Bunny Hop Part 2

This technique can also be applied to mountain bikes.

Flow Like A Pro: Learn to Dirt Jump with Mike Smith

Learn to Dirt Jump with Mike Smith

- article by Doddy, Mountain Biking UK

Stand tall: You want to keep as much forward motion as possible, so before you reach the transition, stand up so your arms and legs are fully extended, then compress into the take-off.

Push into the transition: As your reach the start of the transition, use your arms and legs to push the bike into the ground.

Explode off the lip: By the time you’re fully compressed, the bike will be reaching the peak of the lip. As you come off the lip, pull up and release your weight in one movement, allowing the lip to kick you up into the air.

Tuck the bike up: You could let your pop from the lip keep you high, but Mike goes further, pulling the bike right under him, as if doing a giant bunnyhop.

Dive bomb: While the bike is climbing, you can’t really alter your riding position – you’re along for the ride. Mike keeps his weight towards the rear of the bike as it naturally nosedives in to land. Stay on course and you’ll guide the bike into a smooth landing.

Mike says: As you are towards the top of the lip, shift your body weight upwards towards the front of the bike, extending your legs and arms as if you're trying to get your body in the air before your bike. Spy your landing and hope you haven't gone too far. If you have, learn your lesson and approach slower.

source: http://www.bikeradar.com/fitness/article/flow-like-a-pro-learn-to-dirt-jump-with-mike-smith-24072

Explained: The Bunny Hop

So you've seen the slow-mo video on how this guy executed the bunnyhop. Now I'm going into details of what is actually going on.

1.

Alright so in the beginning, he gets into attack position where he's starting to 'compress'. Compression here is meant by tucking yourself onto the bike so that later you will react like a spring.

2.

Ok so he tucks or compress himself into the bike. You can see that his elbows and knees are bent and he is ready to pull himself back to lift his front wheel up. The compression and expansion movements are supposed to be 'explosive' in such a way that you react likes a spring. Don't rush the 'explosive' movements but keep a momentum.

3.

Now is the part where he is 'expanding'. He leans back in a motion where it is horizontal to the ground. And the front end of the bike will 'spring' itself up. Some riders prefer to pull the handlebars up, but if you pull the bars back with your body moving back horizontally, you will get the front wheel off the ground higher. After leaning horizontally back all the way, the bars will go vertically up which causes you to naturally spring yourself forward into standing position.

4.

This is the part where his bars are pull back and his body springs back forward. The objective here is to get your handle bar as close as possible to you so that you can push your bars forward and your back wheel will be lifted up.

5.

Notice how he stands up right and his bars are on his waist level very close to his body. This is the first segment of a bunny hop which is just about pulling your bars up. Be prepared to push the handlebars forward and at the same time 'unweight' yourself and tuck in your legs up.

6.

For starters, we will tend to rush into the 2nd motion. Do remember to keep in momentum. Next step, beginners are recommended to push their bars forward and down. If you go pro, you can choose to push the bars forward and up to get more height. Do remember to unweight yourself and tuck in your legs. It is recommended that both wheels land at the same time to even out the impacts. For starters, it is best that you lock your flat sole shoes onto the flat pedals in a "hooking" manner. Immediately pull up your rear wheel and "tuck in" your legs.

7.

So once you level out, just get ready to absorb the impact and land. Stay loose.

Wear a helmet. Gloves and knee pads are secondary.

World Cup

While the entire world is probably obsessed with stupid money on the boring South African World Cup Football, I'm amazed at how intense the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is. The races are not daily but once every fortnight at different locations around the globe.

Yesterday I witness tons of massive crashes which resulted in one of the riders, Prokop, being thrown into the air backflipped like a rag doll and how Graf's leg snapped in 2 for cornering at immense speed. Yet again Jared Graves came out on top for the 4x. And I thought the 4x at Fort William late last month was the best with all those intense overtaking, jumps and crashes but so far the one at Leogang really was just epic.

And when you watch a football match live, you dont listen to the commentators go "We had an immense Leo Gang Bang with girls who were virgins a day before!" or they go "We're gonna get liquid tonight!" or in my current favourite quote after witnessing a crash "THAT IS FUCKING UGLIER THAN A LION RAPING A SHEEP!".

Damn right I love the commentators. Fucking hilarious and they were drinking beers as they commentate.

Oh and the Leogang downhill just ended. I wanted Gee Atherton to win it but Greg Minnaar was faster by 0.29 seconds! That's just slight above a fifth of a second. How immense was that!

Can't wait for the next race now.

Reviews

The 2010 661 Comp Knee/Shin Guards Review:

It provides good protection for my knee, shin and calfs but in a humid country like Singapore, your legs will really perspire a lot. For it's weight, I can feel it dragging on my feet. And it does slip down my legs by a bit when riding. Duh. Now I have to get used to it with that extra weight on my legs and the warm temperature it creates on my legs.

Troy Lee Design 2010 GP Multi Gloves Review:

This is the bomb! It's so nice it attracts a lot of attention. A couple of riders at the traffic light were noticing my super colorful gloves. Lol! And comparing this with my previous 661 Comp gloves, this provides more protection and the gloves despite both being size 10, this is somewhat "longer" by a few mm and it covers up til your wrists area so I had to push back my watch a little bit. But the ventilation isn't as good as the 661 Comp I had.