We've been hearing the rumors for a while, but we now have hard proof that two-time X Games Best Trick gold medalist Kyle Loza has indeed been perfecting the Bike Flip at his private training facility in Orange County, California. According to reliable sources, Kyle has been working on the trick for over two and a half years and is aiming to throw it at X Games 15 in Los Angeles.
Just like the development of any new trick, Loza has had to overcome hurdles to perfect the technical maneuver. According to our sources, the hardest part of perfecting the trick has been getting the bike to pull a full rotation and figuring out how to land straight. As far as bike modifications go, nothing too extreme is required out of his YZ250 except a shaved down front brake lever, which allows the bike to rotate without hitting his wrist. Loza's biggest hurdle in completing the trick is just figuring out the last ten percent. At this time, he has 90% of the trick of the trick dialed, but if he's going to throw it down at Summer X Games 15, he'll need to have it at least 95% dialed. That last 10% could be very difficult for him to figure out.
So what is a Bike Flip? It's hard to explain, but let's try. When a rider pulls a backflip off a jump, both the bike and the rider make the flip rotation as one cohesive unit. But, with the Bike Flip, the bike makes the backflip rotation while the rider stays right side up, loosely holding on to the bike as it flips. The Bike Flip is actually a BMX trick and it has never been pulled on a dirt bike. To the best of my knowledge, Kyle Loza is the first and only person to ever attempt the Bike Flip. According to sources that have seen Loza pull the trick live, when done correctly, the Bike Flip looks like the worst crash they've ever seen. Here's what a Bike Flip looks like when done on a BMX bike.
Something that should be noted is that compared to both The Volt and the Electric Doom (two tricks that he invented that have won him gold medals in Best Trick), Loza is further along with the Bike Flip in relation to an X Games event as he has been with tricks in the past. It wasn't until three weeks before the 2007 X Games that Loza pulled the Volt to dirt and he didn't pull the Electric Doom to dirt until the day of the Moto X World Championships in San Diego.
Though pulling a Bike Flip on a full-sized motocross bike may seem impossible, Kyle Loza is once again proving that the word impossible doesn't even exist in his solar system. I'm told that video of Loza's Bike Flip will be available on Monster Energy's website within the month, but if you stay tuned to ESPN FMX, you'll undoubtedly see the footage here as well. Like I've said before, 2009 is going to be an amazing year for freestyle motocross.
Here's a video highlight from Kyle's Gold Medal winning Electric Doom at X Games 14.