The "McMetz"

The mcmetz is a popular trick invented by Mike Metzger in 1999.
The hardest part about learning Mcmetz's is that you have to seemingly 'huck it' your first time, but with enough practice of doing everything you need to do up untill that point, the first time will only be the first time for taking that next step of removing your arms from the bars and "wrapping" your feet around.

A common way to work up to a mcmetz is to learn double consecutive saran wraps - that is do a saran with one leg and immediately after that do a saran with the opposite leg. This is very close to a mcmetz, except with the mcmetz both sarans are done simultaneously. This will actually be more of when you have saran'ed one leg and that hand is back on the bar, you are already beginning to saran the next leg. I didn't learn McMetz's this way, and nobody has to. I did want to point it out so that it is a possibility. Although not everyone does this, it is not a bad idea to learn single sarans on both legs before trying a mcmetz. In a three jump sequence, do a saran on one leg, then the next time around saran the other leg. Then on the third time jumping do the mcmetz.

When attempting a mcmetz, the best way to prepare your self is to do small barhops
(learning fully extended barhops can also be helpful in this process).

You want to get your knees even with your hands while they hold on to the handlebars.
Keep doing these small barhops until you are completely comfortable on them. When its time to do the mcmetz, you want to do the small barhop, and open your legs until they hit your arms. It is important not to overdo your barhop... if your knees are too far past your hands it will be much harder to get back onto the bike. this point you want to release both of your hands from the grips and in one simultaneous motion, wrap both legs around the bars while keeping your hands just over your legs. Once you get your legs closer to the pegs you should get your bearing on the bike and re-grab the handlebars (if you already haven't grabbed them instinctively). The first few times you try these you should only take your hands off enough to get your legs through them. This is to keep your fingers/hands close to the grips so they have a minimal distance to go to get back in control of the motorcycle. Once you get more comfortable with these, your hands will come off of the bike further and further.

The most important thing to keep in mind if attempting the mcmetz is to COMMIT. The mcmetz is one of those tricks that if you lose your bearing or freeze up half way through the trick, you could be in for a trip to the hostbital. If you find your self letting go of the bars and flailing from the motorcycle, the best thing to do is to KNOW WHERE YOU ARE on the bike. Get your hands to the grips and your feet to the pegs before you drift to far away. The MOST IMPORTANT thing to get back on if you begin to come off the bike is your HANDS ON THE BARS. Once you have the bike gripped with your arms, you can guide/pull your feet back.
There are exceptions to this rule (see the bottom of this page). Every now and then your legs and arms conflict on this trick, and if you have one arm on (like in the video at the bottom of this page) you can be patient with the other while you get your legs on. Landing with two legs and one hand is no problem, but an unexpected no handed landing spells disaster.

Video 1 (Side views)
Video 2 (Front view)

Step by step instructions (Front View)

Because this is a three-demensional trick (it has movement going up/down, forward/backward, and side-to-side) it is a tough trick to illustrate with two-demensional images. I have found that this angle does the best job to show the motions of the feet, but the bike's pitch is impossible to show here. I'll do my best to explain below what I am doing to adjust the bike.


Okay. Leaving the ramp my primary focus (in addition to all of my attention toward clearing the ramp and keeping my bike level) is on the motions I am going to make in just a split second with my legs. I'm fully prepared to "pop" off the pegs in a similar motion as the no-footed can can, only slightly quicker and this time I'm going to keep my legs very close together.


I'm only between 5-8 feet off the ramp, and my feet are already above the seat. As soon as they are above the seat and crossing the gas tank, I focus on keeping my heels squarely together for when they cross the handlebars. I'm also keeping my arms fully extended here, with my head about even with the gas cap.


Just a split-second after leaving the ramp, I'm already doing a small bar-hop. My eyes are halfway looking at my feet crossing the handlebars, while also halfway looking at the landing while I continuously am rethinking how much time I have left to finish my trick. I'm keeping my arms ALL THE WAY strait as my feet cross through them over the bars. My head is forward as well, which allows me to maitain my bearing.


