My humble (but long) guide to bunnyhopping...
06-04-06, 06:37 PM
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My humble (but long) guide to bunnyhopping...
Being the humble trials newbie I am, the first thing I learned to do was bunnyhop, now I can bunnyhop consistently, I still need to work on height but I understand the move pretty well. I've seen many people who are eager to learn how to bunnyhop and the truth is its a very useful move for all MTB disciplines, including XC so because of that and because I'm bored and felt like it... I decided to write a guide to bunnyhopping, I hope you find it useful 
I'll start off by saying this: RELAX! Don't be too critical about it, don't think about it too much and let the move come naturally to you, if you force yourself to learn the move you won't learn it, practice makes permanent not perfect and you really need to make your practice sessions as effective as possible and try to learn the move the proper way, don't overdo the move, don't get (too) frustrated, take rests and when you make improvements or nail the move, take it easy and rest, I guarantee the next time you try (after a day or so) you will become much better, once you nail it practice it like hell refining your technique even more so you can really hard-wire the move to your brain, why do you think you never learn how to ride a bicycle once you learn and start riding? This is because of how the human mind and learning works and I'm not making this crap up! I've read about and I've experienced it first hand and its definitely a real thing.
The first thing you need to do is get rid of those clipless pedals and get platforms, at least for learning, because people who learn to bunnyhop with clipless pedals will not learn the move well and will eventually reach a point where they won't be able to jump higher because they are not doing it right and are relying on their legs, besides, they will not be able to do the move on bikes with platforms... that being said you don't need overly grippy pedals, any platforms will do, to say I've bunnyhopped succesfully on the spindle of my broken pedal should say it all. Next you need to position your feet correctly, the balls of your feet should be placed at the spindle and the heels should be parallel (or almost) to the chainstays, this will give you more bounce and control and will make it easier in the end. Like this look at this picture (https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...roperfeet.gif).
Next, its important to understand that it is possible to bunnyhop ANY bike, be it a dual suspension, a heavy hardtail or even a dual suspension "pogo stick" x-mart bike, so don't go blaming your bike (or any component of your bike for that matter), of course a lighter bike will bring you higher with less effort but it definitely won't matter in the learning process. Learning is a complicate and in some cases long process, don't get frustrated if you can't pull a move, instead after trying a few times, rest a little and let your mind subsconciously analyze the necessary adjustments needed to perform the move, also, once you do perform the move comes the most exciting part of all... making the move consistent, this will take time but slowly you'll UNDERSTAND the move and be able to learn it entirely. Of course this applies to every other technique out there.
Now from my personal experience... before you learn to bunnyhop you need to learn how to hop (yeah just hop lol), the main difference is that a bunnyhop means lifting the front first and then lifting the back, leveling and landing, hopping is just getting some very small vertical distance by lifting both tires at the same time, but it will teach you an essential rear wheel "lift" technique which is inmensely useful and a lot of guides immediately try to throw you straight onto the bunnyhop which will be almost too hard to do without learning the "lift" motion.
First you'll need to learn how to lift the rear wheel alone, you need to use your feet and legs for this, place your feet at an angle (not very steep or anything) and do a curl motion with your legs (like you are trying to kick your own ass, yeah I know its hard to explain but you'll get it) shifting your weight slightly forward and using the rest of your body to "pull up", you can also twist/flick your wrists to help you a bit (think of the flicking motion as trying to turn the grips like a motorcycle gas throttle very fast), you'll essentially get it down but the best way to learn is by actually seeing someone do it as its a lot clearer then. Once you have this down, try doing the same but pull the handle bars with your arms and bring the bike up, preloading is essential in getting more height but not neccesary, to preload compress your body repeatedly downwards and "explode" to do a hop, this will get you more level and more height, keep practicing this move until you can comfortably hop without much effort, once you practice the hop repeatedly, you'll learn subconsciously and eventually consciously (this is the point where you can "teach" the move) the neccesary and correct movements. Master the hop before moving on to the bunnyhop, you should be able to hop at speed and be able to hop whenever you want almost without any physical or mental effort, hopping can be a very useful move all by itself, small logs (4 inches or so) can easily be cleared with a simple hop which requires less effort and skill than a bunnyhop so its definitely a skill worth learning. Another good way of learning the motion needed to lift the rear wheel is putting one foot on the ground and trying to lift the rear tire with just one feet, you won't be able to until the light clicks on and you figure out how to do it.
