I wasn’t sure if I should call this article trials terminology, trials glossary, trials dictionary or trials lingo! Anyway, the point is, if you’re new to trials riding, all of the terminology can be very confusing, so here’s a list to help you:
- Dab: when you’re trying anything on a bike and you have to put a single foot down. Dabs are scored as one point (bad) in a competition. They’re sort of a committed version of falling or putting two feet down. Dabs still require balance.
- Static Balance: probably the most important drill in trials riding. Also called track stands with bicycles, the goal is to literally balance in place, using your weight and a slight turning of the handlebars never putting a foot down. 60 seconds is a good goal.
- Floaters: a slow speed front wheel lift used for turning the chassis of the bike. Used for better traction and to pivot the bike to the left or right in the back tire. They can be done with a kicker, or without.
- Front Hop: Using the back brake and the weight of your body to compress the suspension and then bring the front wheel off of the ground. This technique can move you closer to or further to an obstacle.
- Pendulums: front wheel hop drill moving the front wheel back and forth over an imaginary or real line
- Clocks: like a pendulum, but you just keep going to the left or the right, in a circle
- Rear Wheel Hop: similar to the front wheel hop, but the bike pivots around the front tire when turning.
- Double Blip: a technique used for getting over larger obstacles which involves first placing the front tire 3/4 of the way up the obstacle, then using throttle and suspension rebound to roll the back tire up the obstacle.
- Zap: Formerly known as the Jap Zap, it’s a more aggressive double Blip where the back tire hops up onto the obstacle without rolling. This is useful for undercut obstacles like rock ledges or elvated logs.
- Splat: similar to a double Blip or Zap, but for very high or undercut obstacles, as well as large gaps. Unlike the Double Blip and Zap, the back wheel hits the obstacle first.
- Fakies: simply rolling the bike backwards, without putting a foot down.
- Skinnies: more common in bicycle trials, but also done in moto trials, they’re small, typically wooden, skinny things people ride on. Could be logs, 2x4s, metal rails, cement rails or any combination. Sometimes the bike rides along a skinny, sometimes the bike is hopped from one skinny to another with the front or back tire.
- Kicker: a mound, log or rock used to compress the suspension, and jump off of, similar to a ramp.