3 Easy Ways To Jump - How To Jump A Bike

hey what's up guys today we're gonna doa how to jump videowe've been getting a lot of requests forthis but we've been trying to figure outhow to go about it because the veryfirst thing i ever helped april learnwas how to jump i wanted her to be safeout on the trails when she comes into ajump know what to doand so instead of doing like a better inone day video like we've been doing alot of today is going to be more of anoverview of the different types of jumpsyou'll encounter on the trailand different techniques to tackle thosethere's three main types of jumps you'll

encounter on a traileach one of those requires a littledifferent technique to get through themi hear a lot of people say that you needto learn how to bunny hop before you canlearn how to jumpand while bunny hopping will help youwith jumping it's not necessary to clearevery jumpand a lot of times it's not even thebest way to go about it the techniqueswe're going to go over today will applyequally on both a hard tail mountainbikeand a full suspension mountain bike alot of people find it slightly easier tolearn on a hard tail or a dirt jumperbecause the timing is a bit more precisebut you can learn on both and so withthat being said let's go ahead and jump

into it and start talking about how todo itso let's talk about the three main typesof jumps we will encounter in the wildfirst we have the flat takeoff jumpthese jumps will not assist you withvery much vertical liftat all and generally on these jumps youwill be creating all the lift by doing abunny hop motionon these jumps you'll be traveling muchfurther horizontally than you'll betraveling verticallythen we have the mild kicker these jumpsare designed to assist you and your bikewith getting some liftas you go off the jump so you'llgenerally still be traveling further

horizontally than verticallybut you'll have more height than on aflat takeoff this is generally the mostcommon jump you'll encounterand the easiest one to learn and finallywe have the boosty kickerthese jumps are designed to give youmaximum vertical lift and heightbut also require the best timing andtechniquegenerally with this style of jump you'llbe traveling at least as high verticallyas you will be going horizontallythere are some other less common jumptypes you may come across but in thisvideo we are going to focus on how tojump these three main styles

one quick note too i like to have mytires aired up about 20 percent morethan normal when jumpingjust to reduce tire squirm and then ialso recommend having your seat as lowas possiblejust to give you the most movement onthe bike all right so let's start outwith how to hit jumps with a flattakeoff firstthe nice thing about jumps with theflatter takeoff is that these jumps havea much lower tendency of causing thedreaded nose divebecause these jumps don't really offerany lift or kick

they are very predictablethe downside of these jumps is that ifyou do want to catch airyou are going to need to create all thevertical lift on your own and this makesthese jumps much more difficult for mostpeople compared to the more common mildkickercreating all this lift on your own takesa lot of energy and the most consistentway to create that vertical lift is byperforming a traditional j-hop or bunnyhop as you reach the end of the jumpi know this can be very intimidating fora lot of people but hang in there

because the mile kicker will require alittle bit less complicated techniquethe good news for learning flattertakeoffs is that you can practice thesealmost anywhereand start very small the key to thesejumps is to create the lift with yourfront wheel just before your front tiregoes off the end of the jumpand then to scoop and lift the rearwheel just as it leaves the end of thejumpthe goal is to get both tires to use asmuch of the jump as possible before

lifting them off the groundthe timing on this can be difficult tolearn but eventually learning it willhelp you progress your riding a lotand we have a whole video on how to dobunny hops in the descriptionnext up we have the mild kicker thesejumps are designed to assist you withsome vertical lift as you hit the jumpfaceand the benefit of this is that youdon't need to create as much of the lifton your ownthat means that this jump will require alot less energy than a similar jump witha flat takeoffthe downfall of the mild kicker is in

its name the lift that these jumpsprovide will often have a tendency tocause a slight nosedive as you go offthe jumpthe smoother the radius of the kickerthe less it will cause a nosedive andthe sharper the radius the more it willnaturally cause the rear end to kick upand cause the nose divesounds sketchy right well the good newsis that there is a solution to keep yourbike in controlif you use your body weight to createsome upward momentum as you go off theend of the jumpyou can get your bike which is just afraction of the weight of your bodyto follow the path of that momentum and

you can actually negate the bike'snatural tendency to kick forwardthe technique i like to use for thesemild kicker jumps is like a slightlyeasier bunny hopi like to call it a pop on a standardbunny hop you first generate lift on thefront wheelby shifting your weight backwards andusing your extended arms to pull thefront endup then you generate lift on the rearwheel by shifting your weight forwardand scooping the back end of the bike upand underneath youthe bunny hop is a great technique for

generating maximum lift on flattertakeoffsand for getting maximum height on somekickersbut for most jumps i prefer to use thepop methodto get comfortable doing a pop motionyou can actually practice on flat groundyou'll start out by coasting at aslightly above walking speed with yourbodyin a neutral riding position and yourcrank's levelthen you'll crouch down slightly withyour arms and legs to pre-load your body

