[background music] Manon: Bunny hopping,
as well as a fun scale to impress your mates, is also a useful skill to have out on the road. It
could save you a wheel, it could even save you from a crash. Now, I've been riding bikes for
quite a while, and embarrassingly, I haven't quite mastered the bunny hop. Today, we're going to see,
can we learn to bunny hop in a day? Some of us just have a natural skill and ability
on the bike. Bunny hopping is second nature. Others like myself like to keep our wheels firmly
on the ground, but we're going to try and change that today. Bunny hopping is a great skill to have
out on the road, whether it's avoiding some dead brie, avoiding a pothole that your friend forgot
to point out, or even some evasive action, like bunny hopping a curb. Bunny hopping is a great
skill to have, and it will improve your overall skills on the bike. We thought it would be best to
get the experts involved in this and teach us the basics, and who better than GMBN's Blake Samson.
Blake, I'd like to say I'm here to do something like a back flip or something
equally as cool. Most roadies aren't as keen as crushing as you guys are. I think
we'll stick to the basics. Can you run us through the steps of how to do a bunny hop?
Blake Samson: Yes, for sure. It's one of those tricks that takes a little while to
nail down, but as soon as you get it, it just become second nature, and you'll be
hopping down that road and onto a trail, so just be careful. I'm going to do that again.
There's two basic steps you need to learn to master the bunny hop, combine the two together,
and you'll find yourself next to Danny MacAskill, giving him a run for his money. Step one is all
about moving your body weight over your back wheel. Now, as mountain bikers, we have a dropper
poster, so we can drop our saddle all the way down, making it a little bit easier to move our
body weight all in this little area right here. Whereas on a road cycling bike, your saddle's
pretty high up, so it's going to be a little bit difficult moving your body weight over, but let me
show you and give you a little bit of an example. Now, do that a few times, try and get a little bit
comfortable, lifting up the front wheel, just getting a little bit high, but don't pull too
hard on it because you'll end up on your back and that's never good. You would just be getting
the wind kicked out of you, but if you feel like you're going to go over the back a little bit too
much, then use your back brake to bring that front wheel back down. Now, let's see you try. Remember,
it's all about doing repetitive stuff, constantly doing practice, practice, practice.
Manon: I'm actually going to practice on the grass because I don't actually trust myself on
tarmac yet. If I fall off on the grass, it's going to be a lot less painful, just in case.
My God, I lift my [unintelligible 00:03:17] Oh yes, because I didn't do anything there.
Blake: Okay, pretty, that was good. That was good. Manon: I found a little plank of wood. Now,
I'm just going to concentrate on just going on my front wheel over, no worrying about my back
wheel because my back wheel will be able to roll over that without me crushing. Let's see if I can
do that. I feel like Blake is making it look so easy. I'm finding it pretty difficult here.
Blake: Nice, nice, like it, you're getting the hang of it, but a little bit more practice.
You'll make it so second nature, you won't even believe it. Now moving on to the second stage,
this is where we want to get that real wheel up. Now you want to stand up on your bike.
You want to basically push your weight forward onto the front, but not too much,
but you want to push your weight forward. When you do so, you want to curl your feet on your pedals
and bring up the rear by using your hips. Now, if you have clipless pedals,
don't rely on doing this because it just makes it harder when you combine all of it together,
and plus it's a bad technique, so don't do so. Here is an example on how to do so.
Right now, let's see you do it, but just don't be tempted to use your clipless pedals to get that
rear wheel up. You're only cheating yourself. Manon: I think I've just about mastered the
front wheel, just about. I'm now going to try and get my back wheel off the ground.
Blake: Nailed it. Manon: The back wheel
is actually a little bit harder than I thought. I do feel like I am using my clipless pedals to
lift my back wheel up, which might be cheating a little bit, but it's not much I can do about that.
Blake: Sick, I like it. I can see how you scooping up that rear wheel. You're getting it up. Now,
moving on. This is where it gets a little bit more harder. You want to combine the two together and
get the bunny hop going. When you're coming into it, you're going to be throwing your weight over
the back, lifting up the front wheel, and as soon as it comes off the ground, this is where you want
to throw your weight up and over into the front and curling your feet on those pedals to bring
that rear wheel up. This is where it gets hot. There you go. That's how you do a basic bunny hop.
Now is all about practice, practice, practice when it comes to this technique, because it's quite
hard to start off with, the technique is quite a lot going on when you're starting off with a bunny
hop. As soon as you nail it, it'll be like second nature, and you'll be hopping down the road,
hopping over every single road cyclist out there. How? You probably give Hank a run for his money.
Manon: Now I'm going to try with a plank of wood with my
front wheel and my back wheel. See how it goes. Blake: Please, don't do that again. Please, don't
do that again. One thing that I'm finding really hard, that I didn't think I would find that hard,
is the timing. Lifting my front wheel and then my back wheel. In my head, I'm trying to lift both
at the same time, which, if you're doing a bunny hop property that you can't really do, you have to
lift the front wheel and then lift the back wheel over. I'm finding that one quite hard to find the
right timing because I am finding, I'm clipping my back wheel. Hey, Blake, check this out.
Blake: You're getting there. That's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's a little bit more practice
in that technique and you'll be nailing it. Now, the best thing about this is finding something
in front of you that you can use as an obstacle to gauge yourself. If there's a pothole or if there's
a stick, put it in front of you and use it as an obstacle to bunny hop over. If you can clear that,
make it a little bit bigger, and you can clear that. That's where the fun comes into
it. When you start challenging yourself, keep practicing. You''ll be getting there.
Manon: Thanks, Blake for the tips they really are helping. I think I'm starting to get there.
I'm definitely a lot better than when I first started. I think I'm making it a little bit
harder for myself by putting a plank of wood out, because I do feel like maybe I'll get my
front wheel over it, and then my back wheel will just clip it right at the end, or vice versa. I'm
definitely going to need some more practice before I try this out on the open roads. Oh my God.
Blake: No, that was scary. That was very scary. Go back to basics.
Manon: At the start of this video, I really didn't think I would be bunny hopping over
anything. I probably did get a little bit carried away at the start adding the plank,
but I really do feel like this will help me after on the road,
just doing this in the garden for an hour or so has really helped. I feel like I could use
out on the open road if I needed to bunny hot a pothole or a rock or even jump onto a curb.
Let us know if a bunny hop has saved you out on the road. I'm going to send my clips to Hank,
because he's going to be so impressed. [00:09:31] [END OF AUDIO]