As my thighs are about even with my hands (an important landmark) I am beginning to open my legs into a "Shaolin-like" position. A real Shaolin wouldn't open this early, but I'm focusing on my upcoming sarans. Also unlike a real shaolin, my lower-legs don't need to be strait here, so mine are somewhat relaxed as I await the moment that I have to bring them around my hands.


This is my second important landmark - my knees being even with my hands. Because my lower-legs are relaxed, they've already drifted outside of my arms, and are already somewhat drifting downward back toward the pegs. This landmark is where I am just about to let go with my hands, and I normally wait to do that untill I slightly feel my knees as they begin to brush up against my inner forarms/hands.


Just as I decide to "wrap" my legs through my hands, I instantly remove both hands simultaneously while I open my legs more to force them to cross over the ends of the handlebars. My eyes right now are sometimes looking at my handlebars, watching to ensure that my legs are going okay. With time, you'll get so used to this you won't even look at all. My main focus now is the "wrapping" of my legs around the bars, and also the "wrapping" my my hands AROUND my legs. See the "What if?" below for info on what to do if you make a mistake here.


Okay. I am focusing on getting my legs away from/around the bars, and IT IS IMPORTANT that I am patient with the motion of brining my hands around (wrapping) my handlebars. See below for an example of what may happen if I am not patient with this. On days I am feeling good with this trick, I shove my hands way back into the "suicide" position (behind my back).


I am confident in how my McMetz is unfolding now, so I am patient with my hands getting back to the bars, as well as my feet to the pegs. I am keeping my head forward tilted down slightly so that if I need to peak between my handlebars/pegs/ the landing, I can. I am still keeping an eye on how far off the landing I am, so that I will know if I need to hurry up at all, but for now I'm good.


Okay. Hands are back on the grips, and feet are super close to my pegs. My head is still pointed down slightly toward the landing, and my since my bike is a little more nose-high then I would like it to be, so I must prepare for the landing while trying to adjust my pitch, meaning I need to secure myself soon so that I can move forward on the bike.


Right now I'm secure on the bike again, and I'm shifting my weight forward to correct the pitch of my bike. It's a little nose-high, and I want to fix that for the landing. It is actually going to land a hair more nose-up than I would like for it to, but it's not too bad to where I "slap down" on the landing, so I end up okay.


Like I said, I was fortunate not to be too nose-high that I didn't "slap down" onto the landing, and I have a really good landing on this particular gap so I had room to work with. I have a good landing position - My weight is centered, but my butt is back on the bike while my arms are strait but I keep my elbows slightly bent. Right now I'm looking right in front of my bike towards where I'm riding to after the landing.

What if I freeze-up and make a mistake while "wrapping" my legs around my hands and handlebars?
See video.
If I am not patient with the motion of my arms coming off the bars, around my legs (which must get to the sides of the handgrips in order to clear my arms coming back), and back to the grips, I risk having my hands snag my legs (or just slightly brush against them) which will delay my hands getting back EXACTLY when I expect them to, and it's a possibility that I'll lose coordination and miss my grab back on the bars. There is a way to prevent any major issues if this happens - stay calm. In the above video clip, my hand only slightly brushes against my leg which moves it over an inch or so, but that is just enough, because it caused me to lose coordination and I accidently attempted to bring my hand back on THE OUTSIDE of my leg, which is obviously impossible because my leg is on it's way back to the footpeg. I know I'm missing my bar grab and in for a rough time, so I am patient with my hand and move it backwards and away from the bars where it is out of the way. As soon as I feel it is not conflicting with the more-important aspect of landing (having my legs back on the pegs), I calmly return it to the bars - just before landing. Point here is this: Mistakes happen. You always want to do your best to practice and prevent them from occuring, but that isn't always possible. The best way around them if the do happen is to stay calm and assess what needs to be done to land safely. You can land with a hand off the bars, but it is always important to have AT LEAST one foot securely on it's peg, if not two feet.