Does this mean I can't ride my mountain bike anymore as it's supposedly 'essential'?
If that's the case it's a bit of a bummer, as I've not long ago spanked £2k on a Stumpjumper & £300 on an Inbred frame (plus bits to complete the build). Seems like a bit of a waste. I'll also have to cancel my biking holiday to Ciclo Montana in July,my evening ride at Thetford on Thurs & tell my mates that this years 24/12 is off as well as the D2D, unless I get practicing.

I thought the essential bits were things like pedalling, looking where you're going, steering, having fun etc.

going with your son is cheating. go on your own and see how scary it is. 😀

see this was the basis of the argument before – what 'essential' means. 😆

Okay – I'll downgrade it to "pretty damn useful" just to keep the peace… 😉

Could hop quite well, then beer and the ravages of time robbed me of the skill, now slowly getting it back.
It's one of the more useful trail skills but it's not essential, do find it much harder to hop my FS than my little hardtail though, I know compress and wait for the rebound but my head tries to hop normally.

I like being able to bunny hop. I find it useful and fun.

As a for instance: There was a big-ish fallen tree at the Brighton Big Dog last year and it was immensely satisfying to go into it full pelt and hop over it rather than take a 20m detour round the roots and slow right down for the tight turn.

I reckon for riding on the road, the side-hop onto the kerb is solid gold when it comes to keeping your options open, whether for safety, fun or cheeky detours round traffic or one-way systems.

I once beat Jez Avery at Malvern Classic one year by bunny hopping 42 1/2" (walleater will confirm).I've managed to get my rigid 29er up to handlebar height off a speed bump (seat up!) whilst doing the Mary Townley Loop the other week!And I can 180 the bmx over a couple of feet.Best of all I like hopping to nose bonk over stuff on the scandal.Essential…no….fun…oh yeah

i can do it on flats, no idea about spds, but its not something i find myself doing very much on the trail.

clubber – Member
In fact, now I think about it, one of the best riders I know can't do it (well, he's never learnt to do it without SPDs but no doubt could if he spent a bit of time to learn) but would almost certainly drop most people on here on any technical descent so it's clearly not essential to him

hardly worth bragging about if he's gonna need to get off and lift his bike over the first obsticle that needs a little hop to get over.

obsticle ! ( don't normally pick up on spelling, but that's funny!)

I can hop about the height of a kerb, but never had to get off and lift over any obsticles!

The only ESSENTIAL trail skill is BOTTLE.

GW he can Spd bunnyhop just fine 😉

Yeah….but can you trackstand?*

*Alpin to the forum please.

I can't stop myself, I use flats and get about 1ft off without using anything to go BO0o0O0O0oing off.

How about this then? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ab5MzdMrcc&feature=player_embedded

or this – http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bike-porn-spunk-spunk-spunkwow

rorschach – i saw this the other day, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVnoY715B4Q, which is certainly impressive but that is absolutely amazing. 😯

Rorschach, that is nuts. Look for harry main's one… I know I can go higher just need to practise, and I don't fancy doing no foot or 180hops with spds. But I reckon I can hop most bikes well over a foot. I used tohop logs all the time on my 19 inch scale. I wanna learn 360 hops, but I should really Learn how to do them out a jump first. I heard stories of a bmx kid round here who could do all the tricks, 360's tuck nohanders etc but couldn't actually bunnyhop, or manual,

Trackstanding is also up there as "very important" as is being able to do little sideways hops to get around stuff. Oh and shouting

"WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!" down big slopes.

Flatboy beat me to it…

I've been shown to bunnyhop and with practice I'm sure I'll get better. Essential, prob not but damn useful when you charge round a corner and find a log across the trail with barely enough time to stop.
For the time being I find a little manual + unweighting of the back end accompanied by a little shove on the handlebars is good for getting over small logs in a controlled manner. Helps keep the flow, that's for sure

Flat pedal riders… …never lose their footing/cock up a jump? seriously?

If you lift the rear just by pulling up on your spds and you unclip you're in trouble, if you do a proper bunnyhop but for whatever reason your feet still come away from the pedals (flats or spd) your feet shouldn't stray too far from the pedals and you have a chance of landing on it instead of the top tube.

Not essential but if your flying toward a waterbar or wheel grabbing trench do you?
A stop and lift your bike over
B keep going and hop it
C hit it and pinch flat/crash and burn

It's pretty easy to fake it with FS anyway, just massively preload the suspension just before the obstacle and use the rebound to fly or bump over it (assuming your going quick enough)

yep can bunny hop with either foot forward and can do lateral buny hops as well, however i still descend like a shandy drinking puff having an off day 😉

Karnali – are you my long-lost twin?!

Easy for you to say Donk you racing snake 🙂

Me i prefer option D on my hartail – hit the brakes last minute (cos ive bottled it) then let go with the hope i have enough momentum to hit it hard wobble lots and pray my especially trained, learned the hard way balance will get me through. I can however do small bunny hops and im learning to do them properly now my cleats are worn n my foot keeps slipping off lol 😕

40cm is the cyclocross standard plank. 1 is easy, 2 in a row is a lot harder!
I think being able to hop is important for trail riding but not essential.

lol @ 'internet 2' bunny hop' what can that possibly mean?

Can anyone here NOT do 2' bunnyhop to trackstand on their 2k bike;-)

Me! Me!

nice pic rockmeister – is that off the coast down brighton-way, by any chance?

Not even close- Glasgow ish

haha, fair play – probably a bit of a stretch that my experience of those trail blockers would be their only appearance in the country 😆

as you demonstrate, though, i was very glad i could daintily hop over them when i encountered those myself. i would regard the fact i didn't have to stop and walk over them as evidence of the essential skill in my arsenal. 🙂

In reply to donks question, I'd hop it, but I'd not consider it a decent "hop" – somehow unless it's clearing a foot or so I'd just think it was not really a specific move. Slightly mad view I know.

I must get a trails bike running again, tired of boingy suspension soaking up all the fun.

I've only being riding a few years now but learning to bunnyhop made me more confident rider. It is lots of fun though

i can, but only about 6 inches max, but i havn't had that much practice.

Yeah, but only because I spent a couple of summers dirt jumping on flats. I still do them all the time, great fun!

It's always eluded me. I can get the front wheel up reasonably readily these days, but that back tyre remains firmly planted and I'm buggered if I know where I'm going wrong. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I can't even rationalise the physics of it in theory; where does the lift come from?

The lift comes from your pedals mostly. Try this. Ride along at a gentle speed, then put your weight forward a bit, tilt your feet downwards, and drag your feet up so that the friction between the pedals and your feet pushes the rear wheel into the air a bit. Now try lifting your front wheel before doing that.

"Tilt your feet downwards" – you mean toes down, heels up, yeah?

Hm. That makes sense. I'll have a play next time I'm out. Ta.

Yeah, that's right. If you come to a stop, put one foot down, hold the front brake, and do that with one foot, you should be able to lift the rear end of the bike. At least that will show you its not physically impossible lol.

Cunning. Cheers.

It's a lot more about body weight and arms than it is about your feet. Otherwise you couldn't do a no foot hop (gay or not, eh GW).

As for whether it's essential, maybe it's not mandatory, but it seems like a pretty rudimentary skill for using the terrain well.