What with all the rubbish weather, i’ve been concentrating a bit on some basic trails stylee skills (note the word basic, i ain’t talking about jumping on my back wheel across a river or anything like that!).
So, do you think these sorts of balance skills are useful? For normal XC? For AM? For jumping etc?

And how long has it taken people to learn stuff like a decent controlled manual, or a proper bunnyhop etc?

now mostly on his backwheel (or ass) MaxyT 😉

Took up motorbike trials a few years ago.
Found it helped on really tech rocky stuff, and was loads of fun. 😀
Not really the same as bike trials though, now it’s no stop.
Any time spent on your bike is good though.

Yes trials skills are useful for every kind of riding. Slow, controlled movements help with faster, more energetic movements.

I am rubbish at proper trials, but can pull a half decent trackstand, manual and bunny hop. Took me about a summer of practising before it clicked.

How did you learn the bunny hop? I think i need a nice smooth flat and firm run in, and preffereably a movable varriable height object to jump (cardboard box perhaps)? On my reqular weekly ride there is a section with 3 trees down across the trail, and i do get over them without stopping or putting a foot down, but it ain’t smooth or pretty to watch 😉

Can’t say Ive ever had to do a gaphop at a trail centre. Not really a useful skill to have.

A pedalhop (I think thats what they’re called) can be quite useful.

Bunnyhops and manuals arent really trials skills, anyone thats half decent on a bike should be able to do these.

ok, i’ll downgrade immediately to only a ‘quarter decent’ on my bike 😉

Used to do motorcycle trials as a kid and that grounding has deffinatly helped my mtb’ing. Really enjoy the slow, steep technical type of riding like coming down dollywaggon pike and nan Bield in the lakes. Quite satisfying to stop, pick a route through a rockfest then ride it without putting a foot down. Doesn’t always work out like that though 😳

@maxtorque I never tried to learn how to bunnyhop. I started by jumping off traffic bumps etc. As I got a feel for it, I naturally started using more and more obstacles to get air off (down to roots and little mounds of dirt on the trail) until one day I realised I could just do it on the flat.

I’d say if you can already do little jumps, concentrate on getting more air. It’s things like compressing the fork and tyres and timing when you lift the bars and unweight the bike that help with bunnyhopping.

If you can roll up to a kerb/log at a reasonable pace, lift the front well clear and then unweight the rear enough to not smack the wheel, in one motion, you’re on the way to a bunny hop. Just do it with more exaggerated motion and more pull-up force/good timing for the unweight and you’ll be hopping a foot or so fairly easily. After that it’s power and timing, up to skill limits. Do it on flats to start.

I’m rubbish at trials but having a ‘little 90s hardtail’ taught me some of the basics, a decent trackstand, pedal-drops and rolling-drops and a roll-through-dips manual are the basics that helped improve my trail riding. I’ve never got proper rolling-forever manuals though, no matter how much I wanted them.

[/quote]How did you learn the bunny hop?

Watching videos and then lots of practice. I was never any good at bunnyhops as a kid, so decided I wanted to learn when I got back into riding a few years ago.

Learn the basics of the manual and the bunnyhop is a natural progression.