Apprendre le velo trial sur TrashZen: toutes les techniques de VTT trial expliquees en photo et en videos.
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Raw street style


If you can bunny hop properly on your bike, then jumping up a few steps is straight forward. A pure street trials technique, flat and square.

trials riding tutorials Benito Ros pulls a massive bunny hop during a warm up session.

To be used as a climbing technique, the bunny hop requires more run up distance than the pedal up because all the momentum of the move is built prior to the vertical action of your jump impulse.
Compared to the "pedalled bunny hop" where you would use the pedalling action to control your approaching speed and the tilt of the bike until take-off, here you'll have to gather speed before you actually jump with a pure vertical impulse.

What makes the bunny hop tricky is that you must evaluate well your take-off point based on your speed of approach, and this will define the distance between where the bunny hop action takes place and your landing target.


The whole move

trials riding tutorials Blunt hit onto a gate.

Find a comfortable cruising speed, building up enough momentum to reach the obstacle after performing what will only be a vertical extension at a distance of the obstacle. Then stop pedalling and lean forward.

As you approach the obstacle, lean forward and firmly crouch on the bike to compress both tyres, then lean back to transfer all the compression onto the rear tyre and at full compression, spring up with both your arms and legs.
Keep your full weight over the rear hub, pulling the front wheel up.

Keep pushing on the ground during the entire extension phase, keeping your arms straight to maintain pressure on the ground while moving up on your front pedal to optimize your jump impulse.

Upon take-off, fold back from your extension, pull up on the bars and lift the bike in front of you while tucking your knees up. As you lift the bike, maintain the tucked position until the rear wheel hits the obstacle, block the rear brake to a solid stop. A notable difference with the bunny hop "over" is that you don't have to tilt the bike horizontal (hitting the obstacle will do that for you).

The bike tilts forward upon impact with the obstacle, try to stay supple and absorb as much of the impact as possible. Find the right balance in a progressive deceleration, leaning closer to the frame if need be. Hop on site to position the rear tyre correctly for your next move or simply lean further forward if there is room for the full bike to rest.



Click on any photo and use the scroll-wheel to animate the move.

Pull on those arms...Not so smooth...

trials riding tutorials
1° Find a comfortable cruising speed, stop pedalling and lean forward. As you approach the obstacle, crouch and press-up on the bike to compress both tyres.

trials riding tutorials
2° At full compression, spring back in extension and shift your centre of gravity over the rear wheel, arms straight so the front wheel pulls up.

trials riding tutorials
3° Finish up with an energetic jump impulse, keeping your arms straight to maintain pressure on the ground as you move up on your front pedal.

trials riding tutorials
4° Reaching the end of your extension, you'll be standing with the handlebars pretty much to your abdomen, ready to take-off.

trials riding tutorials
5° It's time to pull up on the bars and lift the whole bike in front of you as you tuck the knees. Maintain the tucked position until the rear wheel hits the obstacle.

trials riding tutorials
6° Block the rear brake to a solid stop and let the bike tilt forward upon impact. Stay supple and absorb as much of the impact as possible to reach balance.


Biketrial video Watch this move in slow-motion Biketrial video


Risky Business?

trials riding tutorials Benito Ros launches a bunny hop on top of a dirt bump.


The bunny hop is best performed on a smooth predictable surface, with no terrain irregularities or bumpy surprises.




If the rear wheel doesn't roll as smoothly as expected because of a recess or a softer patch in the ground (sand or mud), you could find yourself struggling to lift the front wheel or worse, you could be diving into the obstacle as your rear tyre hits a pot-hole.
What's more, the high bottom bracket of most modern competition bikes makes it more difficult to bunny hop than to rely on pedalling techniques.

For these reasons, the plain bunny hop is not much used in natural terrains or at competitions in general, except if there is a dedicated run up distance, often with a small kicker ramp to make sure the front wheel pulls up nicely from the ground.


Street credibility
On streets bikes though, bunny hops are the norm, with plenty of run up distance and hard flat surfaces to control your impulse, they are a safe option. But start on a small kerb before you consider breaking your bones on higher obstacles.

One trick that will boost your impulse is to bounce-up the front wheel, by firmly pushing down on the bars before crouching back for your jump impulse. The bounce effect makes it easier to lift the front wheel in synchronization with your full extension.




Bump boost and jump kickers

trials riding tutorials Hannes Herrmann uses a kicker to boost his bunny hop into a full jump.

trials riding tutorials Taking off with a rocky-bump, Jack Carthy tucks his knees and pull the bike up to jump further.

If there is a small bump on your path right before the obstacle, or if the obstacle starts with a small step (like the first step of a stairway), then you can use a double tyre compression effect which will really boost your jump up.

Find your marks so as to bump your front tyre first while crouching, then pull the front wheel up (it bounces up so it's easy) and finish up your extension with the rear wheel bumping into that small step.

trials riding tutorials Bumping the rear wheel for a boost.



The extra compression from the bump and the rear tyre rebound will send the bike flying up as you tuck. This works very well even on small rocks, roots, small wood logs and obviously on small kerbs and stairways where the first step can be used as a bump (beware of snake bites, that's why you'd want more pressure in your tyres).
Once you'll master the bump boost, you'll be looking for these bumps everywhere.



Click on any photo and use the scroll-wheel to animate the move.

Bump boost for big jumps

trials riding tutorials
1° Once at moderate speed, stop pedalling and lean forward as you approach the obstacle, crouch on the bike and compress both tyres.

trials riding tutorials
2° Find your marks so as to bump your front tyre first while crouching, then pull the front wheel up (it bounces up so it's easy).

trials riding tutorials
3° Finish up your extension with your arms straight to push on the ground until the rear wheel bumps into that small step.

trials riding tutorials
4° The extra compression from the bump and the rear tyre rebound will send the bike flying up as you tuck your knees up and pull on the bike.


Biketrial video Watch this move in slow-motion Biketrial video


You can bunny hop with minimal run-up distance, stretching synchronised body movement to the limits (then it looks more like a side-hop without he pedal kick).
The next technique would be to roll over the obstacle. Quite safe, this is a true biketrials technique and it requires very little run-up space (one pedal stroke). And it is a much smoother move, as you don't need to pull like mad on the handlebars. You don't land on the rear wheel but it's more like rolling up and stopping once on the obstacle.

You can also check out Jimmy Ertzer's tutorial video to get a different view
(French subtitled in English).



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