Can a “Tramp Bike” really teach you MTB tricks? 

Seth: let’s get a trampoline for our daughter! Seth’s wife: yeah that’s a great idea! Seth: 😈

Seth : I’m so out of shape Also Seth: Proceeds to do a backflip

It's amazing how Seth continues to be so creative and consistent. I can't think of anyone else in the MTB genre with more original content, and it's very beginner/intermediate friendly unlike most other channels. And most of them just do POV which Seth has never relied on. Such a terrific storyteller!

always impressed by the amount of effort seth + team puts into these videos. great vid

We left the crank arms on ours, just covered by towels and foam and zip ties and shirts and all sorts of stuff to keep from busting through. Helped a lot more to get the true feel for tricks and body positioning.

I look forward to seeing Seth and Kevin doing synchronized trampoline in the Paris 2024 summer Olympics.

We need some bmx content like some OG Seth videos!!

You are a great guy who explains and understands people how to do the jumping exercise, well done

Back in my BMX days, my buddy had a trampoline bike, but we left the cranks on with no chainring and some crappy plastic pedals. That way you got used to having to get your feet back to the pedals too

I want to add some tips of mine: The biggest two factors are from my experience: The weight of the bike and the quality of the trampoline(how good it sends you in the air, and a big saftey thing is having a net. I crashed in the net many times). I would pick up a used BMX for cheap, but pay attention, that its not as heavy as a semi truck... Also if you want to have the feeling of pedals, you can take the pegs of a BMX, put a threaded bar through them and put that through your bottom bracket and put some nuts on the threaded bar with some washers and now you can stand on it. But also wrap the pegs in something soft, so you can a) better stand on it and b) to protect the trampoline. Its complicated to describe and if you dont put enough thinking into it, it might break some stuff, but for me it worked.

It's amazing how much energy you exert on a trampoline.

Mind blowing is that Seth is only 5'4. Dude was made for this sport.

Hey seth probably been watching for around a year now and I love your content, you were the first mtb RU-vid creator I ever watched lol. Thanks for the inspiration to go out and ride and thanks for teaching me so I could catch up to my friends haha

When I made my trampoline bike I cut tennis balls in half and duct taped them over the ends of the fork and the rear dropouts. It’s able to take a lot more abuse than just pool noodles. It was cool to see you make one of these! 🤟

Best dip for those wanting to do this at home is go to a swimming pool shop and use a pool cover over the frame, its basically a super heavy-duty, thick and hard-wearing bubble wrap. the frame won't pierce through it and it won't hurt if it wacks into you

Learnt a lot of trick on a tramp bike. The took them to flyout, then box jump then to dirt, no foam pits around when I rode BMX! Even when I got back into BMX and MTB, still made a teamp bike (I was over 30 by this stage) and still kept the same progression, except threw in a foam pit before fly outs. Now in my 40s, I need my grandson to grow up a bit so Pop can "buy him a trampoline" just like Seth did for his daughter haha

I used tennis balls for the drop outs and forks. Biggest take away I had from mine was just body position and and bike position under me. Really helped with gaining confidence to let go of the bars.

The trampoline bike helped me so much with Barspins. It builds your muscle memory so good and the first one I tried to dirt went flawless because of it.

One of the worst feelings in the world… getting old😅 props to Seth for giving it a go. I would be in the hospital 🥴

Tramp bikes help with aerial awareness on flips. Doing a flip on a tramp without one is easy enough, but once you’ve put a tramp bike between your legs you’ve gotta use the correct form to get it around. A great learning tool. Awesome video Seth!

Me and my buddy made one of these back in highschool, it actually helped us with some simpler tricks but we mostly used it to do ridiculous tricks we were never going to do on dirt haha. Good times though

Tramp bikes are soooo fun!

I always wanted to try this! I used to take my snowboard on my trampoline. It was a blast.

I love that it was an older biker who showed you how to make your first tramp bike. Wholesome

Even before watching the video I can tell you it really is a completely different sport. Because of the absence of the gyroscopic effect of spinning wheels and generally much lower weight + the fact you’re only jumping up and down makes tricks work completely differenty. Case in point, I can do a 360 windshield wiper on a tramp bike without much effort yet on a bike I still struggle with straight tailwhips… There is slight translation with certain tricks like barspins, but some are just done completely differently like 360s and flips.

All those trick names bring me back to being a motocross fan as a little kid. I was obsessed with Brian Deegan.

You could have 3d printed some fork end covers that gave a less pointed surface for the foam to cover! :)

LOVED this video! Watched it with my two boys. I know this may not be the most clickable video, but I really appreciate your creativity with this video. Thanks for all that you do!

I never realized how short Seth really is.

Grew up skating (15 years or so) and switch anything is a monster at first. Sometimes you get more comfortable doing switch tricks than regular

I cut open tennis balls to put around the sharp portions of my tramp bike and its been running for 3 years now. Love the videos!

I was at my local Walmart yesterday and they had a new mountain bike there with adjustable front shock and disk brakes but I couldn't find a price. It was called the Huffy Ridgeline like the Honda pickup.

