glen - about 4 on my usual 1/1.5 hr loop. dont ride too many trail centres though!
i never said bunnyhopping was more important than steering!
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people who can't wheelie/jump/other tricky skills...
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Posted 2 years ago #
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I know you didn't. Was merely trying to illustrate that cornering was an essential skill, whereas bunnyhop is a nice-to-have.
To go back to the OP - I was much more into jumping when young, although never had bikes that would take the punishment. My wheelie used to be passable (well, I'd think it passable now) and I can't really remember but I imagine hopping and other mucking about stuff seemed much more important then than they do now. These days I'm much more into getting smooth and taking away things that don't need to be there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I can ride with one hand holding the bars, and that's about it. What a bore.
Posted 2 years ago # -
coffeeking - Member
bunnyhops are not too far behind. It's pretty rare that anyone riding at a lowly speed is going to have enough speed to hop UP or OVER many obstacles
see this is something i'm not sure i agree with, and suppose i see being able to get the wheels off the ground - and remember here i'm not saying it's for everyone, but talking about people who want to be able to but can't - as being an extension of the bunnyhop. which, to me, is an essential skill for anything more technical than a bridleway.
any sort of speed and an unexpected root you can't hop over or, ever worse, rut you can't hop sideways out of is lethal if you don't have that technique available.
Posted 2 years ago # -
thisisnotaspoon - Member
raceing a mate down chapel gate and there was a 18"-2ft gap in the tarmac, i chickened out and took the longer chicken run round the edge, he just hoped it and carried on.
Give me a day or so with nothign else to do and I'd be as good as I ever was at wheelies and bunnyhops.
on that basis would that not be a day well spent?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Started riding more regularly in 2004, aged 30.
"The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?"
Go fast, lighten the front wheel and bump it over small things, absorb rear wheel hit with legs. Doesn't work for big stuff.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Roots get nasty because we give them too much attention, not insufficient. Keep looking ahead and driving the bike through and the job is done most of the time. That's what big squishy mtb tyres are for - bumps.
Fair enough hopping out of a rut is nice, but maybe I only dropped into the rut because of failure to look ahead 20 yards previously - probably because I was looking down at a tree root that didn't need looking at!
That's the kind of thing that I am referring to - if your basic skills (and looking is the most basic, most critical) are there then everything gets easier.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I had a BMX as a kid and could do smallish wheelies and bunny hop, all without clips/cleats etc. Now when I try to bunnyhop with flats it's hilarious and often only just on the right side of a wipeout as my legs fly into the air.
As for wheelies, I get frightened any time I get near the balance point I'm aiming for. I need some evening practice when we get some more light, to reclaim those childhood skillz
EDIT I can bunnyhop pretty well with the help of cleats tho'
Posted 2 years ago # -
yeh but doddy (is this doddy?) says its vital for xc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAem3L7Rlpk
don't say i never give you anything.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Ah, maybe its because hopping is second nature to me. Next time i go out, i'll try riding for 10 minutes with never lifting the back wheel off the ground. I'm 100 percent sure it will be slower, harsher on the bike, and more uncomfortable. A frined who i recently starting teaching how to do it, says that he cant believe he used to ride without doing them...
I use hops everywhere, on my road bike to get over pot holes etc, I once hopped over a dead badger as i had no choice cause some t055er was overtaking me. Without that hop I could be dead now...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I reckon it's got something to do with the way you ride changing.
When I was a kid (even up to uni) I could bunnyhop on flats, manual, whatever.
Now I'm not as good at this kind of riding, but I'm loads fitter and faster.
When I was younger I'd go for short rides and session bits, now I go out on my roadbike or for long MTB rides. Just different I guess.
Or maybe mountain biking is becoming golf and people don't have those skills, just Audis and Santa Cruzs?
Posted 2 years ago # -
says its vital for xc
Oh my God! How on earth have I been "doing XC" for 40 years? The spell is broken - next time I get the bike out of the shed the world will come crashing down.By this time some of you will have forgotten that I said bunnyhops weren't as important, not unimportant. You can get by without, but you can't really improve at all if you keep looking at the ground for stuff to jump over that doesn't even need jumping over.
Posted 2 years ago # -
When i was a lot younger in the mid 60s i could wheelie for miles and do bunnyhops with ease and that was on a cycle speedway bike with no brakes.
Now i find both skills very difficult to master so i am considering a skills school day.If it was in me in the 60s it must still be there(perhaps)Posted 2 years ago # -
Is it just me that can't tolerate Doddy in anyway whatsoever!
I spotted him in the Drop Off Cafe, Afan, posing with a copy of MBUK with him on the cover, what a prize plumb!
Posted 2 years ago # -
I can't, I'm as quick as many and faster than some down a lot of trails though! Fitness will get you a fair way
Posted 2 years ago # -
anyways, getting off topic a bit.
some interesting responses about having skills and losing them, losing nerve or being too old to pick them up in the first place(!).
i'm just always amazed that people either don't have such skills - and i'm not really talking about wheelieing here as the practical use of that is limited - when they wish they did.
and i still disagree with people who say being able to bunnyhop isn't essential, from my own experience. not for speed or comfort reasons, necessarily, either.
Posted 2 years ago # -
In the eighties I was a pretty reasonable BMXer, Could bunnyhop over an upright bike, now and again landed a 720 off jumps, reasonably flowy if-a bit dabby flatlander too, but even then I couldn't pull a controlled (forward) wheelie for more than a few metres.
If anything my wheelieing mojo has got worse with age.Posted 2 years ago # -
I can't speak for the other ladies on STW but I'm only just learning these skills.
