Touchgrind BMX 2 guide: How to do every trick

Not many of us have the blend of youth, fearlessness and athleticism to ride fast and pull off cool stunts on a BMX bike. Fortunately, Touchgrind BMX 2 is the next best thing, as it lets you do just that using only two of your fingers.

Boasting great graphics, a host of customization options and the ability to easily save replays of your best runs and most impressive moves, it’s a game that can easily suck you in even if you aren’t normally a big BMX or action sports fan. But the key to big scores is being able to pull off and string together tricks, and even if you don’t know a barspin from a tailwhip, our Touchgrind BMX 2 guide will help you figure out those and many other tricks and pull them off with just a bit of practice.

Basic controls

To ride your bike, all you need to do is put two fingers on it: one on the seat and one on the handlebars. You can use any two fingers, but the second and third are the easiest pairing.

Steering is also easy. While keeping both fingers on the bike, just drag the one on the handlebars in the direction you want to turn.

The final basic maneuver you absolutely need to know is how to catch and land a trick. Doing so simply involves getting your fingers back on the handlebars and seat while they are squared up to the ground and holding them steady. Depending on the trick you are doing, this can take a little practice, and you will crash on occasion. But it’s an important skill, and one that will get easier over time.

Base tricks: Barspins, tailwhips and bikeflips

The first level of tricks all require you to quickly slide one or both of the dots and then catch the trick when possible.

• Barspin – Quickly slide the top dot (by the handlebars) in the direction you want the barspin to go.
• Tailwhip – The opposite of a barspin, slide the seat dot quickly in the direction you want to rotate the back of the bike.
• Front bikeflip – Slide both dots forward at the same time.
• Side bikeflip – The toughest of the base tricks, the side bikeflip asks you to slide both dots in opposite directions at the same time.

Note that you can also pull off variants of these tricks just by sliding harder and keeping the spin going longer before landing the trick. For a double barspin, for instance, just slide the dot faster and wait for the front wheel to do two complete rotations before landing it.

Flip tricks: 360 air, frontflips and backflips

Slightly more difficult tricks, these need careful timing as you not only slide the dots but then quickly return them to their original positions instead of letting a finger or fingers off the screen.

• 360 air – Quickly slide both dots in opposite directions as in a side bikeflip, then drag them back to the center.
• Frontflip – Flick both dots forward like you were doing a front bikeflip, but hold and return them to their original position.
• Backflip – Just the opposite of the frontflip (perhaps obviously!), flick both dots backward but then hold and quickly move them back up to where they started.

Advanced tricks

These multi-step tricks are generally best done off the bigger ramps, as you need some pretty decent airtime to pull them off.

• Bottom-up reverse barspin – Start with a front bikeflip but “land” it while you bike is upside-down. Then pull off a barspin, keeping in mind the bar is now your bottom dot since the bike is upside-down. Don’t forget to rotate the bike back to normal before landing.
• Reverse barspin – Begin by executing a side bikeflip, but stop the trick when you are halfway around, facing down. Next, do a barspin before rotating the bike so it is facing forward before landing.
• Bottom-up tailwhip – Start with a half bikeflip as with the bottom-up reverse barspin, but this time do a tailwhip while you are upside-down. Note that you’ll end up having to make the bike face forward and be right-side up again before landing, so this is a trick best left for the largest ramps.

A word on combos

Almost any two tricks can be strung together on the same jump to form a combo. Touchgrind BMX 2 itself recommends starting with these two.

• Front bikeflip to tailwhip – Do the front bikeflip first, then the tailwhip before landing.
• Frontflip to tailwhip – Not actually that much different than the above combo, but because you keep your fingers on the dots while in mid-flip, you can actually slide your finger to do the tailwhip before the flip is actually complete.

You’re bound to discover your own combos as well just by messing around and trying different basic moves one after the other, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Good luck!

Nick Tylwalk

• 

Nick Tylwalk enjoys writing about video games, comic books, pro wrestling and other things where people are often punching each other, regaardless of what that says about him. He prefers MMOs, RPGs, strategy and sports games but can be talked into playing just about anything.