Now that you have mastered the hop (hopefully), you are well on your way to learning the bunnyhop, I've constantly seen many people and sites give very misleading information on how the bunnyhop is done, some just say "pull the handlebars real hard" or "twist your wrist", those are very confusing descriptions, you need to understand how the bunnyhop is done before you understand those body movements, but first you need to learn one more move before all is done. It's simple though, its called the front pull and its a move that will open the door to both bunnyhopping and manualing. Pulling the front is a move that first and foremost, is done with your back and your body and NOT your arms, try rolling at a slow speed, compress and preload your body FORWARDS and explode to the back of the bike shifting all your weight suddenly, let the force created from leaning your weight backwards stretch your arms and pull the front, pushing on the pedals forwards and down also helps. Remember, don't think that just because you are weak and small you won't be able to front pull, I'm thin and was moderately weak (all this bunnyhopping and all this trial moves have made me stronger lol) when first started bunnyhopping and could still lift the front of a 35lbs hardtail with some effort. Practice this motion a LOT, at first I was always overdoing the pull and going backwards or underdoing the pull, its important to be able to lift the front as high as you can without going backwards, maintain it for a second or two and put the front back down (gently) before attempting to bunnyhop.
Phew... now you have learned to lift the rear wheel, hop on 2 wheels at the same time and lift the front, if you still haven't nailed any of this moves, read the guide again, ask any questions in this thread and go practice, once you have mastered all of this moves you are finally ready to start bunnyhopping, see how many people try to sum up bunnyhopping in a sentence? It doesn't work like that, maybe when you have nailed the move it does but when you are in the process of learning it definitely doesn't help. Well, I'm tired now so I'll post the rest later, I know this guide is probably not the best but it should help some people, anyone else who has nailed bunnyhopping feel free to add anything to this thread (I have a feeling Jason222 will have something helpful to add).
Okay, now that you have mastered all the moves explained above then you are ready to being bunnyhopping, now an important thing to consider here is that for better learning start trying to get over stuff from the get go, this was a mistake in my learning process and I had to pay for that (I could bunnyhop but not time it well enough for it to be actually useful in getting over/up stuff) but whatever, use an empty cardboard box or build your own bunnyhop stand or just something you can knock out without crashing in case you miss. Now that is done its time to get to the real thing, well, the first thing you need to bunnyhop is being able to connect the front pull and rear wheel lift moves with a gracious movement that also brings the bike forward, to do this you need to do some things at the same time but don't worry once you make it natural it will feel like one, you need to unweight the back of your bike, lift the rear wheel and "curl" and "throw" your body forwards to throw the bike forwards (with arms, leg, hips, etc) and land, usually this whole process makes you shift your body weight backwards when you land (ending in a position where you feel like you'll sit on your rear tire,), its extremely hard to explain however I can tell you that if when you try to do this the front of the bike goes down and you endo then you are doing it all wrong, you need to be fast and stable enough not to bring the front end down and keep it level with the rear when you are in the air that is why you need to be very fast and fluid when lifting the rear wheel when in the "manual" and watch where your body weight is centered. Remember, your legs, back and arms play a very important role in bunnyhopping. Clearing obstacles take some practice but its easy, first you need to know how much you can keep the front end up, then you need to calculate when you'll need to lift it in relation to your speed and to make sure the rear won't hit the obstacle. And in the end remember, bunnyhopping is nothing more than jumping with your body and bringing the bike with you (hence the importance of foot stance), and remember trial moves (bunnyhopping is one of them) require a lot of understanding of physics (NOTE: this understanding of physics comes from riding and not from "high school classroom" physics lol) and how the bike handles when shifting your weigth, etc.
I would write something a little clearer but my hand hurts from typing (its injured
lol its not an exageration) and I'm not thinking well right now.
I'll start off by saying this: RELAX! Don't be too critical about it, don't think about it too much and let the move come naturally to you, if you force yourself to learn the move you won't learn it, practice makes permanent not perfect and you really need to make your practice sessions as effective as possible and try to learn the move the proper way, don't overdo the move, don't get (too) frustrated, take rests and when you make improvements or nail the move, take it easy and rest, I guarantee the next time you try (after a day or so) you will become much better, once you nail it practice it like hell refining your technique even more so you can really hard-wire the move to your brain, why do you think you never learn how to ride a bicycle once you learn and start riding? This is because of how the human mind and learning works and I'm not making this crap up! I've read about and I've experienced it first hand and its definitely a real thing.
