- This is how to pre-hop.
First, what is that?
Well, pre-hop is using a manual or bunny-hop technique
into a piece of trail that drops away.
This is all about staying in control,
being fast, and having fun.
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Right, so where would you want to use this pre-hop?
Well, anywhere the trail falls away from you
and if you didn't do anything you're basically either going
to take off into the air or you're just to
sort of compress after it.
That means, probably, it's not going to be as smooth
and it's not going to be as fast.
So, in this situation, I try to pre-hop in.
So, it's really smooth.
You're also going to get a good pump down here rather than
jump in and splatting down and losing speed.
You can be nice and heavy, and get a good pump.
So, how to do the pre-hop.
Well, this is all about using a good bunny-hop to land into
the top of the slopes so you don't
just fly off and land at the bottom.
So, this is about doing it two wheels individually.
If you haven't seen my other how to bunny-hop videos
check that out.
So, we're picking the front wheel up then the back wheel,
and it's all about getting the timing right, as well,
because you want to do it before you get to that slope.
Hence, the pre-hop.
So, back here I'm going to pick the bike up, so I'm then
coming down and landing into that bank slope,
front wheel then back wheel.
Like I said, get it one wheel at at time,
not picking up both wheels, because then you're sort of
drawing a square with the bike and actually your
front wheel's not going to land at the top
it's going to land half-way down.
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The aim of the game with pre-hopping is to sort of
get rid of this part of the trail, this sort of knuckle.
That if I hit I just fly off and land down there.
So, I'm pre-hopping in.
It's nice and easy here, I've got big open flat space.
Nice bunny-hop, land in, right here,
supper smooth, supper fast.
This section down here,
I'm going to have to use a slightly different technique.
But now the following section, is rougher and it's faster.
And now I've got a blind brier,
it's also got a bit of an up slope to it.
Which means, at this speed, to sort of clear that section,
I'm going to have to start hopping back here.
And for me, that's too risky, because it's rough,
because it's fast, it can be really hard
to judge my timing right so I land in the back of there.
So, this time, I'm actually going to use a manual technique.
It's the same theory,
I'm trying to get my body weight up and over this knuckle.
I'm back down here,
but this time I'm just going to use the front wheel.
It's probably not going to be as effective as using
both wheels, but it's just way less risky.
If I get the timing wrong on the front wheel I'll probably
be able to ride it out, but if I get the timing wrong
on the bunny-hop, I could be leading to problems.
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Committing to the bunny-hop and then
landing too early is pretty dodgy.
In this situation you'd probably get away with it because
it's not a big bank you're trying to drop into
and it's not super steep.
So you'll probably just hit the knuckle and bank
some ride out of it but still not ideal.
Another way is hopping too late.
Get the timing wrong again and landing at the bottom,
to overshoot what you're trying to land into.
And that can mean a really rough landing,
especially if it's bigger than this.
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Okay, check out this section, we've got a downhill track,
nice little bank, and then we've got to fire across
and now check this out, we've got a bit of an up slope
and then a really steep back to it.
So, I've got to be slowing down for this because I can
come of of that super fast and if I hit this fast
that's actually going to send me up and into the air
and it's probably like an eight foot drop
on the back of that.
So, really the first thing I'm going to do on this is brake
and actually use like a soaking up technique,
kind of like a pre-hop.
So, trying to take out that up slope by letting the bike
come up to me and then trying to get heavy
on the back of that.
It's going to be safe.
It's not going to be the fastest,
but that would be my first method.
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There's alright, not too bad, not that fast, but...
Right, next, I'm going to try that manual pre-hop
so I'll pick the front wheel up and over the bank get on
that backside and then just use my legs
to soak up that rear tire.
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That method's pretty good, it's really good fun trying
to get your front wheel up and over it.
And that was definitely quicker
than just trying to soak it up
but the fastest but the riskiest way is
to just pre-hop into it so bunny-hop up and over that bank.
Just, if you get the timing wrong and land too early
I don't really know what is going to happen.
If you get it too late you're basically
bunny-hopping into an eight or ten foot drop off.
So, timing is going to be important, but if I get it right
I think I'll have to brake less here
and it's going to be faster.
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I just clipped it just going up and over,
but it felt good actually.
Definitely had to brake less,
so I think that's my preferred method.
It's just...the most dangerous one,
but the most fun as well.
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So pre-hop's a really good all around skill.
It's great for super easy trails where it fades away.
You can get into it, also useful for going around
super fast on technical trails.
This is a situation, it's actually a piece of track
I know really well, it's super rough and
it kind of looks like a place where you could pre-hop
because you're going into a bank,
but it's just too technical, too many roots, too many holes.
In this situation it should be too dangerous too risky,
not worth it trying to hop in and catch that
really small piece of land and just be on that root.
So in this situation, I'm just going to hang back.
I'm going supper fast, get back behind the bike and just
soak up these bumps with my legs on that rear tire
and just try and push down into this bit of a slope, here.
Catch as much of that as I can because
if I land here, flat, it's going to be rough.
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Pre-hopping is loads of fun.
I love practicing it and doing it on super simple stuff.
The most important thing, really,
is getting that timing right.
So trying to spot what you've got to do and really
think about getting up and down into the very top
of that slope to make it as smooth as possible.
If you want to see a video on how to manual
to get this thing moving, click over there for that one.
And for bunny-hops, that the next clue you're going to need,
click over there for that one.
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