(upbeat music) (tractor engine rumbling)
- Bunny-hopping is a key skill for riding any trail,
downhill or cross country or even jumps.
- Mm-hm. Yeah.
We've done this video before but we want to
progress this bunny hop skill
into a bit more of an advanced one,
to help you get over bigger obstacles on the trail.
- Yeah, this is how to bunny hop better.
(upbeat music)
So, one of the biggest things to sort of get
your head around with the bunny hops,
is how you need to move your weight around on the
bike to do it.
(slow motion rumbling)
(classical music)
- And it's something I always talk about,
is one of the biggest mistakes is people using
their muscles to do it,
so arms and legs to lift the bike into the air.
Which of course you actually do need to do
but it's all about moving your weight around the bike
from middle to back to front to do it.
So, let's go into that in a bit more detail.
(upbeat music)
One of the most common mistakes
is because people think the bike is going up into the air,
they just think about that vertical plain.
So, if you look at Blake's hips now,
think of Blake's hips as being really where
most of his weight is on the bike.
You see how it goes from the middle of the bike,
down towards the saddle,
so that's the pump,
and then goes really far back
so almost level with the rear axle of the bike.
And that's the thing that lifts the front wheel.
It's not in the vertical.
It's in the vertical
and then the horizontal
that does that.
It's also important to do that
for the rear wheel lift as well.
You've then got to think about standing up and forwards
to lift the rear wheel
and not thinking about bringing your feet
up to you to do it.
So, that's the thing.
Down and back to lift the front wheel
and if people aren't doing enough of that then you haven't
got anywhere to stand up from to get a better bunny hop,
get a bigger bunny hop
because a lot of people will rely a little bit
on moving and then a lot on pulling with your arms
to lift the bars.
What will then happen is your hips will stay
somewhere in the middle.
So, then you haven't got the space to move
to get the rear wheel lift
and your bunny hop won't be very big.
So, a great way of doing this
and checking how much you're moving around
is to ask a friend to film you,
watch it in slow motion
and see just how much your hips are moving
and how much you're pulling on the bars
and try and get rid of that.
Get your hips really moving.
Like I said, on Blake's slow motion,
his hips are right above the rear axle and also low.
Then you've got space to stand up and go forward.
The other common mistake is where people
lift with the rear feet,
their feet lift the rear wheel.
The hips will probably be quite high,
and then they lift.
Your weight will then stay all over the rear wheel
and it will also make for a heavy landing
and not a very big bunny hop.
(classical music)
A tell-tale sign of people using their feet
to try and lift the back wheel is a massive shinner,
like Blake has just beautifully demonstrated
with his bloody shin.
(laughter) (gasps of disbelief)
- [Blake] Look at it!
The crank row is stamped in my leg.
I could even feel it coming to my foot.
Chu-dunk, I was like, argh-ooh!
- What can happen is if you try and pick up with your feet
and pick up with you legs
you know, on a flat pedal it's easy to slide off your
your shoes off the pedals.
And what will happen is you'll miss one
and it'll fly round and whack you in the shin.
So, if you start feeling like
your feet are moving around a lot,
or getting light on the pedals,
try and look at, again,
videoing your riding if you can
because it's really looking for your hips
to do that movement to lift the rear wheel
rather than too much of a scoop of the feet.
(classical music)
What else do you think people could do
to improve their bunny hops, Blake?
- Well if you want to progress at bunny hopping
to it being a massive hop over something quite big,
I like to imagine there's a jump in front of me
and I'm driving the bike up and over this thing.
So, it's fictional,
there's nothing there,
but in my head I can I can see a big jump
and what I'm doing is I'm pushing,
driving the bike forward
and pulling up with my bike,
with my handlebars,
and bringing up my body weight
through my hips and through my,
curling my feet on the pedals.
Basically just being super explosive.
- Yeah there is definitely is
some of that scoopy feet as well.
I try and say there isn't
but actually once you've got the movement nailed
to do a really big hop,
you've stood up and forward
and then you can scoop as well
and use your legs to then get that extra bit of height.
- Yeah.
- The problem is people sometimes do that to begin with
and then they don't get that
sort of system of doing it nailed.
I would say practice on flat pedals as well,
it just it takes away any sort of temptation
to cheat and just pull your feet to get the bike in the air
because in the long-term,
it's not going to pay off.
(classical music)
Blake said he likes to visualize a jump in front of him
to get a really big hop.
Something I like to do is
I should try and pick something on the trail,
like something to hop on to.
So, me and Blake both can do it,
trying to hop from this up on top of this ledge.
I think once you've got something to aim for,
you can really think about getting the timing right
and doing a big hop to try and get up and over this thing.
(classical music) (bike chain clanging)
- So, you can see Neil's used that bunny hop technique
and he's made it big
to get clear of this obstacle right here to get on top,
whereas me, I don't like rock gardens,
I want to clear the whole thing and land over there.
So, what you want to do,
is you can use obstacles just like this one right here
to manipulate that bunny hop
to get you a bit more higher in the air
to clear this whole obstacle
by bumping your front wheel and then your back wheel
carry on through to hit it and get a little more height,
and then you can clear obstacles really high
just by using that.
(bike chains turning)
- Right! - You used that
bunny hop technique there?
You did? Little bit. - Just a little bit.
It's fun. Yeah.
Keep practicing bunny hops,
always say you can improve.
Yeah, I don't do it enough.
- (laugh) We've done a number of these videos on our channel
and there's a lot out there to watch
but it is a key skill to have
when you're out mountain biking.
Yeah, check out how to bunny hop over there
and the Fat Bike Bunny Hop World Championships over there.
- Yeah!
- I think Donnie won that, didn't he?
Or did you win it? - I won it.
- Oh. Well, Blake won it.
- (laughs) Don't forget to hit button to subscribe
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(laughter)
You do!