[Closed] people who can't wheelie/jump/other tricky skills...

i used to be able to wheelie for miles on a road bike, motocross bike and jump as well. now i have a permanent gravity enhancer on my bike and body. can't do either to save my life. although i probably could if i took the time to practice them.

was that after a riding interlude?

I learnt to jump on a Raleigh Chico. BMXs weren't around back then.

well yep - anything really. i first learnt to jump on some non-specific child's bike with bits of wood and bricks for ramps then developed the skills wherever possible. you couldn't really not have learned, with a youth so spent.

I could do wheelies, endo's, front hops, back hops etc. as a kid on a BMX (never really got into jumping) but can barely even wheelie now (mostly as I wear SPDs and lack confidence or desire to try with them :p ). Only endo's I do these days are not deliberate and usually result in pain.

The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?

I learnt to ride a bike about 12 years ago & took up cycling as a hobby about 10 years ago, I can't wheelie or jump for toffee but I can trackstand for hours

I only got into biking when I was in my 20's, didn't ride much before that. Hence I have taken years to build up the skills to jump, bunny hop etc. Still trying to perfect wheelies and manuals, gradually getting there. Can find the balance point for a wheelie now! Often wish I had ridden more as a child.

if you can't do such things, did you only recently start participating in such riding?

I started MTBing at about 8, about 20 years ago. I quicly learned that I couldn't jump or wheelie, but I could handle drops and long rolling endos round corners no problem, and ride the steepest of steep slopes under control where no-one else would dare to even try. I never needed to use wheelies or jumps on trails, so I didn't continue to try. For the sake of it, I started learning trials a few years ago, and got reasonably good but it took a LOT of practice and is certainly not the sort of stuff you learn as a kid, so it's not like I don't want to learn, just never ever needed to.

I think the only time in my life I wasn't riding bikes was between about 20 and 30. Maybe those missed years are responsible for my inability to wheelie.

rode from 3/4years old onward until I got a chicken-chaser (slowped) at 16. Couldn't wheelie then and still can't now.
Admittedly my Raleigh Striker weighed a ton and every other bike I got was a racer of some sort (with cow horns in one case), though other ppl could wheelie them, I never could.

The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?

Taught myself to jump when I was 7 or 8, but then went road bike until the moped licence arrived. Only got back into biking about 8 years ago, so perhaps the intervening 30 years had something to do with it

Only started riding mtb's about 5 years ago at the age of 44, and don't even try to wheelie/jump/whatever. The last time I rode any form of push-bike was about 30 years before that, so it's true what they say, you never do forget how to ride a bike, though maybe there ought to be an addendum to that relating to your level of skill / degree of radness... 8)

When I was young I just wanted to be like Eddy Merckx or Barry Hoban or Tommy Simpson.

The only skills we learned were trackstands, madison changeovers (fantastic!) and riding along steering with one foot while looking for Aztec bars at the bottom of the mussette.

I've been MTBing since i was 10, my mates and I would spend evenings either on dartmoor or in the school grounds learning how to jump/endo/bunnyhop/sidehop/backhop, aven spent one silly summer learning how to wheelie without a front wheel! I am 100% certain this is why I'm happy hopping along on trails now.
That said - I am scared sh*tless of big drops and rarely do manmade jumps.

If you want to improve your bunnyhopping skills - go to Princetown and ride the smooth, but drain-ridden track toward the widowmaker over and over again. You'll either learn or destroy your wheels in the massive gutters/bridges you have to ride at speed! Once you can do it, all of them are clearable and if you hit them heading toward princetown, some of the best fun you can imagine!

When I was a teen and riding MX, Enduros and trials I was a fool for jumping, would launch off anything now I want my wheels in contact with the ground. I think it is an age thing.

The only wheelie I mastered as a kid was the big one where you pop the front end up and jump off the back 'AV IT!' I have spds on now days and it just doesn't work like it used to - for some reason the chicks don't dig it and I have a sore coxic 😐 I reckon I'll just go back to doing long skids that's a quality stunt that no tires of 🙂

[i]The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop? [/i]

you can't be serious, surely. people do it everyday.

I watched the Boarder Cross last night and want to learn to jump. What's Jedi's number?

I couldn't even wheelie my Raleigh Chopper. 😳 Of my 40yrs, I've probably been riding bikes for about 30 of them, and mountain bikes for nearly 20yrs. I can just get enough lift to pop my front wheel over stuff and then use my huge mass to drag the rear wheel behind it. 😈

Getting both wheels off the ground at once is obviously some sort of dark magic involving ritual sacrifice. I know it can be done, and I've fooled myself into thinking I've done it a few times, but I reckon it's fraught with danger.

