lock your rear leg, pull up really hard on your leading leg, and lean hard on your bars. you’ll get it.
For real, I am totally attached to the notion that the problem is all in the lifting of the front leg. I don’t buy into the fact that skidding is a matter of locking up the legs- at least I don’t think that description does the motion justice. you really have to break the rotational momentum of the drivetrain with the front leg really straining against the strap.
If attempting this just results in you stretching out your front leg and then that leg bottoming out and being kicked around by the pedal, then you need to revise your method. focus on pulling up hard, but also stomping backwards with your rear leg.
Sometimes it helps to NOT lean forward right away, but instead lock the legs and yank up with the front foot, and then lean forward and push off the bars to really force the rear leg back. but be careful, sometimes the rear wheel will just skip off the ground if you push too hard.
BTW ocean: what the hell? I read that story like 3 times and can’t figure it out.
Hahahaha, it was supposed to be a cautionary tale that just ended up making me sound really stoned. Also it helps if yo’uve seen Logan’s Run.
Personally, I could never skid just by leg strength and body weight alone. I still can only skid maybe 2 feet if I’m going straight. I did, however, figure out that using the energy you get from throwing/turning sideways makes it a lot easier to break traction. I can skid 10, 20 feet no problem if my back wheel is out to the side.
Seriously though reallyy reallyyy pull up on your front foot. Make sure your really leaning forward too, with me at first i could only skid being totally on top of the stem but once you get it’ll be easier to skid with out being totally balls to stem.
skidding is useless
[quote=“ocean”]My buddy Jeff, true story, he used to be really into fixies and he could lock up the rear wheel using only his legs–I’m talking no hands on the bars, just pure leg strength–and he ran like a ridiculous 54/13 ratio all the time and no brakes on these tiny flatbars, and we kept telling him, Jeff, fuck, you know yo’ure playing with fire, skidz aren’t for you, you’re not a kid anymore, who do you think you are, etc…!!! But he wouldn’t listen. Then on his 30th birthday, he woke up with a blinking red light on his palm and these two 17 year-olds on unbranded Kilo TT’s with kenda koncepts that were so pristine from resisting all day you could EAT OFF THEM stole into Jeff’s bedroom and LAID DOWN THE MOTHERFUCKING LAW.
Bottom line is, look out. You are not allowed to pull off any tricks that they haven’t learned yet. But if you try and do something that they learned–like weeeeks ago, bro–and you’re clearly fucking it up, then they just might shoot you in the forehead for being such an obvious loser.[/quote]
So they killed him?
What the fuck happened in this story?
you just have to want it.
about a month after i first started riding the fixed, and still couldnt skid, one night i went out and told myself, “i WILL learn skid/skip”
so i did.
like most people already know, i find that skidding while leaning over the bars isnt that effective when you want to actually stop. smaller seated skids are good though.
i rode in austin all day yesterday. red lights at the bottom of hills and stuff. …and i value my life too much to try to run them. skip stopping was essential. if i lived in austin i wouldnt be pushing 85 gear inches either. that was the first time i really rode in traffic since denton and fort worth doesnt have any. it made me aggressive. by the end of the night i was yelling at cars and peds. ive never even felt the urge to do that before.
I can only skip, That’s all I really want to do though. Gatorskinnzz are spensive,.
Protip: no matter how bad you are at skids, get a taxi to cut in front of you and then come to a dead stop. I guarantee you being afraid for your life will teach you how to lock up that wheel. I mean, either that or you’ll die.
true, the first time i actually skidded was when some ped stepped in front of me on a bike path. instinct automatically locked up the wheel.
I learned how to skid before I learned to skip/scrub speed. I was internet taught LOL. After riding with a front brake for 6 months, I decided to learn to skip/scrub… now I have removed my brake and I actually feel like I know how to ride a fixed gear bike properly. Before I knew how to skip/scrub off speed, I was just bored with riding my fixed gear. Now, I am much more aware of the road, surroundings, crank position, speeds, etc…
Learning is nothing more than dedicating yourself. Mild speed (not slow but only fast enough to warrant locking up a rear tire even with a caliper brake), Nuts to stem or something similar, most all body weight supported by arms way out up and over bars, lock trailing leg at horizontal and lift on leading leg at horizontal position, ride the front wheel while dragging the rear. Some people learn in grass or wet pavement. I say just learn on dry pavement.
