One fluid motion that chains up compression and extension
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
All the clips in one video.
(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