Doing a cancan on a bike requires you to take 1-foot and lift it over the top tube and extend it out to the opposite side. This is a really popular trick for people who ride dirt jumps. To actually do a proper cancan try this: wait until you’re almost at your peak point, make sure you’re using your correct foot, twist your hips to get maximum extension, and lift your knee over the top tube. I’ll explain these steps in more depth below.
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Overview
Difficulty Level: Beginner
Time to Learn: 1 to 2 Months
Skatepark Required? Yes, you need a jump
1. Do it at the peak point
For a lot of these tricks that you do over dirt jumps, you need to throw them at the peak point. Usually, this point is right before you level out and your momentum starts to fall down. So before you hit this point you need to throw this trick. If you throw it too early you will land back tire heavy and loop out, and if you do it too late you probably won’t land it at all.
2. Use the correct foot
Doing a cancan will be significantly harder if you use your back foot instead of your front foot. With that being said use your front foot to do the cancan so that you’re using the proper foot and so that you can get the best possible looking cancan.
3. Twist your hips for more extension
There’s a difference between a basic cancan, and a really extended cancan. After helping riders inside the course develop this trick for full extension, we noticed that the biggest thing is if you twist your hips in the direction that you want to cancan it opens up your legs so that you can swing that can out farther. This isn’t really necessary if you’re just learning the trick but it is necessary for mastering it.
4. Lift your knees
I noticed a couple of people were having issues with this because they would hit their foot on their toptube. You need to lift your foot up so that it can go over the toptube then extend it out on the other side. Failure to do this results in a crash.
5. practice
Just like every other trick in the BMX and mountain bike world practice is everything. You can’t expect to get better at this trick if you don’t spend multiple attempts on it. If this is one of your main goals set a certain amount of tricks that you want to attempt each day. For example, say I want to do 10 cancans today, and don’t leave the park until you hit that goal of trying 10 of them.
Conclusion
Busting out a stylish cancan will make you the center of attention at the dirt jumps. Use these tips to maximize your extension and get a nice-looking cancan. Now if you want access to the full Bike School course, click here and enroll that way we can give you personalized feedback on your tricks and help you master them.
