… at what age did you start riding mtbs/bmxs etc? only cos there seem to be threads on here all the time about people without such skills, and i can remember learning them all in my childhood without ever really thinking about it.

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

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?

Baffles seems a bit strong. I think you can get by with a pretty so-so bunnyhop. There's lots and lots to learn before that gets to the top of the priority list.

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 🙂

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.

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?

Presumably that's tongue in cheek too? I'm so bad at telling.

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 useless, 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, 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.

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?