So, I can trackstand ok, but I’m not really able to hop my front or wheel around from that position – ie to reposition the front wheel or do small endos around tight switchbacks.

What’s the technique, particularly for nudging the front wheel left or right? Maybe I should be practising 2 wheel bunnyhops?

I cant work out if I should have the brakes on when trying to do this, or try and get a front and back rocking motion going, in order to stay in the same place and just rotate.

I’m not looking for full on trials skills here (that aint going to happen!), just enough to help with tight turns and to make more out of trackstands.

You mean when stationary in a trails-esque way or still slowly rolling?

If stationary, with brakes on, push down > back > up on the pedals (a circular motion) whilst pushing your weight forwards. forwards. More than you think. Arms pretty straight to get your centre of gravity highish. More leverage for pulling the bike’s rear up. You can always just release the front brake if you feel you’re going over the bars.

For lifting the front, brakes on, weight back. BACK. More than you think (see the pattern here – exaggerated movements). Pull back on the bars. Depending on your strength and the bike, you may get the front up. You may need a squirt of power through the pedals i.e. a lot of pressure on the forward pedal > brake off > brake on.

I always find this stuff easier to do on a rigid bike. You can always use the rebound on a suspension to help in by compressing and then pulling up as the shock extends.

Can you bunny hop? Learn from the master. Adding rotation isn’t that hard. Coil your body the opposite way to the way you want to rotate and then, as the wheels un-weight, uncoil.

For less trailsy, practice rocking (stationary), rock more and more until either wheel lifts. Rock more and more until it lifts for a longer period. Then use the body coil effect to move the wheel. I always find the back will rotate more slowly doing this. The front is faster as it’s more of a brute-force type move.

For endos, rolling very slowly, steer slightly in the opposite direction to the way you want to turn and coil away from it too. As you hit the brake, turn sharply into the turn and uncoil.

All of this is very hard to explain. As always, the best way is to watch other people. Youtube is full of amazing trials riders.

Also, practice somewhere soft and use flat pedals.

FWIW, I’m not particularly good at trials riding. Entered a couple of comps when I was younger and sucked. I only do it now for car park kudos. In what world doesn’t a 180 endo look cool? The ladies love it 😉

American or European bunnyhop?

Thanks guys.

European in this case, and I’m talking “from stationary” here, ie from a trackstand I want to be able to lift my front wheel and reposition it a foot or so to the left or right (same with the rear, which I am a little better at).

For the front, pulling up on the bars feels wrong (pulling is usually wrong with most mtb skills afterall). If I try to pull the front wheel up while trackstanding, I end up pulling my body down and losing balance. I guess it should be more of a push down and pre load type motion.

Anyway, lawn strimmed, so off outside to practice…

Hard to explain… just the old case of practice. I’m pretty sure I do it without brakes, happily able to do a full clockface rotation with around a dozen front wheel side hops, but I really can’t explain a technique! Not braking allows a little motion which helps keep balance, I think.

Jedi would be perfect for teaching you that.

Best I’ve seen at that is the artist formerly known as singlespeedstu.

I’m not sure if I can still do it, but I used to be able to do a full 360 (or near enough) spin on the back wheel from a standstill. The back brake was definitely on (or at least till after 180 degrees, when it was easier to complete the rest of the turn with the brake off). As with most basic skills in cycling, it’s just a case of a simple weight shift. Obviously it’s more exaggerated if you want to do 180 degrees or 360 degrees.