Upright and compact 24-inch street trials bikes or BMXs are kings when it comes to launching bunny hops, whereas 26-inch competition trials bikes
can be quite challenging with their high bottom bracket and low steering setup.
Understanding the move
The plain bunny hop, to clear up small obstacles.
Find a comfortable cruising speed, fast enough to clear the obstacle's length during your bunny hop, then stop pedalling and lean forward. As you approach the obstacle, crouch on the bike to compress up both tyres, and at full compression, immediately push back to lean your shoulders back and pull up the front wheel.A flowing jump
1° Build up enough momentum to clear the obstacle length during the duration of your bunny hop, then stop pedalling
and lean forward.
2° As you approach, in one fluid motion, crouch on the bike to compress up both tyres, then lean
back to push on the rear tyre.
3° At this stage, straighten both your arms and legs to shift your full weight over the rear tyre and lift
the front wheel, keep pushing on the ground.
4° Keep your arms straight to maintain pressure on the ground while moving up on the high pedal position to complete a full jump extension.
5° Upon to take off, fold back from your extension, pulling up on the bars while lifting up the knees to clear the way for the bike. Level up the bike.
6° Tuck until you have cleared the obstacle, then extend your legs and arms for a smooth touch-down. Damp the impact.
Optimizing height and bike lift
Tuck your knees and pull on the handlebars to lift the bike up.
The whole bunny hop move takes less than a second. The more energetically you crouch and pull on the handlebars (to bring them to your abdomen during your extension), the more vertical thrust you get before you level the bike up, hence the higher you will take the rear wheel off the ground.Be as explosive as possible during your compression/extension.
During your extension, keep your arms stretched (eventually they'll end up along your torso) so you keep pushing firmly on the ground (through the rear wheel) for as long as possible. When you have reached the full extension, tuck your knees while pulling on the handlebars to lift the whole bike up in front of you. Then push on the handlebars in front of you, this will help you level the bike horizontal.For safety, practise over a bunny hop bar.
Tuck with the rear wheel on your front-foot side (to pull the bike further up).
By tucking the bike slightly sideways to your front foot side, you can clear your bum out of the way to your back-foot side, letting the rear wheel move further up. That little swing sideways will not only gain you a few extra inches, it will also help you clear the obstacle sooner.
Forget about clip pedals
It is a common misconception to think that clip-pedals would be helpful to learn the bunny hop.
But the last thing you want is to have your feet stuck when you need to jump off the bike for a safe bail.
In case of emergency, you would rather land on your feet than on your back, so forget about clip-pedals in trials riding.
Instead, learn how to use pedal back-force to increase your lift and control the tilt of the bike.
You may want to practise this particular aspect of the bunny hop by first trying to only hop the rear wheel off the ground as you cruise at a
comfortable speed, simply lurching forward while pointing your feet down to scoop your pedals up.
How fast?
On a flat ground and without a kicker ramp or bump boost effect, bunny hop height and speed are unrelated
variables. But both must be carefully planned depending on the obstacle you want to jump over.
Whether you want to bunny hop over a high railing or flat over a large gap, you must evaluate the necessary speed and identify the corresponding
take-off point to maximize your bike lift right over the highest part (or mid-length) of the obstacle.
In effect, your approaching speed will define the distance between where the initial bunny hop action takes place, such as the compression and
push-up in extension, and the point where you'll be at your maximum tucking height. Only experience will let you judge how slow you can afford to
go to get over a railing (or how fast you should go to cover a long gap).
You can also check out Jimmy Ertzer's tutorial video to get a different view
(French subtitled in English).