The first thing you need to do is get rid of those clipless pedals and get platforms, at least for learning, because people who learn to bunnyhop with clipless pedals will not learn the move well and will eventually reach a point where they won't be able to jump higher because they are not doing it right and are relying on their legs, besides, they will not be able to do the move on bikes with platforms... that being said you don't need overly grippy pedals, any platforms will do, to say I've bunnyhopped succesfully on the spindle of my broken pedal should say it all. Next you need to position your feet correctly, the balls of your feet should be placed at the spindle and the heels should be parallel (or almost) to the chainstays, this will give you more bounce and control and will make it easier in the end. Like this look at this picture (https://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y41...roperfeet.gif).
Next, its important to understand that it is possible to bunnyhop ANY bike, be it a dual suspension, a heavy hardtail or even a dual suspension "pogo stick" x-mart bike, so don't go blaming your bike (or any component of your bike for that matter), of course a lighter bike will bring you higher with less effort but it definitely won't matter in the learning process. Learning is a complicate and in some cases long process, don't get frustrated if you can't pull a move, instead after trying a few times, rest a little and let your mind subsconciously analyze the necessary adjustments needed to perform the move, also, once you do perform the move comes the most exciting part of all... making the move consistent, this will take time but slowly you'll UNDERSTAND the move and be able to learn it entirely. Of course this applies to every other technique out there.
Now from my personal experience... before you learn to bunnyhop you need to learn how to hop (yeah just hop lol), the main difference is that a bunnyhop means lifting the front first and then lifting the back, leveling and landing, hopping is just getting some very small vertical distance by lifting both tires at the same time, but it will teach you an essential rear wheel "lift" technique which is inmensely useful and a lot of guides immediately try to throw you straight onto the bunnyhop which will be almost too hard to do without learning the "lift" motion.
First you'll need to learn how to lift the rear wheel alone, you need to use your feet and legs for this, place your feet at an angle (not very steep or anything) and do a curl motion with your legs (like you are trying to kick your own ass, yeah I know its hard to explain but you'll get it) shifting your weight slightly forward and using the rest of your body to "pull up", you can also twist/flick your wrists to help you a bit (think of the flicking motion as trying to turn the grips like a motorcycle gas throttle very fast), you'll essentially get it down but the best way to learn is by actually seeing someone do it as its a lot clearer then. Once you have this down, try doing the same but pull the handle bars with your arms and bring the bike up, preloading is essential in getting more height but not neccesary, to preload compress your body repeatedly downwards and "explode" to do a hop, this will get you more level and more height, keep practicing this move until you can comfortably hop without much effort, once you practice the hop repeatedly, you'll learn subconsciously and eventually consciously (this is the point where you can "teach" the move) the neccesary and correct movements. Master the hop before moving on to the bunnyhop, you should be able to hop at speed and be able to hop whenever you want almost without any physical or mental effort, hopping can be a very useful move all by itself, small logs (4 inches or so) can easily be cleared with a simple hop which requires less effort and skill than a bunnyhop so its definitely a skill worth learning. Another good way of learning the motion needed to lift the rear wheel is putting one foot on the ground and trying to lift the rear tire with just one feet, you won't be able to until the light clicks on and you figure out how to do it.
Now that you have mastered the hop (hopefully), you are well on your way to learning the bunnyhop, I've constantly seen many people and sites give very misleading information on how the bunnyhop is done, some just say "pull the handlebars real hard" or "twist your wrist", those are very confusing descriptions, you need to understand how the bunnyhop is done before you understand those body movements, but first you need to learn one more move before all is done. It's simple though, its called the front pull and its a move that will open the door to both bunnyhopping and manualing. Pulling the front is a move that first and foremost, is done with your back and your body and NOT your arms, try rolling at a slow speed, compress and preload your body FORWARDS and explode to the back of the bike shifting all your weight suddenly, let the force created from leaning your weight backwards stretch your arms and pull the front, pushing on the pedals forwards and down also helps. Remember, don't think that just because you are weak and small you won't be able to front pull, I'm thin and was moderately weak (all this bunnyhopping and all this trial moves have made me stronger lol) when first started bunnyhopping and could still lift the front of a 35lbs hardtail with some effort. Practice this motion a LOT, at first I was always overdoing the pull and going backwards or underdoing the pull, its important to be able to lift the front as high as you can without going backwards, maintain it for a second or two and put the front back down (gently) before attempting to bunnyhop.
