Metzger Throws It Down
07.03.02
by: Alex Thompson
EXPN.com
July 4th Update! Metzger lands the flip 21 times in a row on the west coast as Travis Pastrana dials it in 30 times in the east.
On Tuesday, July 2 in Meniffee, CA, Mike Metzger, The Godfather of freestyle motocross, kicked the sport into overdrive as he pulled a backflip off a kicker ramp, over a 48 ft. gap, landing it perfectly and riding away. Riding in his backyard freestyle moto-x course, he nailed it first hit, smooth as
silk. He did it five times in all, and three of them were perfect. Two of
them he came up a bit short, but with a buffer of a few hay bails he landed
safely and turned right around to do it again.
"I knew I could do it. I have practiced on my BMX bike and at Dumont Dunes, and I just knew I could do it on my dirt bike." With
Carey Hart's famed foils, and
Caleb Wyatt's first successful dirt backflip, the question that still waits to be answered is; Can the flip be done successfully in competition? Today Mike Metzger took us as close to "yes" as you can get heading into Gravity and the
X Games. Metz
made it look effortless. With many in the motorcycle community "nay saying" the flip as a daredevil stunt, led by a recent editorial by Davey Coombs in Racer X Magazine, athleticism superceded speculation as Metzger
proved this can be done as part of a freestyle run. "You don't need to pull
going into the rotation. The ramp makes it so easy, and the bike naturally
wants to loop out. I just kept my stability and timed it and it went
perfect. I knew it could be done off a ramp. I can't wait for the
X Games.
The ramp was set up in Metzger's freestyle playground at his house. Hitting
an Evolution Freestyle Kicker ramp, the takeoff was set up on a slight
uphill incline. The landing was a tall and narrow dirt landing with just a
handful of hay bails set up in case he drifted and needed to throw it away but he was landing on hard-packed dirt.
Just to reiterate, this was nailed perfectly- 3 times. There was no
"almost", no "on the edge". He nailed it, pure and simple. The two times
that he did come up short, he just clipped the top of the landing. Metz's
goals: backflip no footer, backflip no hander- and the next big step is a
360. Twitch, Chuck, Faisst, Julian D'usseau and Trevor Vines were all on
hand to witness the flip. We asked Trevor what he thought and he commented,
"He stuck it- perfect. It is just amazing. I was ready for the X Games until
two minutes ago when I saw that. He just changed the landscape for all of
us".
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| The Backflip...broken down. |
Paul Taublieb, President of Moto-X Co, which produces the ESPN Moto X Championships and is the moto-x sport organizer for X Games, videotaped the flip and said. "Not to diminish anything that
has gone on before, including Carey and Caleb moving the ball way down the
field, but Metzger did what was said couldn't be done. A full, floating back flip over a big gap. The sport is
constantly progressing, and the back flip is almost a metaphor for the sport
itself. Carey made it look possible but then the door shut, Caleb pulled it and cracked the door open and deserves his props. But fittingly, the man credited for starting the entire freestyle movement, Mike Metzger busted the door down and sent the sport hurtling into the future. There is no looking back now."
"With that much control and time in the
air," Taublieb continued, "it makes you know that no one can say what the limits are for freestyle motocross. It's worth reiterating that there were
milestone steps that came before what occurred today and they should not be understated, but now the sport has taken
a quantum leap forward. The thing that shocked me the most-and I'm still in a state of shock-was how graceful and natural Metz made it look. When i saw it i thought, "that is what the back flip should look like - the way you would draw it in a notebook."
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| The Godfather is back. |
For those in the sport who were bottle fed on "Crusty" videos, Metzger's
style and ability seats him comfortably in a group of riders that push the
sport of freestyle. The next marker in this backflip story is what the
impact will be when it is pulled during competition. Mike said he sees the
day when he will be doing back flips over 80 ft. gaps. Metz said, "The
technique is critical. It looks easy and it looks graceful, but it is not. I
put in months of practice. It is all about throttle control off the ramp.
When your front tire leaves the ramp, you give it a bit of throttle and
don't look back too soon. You can over rotate, so keep steady and the bike
will come around by itself. As you get to the top of the jump, the
suspension is springing back and you feel that tug, and it helps continue
your rotation. You have to learn how to spot the ground, then you do the
same types of things that you normally do when landing."
"I'm so happy," said Metzger. "I've been working hard, and I woke up at 5 AM today and knew in my heart I was going to try and I was going to do it. The Godfather is back, boys!"
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