Freestyle motocross riders perform tricks on motorcycles that seem to defy explanation. No jump is too high or maneuver too dangerous, as riders strive to continually push the boundaries of human achievement. The kiss of death backflip stands as one of the most daunting of all tricks, with any slight error in body control resulting in potentially catastrophic injury.
Identification
In a kiss of death backflip, the motocross rider soars off the ramp and performs a regular kiss of death, releasing his feet from the pegs and extending his body vertically below the bike as if he’s kissing the front fender, all while completing a 360-degree backflip. Riders typically save the kiss of death backflip for best trick competitions because of its technical difficulty.
Function
When attempting to perform a kiss of death backflip, riders must generate enough speed off the ramp to sustain a complete backflip rotation. As the bike is spinning backward, the rider releases his feet from the bike, dropping his body straight down in a vertical plane below the handlebars and gaining full arm extension. He then must use the handlebars to pull his body back toward the still-spinning bike, returning to the seat and foot pegs in time to land the trick.
History
In 2001, Mike Jones and Ryan Leyba combined forces to create the kiss of death, challenging each other during training sessions to see how far they could kick their legs back off the bike until eventually ending up in a vertical position above the handlebars. They unveiled the trick at the 2001 X Games to much acclaim, with Jones winning a gold medal. Meanwhile, in 2002, freestyle superstars Mike Metzger, Carey Hart and Travis Pastrana led the charge to land the first backflip. The kiss of death backlip evolved from there, becoming a favorite trick of riders such as Blake “Bilko” Williams and Todd Potter.
Considerations
The kiss of death backflip is an extremely dangerous trick, and only professional riders who have trained to do the trick under safe, controlled conditions should perform it. Allowing your body to over-rotate beyond the handlebars can prove disastrous, making it impossible to reclaim the seat in time to land. Some riders will even use handlebars rigged with special bars called levers to help prevent the arms from over-rotating during the kiss of death portion of the trick.
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