We have listed some of the coolest BMX Air Tricks around. These tricks are primarily geared for Street and Vert riding. Perfect for BMX-ers like yourself looking to pointers on what to do while you’re in the air. Below are descriptions, how to’s, and pictures from us to all of you of our favorite tricks. Rock on BMX people of the earth!

360
The 360 is a 360 degree aerial rotation to the right or left. This can be off of a ramp or bunnyhop. Its best to practice this first doing a 360 bunnyhop to get a good comfort level with the rotation, and then working your way to mastering the trick off the ramp. When approaching the ramp or bunnyhop, you want to be mindful of which foot leads your 360. If you’re going to spin right, you want your right foot and pedal to be in front of your left foot and pedal, and vice versa. Start your spin / turn just before the bike is off the jump. Then lead hard with your head and upper body throughout the rotation – looking hard over your lead shoulder – and everything else should follow through. Once you’ve completed the turning you should fixate your vision on the landing and extend your body to stop the rotation. Please also see our description of the 720.

720
Similar to the 360. See our description of the 360. But this trick involves twice the spin – i.e. 360 degrees times 2 equals 720 degrees. This bigger spin requires more of a windup and a harder spin and more time in the air to make sure you come fully around. Make sure you’ve left the ground before you fully start turning or else you might catch an edge and fall. Again, make sure to lead with your head and look hard over your shoulder to get your upper torso turning and the rest of your body and bike should follow. Once you’ve completed the turning you should fixate your vision on the landing and extend your body to stop the rotation.

Alley Oop Grind
This is the reverse of any standard grind such as the Icepick, Toothpick, Double Peg Grind, Smith Grind, or Feeble Grind. You ride up or get air towards the surface you will be grinding on and as you bunnyhop up, you perform a 180 degree turn so that you land backwards on the surface and grind backwards down your grinding surface. Pretty cool!

Barspin
Similar to an X-up, but you will spin your handlebars all the way around 360 degrees. This trick can be done on flat ground or in the air. Also, remember to pinch your legs, or spread your legs, out of the way so they don’t get bumped into by your handlebars. Similar to the X-up, you can practice this trick during a wheelie or bunnyhop before trying it in the air.

Bunnyhop
This is the first trick most people use. It also provides the foundation for most other tricks. Basically you’re jumping in the air, but keeping in mind the dynamics of the bike to get both tires up off the ground without a ramp. Start with a little speed, not too much though. Then you’re going to want your pedals roughly parallel, but with your ‘lead’ foot pedal slightly higher. For example, if you’re ‘goofy’ foot, your right foot will be a little higher than the left, but both feet will be approximately level. Or, for example, if you’re ‘regular’ foot, your left foot will be slightly higher. Then, bend your knees and jump up pulling up on the handlebars and lifting the front tire up in the air first and then shifting your ‘jump’ to the back tire by lifting your legs with the pedals up in the air too to get the back wheel up in the air. Finally, level the bike by either continuing to pull the back tire up or by pushing pushing down on the front handlebars.

Butterfly
During any kind of air (ramp, bunnyhop, jump, etc), you will turn your handlebars to the right and left, 90 degrees one way, and then 90 degrees the other way, before you land. The ‘flapping’ wheel resembles the ‘flapping’ of butterfly wings, which is where the name comes from. This can also be called a Bar Turn.

Crooked Grind
This is a tricky grind where you hop up or get air towards a grind, but you have your front left peg and back right peg (or vise versa) both grinding the same surface. You will usually start your landing onto the grinding surface with your back peg grinding and then lay your front peg down to grind on the same surface. When you start to lose momentum, you will hop off the surface and back to the ground and then ride off.

Curtain Call
This is a trick you will do off a ramp. You’ll need some decent air to make it happen. Go fast and hit the ramp with some speed, then, once you’re in the air, move your left foot to the front left peg. Now, with you left foot on the front left peg and your left hand on the left handlebar, you will remove your right foot and right hand from the bike, as if waving to fans during a ‘Curtain Call’.

