mountain bike jumping

November 10, 2006 1:50 AM

I know similar questions have been asked, but i wana know about mountain bike jumping. i am crap at riding with flat pedals, and i can hardly get any air. should i learn on a bmx first? should balance and manipulation be tried on a small 20 incher first then progress to the mountain bike? should i learn with flat pedals first? edo
posted by edtut to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (8 answers total)

If by mountain bike jumping you mean bunny hopping, you should be able to learn with flat pedals no problem. You need to master the skill of lifting the back wheel using backward pressure on the pedals with your toes pointing down. In summary:

1. Ride along slowly on the flat
2. Point your toes down so that the pedals are at about 45 degrees, cranks horizontal
3. Brace with your arms and use your legs to push back on the pedals
4. Push off the pedals to lift the back half of your body into the air. What you want to do is a little two-footed hop, just as if you were standing on the ground, but maintain the backward pressure on the pedals, so that they 'stick' to your feet and the back wheel comes up with you.
5. Once you can do this, just preface it with a front-wheel hop by lifting the handlebars. Put the two movements together and practise till it gets smooth.

The more 'grippy' your pedals/shoes are, the easier this will be. If your feet slide off the pedals in steps 2-4 you need more grip.
posted by primer_dimer at 2:27 AM on November 10, 2006 [1 favorite]

I always thought it felt more like the rear wheel was lifting from pushing forward on the handlebars.
Similar to how an ollie on a skateboard lifts because of pressing down on the front. It might look like the board/pedals "stick" to the bottoms of your feet, but they don't "pull" really.
Practice by approaching a curb (or a 2x4 piece of wood) and try to go over it without touching it. Once you can clear it at higher speeds, slow down and practice on more control and height.

Another important move, perhaps even more fundamental than the hop, is the kickout. The front wheel remains on the ground, the the rear wheel is lifted (again with forward pressure on the bars) then move the rear to one side. The kickout is used to make sharp turns at low speed, or to clear obstacles on rough terrain. Kickouts are low-speed maneuvers, and you should practice until you can do 90-degrees or more. This is also a way to stop without using the brakes--useful on rough/loose soil.

Regarding 20-inch vs. 26 or 27 mainly has to do with your height. If you are tall enough, no sense in going back to a small bike.
posted by markhu at 4:57 AM on November 10, 2006

Definitely learn with flats. It is easy to jump with clips but it teaches you horrible technique since you are pulling the bike up with your feet instead of hopping it forward (a 'J-hop').

Here's a good video:
http://www.secretreality.com/mtb/tutorials/volume_1_basic_bunnyhop_320x200.wmv

Here's a thread on mtbr about the video:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=74422

Another good tutorial with pix:
http://users.aber.ac.uk/sjs99/bike/tutorial/bunnyhopwalkthrough.htm

BMX bikes area easier to hop but there's no reason you can't learn on an MTB.
posted by unSane at 5:56 AM on November 10, 2006

Here's an earlier thread (about road bikes, but with plenty of good advice, and the usual helpful bike link) that may prove helpful.
posted by box at 10:15 AM on November 10, 2006

Similar to how an ollie on a skateboard lifts because of pressing down on the front.

You actually don't "press down" on the front -- you slide your foot up toward the nose of the board, the grip tape grabs your shoe (and eventually wears a hole through it) and this causes the board to follow you in the air. Pressing down in the front will make your board even out a bit, I suppose, but it's going to be terribly hard to land anything.

I feel the same way about bunny hops -- you're not "pushing down" in the front, you're pulling the back wheel up with you.
posted by fishfucker at 11:18 AM on November 10, 2006

I've been trying to do this for ages. Any reason I shouldn't be able to do this on an old, heavy hybrid?
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 12:14 PM on November 10, 2006

jumping, if you're really asking about jumping, just takes practice and courage... and a willingness to accept something called 'the half-life of fear.' which means to imply one never really fully stops being afraid of jumping, pedal choice notwithstanding, just less afraid of it with each subsequent jump.

if, on the other hand, you're talking about bunny-hopping (a useful skill) then you've already been given good advise. except i would argue that, despite the bad form clipless pedals might engender, the net result is still positive: a decent bunny hop over an object or obstruction. personally, if my technique, however sloppy, still gets me over, i really don't care if i've cheated, ya know.
posted by RockyChrysler at 12:30 PM on November 10, 2006

except i would argue that, despite the bad form clipless pedals might engender, the net result is still positive: a decent bunny hop over an object or obstruction. personally, if my technique, however sloppy, still gets me over, i really don't care if i've cheated, ya know.

That sounds sensible but the problem is that you can pop out of the clips when you try to pull the bike up with the wrong technique. I know cos I've done it several times, and if it happens when you are doing 25 mph the results can be really messy. Whereas if you learn with the correct technique, you are acutally applying positive pressure when you hop, so don't (theoretically) pop out.

Obviously you can adjust the clip tension (on SPDs anyway) so you don't pop out but (a) you end up with a high tension which is not great for regular trailriding and (b) the tension varies a lot with mud etc, so you can still end up popping out despite your best intentions.

Popping out on a bunnyhop is one of the scariest things that can happen on a MTB since it usually ends with you coming down hard on the downtube with your gonads. Ow.
posted by unSane at 9:55 PM on November 10, 2006