lyons - Member
The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?
Managed the last 20 odd yrs without having to master the art!!
18mls today without a hop anywhere
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people who can't wheelie/jump/other tricky skills...
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Managed the last 20 odd yrs without having to master the art!!
18mls today without a hop anywherePosted 2 years ago # -
We used to skateboard with a guy who was really good at BMX. Often he'd loan us his bike in return for use of a board so when I was about 13 I could easily wheelie, bunnyhop and even do the odd trick (bar spins out of kickers, grinds on rails etc). Now I can't and would hospitalise myself trying I think.
Posted 2 years ago # -
coffeeking - Member
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.
saying i disagree with something is as stupid statement to make? i better keep an eye on that...
glenp - Member
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 probably disagree coming from a position of already being able to do it. but having got my 28 year old friend riding offroad for the first time recently he learnt in a day, while my dad who's about to turn 60 recently went for a 20 mile mtb ride with me and he got me to teach him on the way round as well.
i imagine the people who can hippity hop already see it as essential, those who can't would do if they could.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Started mtb'ing in my mid-30's which probably explains why I have never learnt any of the "basic" skills - in fact I don't even know what they are, never mind able to do them! I would probably regard them as near-essential if I could do them, but remain in blissful ignorance.... Never come across a video on the net either of the more basic skills and how to do them.
Posted 2 years ago # -
i imagine the people who can hippity hop already see it as essential, those who can't would do if they could.
Nope. I can bunny hop. I hardly ever use it out on the trails, I don't see it as an essential skill at all, I have been riding offroad since the 70s.
Most of the bunnyhopping I do is to amuse myself when commmuting
Posted 2 years ago # -
ononeorange - Member
Never come across a video on the net either of the more basic skills and how to do them.
get involved
Posted 2 years ago # -
you can ride off road with the ability to hop and you ride off road without it. As long as you smile it matters not.
if you cant do something ,that can be sorted. if you won't, that is another thing altogether
Posted 2 years ago # -
I suppose it depends on how you view the trail. I look for stuff I can enjoy and pushes my comfort zone while enjoying my surroundings, where as I get the impression a few people are content with just enjoying the surrounding and getting some exercise.
As the Thai's would say "Same same but different" It's all good!
Posted 2 years ago # -
Thanks theflatboy. I'll have a look when I get home from work.
Good job!
Posted 2 years ago # -
saying i disagree with something is as stupid statement to make?
Disagree all you like, doesn't stop it being stupid. Your disagreement was suggesting you thought it was impossible to MTB without bunnyhopping skills [i.e. essential], which has been completely and utterly disproven. Disagreeing with something that has been emphatically proven is bordering on insanity.
i probably disagree coming from a position of already being able to do it
I can already do it. In fact I've developed sufficienty tricky skills to be able to ride end-on at a picnic bench, hop up, spin 180, hop on the rear and gap jump to the next. But I don't use it [bunnyhopping] offroad very frequently. As with TJ, it's more of a fun thing when I fancy, rather than required.
Posted 2 years ago # -
coffeeking - Member
saying i disagree with something is as stupid statement to make?
Disagree all you like, doesn't stop it being stupid. Your disagreement was suggesting you thought it was impossible to MTB without bunnyhopping skills [i.e. essential], which has been completely and utterly disproven.
wow, it gets better and better - good to have different view points, eh? and i obviously missed the bit where it was "completely and utterly disproven"!
ononeorange - no probs, mate - that's the same vid my friend used, though i imagine they're all pretty similar, and he was hopping all over the place in a few hours practice.
Posted 2 years ago # -
The bit where it was disproven was the point where many people pointed out that they MTB without using bunnyhops. It's not a viewpoint thing, its right or wrong. Some people don't bunnyhop while MTBing, so it isnt *essential*. Simple as that! You might like it, you might use it, but it's not essential. A bike is essential for MTBing. The ability to pedal helps and could be argued to be essential, but hopping isn't.
Posted 2 years ago #
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ah i see. yes, i accept you can go riding offroad without being able to do basic skills such as little hops etc. but we have a different perspective on their importance and value to anything vaguely technical.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Last Friday as I was heading down the last long hill before home after a pleasantly brisk cycle through the woods when a car timidly overtook me. Two minutes later I caught up with the car as it was stopped in the middle of the (singletrack) road with hazard lights on. Approaching with caution I was to find that the lady driver had got out of the car and was moving a dead badger to the side of the road! She must have identified my lack of bunnyhopability in the passing. This actually happened btw!
I too could hop and wheelie in my yoof, but on a break from biking from 16 to 36, the beer seems to have taken its toll!
Posted 2 years ago # -
coffeeking...
you can hop onto a picnic bench table? then 180 and hop onto the next one?
backwards?
Posted 2 years ago # -
As a kid I loved bmx- utterly crap at it and I distinctly remember always hitting my nuts.
Doesnt mean I cant enjoy mountain biking now though does it?
Posted 2 years ago # -
hora - Member
As a kid I loved bmx- utterly crap at it and I distinctly remember always hitting my nuts.
Doesnt mean I cant enjoy mountain biking now though does it?
no, i don't think anyone's said or implied that...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I think I see the problem here - understanding the meaning of the word "essential".