I think the men learn't tp cycle at an early age and progressed through riding a BMX or a similar bike as a boy, whereas all the women I know, learn to ride then maybe took up horse riding (me), or discovered boys, handbags, shoes, shopping etc. This left a big gap before discovering mtbing and realising that I'd lost out on years of skills.Finding it hard though.
Posted 2 years ago # -
In response to the OP.. this is where I fear the expression 'it's like riding a bike' fails slightly.. when I was a lot younger I could wheelie all round the town if the wind was right.. and bunnyhop and jump.. (and had some pretty mean flatland BMX skills too..) and I could walk on my hands and a few other highly skilled things.. but there is a theory that if you don't practice these things very regularly you will lose the skill slightly... and if you have 5.. 10.. 15 years off for whatever reason then you may lose the skill completely..
I still dream about those wheelies and static 360 bunnyhops inexplicably at night.. but if I try it now I just strain ligaments and pull muscles.. and fall over
I'm dreading the next time someone puts a unicycle in front of me
Posted 2 years ago # -
and i still disagree with people who say being able to bunnyhop isn't essential, from my own experience. not for speed or comfort reasons, necessarily, either.
Useful but not essential. How can you disagree? Lots of people have come on here, who all go and enjoy mountain biking and don't regard it as essential. I teach mountain bikers from beginner level onwards, and we get a long way down the line before it is worth covering bunnyhops. Before we get to that point we are doing other stuff that has higher priority.Posted 2 years ago # -
I think the men learn't tp cycle at an early age and progressed through riding a BMX or a similar bike as a boy, whereas all the women I know, learn to ride then maybe took up horse riding (me), or discovered boys, handbags, shoes, shopping etc.
Well, I don't have the excuse of years of non-riding. I learnt to ride when I was small and have never had an extended time off the bike. But as a kid (i guess age 8 or 9) skills that were important to learn were jumping off curbs and riding with no hands, I can still do these things
Once I got older I was just into riding not practising tricks in the street. Don't miss having these skills either. Don't understand why you'd want to bunnyhop over speed bumps, surely hitting them at speed and jumping off the other side is more fun?
Posted 2 years ago # -
I've wondered about the OP's question before. Even riding to school as a kid I played around doing stoppies, wheelies and bunny hops on my Apollo*.
* Does that make me a chav?
Posted 2 years ago # -
Rode push bikes up until I was 17 and then switched to motorbikes.Had themuntil my late 30s.Enjoyed Trail riding and enduros towards the end of my motorbike career.Started mountain biking in my early forties
Never been able to wheelie,or any other skillz. I get up hills ok,got better at going down the other side
When I read the "How to" section in the mags,I'm totally confused...dropping your hips??? When riding roots,I either steam through the section on the 575,or pick a line on the P7. I just stay loose.....not sure it would work with a dead badger though.Posted 2 years ago # -
I have ridden mtbs for 25 years and have never done any trick stuff at all .Probably cos as a kid I was told to treat bikes as a vehicle and not a toy to trash.As I was 20+when I started mtbing I was also to old for prattimg about like a kid!!
Posted 2 years ago # -
The first bunnyhop i saw was the lad around the corner on some californian something or other. he held the grips with his hands upside down and was managing to lift the back wheel off the ground.. then he got both wheels off the ground together.I was so amazed at this.this all happened about 29 years ago now fs.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I've been riding street bmx since I was 13, which was 14 years ago now. In all that time, I've never ridden dirt, and very rarely ramp, so I've never really had a need to learn to ride dirt jumps. I kinda wish I had now, as I'm no longer bmxing, I've a mountain bike instead.
Posted 2 years ago # -
and i still disagree with people who say being able to bunnyhop isn't essential, from my own experience. not for speed or comfort reasons, necessarily, either.
Well that, in itself, is a stupid statement to make. There are thousands of MTBers that can't bunnyhop but manage to ride just fine, so it can't really be essential can it. Or is it not MTBing if you can't hop?
Posted 2 years ago # -
being able to wheelie for ages is a car park skill as is track standing for more than a few seconds.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I've been riding mtbs since 1989 and was riding my bmx in the woods before that. Never been able to do a proper wheelie or bunny hop. I just have no coordination.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I could do things on my BMX when I was twelve (10 bricker jumps over 7 kids) that I wouldn't dare do now.
age = realising own mortality
When I was a 16 yr old mountain biker I was a much gutsier better rider than the 30+ year old I am now.
I did break my jaw falling off when I was 14, now I don't even go fast enough to fall off
I can still wheelie, and bunnyhop.
Walking back from a pub I saw some kids on a skateboard. Now back in the day I wasn't too bad. Asked for a go thinking I'd show them a thing or two. WARNING!!!! you may never forget how to ride a bike but this does not apply to skateboards. Few pushes a quick turn and about to ollie on to a kerb slide and I'm flat on my arse with kids laughing at me! Lesson taught
Simple rule of life as you get older you get crapper
Posted 2 years ago # -
the abilty to unwieght a bike at either end is a fantastic technique to learn
Posted 2 years ago # -
jedi - Member
the abilty to unwieght a bike at either end is a fantastic technique to learn
I can unwieght it at both ends simultaneously, i call this trick.....
'falling off'
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted 2 years ago #
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Bunnyhopping is a lot harder when you have luggage front and rear.
Or does this not qualify as MTB-ing?
Posted 2 years ago # -
bike - check!
Mountain - check!
Yeah - I'd say its MTBing
Posted 2 years ago #
Topic Closed
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