I'm running 42x15.... When I try to lock up my legs and lean forward the pedals win and I get pushed up. Is this soemthing only fat people can do?

Bill!!!!... I thought you were dead!!!!! :(
Anyway... that gearing should not be causing a problem.. I suggest that you wait til it's raining.. find an open parking area and go for it. Once you get the feel down... dry pavement is easy as pie.
You will eventually be able to skid whilst seated... which stops you very quickly... blahblahblahblah.

you calling me fat?

find some grass or a wet street. get up a bit of speed. lean forward, then lock legs. if you're still having problems, lean further forward. like balls to the stem forward. it feels kinda freaky, but you aren't gonna go over the bars unless something out of the ordinary happens.

I learned by havin a rear brake on my bike. I used it at first to assist my skid. After that you will be able to skid even if you dont weigh 300#.

"balls on the stem" works for reals. by keeping that in mind, i was able to skid the first time i tried. (not very far)

man its rainin' cats and dogs right now! get out there!

skip hop first ... then start leaning forward a little bit more every time

practice lifting up your back wheel off the ground...
I'd advise learning on grass instead of doing all that weigh forward stuff...just pull up on your clips, and lift the rear wheel off the ground to get the feel of the skip/skid

ride on wednesdays

it doesnt make sense to me when ppl tell me to "lift" my rear wheel up.. i mean.. if one was locking up the wheel with the leg on the back stretching and locking it... wouldnt that put more pressure DOWNwards rahter than up?..

i never lift up my back wheel to skid. but to lock up the momentum of the cranks and shift my weight forward.

before you put the down pressure, lift up the wheel slightly with the clips....it's easier to lock up while the wheel is in the air (or at least unweighted) than while it's rolling on the ground with your weight on it

Throw your body, shaved-balls first, into the stem as hard as you can. Turn that grimace into a striking fashion pose.

that's how we roll

still not working....any vids of skidding?

lean forward, balls on the stem, torso over the front wheel, and lock your legs, actually try pedaling backwards, I've gotten to the point where I can go 180 degree's backwards with my cranks while skidding. and focus foward, don't stare at your bike, you'll fall.

i think the main problem that people have is that they hesitate at some point while trying to unweight the rear wheel. if you hesitate at all, you will put weight back on the rear wheel, making it quite difficult to skid. if you choose the "balls on the stem" method, you definitely have to just "go for it." people have said this in other threads about skidding and they are correct, as lame as it sounds: just commit to doing it. unless you are totally ******** about it, you are not going to go over the bars. i wasn't able to start skidding until one time i just said "**** it" and threw my weight forward. once you get a feel for skidding, of course, you will learn to do it while seated and in less extreme ways. at first, though, it helped me to do it "superman" style.

I don't know how long this link will last, but here goes
I suck at optimizing gif files, otherwise there'd be a better version.

http://x11.putfile.com/12/36409281457.gif

That is the key- not to think about it. My first skid was during a panic stop when I literally stopped pedaling- starting the skid. I had a front brake that I hadn't even touched.

i learned from someone as i rode right beside him.. he taught me to lock my right leg by pressing my knee (or the area just above it) to the top bar... and of course lean forward.. don't think too much about the left (pulling) leg - it should follow naturally.

if you use this leg locking method keep in mind that it's a bad habit that should be broken as soon as you can skid.. leaves a nasty bruise!

I kept trying to skid by leaning forwards and pushing on the rear pedal, but it never worked. Eventually I was just slowing by resisting and pulled up on the forward pedal and had a itty bitty skiddy. I started trying pulling on the forward pedal and pretty soon was able to skid/skip.

Or try locking up your legs while the front brake is applied, just to get the feel for it.

yeah, the key for me in learning to skid was actually focusing on pulling up with the leading foot.

yes. double yes. that was the big thing that i learned, which let me bunny hop, skip, skid, etc. -- pull up on the front foot, and really focus on that.

i mean, think about it, once you're standing on the rear pedal, you're doing as much as you can to stop it. so all you really need to do is stand on the rear and PULL UP with the front.

now, as for skidding in particular. i taught myself to skid by getting comfortable with the skid position, cause at first it can feel like everything is gonna flip forward, but it's not.

start from a stop, with your right foot on the right pedal, left foot on the ground. put your gonads up really close to the stem, and get ready to push off and lean on the handlebars. push off, hopefully you can get your left foot on the pedal. now ride down the street looking like an idiot, leaning on your handlebars with your crotch on the stem. build up some speed, then stop your pedals. badda bing.

Why do you want to destroy a perfectly good rear tire, anyway?

Take the weight off the rear, grip the bars, plant nuts on stem and lock your legs. To start, go out on a rainy day and find a smooth street to play on.