You do this in the snowboarding in other sports as well. One thing it does do, it gives a since of reference while moving in the air.

I don't know what you weighed at 15, but I was like 65 pounds lighter and flexibility was still something I thought everyone had.

I had one of these as a kid!! Converted my old dyno BMX into one. We had so much fun on that thing

Great video! All I want now is a trampoline! Keep doing what you're doing so you can stay in shape for the little one! I'm 44 and still try to bounce around with my kids while they still allow me to play! Trampoline indoor parks are amazing but I definitely don't have your skills and the next day is always a day of rest and ice!😁😂🤕✌️🧗‍♂️🤸

Tennis balls on all dropouts filled with silicon. Like the kind you use for fish tanks or bathrooms. It stick them on really good

Answering the question beforehand- yeas it can! Helped me a lot with opposite rotations and tricks to get comfortable enough to try safe on dirt.

Love the vids Seth keep it up

Man you make fantastic videos. Can't wait to see you in Office Christmas Party 2!

never thought seeing a man on a trampoline with a bike could make my day xD

Fantastic video. So entertaining and informative.

One little segue for oppo/switch: Switch is always stance, the term likely migrated from SB. Opposite is always spins/grinds (barspins whips 360s) And then there's goofy This will probably be a problem for the ages but just for standardisations sake lol. If you're into tricks, i have some knowledge to share. Your stance means everything with tricks. If you're goofy with barspins theyre very unstable to throw, if you're goofy with tailwhips theyre also weird to do. Never mind when you start throwing truckdrivers or 360whips. If you're left foot forward, you want to 360 clockwise and barspin anti clockwise, but tailwhip clockwise. Cancans are always done with the front foot over toptube, not the back foot. If you do ignore this all and learn it 'your own way' you'll find (like me) that things like doing nice Nofoot cans, or doing truckdrivers off stuff is going to be really hard. I learnt cancans with the back foot, so now when i do NFCCs, they look more like indian air type deals. Stance is everything, it dictates how you ride, the tricks you can do and how/where you do them. It's the first development you build from, so get it right. Ive had lots of awesome years in bmx but always regretted not properly learning or re-learning my favorite tricks. At least tailwhips were okay for me 😆 ✌ great episode Seth you're a G doing flips on a trampo lol

Your lower back must hav been SCREAMING at you the next day hahah. I did a bounce house with my kids and I was out of commission the next day. Great vid!!

Seth goes crazy on a trampoline lmao

5:59 Worth point out that oppo and switch are different things, oppo would be spinning the opposite way to normal, switch is with your feet the wrong way round (for you) Left foot forward would spin to the right, so spinning left would be oppo, but spinning with your non dominant foot forward would be switch

We used to do this with a skateboard deck. I gotta say sometimes it was more fun than real skateboarding!

They have to remember what's opposite. They usually go by which peddle is forward.

Seth you gotta try this bike out called the ortovox mountain skyver. It’s kinda like a scooter bike.

Seth so down on himself for tricks he couldn’t do 20 years ago and I’m over hear like holy cow Seth’s got moves

When you said "Thats a nac-nac, and oldschool trick!" I was getting mad. Then it motivated me to watch "the collective - roam" again and I have to humbly admit that it is old school AF... Where did the years go?! ;)

Honestly. This would help me with the overall fear of not sticking a landing a little more than just going for the full run. I'm all for doing dangerous things safely. lol

im really just impressed with the backfilps

It most definitely does help real biking. Used to ride scooters, but hadnt in a year, had trampoline scooted tho. I borrow my friends scooter and do a fingerwhip first T, for the first time ever.

Now this is the episode of Flip Bike we've been waiting for.

Absolutely helped me and my friends learn tricks and get the confidence to try them.

i learned bars, trucks, backflips, 3 whip and alot of other tricks on my tramp bike back in the day it acually does help as long as you learn the motion and take it straight to a jump

Growing up riding trails, street and park bmx. The trampoline bike with my brother is one of my fondest childhood memories. Old t shirts, jeans and duct take seem to last the longest. Can make up for lost of the wheels to give the bike a more realistic weight. A pool noodle on the crossbar maybe necessary to protect your teeth/face depending how crazy you want to get.

Hearing all those names remind me of my time on Dave Mirra BMX on the Ps1 some of my friends were into BMX but I was always into not breaking my bones haha 😂

Really contemplating Seth's comment about Growing up with a trampoline in the 90s... It was wild in hindsight 🤣. I don't know how we made it out alive. Boomer parents drinking cheap beer watching us try to catapult each other into the stratosphere with no net or spring cover. Kids getting hurt and parents laughing calling us a wussy or worse words I can't say here 🤣.

3:35 Hikaru Speed Run theme

Thats pretty cool, I never even thought of something like that, which is funny cause being such a big fan of skateboarding, I always knew of people practicing skateboard tricks on a trampoline with just a board without wheels or trucks. Cool that its do-able with bmx too though!

