Learn the stoppie with caution: modulate the front brake, extend your arms, lift the rear wheel a few centimetres. 5 steps with milestones and safety.
The honest answer first: in a stoppie you pull the front brake in a modulated way until the rear wheel leaves the ground, and you balance briefly on the front wheel. It is a balance and brake-feel trick, not a must, and the danger is going over the bars.
The principle of the modulated front brake to unweight the rear wheel is also part of the BASPO description of the rear-wheel pivot: pull the front brake gently, extend arms and legs, wedge, pull the legs up slightly, the rear wheel lifts [1]. Axel Head of the DAV teaching team names the dragging front brake as an aid for the unweighting and advises releasing it early [2]. There is no association text on the stoppie itself.
Why do you need caution? Because with the front brake you do exactly what makes up the most common crash type: sudden deceleration. In a video analysis of 534 mountain bike crashes, 55.2 percent were over-the-bars crashes triggered by sudden braking [3]. The stoppie is the technique in which you learn the feel for that limit, by the safest route there is: small, flat, soft.
How hard is it? The first centimetres work after a few sessions. Longer than a second takes weeks (experience-based).
The stoppie is a braking exercise, not a trick: you learn where the front brake stops being your friend.
Roll at walking pace in the base position and pull the front brake in a modulated way until you notice the rear wheel unweighting. One or two fingers on the brake, both brakes modulated [4].
Milestone: you brake cleanly at walking pace, the rear wheel goes light but does not come free.
When braking your centre of mass moves down and slightly back, but only as far as needed [4]. In the stoppie you do the opposite: you need pressure on the front wheel, so your upper body stays forward (practice). Arms slightly bent, eyes far ahead.
Milestone: you can see on the video where your hips are when the rear wheel goes light.
Pull the front brake continuously and in a modulated way, extend your arms, wedge yourself and pull your legs up slightly. The rear wheel lifts [1]. The target is a few centimetres.
Milestone: the rear wheel comes free five times in a row for a fraction of a second.
You let the brake go and set the rear wheel down softly. Early release of the brake is also explicitly named by Head [2].
Milestone: the rear wheel lands without a thud and you roll on.
Increase the time on the front wheel in small steps, first to half a second, then to one second. Each increase only when the previous one works three out of five times (practice).
Milestone: one second, five times in a row, without the front brake locking.
The stoppie is more safety-critical than it looks. Over the bars was the sequence in 55.2 percent of 534 crashes [3]. If you fall forward you have clearly higher odds of head impact (odds ratio 4.9) [7]. The head and upper extremity are the most common injury sites [8].
In a meta-analysis across cyclists, a helmet cut serious head injuries by about 60 percent [9], a figure for cycling in general. Never practise on slopes, in the wet or near traffic. Stay at a few centimetres and release the brake at any wobble. This guide explains and motivates, it does not replace supervised training.
Practise letting go first. The most important part of the stoppie is not the pull but releasing the brake. Get used to opening the brake immediately at any wobble. For the rear-wheel pivot, Head explicitly recommends releasing the front brake as early as possible before setting down [2]. If you automate that, you have an emergency exit in the stoppie too.
Start small: at walking pace pull the front brake in a modulated way, extend your arms, wedge, lift the rear wheel a few centimetres, release the brake early. The principle is also in the BASPO technique for the rear-wheel pivot [1].
Yes, because of over-the-bars crashes. In a video analysis they were the most common crash type at 55.2 percent [3]. So practise only low, slow and on firm ground.
As brake and balance training and as a preparatory exercise for the rear-wheel pivot. On the trail you rarely need it, but the technique behind it, a modulated front brake, you do [1].
The front brake, modulated. One or two fingers, use both brakes in a controlled way and shift your centre of mass back only so far that the front wheel keeps pressure [4].
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