Phew... now you have learned to lift the rear wheel, hop on 2 wheels at the same time and lift the front, if you still haven't nailed any of this moves, read the guide again, ask any questions in this thread and go practice, once you have mastered all of this moves you are finally ready to start bunnyhopping, see how many people try to sum up bunnyhopping in a sentence? It doesn't work like that, maybe when you have nailed the move it does but when you are in the process of learning it definitely doesn't help. Well, I'm tired now so I'll post the rest later, I know this guide is probably not the best but it should help some people, anyone else who has nailed bunnyhopping feel free to add anything to this thread (I have a feeling Jason222 will have something helpful to add).
Okay, now that you have mastered all the moves explained above then you are ready to being bunnyhopping, now an important thing to consider here is that for better learning start trying to get over stuff from the get go, this was a mistake in my learning process and I had to pay for that (I could bunnyhop but not time it well enough for it to be actually useful in getting over/up stuff) but whatever, use an empty cardboard box or build your own bunnyhop stand or just something you can knock out without crashing in case you miss. Now that is done its time to get to the real thing, well, the first thing you need to bunnyhop is being able to connect the front pull and rear wheel lift moves with a gracious movement that also brings the bike forward, to do this you need to do some things at the same time but don't worry once you make it natural it will feel like one, you need to unweight the back of your bike, lift the rear wheel and "curl" and "throw" your body forwards to throw the bike forwards (with arms, leg, hips, etc) and land, usually this whole process makes you shift your body weight backwards when you land (ending in a position where you feel like you'll sit on your rear tire,), its extremely hard to explain however I can tell you that if when you try to do this the front of the bike goes down and you endo then you are doing it all wrong, you need to be fast and stable enough not to bring the front end down and keep it level with the rear when you are in the air that is why you need to be very fast and fluid when lifting the rear wheel when in the "manual" and watch where your body weight is centered. Remember, your legs, back and arms play a very important role in bunnyhopping. Clearing obstacles take some practice but its easy, first you need to know how much you can keep the front end up, then you need to calculate when you'll need to lift it in relation to your speed and to make sure the rear won't hit the obstacle. And in the end remember, bunnyhopping is nothing more than jumping with your body and bringing the bike with you (hence the importance of foot stance), and remember trial moves (bunnyhopping is one of them) require a lot of understanding of physics (NOTE: this understanding of physics comes from riding and not from "high school classroom" physics lol) and how the bike handles when shifting your weigth, etc.
I would write something a little clearer but my hand hurts from typing (its injured
lol its not an exageration) and I'm not thinking well right now.
Last edited by Chone; 06-22-06 at 09:02 PM.
06-04-06, 07:23 PM
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wow you have a lot of time on your hands
06-05-06, 03:48 PM
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Originally Posted by cierrecart
How anybody who ever rode a bike as a kid could NOT know how to bunny hop is beyond me.
Nice write up either way.
Nice write up either way.
06-05-06, 06:58 PM
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Whenever I try to teach someone how to bunnyhop, the first thing I show them is the rear wheel lift. Lifting the rear wheel off the ground without using the front brake. I then show them the actual bunnyhop itself, but don't explain it entirely. It can be a bit overwhelming for some. So, I tell them to try lifting the front end of the bike as high as they can, and throw their weight forward. This gives them some idea of how it's done, and takes them off the ground a bit.
06-06-06, 02:05 PM
#10
Destroyer of Wheels
Good description! I first learned when my friends all had toe clips and told me I couldn't go it. After working on it I could jump up curbs better than they could and I never had the clips!
I bent my fork on my mtb years ago which actually stopped me from riding for a while - didn't want to break it again. I'm back up and find myself hopping over some potholes but nothing too big so I don't break the bike!
I bent my fork on my mtb years ago which actually stopped me from riding for a while - didn't want to break it again. I'm back up and find myself hopping over some potholes but nothing too big so I don't break the bike!
06-06-06, 02:32 PM
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06-06-06, 03:24 PM
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I didn't ride a bike as a kid - thanks for the writeup. It saves me the embarassment of asking all my friends another dumb newbie question 