B.

if that boarder cross course was dirt i would pee my pants with excitement.

Skids and Wheelies as a child were compulsory! I don't know how you've not learnt! We used to build a ramp in the street and ride it all day until someone stacked it and either broke the ramp or themselves.

Out on the trail if it looks remotely like a ramp the urge to jump off it is WAY too strong not to. Skids, wheelies and stoppies are all good fun but if you can't bunny hop i've no idea how you can ride off road.

Edit

The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?

you can't be serious, surely. people do it everyday.

It's like a get out of jail free card, surely you must stack it if you can't bunny hop?

I was Being Tongue in cheek there...

Edit- partly. The more I think about it the more important I think it is, for hopping over unexpected obstacles, up rocks, over roots, into downslopes, the list goes on. In my opinion it's much more important than being able to jump a double or land a 3 ft drop...

surely you must stack it if you can't bunny hop?

Started mountainbiking in the late eighties, and I consider myself technically inept (is that a word?)
However that doesn't stop me riding anything on the trail, and I've been out with people and looked over my shoulder to see them walking stuff.

A wheelie or jump isn't a priority to me, getting from a to b as quickly as possible is. If I have to do anything that I think might damage the bike I wont risk it.

I didn't learn to bunny hop until a few years ago having been happily riding off road for decades. I didn't know it was a prerequisite and hardly ever bunny hop out on the trails now. It is handy for speedbumps tho

Edit: Lyons - being able to lift the front wheel is very useful and I could always do that to get up steps and over rocks

The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?

But bunnyhops are quite hard.

I just manual and/or unweight the bike instead usually.

do find it amusing when there is a small fallen tree accross a trail, which perhaps looks a bit slippy... so you hop over it, and turn back to see half the group has got off to lift their bike over it.

maybe its a confidence thing too, but a simple decent bunny hop can save a whole lotta faff.

I can manual/ wheelie/ bunnyhop without even thinking about it. If I'm riding along and discover a bit of trail that needs one of those to get over it then I can do it without thinking.

However if I stop and try and do one on purpose on the flat, I usually mess it up!

Edit- partly. The more I think about it the more important I think it is, for hopping over unexpected obstacles, up rocks, over roots, into downslopes, the list goes on. In my opinion it's much more important than being able to jump a double or land a 3 ft drop.

It depends how fast you ride and how technical the slopes are. Sure doubles and 3ft drops are less commonly used, but 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, and with the advent of full sus, even beginners can bounce over most stuff without worrying about hops. Riding a rigid rather rapidly requires hopping skills, but again only at speed.

tracknico - the tree has to be pretty big for front wheel over, back will follow not to work. Plus how many trees over the trail per ride are you going to encounter? Versus how many corners? I'd suggest good cornering technique is a hell of a lot more useful.

Not saying bunnyhop is use[i]less[/i], merely less useful.

I think i'm just so used to doing them I can't really imagine not having the option. I reckon the comment about suss bikes is fair, on a HT jumping an obstacle that a FS would soak up is quicker and comfier.

I'd love to learn to backflip... but where do you even start with that?!

We used to build a ramp in the street and ride it all day until someone stacked it and either broke the ramp or themselves.

I think i answered my own question.

I can shift the bike arround, lift the front/back up as required, only ever missed the ability to bunny hop properly once, was 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. But for 99% of the time a front wheel lift and unweighting the rear is all that required.

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!

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.

I can ride with one hand holding the bars, and that's about it. What a bore.

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, [i]is[/i] 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.

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?

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.

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.

I had a BMX as a kid and could do [i]smallish[/i] 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'

yeh but doddy (is this doddy?) says its vital for xc.

don't say i never give you anything.

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...

I reckon it's got something to do with the [i]way[/i] 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?

says its vital for xc

By this time some of you will have forgotten that I said bunnyhops weren't [i]as[/i] important, not [i]un[/i]important. 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.

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)

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!

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 🙂

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

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?

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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?

being able to wheelie for ages is a car park skill as is track standing for more than a few seconds.

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.

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

the abilty to unwieght a bike at either end is a fantastic technique to learn

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'

🙂

Bunnyhopping is a lot harder when you have luggage front and rear.

[img] [/img]

Or does this not qualify as MTB-ing?

bike - check!

Mountain - check!

Yeah - I'd say its MTBing

😉

lyons - Member
The thing that baffles me is how do people ride off road without being able to bunnyhop?

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.

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.

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.

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

ononeorange - Member

Never come across a video on the net either of the more basic skills and how to do them.

[url=

to bunnyhop[/url]

get involved 🙂

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

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!

Thanks theflatboy. I'll have a look when I get home from work.

Good job!

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.