Bunny Hopping jumps to gain height??

Ok, so my jumping technique mostly consists of “hit fast and hope” but i can do a reasonably proper bunny hop (say ~15″ high) on flat ground,over a tree trunk or whatever.

I should be able to apply the same technique to gain height on slow entry jumps right, so why can’t i? 👿

)I’ve watched the GMBN vid on jumping where the Don shows the technique, but still i can’t seem to get the move nailed………)

Go see Jedi at uk bike skills, he’ll lead you away from the dark side…

Timing probably, you need to pump the lip at the right time. Plus it’s not quite the same as bunny hopping it’s more of a weighting and unweighting action. How much you pump/pull back/squash differs depending on the lip, and the gap etc.
Go out. find some jumps. ride. repeat.
If no jumps, build jumps then ride and repeat.
If you’re not comfortable jumping on your own find someone local to practise with, whereabouts are you?

I thought jumping was about pumping properly in the transition and timing it right.

Just trying to imagine it – properly bunny hopping (i.e. front wheel off the ground first) during a transition (which is where you’d have to start doing it) would involve getting your weight back and having quite straight arms at a time when you’d normally be looking to have your elbows out and be generally pretty neutral and relaxed. I reckon this would be likely cause issues whilst airborne or (more likely) landing.

I’m sure I do something like – compress weight forward toward the lip of the jump, then u weight and pull up the bars exactly as I hit the lip, then gradually throw the bike forwards under me toward the landing. I dunno if that’s a bunny hop (I can’t do a proper bunny hop), but I’m guessing it probably isn’t. More like timing, speed and pumping I think.

EDIT: I see you are talking about ‘slow’ jumps… god knows what they are, or why you’d want to do them. If they really are that slow then, yes. Bunny hopping will be your friend, possibly… 🙂

Bunnyhopping is the wrong movement – if you bunnyhop on a jump your front wheel will go really high, or off to the side, or anywhere but over the jump in a controlled manner.

It’s more of a squish into the transition where you pump your weight down through the bike and then your feet last.

Its so difficult to describe how to pop off a lip! You can get serious height and distance though with a good manual bunny-hop off a lip. Look how late his back wheel leaves the transition, means he needs far less speed to clear it. Like this:

like this^^^ except i can’t do this!! 😆

I should be able to apply the same technique to gain height on slow entry jumps right, so why can’t i?

Not much to add that isn’t in the video above. Perhaps video yourself and post it up so we can see what you are/are not doing? At a guess though, i’d say you haven’t practiced it enough or are trying a bit too hard.

Perhaps video yourself and post it up so we can see what you are/are not doing?

Yay/Nay?

That’s a great video, thanks. I need something to improve my BMX jumping 😀

This may be of help too:

A key tip I learned from Pedal Progression was that you need to match the pump speed to the length of the transition. The idea is that you are crouched at the base of the ramp and extended at the end, so if it’s a long transition you will therefore extend more slowly than a shorter ramp where you need to pump fast to get your legs fully extended by the time your rear while hits the lip.

I’ll break out the camera next time i session my local jumps,then we can all laugh at how terrible my technique is…… 😆

tomhoward
Go see Jedi at uk bike skills, he’ll lead you away from the dark side…

Much like the A Team, you don’t find Tony, he finds you……….. 😆

Yep take the camera and some mates, we had a day like that a while back with go pro, phones and dslr, being able to watch and show each other where/how/what was happening was really useful on the day then looking back through the pics later over a beer or 2 for some more detailed analysis or piss taking 🙂 plus side is I got some nice riding pics too
IMG_5344 by Mike Smith[/url], on Flickr

Bmx tracks are a great place to practice too

I know i revert back to “squashing” jumps when i get scared!

For example:

Reasonable take off (probably not quite getting the front up high enough)

THEN

Oooh, no, i’m going HIGH, i’m SCARED = squash city

😆

Go and see Tony (or Nathan) aside from being an outstanding coach his facility (playground) is unrivalled.

I’ll break out the camera next time i session my local jumps,then we can all laugh at how terrible my technique is……

Looking forward to it 😀

Honestly, it’s impossible to offer advice/tips on this type of thing without seeing someone in action. I’ve said it before, but i can’t often contribute usefully to this place as my knowledge of bikes/products is fairly limited but i think/hope i can help with stuff like this.

mikewsmith- was the piss taking aimed at those socks? 😉

The video Woody posted resonates with me. I could not have articulated it anything like as well as that, but that is what I do on the bike.

mikewsmith- was the piss taking aimed at those socks?

I doubt it as I think they are Jenn’s **** Cancer ones

Yep the cancer socks don’t get piss takes. Also nothing wrong with pink socks.

Oh my. I hang my head in absolute shame, I had no idea. Apologies.

Compress and then unweight using body/hips and draw legs up as the bike gets light.

There should be no conscious effort of pulling the bike up to initiate the movement off the lip, especially from the bars. Bar pull can cause pulling one side more then the other and will result in the whole bike turning in the air. Unlike a whip where the back end of the bike steps out but the front generally stays pointed in the direction of travel.

It’s ok, i can’t do whips either…………. 😆

alextemper – Member

Compress and then unweight using body/hips and draw legs up as the bike gets light.