and next you'll drive your body weightup using your legsthis motion should be very smooth and itwill cause your arms and legs to extendat a similar ratejust as your arms and legs get to theend of extension you will point yourtoes down towards the ground and use alittle bit of back pressure on yourpedals to get the bike to come up withyour body weightif you do forget to point your toes it'svery likely that your feet will want tocome off the pedals in the airif you do have good technique you canjump with just about any shoe and pedal

combo and not have an issue with gripbefore taking this to a jump i likepeople to practice this technique onflat ground to get more comfortable withthe motionyour legs should be driving everythingif you have a good technique it willalmost feel like the front end of yourbike and your arms are just along forthe rideit shouldn't feel like an aggressivepull on the handlebars and a lot oftimes when people get into trouble andfeel like they're falling to one side inthe air or dead sailoringit's because they pulled up with theirarms instead of driving their body

weight up with their legsonce you get the pop motion down on flatground you can start playing around withit on a small jump that you feelcomfortable withthe key to hitting a mile kicker withease is to be very patient and to do asmooth pop motion just as you go off thejumpyou really want to time it so that yourlegs are extending and giving you thatlittle bit of popjust before your front tire leaves theend of the jump

if you do it too early you'll lose mostof the lift that you generate before yougo off the rampand you won't get very much heighta lot of times i will see people withpoor technique attackjumps with extra speed to clear theminstead of using proper technique to getheight and clear them the thing aboutgoing extra fastis that it puts more force into yourbike on the lip and that can make thingsa little sketchy from time to time

having a good technique will allow youto clear jumps at a much more controlledspeed with more styleand less risk when popping on a mildkicker your weight should usually bedriven about 70vertical and 30 forwardthat can vary a little bit depending onthe angle of the jump but a key thing torememberis that you really want your body weightto be at least centered over the bikeif you do this correctly you will feelyour weight be slightly heavier in your

feet than on your handsif you go too far back on the bike andget your weight more towards the rearaxle the likelihood of doing a deadsailorincreases drastically a well executedpop will feel very easycontrolled and consistent and thistechnique is by far my favoriteit has helped april become a veryconfident jumper in the past year andusing this technique she was able toclear many jumpswith ease before developing the skill ofa standard bunny hop

okay and last but definitely not leastwe'll talk about how to hit a boostykickeri consider a boosty kicker to be a jumpthat sends you very high for the givendistancea lot of times these jumps will be atleast a full wheelbase in lengththese jumps have a strong naturaltendency to cause a nose diveif you use improper technique when yougo off the jumpthe main reason for this is because thelip is so tall and steep

you're fighting gravity as you go up theramp and your bike is actuallyexperiencing a little bit ofdecelerationthis slight bit of deceleration willcause the front end to start droppingbefore your rear tire goes off the rampand it will basically send you into anose divethe good news though is that we do havea solution for this and you alreadylearned the base of the techniqueon these jumps because your bike isslightly decelerating as it goes up therampwe need to create a little bit of

vertical acceleration with our bodyweight to keep the bike from wanting tonosedivethe technique will be almost identicalto the pop from the mild kickerand the only real difference is thatyou'll want to pop more vertically tomatch the angle of the jump and cancelout that decelerationon a steeper jump this will require youto stay a little bit more relaxed and befurther over the front of the bike asyou go to do the pop motionthe timing will be almost identical tothat of a mild kicker howeveryou will come in in a nice pre-loadedposition ride up the ramp and then try

to time it so your legs extend your toespoint down and you get that little popright as your front wheel leaves theramp again too early and you won't getas hightoo late and it might cause a little bitmore of a nose divesometimes people like to do more of abunny hop method on jumps like thisand that is totally fine too it justcauses you to go a little bit higher butnot travel quite as faron a mountain bike i almost alwayschoose the pop method just because ifind it to be a little bit easier

the main takeaway with jumping any styleof jump is really trying to be confidentin your technique and staying relaxedcoming in with a plan and understandingthe forces that are going on will helpyou to be much more consistent withjumpingthe worst thing you can do is to gettense as you go off the jump and forgetto do anythingthat almost always results in a nosediveinstead of just going fast and hopingfor the best start smallfocus on your timing and practice yourpop and you'll be flying in no time

all right guys i hope this video washelpful for you our main goal today wasto show you how different jumps cansometimes require different techniqueson really flat jumps it's really helpfulto learn how to bunny hop that way youcan get some lift and clear them witheaseand on jumps that are already designedto give your bike lift your job isbasically creating just enough upwardmomentumto counteract the bike wanting to rotateforwardjust try to remember the most importantpart of jumping is staying relaxedloose and confident your bike is only afraction of your body weight and it'll

respond to the input you give it so justtry to stay calmand tell your bike what to do if youtell it to do the right thing you'll befinethank you guys so much for watchingreally appreciate it if you found somevalue in this video if you could like itand subscribe to our channel that'd besuperhelpful huge thanks to our patreon crewfor always making this possibleand uh yeah i hope you guys have fun outon the trails keep shredding andhopefully this helps you jump a littlebit betterso talk to you guys next time so see ya

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