Seth. Sometimes when you dream something you can let it go and not do it 🤔. Amazing. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Trampolines must be great general training for mtb, thinking about it... Fitness, leg strength and also getting used to air time. 🤔

Okay, so I made one of these in lockdown they are really fun but wrap them up loads towels, tennis ball pool noodles everything they are so easy to put to a trampoline and trampoline is expensive

They helped me with 360 combo tricks but i left the cranks and pedals on mine to make it more realistic for foot placement and body positioning

Heck yeah! I used to have a tramp skateboard and tramp snowboard also to work on tricks with

Tramp bikes are fun, but be safe. Bar ends are a must. I nearly lost my pinky 25 years ago when a tailwhip to tabletop that ended with my pinky in the bar end and me landing sideways on the trampoline.

Trampolines are a staple part of growing up, legs pinching in springs and getting double bounced off now I believe we are all too safe

Seth trying to write off the trampoline as a work expense.. let us know what the accountant says 🤣🤣

In skiing, spinning the opposite way is called unnatural or unnat and switch is skiing backwards. In comps like slopestyle, the judges tend to look for someone spinning both ways than just spinning in their more difficult directions. Hard to even tell the natural spin direction of the very best skiers unless you watch them a lot cause they learn most tricks spinning both directions. Not sure it works that way in mtb but that system is a lot easier than remembering which way everyone spins for different tricks. In moguls unnatural spins are irrelevant as they'll just count one trick if you do it spinning both ways but rumor has it that rule is gonna change.

Those weren't excuses, they wee explanations! (cool video!)

That’s how I learned heel clickers. Tramp bike then straight to a dirt bike. Got perfect first try. But I also spent months doing them on the tramp bike first.

Back when I was a kid all we knew about were wheelstands. Does that show my age? 😯. And shoes on the trampoline, mum would yell at me and dad would kill me. Imagine a bike there!

perfect time to make a 3d printed covers for the sharp bits. use pla plus and they wont shatter.

Now comes the fun question, what about us weirdos that are ambidextrous and do things from either side depending on our mood? As far as how judges would rate things

We needed to see the Griz Air. Classic dirt jump trick

Oppo is a more commonly used term than switch, because switch usually refers to riding backwards

We use to have flat bar through the bb for your feet. And pegs at rear triangle for feet .

I always like Seth’s videos before I watch.

As a kid I had a DK General Lee and a trampoline. Separate they are both fun but combined, they are even more fun.

We used carpet and towels. We also covered the bottom bracket since it was sharp.

it’s interesting that even in the bmx/biking world, it’s still called switch when doing something on your less dominant side.

Seth really refuses to grow up and it is awesome.

i love these trampoline freestyle vehicles and i made trampoline unicycle. it was fun

actually you dont need to remeber each rider rotation preference, opo is always when you spin front leg :) ( right leg back right rotation)

I have a similar story as Seth but I'd actually say the tramp bike practice does help off-tramp. In my own experience I can say, at the very least, the tramp bike practice let me try things that I was too scared to try on my actual BMX. After "perfecting" them on the tramp bike I could go hit an actual dirt jump and start to learn with atleast some idea of what was about to happen: how the bike was gonna feel as it spun, how the weight shifted, how much time it was gonna take etc... I still had to learn how to do the trick with a full bike and on a jump but I had metaphorically watched the trailer by then so I wasnt eating as much sh*t on the dirt thanks to having already kinda tried it on the tramp. Again though I was only trying alot of those tricks on dirt cause I was able to conquer my fears on the much softer tramp first so the tramp bike really enabled me as much as gave me coaching for the real thing.

Woah I had a similar Asset 24 that got me back into biking a couple years ago. As always, love the videos!

Built different

I hear you on aging. Now in my mid 30's when I get on the trampoline with my kids I swear I can feel my actual brain moving around in my head.

Great vid, but I’d like to see you back on the trails, exploring a new park or even working on the trails on berm peak lol. Much love

please make a ski downslope bike they look like so much fun

I think you could give the good old tuck another try... You don't pinch the saddle with your knees. Put the handlebar in your lap, and your knees will end up somewhere around the steerer/fork crown to clamp down. Lean down your upper body for extra steeze and take off those hands.

I wonder if you left the cranks on and zip tied one of them to the seat stays that it would crossover more. then use some pedals that are wrapped up. Then at least you are trying to get your feet back to the pedals.

Haha i *need* to do this 😄.Having spent decades on dirt bikes before trying MTB ,my jumping abilities are embarrassing!

Your videos make my Sunday

YOU GOTTA LEAVE THE CRANKS AND PEDALS ON!!!!! Take the chainwheel off and wrap pedals with tape with pins removed. This makes it much much more realistic to a real bike!

I appreciate how you go, whoo I'm so out of shape, haha. I know the feeling

Doing the trick the opposite way is called oppo(as in short for opposite). Doing a trick switch means doing with the wrong foot forward(as in switch stance).

I've seen many remove their sprocket and tape their cranks in their preferred position to have that pedaled platform to work with.