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trials riding tutorialstrials riding tutorialsLike the Animal
The bunny hop is essential for clearing obstacles on a fast track....or as a climbing starter...It is really the same move as for the backhop, but moving along at any speed. Quite a useful move in street trials where everything is flat and square, but totally useless in natural biketrials where there is rarely any run up distance.

One fluid motion that chains up compression and extension

trials riding tutorials
1° Make sure you build up enough speed to clear the obstacle length during your bunny hop, then stop pedaling and move your body forwards.

trials riding tutorials
2° As you approach, in one fluid motion, crouch on the bike to compress up both tires, and finish leaning back to push on the rear tire.

trials riding tutorials
3° At this stage, straighten both your arms and legs to shift your full weight on the rear tire and lift the front wheel, keep pushing on the ground.

trials riding tutorials
4° Carry on with full explosive extension, keeping the arms straight to maintain pressure on the ground while moving up on the high pedal position.

trials riding tutorials
5° You are ready to take off, fold back from your extension, upwards and pull up the bars while lifting up the knees to clear the way for the bike.

trials riding tutorials
6° Lift the rear wheel further by gripping up the pedals with your soles (back-pressure), and tuck until you have cleared the obstacle.


Once the obstacle is passed, you can lower the arms and knees and let drop the rear wheel again to touch ground. If the obstacle is long, then you can keep the same position until landing flat. See this move in a video, or in this slow motion


biketrials video
One handed bunny hop

video
Same with a mod bike

Lifting the bike in a bunny hop?
Pulling the handlebars after the full extension is the main trick, because your feet can't lift the bike. It looks like the feet are stuck to the pedals, but in fact they are just limiting the ascension of the bike. You can make them grip more by applying back-pressure on the pedals, that is, pointing your feet downwards and pushing back up on the platform. For the impulsion, think about jumping on your feet without a bike. You need to flex the knees, then full extension, and then folding back in the air to get over the obstacle. On the bike, same business, flexing before a full extension from the highest position on the pedals (when the bike is standing on the rear wheel). During the extension, the arms are kept low to keep the rear wheel pushing on the ground, but as soon as the extension is over, it is time to fold back the knees with a synchronised pull on the arms upwards to lift the whole bike.

video
Tuning the move to maximum height

All the move takes less than a second. The higher you lift the handlebars, and then the faster you push them forwards in a wave motion, the higher you can get the back wheel off the ground. Of course you need some synchronisation, this is the difficult bit that needs hell of practice. You can practice with full brakes on (the safest way to understand the move). That leads you to the back hop. If you want an even more detailed tutorial, also check out this Monster Bunny Hop Article.
Biketrial video  All the clips in one video.  VTT trial
(or right-click to download the .wmv file)



Why aren't clip pedals recommended for this?
Because Its way too dangerous to have your feet stuck when you need to jump off the bike at any time for a safe crash. You'd rather land on your feet than on your back, believe me. It helps a lot to have lets say a paper box to practice over, and build up the heigth progressively. There are loads of useless variations on the bunny hop, like the "one footer" or "no footer", or 180°. The next step is to land your back wheel on an obstacle, and stay there. It 's a variation of the bunny hop where you do exactly the same moves, but with much less speed, so that you land on the obstacle instead of passing over it...


If you want more info about this move or would like to share your own experience and tips, just type in your questions / comments in a TrashZen Discussion Thread