There should be no conscious effort of pulling the bike up to initiate the movement off the lip, especially from the bars. Bar pull can cause pulling one side more then the other and will result in the whole bike turning in the air. Unlike a whip where the back end of the bike steps out but the front generally stays pointed in the direction of travel.
That is what I do, and is not what that guy in the video ^^^ is doing – and he is getting way more height for his speed than I would. I find with short ramps (a wheelbase or less) my technique results in effectively squashing the jump and getting no height. The unweighting has to happen before your front wheel leaves the lip, which is before your rear wheel has started to take off. To get height off that type of jump you would have to lean back and essentially go up the ramp on your rear wheel. I am not able to do this at the moment, but then I am crap at bunnyhopping as well.

Okay, do you worst STW!!

(warning this is NOT Red Bull Rampage 😆 i’m using a very small, low and slow jump to try to work out what i should be doing!!)

First time through i do what i normally would do, and pump with my legs, pre-loading bike fairly evenly (fork/shock) into the take off ramp, and it bounces back up, level and gets reasonable height

Then i try to apply more of a bunny hop technique, front up first, then push up and through to lift rear afterwards. By try 3 (4th jump) this is looking better and starting to get some height but i’m not getting either the front high enough (bars into my belly) or popping up and forwards off the back enough i think??

In all cases i’m rolling into this jump really quite slowly (~jogging pace probably) and you’d not even get the wheels off the floor if you did nothing on the ramp.

1st and 4th looked similar to me other than front wheel higher on 4 (as you have the bunny hop technique)

What are you trying to acheive ? A really long high jump at slow speed ? My view is that’s mostly leg power and timing (but I am rubbish)

Sent you an email buddy!

I’m trying to learn how to really get high off the take off ramp, by using the bunny hop to boost myself into the air. As i said previously in this thread, on flat ground i can bunny hop probably an 15″ dia tree truck, but i currently can’t find the timing / technique to do this up and off a take off ramp 🙁

Practice and more practice ..for speed flow with the jump for height and length execution of the “American bunny hop” at correct take off moment gives more airtime

Your first jump looked all wrong. You seemed to take off before the end of the booter? It looked like you did an English bunnyhop halfway up the take off….

It all starts much further down the take off, can’t see what you’re doing at the bottom

davidtaylforth – Member
Your first jump looked all wrong. You seemed to take off before the end of the booter? It looked like you did an English bunnyhop halfway up the take off…

This. (Disclaimer: I’m shit at jumping) it’s the bunny hop motion you’re looking for not an actual bunny hop, you want to be using the whole take off

I’m guess people didn’t actually read what i wrote in my post….

The first jump in that video IS an “english bunny hop” or just an even pre-load of the bike on the take off ramp! The last 3 are me trying to do proper american bunny hops up the same ramp!

It’s all about preload and timing.
As you approach the upslope, you want to be low down/crouched on the bike, and as you reach the lip force the bike down into the ground/lengthen your legs/arms.
Think of it more as what you’d do to lift both wheels at the same time, rather than a true bunnyhop motion.

Do it too early, and the bike will be unweighted too early so you don’t make full benefit of the upslope/lip, and end up squashing the jump (combine this with a whip, and you’ll have a good scrub going on!)
Too late, and you’re back wheel will be launched and your front wheel won’t, possibly leading to some interesting nose manuals/OTBs.

In response to your vid, it’s hard to say without seeing what you’re doing further down the upslope, but it looks like you’re putting more effort in to trying to pull the bike into the (aka SPD jumping), rather than launching the bike in to the air.

If possible, try jumping on a short travel hardtail/jump bike, as it’ll give you a far better feel of what’s involved.
Suspension soaks up a lot of your effort, so not only does your timing have to compensate for the suspension, you have to put a lot more effort in to get a similar amount of boost/pop compared with a short travel jump bike.

The first jump in that video IS an “english bunny hop” or just an even pre-load of the bike on the take off ramp! The last 3 are me trying to do proper american bunny hops up the same ramp!

That’s why the first looks the best in terms of technique.

Think of it as an even pre-load to get maximum boost, which should then naturally lead to you ending up in an airborne bunnyhop type position with you low on the bike, at which point you can move the bike beneath you to adjust for the landing.

As it stands, you never really end up low on the bike in the air. You could go the SPD technique of pulling the bike up with your arms/legs, but that will just lead to problems later.

maxtorque – Member
I’m guess people didn’t actually read what i wrote in my post….

The first jump in that video IS an “english bunny hop” or just an even pre-load of the bike on the take off ramp! The last 3 are me trying to do proper american bunny hops up the same ramp!

Have you got a full speed version of the video? You are correct though, it is better to slow down a bit to learn the correct technique.

It didn’t look like you pulled up with your arms at all (you looked like you just “stood up”), which is the trick to getting good height off a small jump.

The good thing about that small jump is that it has a nice long, even sloped take off ramp, and the run in is straight and goes up the side of the hill behind it. So, i marked a line on that hill and rolled in, without pedalling at a pretty consistent speed on all 4 jumps. What i should have done is included a run where i did nothing at all as reference to show the relative effects of each pump technique. However, as i said, i expect that doing nothing would probably not even result in the wheels leaving the ground on that jump at the low speeds i was rolling into it!

The normal english bunny hop (ie crouch, standup, crush bike evenly into ramp) gets good air, but once you reach a certain height, then you can’t get any higher because, especially on a long travel FS bike, you will always be waiting for the suspension to uncompress and that absorbs lot of the effort.

However, the american bunny hop, with it’s separate front and rear lifts and where your body mass is leveraged around the rear wheel by the chain stays can (when done right…. 😉 ) get you a lot higher i think, and is the key to really launching off jumps with relatively flat transistions?

I’m also cautious of “Pulling up the front” to try to gain height, which can lead to instability and er, loss of intended trajectory 😆 ie, holding up the front is fine, pulling it up not so good i think??