Double Peg Grind
This is a combination of the Icepick Grind and Toothpick Grind. You will bunnyhop or get some kind of air onto a surface and grind simultaneously on your front and back pegs. You will need a decent amount of speed and a lot of balance. ‘Grind’ along this way and then jump off when you lose momentum. See the descriptions for the Icepick Grind and Toothpick Grind if you want more information.

Endo
Proceed forward slowly and then put on the front brake, then balance yourself forward by pushing forward on the front handlebars and lifting the back tire off the ground. Balance is key when learning this trick so you don’t go forward too fast and fall on your face! After you push forward and balance on your front tire, with your back tire up in the air for a few seconds, gently bring the back tire back down, and then ride away.

Feeble Grind
You will bunnyhop or get some kind of air onto a wall or cement fixture or ledge and then first do an Icepick Grind, which is when your back peg is grinding the surface of a fixture, then, immediately after you’ve started your Icepick Grind, simultaneously grind along with your back peg ‘grinding’ and your front wheel ‘riding’ the rail or wall or cement fixture. So your front wheel is rolling along and ‘pulling’ the back peg ‘grind’. The fixture should be anything you can simultaneously ride and grind on at the same time. Unless you’re really good or really brave, this will likely Not be a rail. After you’ve lost speed, you will put you bunnyhop or ride off the side of the fixture.

Flatland Bar Spin
Pedal along at a very slow pace. Move your left foot to the back peg. Keeping your right foot on the front pedal, move one of your hands to the front of the seat to maintain your balance. Pedal hard and pop a Wheelie using your hand on the seat to pull up on the front of the bike and to maintain your balance. With your front tire up in the air you should be balancing on your back tire and using your the hand that’s still on your handlebars to spin your handlebars around 360 degrees. As you get better, you might be able to spin the handlebars around several times as you maintain your balance and ride along on your back tire. Once you catch your handlebars with your wheels pointing in the forward direction you can take your hand off the seat and put it back on the handlebars and your foot off the peg and back on the pedal.

Foot Plant
Approach a wall, cement bench, or other stationary fixture with a little speed and then bunnyhop or get air towards it. When you reach the fixture, take your foot off the pedal and use it to balance, hold, and then push off the surface of the fixture. You will then land back on the ground and ride off.

Fufanu
This is an air transition trick. While you’re in the air during a jump or hop, pull up on the handlebars with the intention of slamming your back tire against something such as a wall, a rail, a curb, a bench, or coping and put on your back brake. After this, you will jam / slam your back tire in mid-air against whatever it is you’re going to transition off of, and then ‘kiss’ off of that fixture and head back to the ground. To ‘kiss’ off the fixture, lean toward your landing area while your back tire is still transitioning off of the fixture and then land on your front tire and bring the rest of the bike back down and pedal away.

Icepick
From a bunnyhop, or some kind of air, you will land on a fixture on your back peg, hold it for a few seconds, and then hop off the fixture and ride away. The fixture could be a bench, curb, rail, or some other kind of block of cement. Your front tire will stay in the air as vertical as possible (while still being able to keep your balance).

Icepick Grind
You will do an Icepick, but instead of the goal being to balance and hold the peg on the fixture for a few seconds, the goal is to ‘grind’ the peg along the fixture (bench, curb, rail, cement block, etc). So you’d start with some speed, probably bunnyhop and then ‘grind’ (move / scrape your way along the surface of the fixture) and then hop back off and ride away. Since its easier to Icepick Grind than Toothpick grind, you can probably afford more speed when riding into an Icepick Grind than when doing a Toothpick Grind. The Icepick Grind is the first step to a Feeble Grind. With the Feeble Grind you start with the Icepick Grind (i.e. grinding on your back peg) and then you land your front tire on the surface that your grinding along, and you ‘ride’ with your front tire, and ‘grind’ with your back tire, at the same time.

