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Design and Conquer: Anatomy of the tricks

Matt Jones’ new edit features two world-first mountain bike tricks – the Gainer and the Backflip to Hitching Post to Front Flip. Learn how he did them, here (and definitely don't try them yourself).
Written by Charlie Allenby
6 min readPublished on
In his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer, Matt Jones shows what it takes to think up and land never-before-seen moves on a mountain bike.
We see the full story of two world-first tricks – The Gainer and Backflip to Hitching Post to Front Flip – from inception to perfection. While the Gainer goes off first time, the Hitching Post combo took quite a lot longer to get right.
It’s about having the focus of a tightrope walker but the commitment of a base jumper
Matt Jones
Although both are over in a matter of seconds, each requires Matt to deepen his understanding of physics, keep a sixth sense-like focus, and lean on his instinctive feel. There's almost no time for him to think about what he is actually doing.
Here, Matt breaks each trick down, sharing what inspired them, the steps he took to actually land them, and their hardest aspects.

Gainer

1 min

Anatomy of the Gainer

In his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer, Matt Jones shows what it takes to think up and land never-before-seen moves on a mountain bike. Here he gives us the lowdown on the Gainer.

Matt Jones
What inspired it?
"I’ve loved jumping into swimming pools, running off cliffs and doing gainers my whole life. I can’t believe no one has done that on a bike – it’s not so far outside the realms of imagination. In reality, it’s just very difficult, but that hasn’t stopped people before. I was in a desperate rush to do it – all year I’ve been anxiously watching people upload videos when they’re stood on a drop thinking ‘someone’s going to do this’."

1 min

Anatomy of a world-first Gainer – the trick

Matt Jones shows us how to do the Gainer from his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer.

1 min

Anatomy of a world-first Gainer

In his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer, Matt Jones shows what it takes to think up and land never-before-seen moves on a mountain bike. Here he gives us the lowdown on the Gainer.

  1. Tap to see how Matt landed the Gainer
  2. Step 1 Pick up the bike by one grip and the saddle, hang it over the edge of the platform and swing it backwards
  3. Step 2 Swing the bike forwards while taking a step with the right foot. Without looking, plant the left foot at the edge of the platform, stamp through and jump while swinging the bike up and backwards
  4. Step 3 Perform an ab crunch, pull knees up into the chest and get feet to meet the pedals, while still holding the saddle. Once feet are near the pedals, move hand from the saddle to the grip
  5. Step 4 When hand is on the grip, tuck tight into a ball to spin quicker and prevent front wheel from clipping the platform
What was the hardest part?
"The hardest part was committing to running off of the end but knowing that I’d do all the steps – I spent an hour on the run-off before finally attempting it.
"It’s funny how many I did onto my airbag, but doing it onto dirt was so different – it was way gnarlier. It would have been a big crash – the front wheel would have hit the edge, stopped the rotation, and I would have gone face-first into the landing, probably with my mouth open. Even if I landed it, I could easily have punched myself in the face or gone over the bars."

Backflip to Hitching Post to Front Flip

1 min

Anatomy of the Hitching Post

In his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer, Matt Jones shows what it takes to think up and land never-before-seen moves on a mountain bike. Here he talks us through the Hitching Post.

What inspired it?
"I remember watching Frames of Mind when it came out and I thought, ‘that backflip is loading up a spring to go the other way’. It almost seemed unnatural not to trigger a front flip. Even though the backflip was mega and took a lot of goes, I always saw it as though there was a big element missing.
"The backflip element in Design and Conquer was more complex than the one in Frames of Mind alone – I never imagined that you’d need to cut out the middle of the log, which makes the backflip onto the hitching post even harder."

1 min

Anatomy of a world-first Hitching Post – the trick

Mountain biker Matt Jones shows us how to do the Hitching Post from his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer.

1 min

Anatomy of a world-first Hitching Post – the trick

Mountain biker Matt Jones shows us how to do the Hitching Post from his debut series for Red Bull TV, Design and Conquer.

  1. Tap to see how Matt pulled off his next-level Hitching Post combo
  2. Step 1 Pull a low, fast backflip, but over-rotate as if doing a flip-and-a-half
  3. Step 2 At three-quarters rotation, take feet off the pedals softly so they stay straight. Let the bike continue spinning. Change foot positioning from being left foot forward to feet together. Keep bike completely straight throughout so it can pass through gap in logs. Land almost heels down so as to not fall off the front
  4. Step 3 Turn wrists up to bring the bike almost flat in front. Perform a half-squat, staring at the pedals before rolling the wrists back down. Put all the force reversing the bike’s direction through the right index finger and brake lever
  5. Step 4 Flick the bike towards you using your wrists before driving down with shoulders, keeping it straight so it can pass through the log. Spring up into a big headfirst dive and pull knees into the chest to turn it into a front flip
  6. Step 5 Extend legs to find the pedals but keep bars and elbows tucked into as small a front flip position as possible. Hold the rear brake on tight so if it snags if there’s under rotation. Hang on and hope
What was the hardest part?
"Being prepared for the front flip. Honestly, one in 60 backflips was good enough to deliver a front flip. It’s about having the focus of a tightrope walker but the commitment of a base jumper to pull the trigger on the front flip. You don’t know whether it’s coming though – it’s a really weird balance of commitment and focus that I’ve never had to put together in one trick.
"I needed to have my finger on the trigger to go for it. It seems like I’m stood on the logs for a while but there’s so much going on in that time – changing the bike direction, keeping it straight, getting my wrists set up, stopping the bike, checking the pedals, moving my feet – that’s all part of then going for the front flip.
"I know it’s a weird one, but the hardest thing was being prepared to do a front flip when all you’ve been dealt is loads of rubbish backflips. Everything I was doing was so consistent but the result was so inconsistent and that was all just to be in the position to try a front flip that I then might not land anyway. That was quite tough to take – struggling with the first half of the trick, which isn’t even the big bit – the front flip was the new bit. There are 350 attempts on camera and I would have done 100s of other front flips and things in my own time. I’ve never worked so hard on anything ever."
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