Skidding is for hanging out in parking lots with pals and for the occasional, time permitting, avoidance of a collision. Try to be ambidextrous when learning to skid. That car pulling out cant wait for your right leg to go around the crank one more time to get into skid position haha. Skipping/Scrubbing is much more important.
BTW, I’m 6’ tall, 315lbs LOL
i can only reliably leaning really far forward
skipping seems to be a lot harder for me 
[quote=“ocean”]My buddy Jeff, true story, he used to be really into fixies and he could lock up the rear wheel using only his legs–I’m talking no hands on the bars, just pure leg strength–and he ran like a ridiculous 54/13 ratio all the time and no brakes on these tiny flatbars, and we kept telling him, Jeff, fuck, you know yo’ure playing with fire, skidz aren’t for you, you’re not a kid anymore, who do you think you are, etc…!!! But he wouldn’t listen. Then on his 30th birthday, he woke up with a blinking red light on his palm and these two 17 year-olds on unbranded Kilo TT’s with kenda koncepts that were so pristine from resisting all day you could EAT OFF THEM stole into Jeff’s bedroom and LAID DOWN THE MOTHERFUCKING LAW.
Bottom line is, look out. You are not allowed to pull off any tricks that they haven’t learned yet. But if you try and do something that they learned–like weeeeks ago, bro–and you’re clearly fucking it up, then they just might shoot you in the forehead for being such an obvious loser.[/quote]
posting beside the bong again sacha?
some tips for skidding!
push your front foot FOREWARD and up into the clip, very important, straps arent strong, clips are, youll get a more solid feel this way.
try and carve into the skid a half a second(like 1/8th of a crank) before you try and break traction, the inertia will help you whip your back tire out, and a tire skidding on an angle, doesnt try and pul your cranks around as hard.
when youre about to break traction, stiffen your legs a little before your cranks are flat, and let the cranks kinda pull you foreward out of the saddle a little bit, then push back with your arms and lock those legs.
thats for sit/stand skids, which are more useful in traffic than sticking your balls to the stem, which looks cool but doesnt stop you too fast.
for balls to the stem(some people call it a “suicide” skid?) literally, just position your bars about 3/4 the way up your thigh, lean into the bars, and when your cominant foot is at around 10 o clock, push back hard, you can learn this with platorms/unclipped, get these before you try sitskids.
when im in traffic i just kinda do a skip, without making my tire leave the gorund, same motion but try to not lift your wheel, just unwight it, and youll do a sucession of short 1 foot skids. i find its easiest on my body, and very effective.
The first time a ped steped in front of me, I crashed into the fat bitch.
As was stated, pull up on your front foot, unless you’re doing leg over fancy skidz this is how you lock it up. Clipless will help.
This is exactly how I learnt to do it. On wet grass you can get tricky and pedal backwards whilst going forwards, it feels really good. I skid mainly to slow down on the road though, it’s much more effective.
I would say that anyone with decent leg strength can do it, its just a matter of confidence and commitment.
Or go out right after it rains. Skidding in slightly more realistic conditions… it’s just ridiculously easy on grass. On wet pavement, there’s a least a little commitment you have to make. Messing around on grass is always fun, though!
i guess knowing how to skid isn’t essential but its pretty easy/ fun/ can help in some situations. if you dedicate about an hour to learning how to skid and trackstand you should be able to get it. try after its rained and the roads are a little wet, less friction makes it easier to figure out how to position your weight, and you don’t have to be going very fast so it makes it less scary i guess.
Learning how to do a handstand in a swimming pool kinda gives you an idea how to do a handstand but its still a handstand in a swimming pool LOL. Do it on pavement. Do it! DO IT!! Then YouTube it. Wait, YouTube it all NOW! YouTube the grass experiment, wet pavement then dry and then we can post YOUR learning process for everyone else who will ultimately ask how to skid 
Please do not edit the falls. Just kidding… you wont fall… or will you? I cant wait to see it on YouTube!!
So… I should learn to skid underwater first?