike lol

DAY2

Today I worked on getting my bike farther off the ground using the bunnyhop method. This is where you pull up on the handlebars to lift the front tire, then lift up with your legs while the front is in the air kind of using the pedals as a handle this video shows it and explains it allot better than I can-->  

this picture is the reason I decided I needed to lean the BASICS like bunnyhopping first-->

DUH I know lol. I actually did this by catching the inside of my right leg in my front bike tire. it looks worse than it feels though =) 

DAY 2

I tried to do a bar spin today. it actually failed horribly and I realized I need to learn the basics like bunny hopping and riding wheelies. I AM A NEWBIE at this so bare with me, it's challenging for me. Today I caught my leg in my bike tire and now I'm very sore. I'll post pics of my scars/burns tomorrow, along with hopefully a video of me trying something new and not getting hurt lol. Below is a link to a YouTube video showing what I was trying to do only with pros and accomplishment

this is a link to Nike's bar spin on YouTube--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz0jVdPTdwg

DAY 1HYPERBIKECO static

This is the bike I will be using to do my 30 day challenge. It’s a Wal-Mart bike but it’s kind of classy and I liked it for only $130. That seems like quite a bit of cash; but compared to an all pro one its dirt cheap. Like into the 1000+ range. I like it because it has a 3 piece crank[i], and a small gear-set.  This means you can switch arms, pedals, and the front gear to change your rate of acceleration and top-speed. It also has metal pedals as opposed to plastic ones[ii] and my favorite colors are red and black. I also chose this specific model "static" because it came with pegs all the way around. This means it has two in front and to in back screwed onto the wheel studs. these can be used for grinding or standing/resting your feet on.

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[i]This is the piece you pedal with from petal to petal

[ii] This can be either good or bad depending, on personal

preference. Metal is a little sturdier than plastic and plastic

is lighter.