ADVANCED SKILLS
BUNNY HOPS The bunnyhop – when you get your bike airborne without the aid of a ramp – is the most important and beneficial trick you’ll learn, unlocking plenty of possibilities, especially in street and skate park riding. Once you become confident, you can use it to hop over logs, rocks or small obstacles on the trail, hop up curbs and over things on your cycle to work, and even onto benches, while adding barspins and 180 spins once you get it dialled! The bunny hop is best learnt in two separate movements, the first being lifting the front wheel without using your cranks to help (like a wheelie) and the second, lifting your back wheel off the ground (this is called a nose manual). Once you combine these two tricks, it’ll create ‘pop’ – the end result being a bunny hop!
98 MOUNTAIN BIKING SKILLS
T H R O W YO U R W E I G H T B AC K Get your body weight back towards the rear wheel (bum over the axle) and, at the same time, push both feet down on the pedals and pull on the handlebar – gently to start with and then harder once you get more confident. Cover the rear brake with one finger and if you feel like you’re going to fall off the back, slam the brake on!
LIFT OFF Firstly, you’ll need to learn to lift the front wheel. In a flat car park or skate park or on a flat section of trail, coast along at a fast walking speed. Any slower and you’ll have no momentum to pop, which’ll result in a nose dive. You’re aiming for the front wheel to be about 1ft to 1.5ft off the ground. It’s important to get your wheel this high – any lower and it’ll be hard to generate the pop to get off the ground.