Manual
This trick is similar to the wheelie, only you don’t continue pedaling to keep your momentum going forward. For a manual, you need to have some speed when you ‘pop the wheelie’ and then just balance with your pedals stationary and allowing your body to provide you with the momentum to keep going. To do this correct, you should have your weight on your back wheel and you shouldn’t be leaning forward.

Nosepick
From a bunnyhop, or some kind of air, you will put on the front brake and then land your front wheel on some stationary fixture, such as a curb or bench or rail. With your back wheel in the air, you will balance on that stationary fixture with only your front tire for as long as you can hold it, and then push off and ride it out.

Peg Stalls
Peg stalls are basically grinds that don’t go anywhere, and where you hop and land and balance on your pegs and then hop off, thus the name, ’stalls’. You bunnyhop or get air onto any stationary fixture such as the side of a halfpipe, bench, or mini-cement wall, and then land with your peg and/or pegs supporting your weight and you balancing for a few seconds. Lean onto the coping as you are balancing. Then you hop back down by leading with your front tire, and ride off. This is an umbrella name for all sorts of peg stalls such as the Icepick, Toothpick, Double Peg Grind, Smith Grind, or Feeble Grind. When making your approach, you can approach from the side, but its usually easier to make your approach straight on and then make a 90 degree turn so that you ’slam’ into the coping with your full force. This trick can also be done on a halfpipe by jumping up from the side and balancing on your side after turning 90 degrees.

Roller Coaster Grind
Its rare that you’d be able to find two rails that would allow you to do a Roller Coaster grind, but first, what you’re looking for are two rails that are just wide enough for your tires to fit between them, but not wide enough for your pegs to fit between them. You’ll get some speed and then bunnyhop or get air onto them so that your front and back pegs are all grinding on the rails and your tires are fitting in between the rails. Then you’ll grind your way down them before bunnyhopping off them when you lose momentum.

Smith Grind
This trick is the reverse of the Feeble Grind. Bunnyhop or get air up towards a grinding surface such as a small wall or cement bench and land first with your back wheel riding on top of the surface and then let your front peg down onto the side of the ledge of the surface to grind it. Once you’ve lost your momentum, jump off the ledge and ride off like a bad ass.

Tailwhip
Start moving along at a slow speed. Then bring your right foot across to the other side of the bike where your left foot is. Push your right foot between your front tire and the front fork of the frame pushing down hard to brake yourself into an Endo. Lean forward balancing yourself and with your left foot on the pedal, use it to swing the frame around 360 degrees in a counter clockwise direction by kicking the back end of the bike around very hard counter clockwise. Then keep your left foot in the air for balance. It can help your balance here if you use your front breaks while performing the trick. When the frame comes back around, use your left foot to “grab” the frame and stop it and then place your foot on top of the frame or seat post, and your bike should be allowed to come down flat on the ground. Next, swing your left foot back over the frame onto the left pedal and then your right foot on the other pedal and then ride away.

Toothpick
This trick is the opposite of an Icepick in that instead of landing and balancing on your back peg, you will land and balance on your front peg and keep your back peg in the air. You can start with some kind of bunnyhop or ramp air.

Toothpick Grind
This is similar to the Icepick Grind in that instead of landing and then grinding on your back peg, you will land and grind on your front peg. You will need more speed though than when doing just a plain old Toothpick, but most people will use less speed than when doing an Icepick Grind, simply because Toothpick grinds are more difficult than Icepick Grinds and so you need to be a little more careful. With this trick, your back tire will be in the air.

Wheelie
Proceed forward slowly, then a forceful pedal, pedal quickly hard, and pull up on the handlebars, so that one tire is up in the air. Then pedal forward balancing on only the back tire, and with the front tire up in the air.

X-up
This trick takes place while you’re in the air off a jump. You can start by practicing doing it on a bunnyhop or wheelie. When you’re in the air, you will turn the handlebars 180 degrees to one side, and then quickly turn them 180 degrees back to the other side. So essentially your handlebars will be backwards and your arm will form an “X”. Make sure to extend your legs so they are out of the way and so the handlebars don’t bump into your knees.