–adjective
1. absolutely necessary; indispensableWe actually have a lesson in our starter session which is negotiating a log laying on the track. The point of this exercise is to get trust for the equipment up and undue respect for the bump down in the mind of the rider. The purpose being to get them looking through the trail and carrying their flow rather than looking down at the trail looking for stuff that doesn't need anything doing to it.
If there are two bumps (or three, or four) at inconvenient spacing along the singletrack - if your normal MO is to insist on hopping over things you will very often jump over one and into the next. When you could have just ridden over them all and carried you attention through the trail. Not only is bunnyhopping rarely essential, it can actually be a bad thing because you end up never realising that a few tree roots can just be ignored and ridden over.
Posted 2 years ago # -
bigdonx - Member
the lady driver had got out of the car and was moving a dead badger...
She must have identified my lack of bunnyhopability in the passing.
you're confusing bunnyhopping with badgerhopping there.
Posted 2 years ago # -
glenp - Member
I think I see the problem here - understanding the meaning of the word "essential".
not quite. as a different example, a small bridge over a stream with two steps to get onto it.
some would suggest that you could simply stop, carry the bike onto the bridge and carry on. my view would be that that is unacceptably disruptive to the ride so it is essential to learn how to hop neatly onto it and carry on without stopping.
different opinions, as i've already stated. i really wasn't trying to get into an argument about this, either, as you're clearly entitled to your view that i have no interest in changing.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Yep - I can imagine some scenarios where a bunnyhop will enable you to ride rather than push for a second or two. But they are few and far between compared with building a positive mentality and confidence that you can ride through things and not scour the ground for hoppy opportunities.
It is hundreds of times more useful to learn good looking skills and carrying flow through a trail than to think you need to hop over everything. Bunnyhopping can be learned later.
Posted 2 years ago # -
theflatboy - or just ride up it? I have a similar sounding obstacle ( two steps onto a bridge) on a couple of my normal routes and I can get both the solo and the tandem up them without bunnyhopping. Lift / unweight the front and let momentum bring the rear up perhaps with a little unweighting of the rear. Infact I did 4 steps onto a bridge like that on a solo and regularly do two without hopping
I cannot think of any obstacle I cannot get over without bunny hopping that you could by bunnyhopping - you might be able to carry more speed with a hop - water bars for example
Posted 2 years ago # -
yes, so you've said. several times.
(edit - not you, TJ)
Posted 2 years ago # -
yep, TJ - quite possibly. i would consider the need to slow down prohibitive, in favour of just learning to hop up, but i guess you could roll up over anything where your back wheel will hit before your chainrings do!
Posted 2 years ago # -
riding up steps sounds like short cut to pinch flats.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Alright. You've gone on about it as well!
Maybe you're saying that there are essential skills, but some are more essential than others. (ie if you can't ride to the bridge in the first place it hardly matters that you can't bunnyhop on to it). Which means nothing other than you don't know what essential means.
Posted 2 years ago # -
i'm only "going on about it" because, rather than agreeing to disagree you are persisting in either trying to convince me/somebody that i'm wrong or suggest that i don't understand the words that i'm saying, which is fairly patronising.
i think it's essential, and thankfully am sufficiently educated to know what that means, you don't.
Posted 2 years ago # -
riding up steps sounds like short cut to pinch flats.
Absolutely, so you need to slow down to a suitable speed, which is easier to teach beginners than anything else. If you took the "essential" (sic) view then you would have to advise beginners not to go out mountain biking until they learned to bunnyhop.Posted 2 years ago # -
Thedflatboy - its clearly isn't essential as many of us don't use it and you cannot detail a situation where a bunnyhop will allow you to clear and obstacle that cannot be cleared without.
Posted 2 years ago # -
once again, TJ, i view having to slow down because you don't have a skill a reason to acquire it. you don't.
Posted 2 years ago # -
hold tight mate, im not suggesting for a second that it is essential to learn how to hop up two stairs...
i appreciate you are perhaps getting a bit shirty as people are questioning your views and as an instructor you have to be fairly infallible, but try not to fly off the handle...
all im saying is if you ride up stairs, you are quite likely to pinch puncture, the more stairs the more likely if you ask me...
Posted 2 years ago # -
Rumour has it that some ramblers manage to walk off-road without even mastering the basics of a roll or speed vault.
What are they going to do when they hit a bit of technical trail without a firm foundation of parkour?
Nutters!Posted 2 years ago # -
i think it's essential, and thankfully am sufficiently educated to know what that means, you don't.
This is great fun flatboy! If essential meant what you think it means then all the people who have said they don't much bother with bunnyhopping would have to not go mountain biking at all until they sorted that problem out. But they do go mountain biking. So it can't be essential.I can certainly agree to disagree over riding style. That's everyone's perogative. I may even hop over a thing or two myself from time to time.
Can't see how we can differ over the definition of essential though, since that part isn't down to me or you. Unless you have you have your own language that is almost like English but not quite.
Posted 2 years ago # -
tracknico - I'm not shirty - just having fun.
Posted 2 years ago # -
i think it's essential, and thankfully am sufficiently educated to know what that means, you don't.
Well I'm working from the normal definition :
absolutely necessary; vitally necessary;
Not the "nice oils" sort of defnition:
containing, or having the properties of, a concentrated extract of a plant, drug, food, etc.
Your call.
Posted 2 years ago #
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